A Work In Progress

I mentioned to my husband a while back that my website was a work in progress. I meant it to mean that I hadn’t quite found the exact look I was going for, and was constantly reorganizing or adding in plug-ins on what seemed like a daily basis…he said that every website is a work in progress. That no website is ever complete, ever really done.

It seemed too good to be true, but I still found it reassuring. I was beginning to feel like a complete loser for not knowing exactly what I wanted. I had a sweet friend offer to design the website for me, but this was something I wanted to do myself – and it would have been really hard to explain what I wanted since I didn’t actually know what I wanted at the time. I still don’t.

I got the idea of a banner of things that I love from a friend over at the Pretty Pink Chandelier and I think that is probably the only thing I haven’t changed since day 1. I have, however, changed the images within the banner numerous times (major shout-out to the website We Heart It for their millions of awesome photos, because I’ve gotten most of my pics for the banner off their website). I actually started out with three alternating banners and then downsized to one static banner that you see now. I might even change it again. I love the idea of having a photo banner alongside the right or left sides of the website too but so far my WordPress theme doesn’t seem to be able to accommodate that desire. Damn you, free theme from Atahualpa! How dare you not satisfy my every whim absolutely for free?!?

Anyway, back to a work in progress. I read somewhere on the internet that a person’s blog should represent what they want to present to the world. I don’t feel that the visual aspect of my blog does an adequate job of representing me right now. Now, of course if you are reading my blog, and getting to know me from my posts – THIS IS ME. 100% me, no holds barred, raw, silly, sometimes pathetic and whimpering, me me me. But just a quick glance at my site doesn’t tell you who I am and that is starting to bother me a little. Well, more than a little.

I’m still sort of new to social media. I have been a big computer person for as long as I can remember. I have always preferred email over phone calls, and once I was introduced to Myspace, it became my favorite way to keep in touch with old friends that I would have ordinarily never spoken to again after high school. It was a great way to keep in touch with my out of town family that I only see once or twice a year. But I never used it to meet new people and always freaked out when anyone I didn’t know tried to befriend me. My response? “Creepo pervert” Because honestly that was the only reason I could see a stranger wanting to talk to me on the internet…for some sort of cyber sexing.

Yeah, that naive. I’m not from the social media generation. I grew up passing notes in class. There were no cell phones, no texting, no “Hey, facebook me!” Yeah, I have just dated myself. And suddenly I’ve started saying “Yeah” a lot. Gotta stop that. So, I never really got the hang of Myspace and really only used it to post my photo albums and comment “Hey there!” to long lost high school friends and to watch my little cousins grow up from afar.

Now, when I started on Facebook in late 2007, early 2008, I was immediately hooked. It was so streamlined, so simple and organized, I automatically fell in love with the site. I loved the idea of finding everyone I’ve ever known online and seeing what they were doing. But again, its all PRIVATE. I’m a personal settings Nazi and monitor the changes constantly to make sure no one sees anything unless I have personally known them in my life.

I began using twitter in late 08 or early 09, I can’t really remember which. I saw Twitter as an emotional outlet. Post random shit to get it off my mind…I love that I don’t have to actually speak to anyone. I can just talk. If people respond back, awesome! If they don’t, no sweat off my back because I was really only talking to myself anyway.

So, I began on Twitter with two friends that I actually know in what people are now referring to as “Real Life”. As I started seeing conversations between those people and their followers, I thought to myself that they seemed pretty cool. So I started following them and they started following me…Basically, we networked. We became Twitter friends. I don’t use Twitter to meet new people but I am open to the idea. Last year, I started using Twitter regularly, almost on a daily basis. My list of Twitter friends went from about 5 to 100 within a few months. There are a few people who I talk to so frequently on Twitter that I’ve actually friended them on Facebook – or they’ve friended me – and now they do have access to my entire life. Which, honestly, if you know me, you know that my entire life is well documented on Facebook. I’m a social media whore.

So, there’s my problem. Now that I am open to meeting new people on the internet, I want my website to accurately represent my personality. Its hard work, figuring out how you are going to portray yourself to strangers. I guess I will do it piece by piece.