Why the need for ianperge.com?
Is it an ego trip? Does the world really need this much access to me?
Conversely, do I need to make my life (or at least a good amount of aspects of
it) public?
Yes, actually. All of the above, and more.
I’ve had Ian’s
Average Webpage
online since the fall of 1999. Over the past 2 and ½ years you could say
I’ve transferred a great deal of my life into the digital realm. I’ve
chronicled both my personal life and my musical career here, made a good deal of
close friendships and been reunited with some long-lost friends, discovered a
newfound joy of writing, as well as meeting, falling in love, and ultimately
moving great distances to be with the woman I love. All these were
possible only because of the connectivity of the Internet. In the year
2002 my life is connected through the Web in so many ways that it would be
difficult, if not impossible to extract myself from it.
Over the last few months I’ve considered ways to expand my presence online.
Ultimately this was the overwhelming factor in the transfer to ianperge.com.
At the very least, it gives me an air of respectability that www.geocities.com/JohnQPublic
doesn’t afford people, although I believe that a good deal of that lies in the
very nature of a service of Geocities. By providing free web services,
you’ll naturally get more than your fair share of tacky fansites and animated
gifs. I hope I’ve avoided that by featuring a clean, well-planned site
that focuses more on content than graphics. Some of the things I’ve
upgraded/changed this time around are;
- Most obviously, the changeover to the www.ianperge.com
domain name, and subsequent dropping of the Ian’s
Average Webpage
moniker. As some of you know, the choice between ianperge.com and
scarred2112.com (my online persona) was a difficult one, but after receiving the
opinions from several trusted friends I believe I made the right decision.
Anyone looking for information on me can easily find in under ianperge.com,
while the same wouldn’t be true for scarred2112.com. In addition, using
my own name makes it more useful as a “professional” site (i.e. promoting my
availability as a bassist-for-hire).
- A slightly different color scheme.&nbssp; Although I personally liked the black
background/gray text, after multiple viewings on several various monitors, I
realized that if the color and brightness settings weren’t optimal, the result
was a page that strained the eyes. I’ve changed this over to a white
text on the black background with bluish-purple hyperlinks (as opposed to the
former dark purple). I believe this makes the text easier to read while
keeping the general colors similar, if not exactly the same.
- Increased bandwidth and storage space.. For the minimal outlay per month
I’ve increased the storage space to 25 MB, and the monthly bandwidth transfer
to 2 gigabytes per month. This gives me the opportunity and ability to
host mp3
files of both
my work as a musician thus far, as well as any future projects.
- The consolidation of my online writinggs. As I was working on the
changeover, I realized that the three major sections of my writings were located
in three different sections of the site, which isn’t very convenient.
I’ve now located all three (LiveJournal,
Visual
Verbalizations,
and the “Musings
of a Jaded Personality”
achieve) into one main section which I’ve titled “Self-Expression,
Pixel by Pixel”
as well as added an introduction in which I explain why I do what I do in a
literary sense. Two new "Visual Verbalizations" have also been
added.
- The uploading of a large amount of neww pictures. Over the last few
months I’ve had the chance to scan a large amount of pictures that are now
available. These are located on the Picturelink
page and are indexed by both individual photos, and by “events” (where I
have a large amount of pictures of a single experience).
- MP3
samples of
some of my professional work. I’ve secured the permission of all
relevant parties, and now have samples from both my work with “Backward
Password Institute”
and “Stennar,”
most of which are exclusive to my site. I’ll be rotating complete
“rare” songs every month, as well as a few surprises from time to time
(Perhaps one of these days I’ll give in and host a few of the “Antem”
songs).
What hasn’t changed?
- The general layout/design of the site.. For the most part I’ve been
very happy with the look of the site every since the last major update in the
winter/spring of 2001 – I feel it’s a clean, though-out design. I
believe that aside from the writing consolidation, the few changes I’ve had to
make during this changeover lends credence to that statement. While
I would like a somewhat more visually stimulating site in the future, it will
have to wait until I have the time and patience to learn a professional program
such as “FrontPage.” For better or worse, it’s staying like this for
the foreseeable future.
- My overall commitment to my web presennce. From personal experience,
nothing is more bothersome as a website that as few-to-no updates. While
I’ll make no promises on when I’ll be able to update, I’ll continue to do
my best to keep things lively and in motion. At the very least my LiveJournal
is updated at least every other day.
That’s all the information I’ve got on the subject – I hope it made sense
to everybody. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to sign the guestbook or
email me and let me know what your thoughts are on the changes, and please stop
by on a regular basis.
There’s more to come…
~Ian
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