Why Do You Do It?

By kate on April 22nd, 2004

I’ve been thinking lately about the reasons for maintaining a personal website, mostly because I’ve let my (very nice and well-made) site get hideously stagnant. I hadn’t updated it at all in over a year, even though the guilt hung heavily.

It made me reflect on the changing reasons for having a personal website.

I started mine in 1995 when HTML was a cool new frontier and patterned backgrounds were all the rage. Everyone who was in the know had a similar website: My History, My Hobbies, My Resume, Handy Internet Links. Before search engines became so powerful, one’s page of links was a good way to show off the things you were able to find and your quirky tastes.

But this is not about nostalgia. Since then, my site evolved through a few design changes into a sort of advertisement for friends and lovers. Subconsciously, I mean. My reason for having a good site was to make myself look interesting, creative, and intelligent. I wanted to be able to give the address to someone I met and believe that they could read over the site and learn all (the good things) about me. It worked pretty well with my husband… we read each other’s websites before our first date, and it gave us a much richer getting-to-know-you conversation.

My motivation in that area has faded now that I’m a bit older. I’m married, so my drive to meet interesting people to date has cooled. I also have a set of friends that I’m happy with. I don’t mean to say that I’m not open to meeting new friends now… I mean that I am no longer looking to new acquaintances to help define myself and send my life off in some new crazy direction. I’m happier and more stable.

Which leads to a big lack of motivation to update my website. And I wondered if I should remove it completely, or put up a note saying it was finished (leaving the content but not promising updates). I thought about the other reasons why other people keep websites. I am not an aspiring writer, and so don’t need the site to hone my skills. I’m not a heart-on-the-sleeve type who lets it all hang out. I’m not very interested (although maybe I should be) in recording my life for posterity. I found two valid reasons for continuing:

Friends and acquaintances from the past who check in once or twice a year to see what I’m up to (hi guys!). This round of navel gazing was spurred by an email I got from just such a person (saying she wished I had updated). I check up on others this way myself, and I think it’s a good way to keep in touch when you don’t want (for whatever reason) to contact the person one-on-one.
Helping others with my content. I don’t want to make this sound any larger than it really is, but I have parts of this website that people write and thank me for (or ask follow-up questions). These include my sections on triathlon training, my laser eye surgery, and my backpacking trip. To my surprise, other people find these interesting and helpful.

Discovering these reasons will help me to focus my work on my website so it hopefully won’t be as daunting a task. As you can see, it motivated me to actually update the site! Any of you who have a personal website – why do you do it? Has it always been for the same reasons, or has it changed?

Filed under: meta | Comment now »

Hair Update

By kate on April 22nd, 2004

Some of my principal excitement in the last year has been about what I’ve done with my hair. For a while in 2002-2003, my hair was long and blue. However, eventually I got tired of the upkeep (blue fades quickly) and how the bleach was wrecking my hair.

So, I took it all off, shaving my head (down to the skin) in March 2003. It was something I had to do once in my life, so I’m glad I did it. I wasn’t really crazy about the no-hair look, but I did like the extremely short look:

I may go back to that one day, who knows. The idea was that I was starting over and would no longer bleach or dye my hair. The no-dye resolution only lasted a few months before I got bored again. (I still plan on never bleaching again – the damage wasn’t worth it.)

Last summer, I decided to dye my hair black after looking over a bunch of old photos and remember how much I liked it last time I had black hair. Steve suggested I do one more wacky color before going to (the basically permanent) black. I was amenable, and told Steve to choose the color.

I trusted him so much that I let him put the color on my hair before finding out what it was. I was expecting maybe orange or bright red, but instead he chose green, my favorite color.

To my surprise, I really liked the way it looked. And to my further surprise, green is an excellent hair color because it doesn’t really fade. If you don’t refresh blue every couple of weeks, you start to get a really gross color. Green, on the other hand, loses some vibrancy but the tone stays pretty much the same. The only times I’ve had to re-dye is when my roots get too long.

I shelved the plans to go black and have kept the green since then. So far, I still like it and am planning to continue as my hair grows back. Here’s my current color and length:

Filed under: body, hair | Comment now »

Team name idea

By kate on April 16th, 2004

Last night, while playing soccer, I came up with a good idea for a team name: 9/10 (or you could write it out: Nine-Tenths).

Why?

From the saying, “Possession is nine-tenths of the law.” A good thing to keep in mind during a game where possession is so important.

Filed under: sports | Comment now »

The soundtrack(s) of my life

By kate on April 15th, 2004

I’ve been meaning to post this entry forever. Here’s a list of soundtracks that I find seminal in my life, for various reasons (or ones I just really like):

Seminal Soundtracks (in no particular order)

Runners Up (in no particular order)

Filed under: music | 3 Comments »

We are going to Mongolia!

By kate on April 9th, 2004

As you’ve probably heard, Steve and I are planning a trip to Mongolia. Well, it’s official now, since today I bought the non-refundable plane tickets. Here are the details:

Leave: Monday, August 2nd
(change planes in Tokyo, arrive Beijing the evening of Aug 3rd)

August 4th-5th – take train from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar (UB).

August 5th-25th – explore Mongolia. Ride horses, sleep in gers, etc.

August 26th-27th – take train from UB to Beijing

August 27th-30th – explore Beijing.

Return: Tuesday, August 31st
(change planes in Tokyo, arrive Seattle the morning of Aug 31st)

Also, I will not be returning to work until after Labor Day weekend (back to the office on Sept 7th) so I can re-adjust and enjoy some time at home.

Now we begin the trip preparations, visa arrangements, etc…

Filed under: travel | Comment now »

Picture crazy

By kate on April 7th, 2004

My boss happened to ask me the other day what my MSN or AOL messenger ID was. Bad idea. I had an MSN one, but never signed in at work before. I downloaded and installed the most recent version, which allows you to have a “Display Picture” that is shown as you chat with someone. It can be changed as you go.

I went a little crazy with the pictures and now I have a whole folder full of interesting thumbnails. And I feel like chatting now that I’m all setup! If you know me and are on MSN Messenger, let me know and we can add each other to our lists.

Now I want to get a paid LiveJournal account so I can have more than just three measly pictures. Is it bad to want to spend $35/year ($25 for the account, plus $10 for extra pics) for such a frivolous thing?