| What could be better than owning your own little | | | | wonderful as you had first thought. Too many |
| piece of Cyberspace? To have the thrill of telling | | | | restrictions cramping your style and in more and |
| all you know to "e-mail me at " It is such a thrilling | | | | more places, you can't even get mail delivered |
| thing to be in complete control of your very first | | | | (no-email service) so you have to go get yourself |
| website. Akin to owning your first home.I'm | | | | a Post Office box! (separate e-mail account)Okay, |
| serious, let's explore the two for a moment.First | | | | this is just not working. Your style is too cramped. |
| you test things out, you see this wide world and | | | | What do you do?! Buy a place! That's it! If you |
| decide to try exploring it. You go out and you | | | | own your own place then you can do pretty |
| make contact with others and get to talking to | | | | much anything you want (within reason). That |
| them. (Log into a library or school computer and | | | | annoying neon sigh could be YOURS! (your banner |
| enter chat rooms)Now you're hooked, you don't | | | | ads), you could invite all your friends to a party at |
| want to have your parents or friends driving you | | | | your place (your own blogging site!), heck, you |
| around you want to be free to explore. You buy | | | | could even set other poor saps up in low-rent |
| your first car! (First computer - YES! Now you | | | | places on your property and make them put up |
| can put whatever YOU want to on it! Oh... a flame | | | | with your annoying neon sign flashing in *THEIR* |
| paint job! Yeah!) Okay... as much fun as buying | | | | bedroom windows!But where to start?Well, in the |
| your first car was, and as much fun as souping it | | | | real world you would probably start with a |
| up was, that was not all you got it for. Time to | | | | Realtor... in Cyberspace you start with a hosting |
| get out there and explore!You go out and get | | | | company.This is where you get the pages on |
| yourself a thankful of gas and go cruising. The | | | | which to create your world. Where you set up |
| world is a big place though, so you quickly start | | | | your home, your store, your museum, and invite |
| familiarizing yourself with how the highways are | | | | others in to see what you have to share. Where |
| laid out, grab a road map or two and set off | | | | you place your work and share it with the world. |
| exploring. (Figure out what all those dot things are.. | | | | When you get your site the first thing you want |
| You know .com .net .gov .edu.... Then you run off | | | | to do is add stuff to it... how? Well, you can |
| and find a search engine [road map] and set off | | | | generally get design help from your hosting |
| exploring.)This is kind of nice so you decide | | | | service, or, if you're like me, you can dive in and |
| maybe you might like to get your own place. Just | | | | try to build that world yourself. I suggest that |
| to try living on your own a while, you know, see | | | | unless you are familiar with site design (or go with |
| if you like it. Your first apartment! (Free website | | | | a site like PlatonicSolid.info that has easy to use |
| space) Ahhhh... this is the ticket! No one telling you | | | | 'what you see is what you get' site editors) you |
| how late you can stay up, no one complaining | | | | bypass the headaches (and there are a LOT of |
| about the feet on the coffee table. This is the | | | | them) and have someone build the site to fit your |
| life... until you get tired of that blinking Neon sign | | | | dreams. However you decide to build your site, |
| outside your bedroom window (Banner ad across | | | | you will find a pride to be had from pointing your |
| the top of the page) Or the limited number of | | | | friends and family to your own little section of |
| colors the landlord said you can paint with (limited | | | | Cyberspace. |
| selection of templates)... and worst of all... them | | | | Sandra Fikes is a freelance writer living in Alaska. |
| damn neighbors who keep calling the cops | | | | Her website can be found at For more Articles |
| whenever you turn the music up enough to hear | | | | and information, on the Internet and Writing, |
| it (VERY limited bandwidth and/or site traffic | | | | check out her blog. |
| allowed).Living on your own is not quite as | | | | |