Why (and how it started)

I started making my own database using a spreadsheet when I first came to Taiwan. I wanted to have an easy way to look up words. It is tiring to constantly check a dictionary in book form, i wanted a database where I could enter info just once and then easily retrieve that info later. I also wanted an incontext way of learning and so I started translating chinese texts into english. I had my spreadsheet set up so that for each character I typed in, it’s english definition and other info would come up automatically, then I could fine tune my definitions as well as easily see the meanings of words without having to look them up again.
I also wanted a way to make my work easily available to others, at least anyone else interested in studying chinese. And so initialy i made pdf documents with translated chinese, mainly poems, and instructions on yoga and tai ji, my main current areas of interest. Then I decided to make the jump to making my dictionary available on the internet in the easiest way to use possible, hence all the ways to navigate.
Since I have the data, other developments coming up include dictionaries sorted in English (I still have some work to do there on my database) words sorted by pinyin, and perhaps GR, and also specialized dictionaries for yoga, tai ji, classical chinese and anatomy.
One of the benefits (or detriments) of this project is that it allows me to see errors easily so that i can go back and correct them. Also it allows me to double check entries, especially when a certain character definition doesn’t seem to make sense in the context of words that it is used in.
And finally, I wanted something to put on my resume. I made something that worked and that might be of use to someone other than myself. And so this represents the culmination, or the by product of two years of poking in dictionaries and trying to figure words out.