Welcome To My Blog or How We Got Here

For tonight, just a quick introduction to my latest blog. I started a blog about 5 years ago when I first realized I was transgender. I wanted to track my journey and my progress but I made the mistake of starting it with wordpress.org; far too complicated. I chose a template from the samples they offered my but when I published the page was completely different from the sample shown. This however was not a bad thing as the design I wound up with was almost perfect for me. Almost perfect as there was only one detail I would change if I could and it was not a big concern. But there were problems. First, after several months, Wordpress wanted me to change to an updated version of my template. They offered no preview so after my previous experience I had no idea if this would change the appearance of my website nor what it would look like after the update. But the big problem that killed my previous blog was the host.

wordpress.org does not host your site so you must use a third party host. I chose DreamHost as a host and paid for a three year subscription. My first headache was a billing problem about my hosted e-mail which caused DreamHost to take my site offline causing me to lose about a month of my first year. The second year began with my blog again going offline. The host I used apparently did not know how to write an invoice so when I received an invoice for my domain name, I paid it. However the host decided to use the payment for charges they did not include in the invoice. I called Support but was given a song and dance about how it was somehow my fault they did not know how to prepare a proper invoice. As I was sick at this time and with the complications from Wordpress and the incompetence of the host I did not have the energy to unravel the mess my blog had become on the technical side. As a result I let the blog slip and when the 3 year term was up I did not renew, 11 months out of a 3 year term was not good enough for me. I know wordpress.com has hosted sites available but I wanted to control my own site with my own domain name and when I had tried wordpress.com for other projects in past, it always felt awkward.

At the time I was discovering that I was trans and starting my blog; I thought I had chronic fatigue. That was certainly the way the symptoms manifested themselves but I now believe it was good old fashioned gender dysphoria. Regardless, I have come out the other side, at least for now so here I am trying this again. If my efforts amuse or entertain you, hang on and come along for the ride, my journey continues.