An Interview With Myself About My New Website

So, Emily, your web site has a new look.

Yeah.

Can you tell us more about the process of re-designing this web site?

Well, I began the redesign process in the spring of 2012. I was trading GRE tutoring for web design.

Sounds like a good trade.

It was, but my web designer took the GRE before I was finished, and then she got married and I ran out of money completely. So site re-design was frozen in time from the spring of 2012 until fall of 2013.

Did you ever think of redesigning your web site yourself?

I did, but every time I would try, I would get really frustrated with all the new skills I had to learn and go climbing instead.

Isn’t climbing also a new skill?

Yes, but apparently I can only learn new skills outdoors under threat of bodily harm in the event of failure.

Did you acquire any web design skills during that time?

No, none. My brother, who is a maker/inventor, kept suggesting that I take an HTML class. Every time he suggested this I would have an anxiety attack. My brother doesn’t like it when I have anxiety attacks, so I would quickly change the subject.

Facing obstacles like this, how did you manage to persevere?

I threw money at the problem. I got some more tutoring work and earned enough money to both get a climbing rack and pay someone else to redesign my website, which was what I wanted all along. So I got back in touch with my web designer and we picked up where we left off.

On your second attempt, you got the web site done in record time! You are a known procrastinator. It can take you weeks to mail a package or do your fine washables. How did you do it?

Well, now my web designer is having a baby, so she wanted to finish everything up really fast. People get really efficient when they are having babies. And she seemed really busy, so I didn’t want to waste her time. And she’s really nice and pretty, so I didn’t want to make her mad. This motivated me to make decisions quickly. Also, after another year and a half of climbing, I’m getting better at making decisions quickly. It doesn’t even have to be life-or-death. You can just make a decision so you can go get a beer or a sandwich or whatever.

That’s fantastic. Can you tell us more about the new look?

I wanted it to be really spare. Mostly words, because that is what writing is.  I’m definitely a serif-font aficionado. I developed a real affinity for the font “Cochin.” It’s clean and yet it has character.

I was very specific about my rollover color. I wanted it to be a kind of army green, for two reasons 1) I see myself as a peaceable Army of One and I wanted my web site rollover color to reflect that 2) It matches my eyes.

Your web site is now ten years old and claims to contain over 300 essays. That’s 30 essays a year for ten years. How do you feel about that volume?

Both proud and slightly nauseated at the same time.

Are we to understand that you wrote the entire web site?

Every word.