Blog

I found this game of tag on Kaylee’s blog, and thought I might try it out. I loved playing tag as a kid and I hope you enjoy playing this game of tag with me.
The Rules

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names and link to them.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.

My Facts

1. I’ve played four instruments in my life in this order: piano, violin, recorder, flute.
2. I sleep in a dorm on a lofted bed that’s so close to the ceiling you can’t sit up right.
3. I’m a sophomore in college and I’ve been to two colleges: University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and Bradley University.
4. I love skiing, and I both love and fear the speed of going down steep or semi-steep hills.
5. I love art and have been drawing since the age of three and making origami at the age of 4.
6. I’m 100% Chinese and was born in Wuhan, China. I came to the U.S. when I was four and a half.
7. I love watching anime and consider myself a great fan of many different series but I only own one DVD, two manga, one calendar, and two posters.

You’re It!
Here goes nothing: (1) Hera, (2) Phuc, (3) Angela, (4) Hydora, (5) Xuan, (6) Munin… and the seventh person is YOU unless you’ve already been tagged.

Thanks for your comment: Stephanie, Jenny, Heather, Summer, Julie, Rilla, Brenda, Amber, Hannah, morgan, Laota French, Enzo, Yara, Starlet, Mellissa, Angela, Rafia, Kaz, Xuan, Krizza, Kaylee

I’ve always wanted to write an entry dedicated to when I started blogging and web designing. I never got around to that until now. I first began my blogging hobby when I signed up for a Livejournal account sophomore year in high school. I found out about Livejournal from a friend. On my first few entries, I typed informally, with no capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and I used shorthand writing sometimes.

I hadn’t started messing around with HTML and CSS until I got myself a Xanga. I found out about xanga my Junior year via a friend’s buddy info on aim. She posted a link to her Xanga there. I saw the link “skins” at the bottom of her page and I clicked on it out of curiosity. I immediately became interested in how skins were made. The process of teaching myself HTML and CSS took a while though. I didn’t read tutorials, and most of my learning came from copying and pasting pre-made codes for customizing the look and feel of my site. It was when I started using Xanga that I used correct capitalizations, and no shorthanded writing.

After blogging on both Xanga and Livejournal, I was still unsatisfied. I started looking at tutorials more and viewing the source of other people’s web sites. I learned how to view source in my computer class Junior year. It wasn’t until the beginning of my Senior year that I created my first web site called Periscopic Dome hosted by 50webs.com. This site contained poems, quotes, codes and riddles, and an image gallery. It used iframes which was great for creating a template, but which also made it hard for people to bookmark certain pages. Also, iframes seem unprofessional to me.

During my freshman year at college, I was determined to use PHP instead of HTML. I had a lot to learn about PHP. When I found a link to Wordpress on someone’s blog, I became interested in using this powerful blog generating tool. I immediately decided to use Wordpress to help generate my web site. The problem was, the web host I was using has PHP scripting disabled for free accounts. I searched long and hard on Google to find freehostia, the host I’m currently using.

Creating a theme was difficult for me at first. I wanted a theme that would last such that I can always be proud of its appearance, and the appearance never grows old. It was also hard for me to come up with a title for the site (Solace). My blog has been through three different hosts until I finally decided to just use freehostia. I also decided to purchase a name for my site. This took a while before I reasoned the most unique, personable, and professional name I can give my site is my own name. Not only is it easy for others to remember, but it also goes well with my favico which is my Chinese name.

Now that I’ve told you about my blogging and web designing experiences, I’d like to hear from you guys. When did you first start blogging? When did you learn coding languages such as HTML? Have you been through many hosts before settling on the one you’re using now? What made you choose the name for your site?

Thanks for your comment: Connie, Sue, Angela, Krizza, janelle, Laota French, D, Munin, Rilla, Risa, Exene, Becky, Ciel, Eunice, Marsha, Chien Yee, Deanna, Yara, Sara, Kaylee