Blog: Day 1

The weekend of August 12, 2005, in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, I became a blogger.

For a surprisingly complete definition of ‘weblog‘ try Wikipedia.

Why? Basically because I failed miserably at trying to be a webmaster. I did not fail alone – the failure is shared with my then non-working spouse, Linda. The original intent in the Spring of 2004 was to create a website to update friends and family on our continuing adventure in China. The effort required to do what we wanted exceeded our passion for actually doing it.

Time will tell if the blog approach is superior or more successful for us, or if in August 2010 this post will still be the latest addition. I think the content we were producing for those future, theoretical uploads to our website are well-structured for a blog – basically stories and pictures that extend over time. More importantly, I hope the the actual maintanance of the blog requires less time than the html-based web-site fiasco. Writing this post has certainly proven easier than editing the web-site using an html editor.

How? So far it has not been terribly difficult, but has taken a bit of time. I spent about 3-4 months occassionally searching out details on the web via google. My early attempts were not very fruitful. A search for ‘how to blog’ will likely send you to blogger.com (and, ironically, www.JohnKerry.com). Clicking around blogger.com did help me discover one of my requirements, though – I wanted a blog located at the existing deanandlinda.com. Blogger.com appears to be a popular option if you don’t already have a registered domain name or don’t intend to get one. Blogger.com was not useful in directing me to the do-it-yourself alternatives. I am not a user but suspect blogger.com is also easier to set-up than the ‘do-it-yourself’ method.

A few hours playing around one morning led me to WordPress. Basically, everything you see here is done using this tool. It is the blog equivalent to Microsoft FrontPage (I am certain weblog purists will cringe at this comparison). As a beginner, I have no point of reference to compare this tool to others but my initial comment would be that if you have experience with an FTP tool and even very limited exposure to html and any type of html editor, you can do this. My father, however, should not try.

The WordPress website explains the details but the short version is:

if you want to host your blog at http://www.yourdomainname.com then you need a web hosting provider that supports WordPress’ requirements.

To this end, there are two basic options:

(1) You follow the detailed instructions to set-up a database on the web-server, ftp the required files to the preferred directories on the web-server, and configure the specified resource locators / files on the web-server; or

Hops Extract It helps activate the assembly of estrogen in your body. wholesale viagra from canada midwayfire.com Also if you do not understand any point then you can also refer cheap viagra india the manual given along with the pill. All options related to pregnancy for obese women are super active cialis seeking fertility treatments through assisted reproduction technology (ART). Subsequently, pharmaceutical ought to be put generic viagra pills away in water/air proof box and in perfect and slick place. (2) Your domain host already provides support for WordPress and you perform some variation of “select ‘Install WordPress.'”

I used the second option – after about 10 hours of research and planning, it took me < 10 seconds to be up and running.

My domain host is ipowerweb.com. I have been a customer for over a year and they were responsible for registering www.deanandlinda.com, hosting our web-site, and providing email services. There are many options included in my package that I don’t use but I can’t imagine this could have been much easier. I have found their service to be responsive but not always clear and understandable – sometimes it takes a few email exchanges.

Using ipowerweb’s standard vdeck administrative interface, the WordPress installation was surprisingly simple (“select ‘Install WordPress’ from the Applications menu). The only struggle I had was 30 minutes trying to figure out how to locate the index.php file in the root directory. The index.php file is basically the WordPress equivilent to a web home page – when you go to www.deanandlinda.com you want the home page to pop up, not the web-site directory structure (something scary like ‘public_html…..’).

ipowerweb will not allow you (or I am too stupid to figure out how) to install WordPress in the root directory. The WordPress codex (i.e. help file) is quite good and includes a section on how to rearrange your directory structure – basically a variation on how to solve my problem. The codex instructions are accurate but failed to suggest that the required edit was case sensitive, but trial and error eventually reigned supreme. That was the only notable problem I had.

Note: the directory path edit to the index.php is case sensitive – wordpress is not the same as WordPress, at least using ipowerweb.

The next set of activities involved finding a theme – basically what do I want the blog to look like. WordPress comes with a standard theme that was automatically installed during the set-up. The biggest problem with installing additional themes is sorting through the hundreds available to find a couple you like. WordPress has several themes and links – I downloaded two from Alex King (Alex King templates).

And there you have it – my first post. I expect to spend the next weeks exploring the WordPress tool, teaching Linda how to post entries, figuring out how to add and format photos (I see frustration in my future on this one), and setting-up the capability to post entries directly via an email.

Feel free to make comments – I have no idea how they work, so it will be good practice.

The WordPress administrator is kind of like the Chinese government: if I don’t like what you say, I can just delete it:)

3 thoughts on “Blog: Day 1

  1. Kim Link says:

    Hi Dean & Linda, I don’t want to know how to blog, I want to know about your latest experiences in Asia and other nether regions. Add another post soon all your readers can enjoy traveling vicariously! Happy travels – Kim Ho

  2. oooh.. I think I left a comment under the wrong section – SORRY! I think it’s somewhere under the Christmas letters.. which by the way, LOVED getting this past Christmas.. can’t wait for the upcoming one! Your blogging site is great, my cousin told me to do this with my website, but I have yet to check it out! But your detailed directions may come to use soon for me. Great hearing of your travels… sometimes Todd & I talk about our Shanghai Times and miss it!
    Keep in touch! Judy

  3. Jerusha says:

    Hi you guys! I was pleasantly surprised right now to log on and find that my favorite cousins (Sorry Jenny. Where’s your site?)have updated their webpage. I love living vicariously and hearing about your travels. Keep up the blogging Dean! Too bad grandpa can’t read these! 😉

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