My Goals for this Class and Domain Choices

My goals for Web Design are ultimately pretty simple: I want to be able to design a simple but attractive website. I have had a site of my own for seven years now, but I haven't actively updated it since 2006. That is mostly because Netscape stopped offering its browser package, which included the program I used to design my sites! I know a little HTML but there is no way that I can create a site by hand in notepad like some people do. I also admit to getting easily frustrated. If something doesn't come to me naturally, and I have to expend a lot of trial and error to get it to work, I usually throw up my hands and walk away. For this reason I have not had a lot of luck teaching myself how to do this stuff.

I see a lot of beautiful site designs like Bara-chan's and feel envious. I want to learn how to do mouse-over effects and have my art pop up in a little window or frame instead of making the viewer load a new page as I had to do in the past.

Oh yeah, and there is also the fact that almost all the graphic design jobs I've seen posted in the area also deal with web design. It seems impossible to be successful unless you can accomplish both.

So, as I mentioned, I already had a website. The host that I have used from the very beginning is Dreamhost. They have always had competitive pricing, great support and reliable service. In the 7 years I've had my site, it has only been down perhaps twice, and that was early on. I admit that I did not select the service myself. My ex-boyfriend did. In the beginning we had a joint site, but I took it over rather quickly because he rarely updated his half. At the time, I believe affordability and space were our main concerns.

One thing I did procure recently was a new domain name. My old name was really geeky and I will not tell you what it was! Back when we first created the site, it was meant for all our cartoon art and not meant to be a professional design presence. Now that I am trying to become a professional I decided I needed a new domain. I chose my name because it is a fairly unique one. I actually wanted something even more unique but that domain had a photo of a horse and a youtube video on it. ...and that's all. Can you believe the nerve?? ;)

So that is how jennlantrip.net came about. :)

Also, a note: If anyone reads further back in this journal, you will notice that some links are dead. That is because I used to put the images for my entries on my old domain. I will have to correct this error sometime in the future, haha.