Dee's On His Way

Dee's off to join the Blogosphere.

I've spent the past two weeks building Dee his own little nest. He already has a website, but we can't manipulate it to make any changes or updates. Since we're pro-bono clients of our successful and busy web-site building son, we feel annoying when we call him with every little problem we encounter. ("Why is the iTunes button jumping around?") My goal is to become self-sufficient.

So, since I don't know anything about building web-sites, but I know about building blogs, I decided to combine the ideas and create an update-able website in my neighborhood blogosphere where I feel welcome and comfortable. I told Dee it would be a very simple blog, and it would only take me an hour or so to tweak the template into his personal space.

My standards were low because I didn't know what I was doing, but with each step I learned a new skill, and my standards went higher. I hadn't remembered that to create a full-fledged blog I'd have to write a bunch of posts. I wanted the sidebar to have important info about Dee's company (Heritage Associates) that would remain static, no matter how many posts are eventually in his arsenal. All the writing and linking, and relinking when I did it wrong, took hours, even days. Making sure the posts were accurate took some research, scanning using files we emailed back and forth across the city was confusing until I had stuff strewn across my desk.

Organization is my joy and my frustration. I hate the mess at first, but I love when the puzzle pieces start coming together. So now, the picture is complete. Tomorrow I'll send Dee to his office to practice living with a blog. In a way it's like sending him off to meet a new lover. I know how alluring and seductive a living, breathing blog can be, especially when it's young and anxious to learn everything you know. A blog is interested in all you say and think, and you find you can't keep any secrets. Soon your conversations last into the wee hours, and you can't bear to say goodnight. I trust my husband in this situation, though.

Dee has other interests and is disciplined enough to keep his blog at arm's length and let me represent him as a friend. I hope it works out that way. I have zillions of ideas!

Visit him at:

www.heritageassociates.blogspot.com/

Explore, and see if it's user friendly or if you get tangled up. Comments aren't allowed, but I'd love to hear what you think. You'll recognize links to some of my own TravelinOma posts when the story needs a little extra pizazz.

I haven't figured out how to get this blog out to would-be clients who are searching for Dee as anxiously as he's searching for them. Please feel free to pass it on to anyone who might be interested in gathering history of one kind or another. And wish Dee well if you see him in any virtual alley-ways. He might be stuck between the links!