Well, folks, I’ve gone and done it. Many of my writer friends keep telling me that I need to have a website for my books. I have been dragging my feet about this for several years, because as you well know from my previous accountings of battles with my computer, the last thing I need is to expose myself to a broader base for such battles.
But alas, last week I gave in and succumbed to the idea of owning a website. My daughter Lori agreed to design and build it for me. God bless patient understanding daughters. I doubt if she realized what an Internet dummy she was getting mixed up with when she agreed to this project. She is very artistic and did a marvelous job, by the way. She also has her own website at Whispering Eagle Studio. You should check it out sometime. She is a nationally acclaimed carver of birds of all species, has written several books, been featured on Idaho Public TV, and on DIY network’s WoodSculpting program. She teaches privately in addition to conducting workshops. But I digress. Back to my original story
Lori told me the first thing I had to do was to select a web host and register a domain name. I asked her that since she knew her way around the Internet, and had some experience in this area, could she do that for me. Her answer was: “Can’t do it. You’ve got to do it from your computer.” She gave me the names of some hosting sites that she was familiar with and could safely recommend.
I logged on the web host she favored, and attempted to get signed up. First thing they told me was that I needed to register my domain name, and did I have one in mind? If I did, they would be more than happy to do a search for me to see whether or not it was available. Okay, that’s good, and I proceeded with the search. All was going well until I reached a point where I had to enable the cookies, or maybe it was disable the cookies; I really don’t remember.
That was a moot point, anyway, because I didn’t have the foggiest notion as to what cookies were. I had always thought they were a sweet pastry that one ate; not something that needed to be enabled or disabled. I emailed Lori and asked her what in blue blazes are cookies? (Using a stronger expletive than “blue blazes” in my email.) She did her best to explain to me what “Internet” cookies are, but it’s still Greek to me. I went to the help menu to see if I could find some information telling me how to do what they asked. I found something that remotely resembled instructions for doing this, but again, it was in the foreign language of computerese.
After many attempts to no avail to shut the cookies off—or turn them on—I threw up my hands and said, “enough of this. I don’t need a website, anyway.” I shut the computer off and went to bed. During the night I was awakened by an epiphany. You idiot, why don’t you go to your Internet server and see if they have a hosting service? This I did the very next morning. They said they did indeed offer a hosting service. They would do the domain search for me, and register my domain name. After hearing this, I thought maybe I should reconsider last night’s decision and go ahead with this website after all. So that’s what I did.
Now that I have a host and registered domain name, Lori asked for a list of the stuff I would like to have posted to the site. This, I am able to provide. She loads all the information I send her, and sends me a mock-up of the basic website design, which I approve. All is cool. We’ve now reached the point of setting up the blog and the guest book. It’s at this point that incurs more hair pulling. For me, at least, and I suppose for her, too, due to my Internet illiteracy.
She says she will need the link to my blog. I asked her, “How do I set up a blog? I thought you were going to do that for me. You know what a computer illiterate I am.” She emails back and tells me she can’t set up the blog for me because the blog account will be separate from the website and needs to be set up from my computer. I think to myself, “geez, here we go again; it’s going to be another cookies battle. “
Well, I guess there’s nothing to do but bite the bullet and get on with it. I went to the blog address she had given me and found the page where I could sign up. Halfway through the process, I concluded it was an exercise in futility; gave up and closed out. I emailed Lori and told her I didn’t know what I was doing, and wasn’t there anyway she could to set this blog up for me and still tie it to my computer? She answers with nine words: “Nope, you’ve got to do it on your own.”
More to come later...
