On possibly biting off more than you can chew

In my last post I talked about my difficulty learning to write html code. It was a fun and simple project to undertake, but I tend to be excitable about things I get interested in. Sometimes this is not a good thing. Other times it leads to me see things through that I normally wouldn't. I think it's a fair trade.

What does this have to do with my last post? Simple, I took the next logical step. I started my own website. I researched how difficult and expensive it is to host a website through a webhosting provider. I finally decided, through a friend's recommendation, on dreamhost.com. I paid my $90 for the year and I was off and running. Or so I thought.

Immedidately there was a problem. Somehow Dreamhost had charges me for two accounts. So what should have been an expensive, but doable, $90 turned into an outrageous $180. A quick email and and hour later and the problem was fixed. I pieced together a little code and through it up on the website (after another little bit of trouble, which was again resolved quickly). Boy was I proud. I couldn't believe it. I had my own website.

Imagine then my shock and heartbreak when I discovered the next morning that it had disapeared. I checked my panel at dreamhost and could no longer see my website. I didn't feel heartbreak in that moment, but it must have something like it. Thankfully another quick email resolved the problem (if you ever commit to owning your own website, I highly recomend dreamhost.com, their support is outstanding). Apparently they had erased both accounts instead of only the extra one.

Now the real fun began. My friend who recomended dreamhost also told me about worpress templates and how I could use them to quicly throw up a website. "Nah," I said, "I want to design one from screatch." That was the point, I think, where I went from enjoying my project to completely choking on it. I'm pretty capable with computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, but designing a working webpage was much more complicated than I intitially thought. I spent the past week designing, troubleshooting, getting so frustrated that I contemplated throwing my computer against the wall, and then eventually, finally, finding a way to make it work.

If you had asked me two hours ago. I probally would have said that I wanted my money back (dreamhost actually has a 30 day warranty where you can get a full refund if you're not satisfied with your account). But I really wouldn't have. That would have been quitting. I'm glad I saw it through to the end, and hopefully, as I spend more time with it, it will grow and become something I am really proud of. Now I am simply content to have it exist for the time being.

Oh, and you can check it out at www.thisisthacarter.com.