I’m from the Midwest, and have always been “technically” oriented, so tinkering with compuers and using the internet has been an interesting pursuit.

The internet was intimidating for a while. When everyone started adding graphics and color to the www I felt like it was an uphill battle to be able to create an acceptable web page.

Being “technically oriented” appears to have it’s downside … at least for me … because I’m “artistically challenged” (I can’t draw a straight line without a ruler and “stick men” were about as far as I would take my drawing skills.)

When it comes to color coordination, I’m color tolerant — I’ll use/wear whatever colors are available. Needless to say my wife picks out the clothes as much as possible . (Who says royal purple and grass green won’t match?)

Being artistically stunted, when it came time for me to create a web site — I froze!  (As in totally frigid with brain-freeze.)  For the longest time — about a month — I couldn’t figure out why I was putting off creating a web site. I had quite a few false starts but didn’t like what I saw. Then one day I said to myself “Just sit down and do it! Unsightly or not, get it done.”

My one saving characteristic is once I’m engaged in a project, I can read or skim information searching for an answer to a problem. Time seems to evaporate once I latch onto a pursuit.

So, I learned what little HTML I know by constantly making mistakes and looking up information in the help and HTML books I had. One thing that dawned on me was that a good HTML editor would go a long way toward being productive. (So, I purchased two of the best, Dreamweaver and XSitePro. )

I still couldn’t figure out what to do that would look “acceptable” so I didn’t even try for “appealing”. Here I have two of the best HTML editors on the market and I still have fourth-grade looking output! That made my “fear” even worse. I hate looking like a rookie!

Somewhere along the way I discovered that people aren’t really that impressed with the fancy graphics and pretty buttons I was so worried about. Most folks are more interested in the information I can provide.

Somebody said “it’s the content, baby, put your emphasis on the content.” That made sense and I’ve begun to switch gears. Providing useful information is a lot more important than creating pretty “drivel.”

I’m getting over my artistic fear and have discovered the wonderful world of templates. I view templates as the sliced-bread of web site creation. I would not be able to cobble anything together (unless it was a real eye-sore) without the use of someone else’s artistic talent.

Now that I’ve gotten my paint-by-numbers skill-set out in the open, I hope I’ve lowered your expectations for how creative this blog will look. 

There’s a bright side though, I’ll be lot more oriented toward providing helpful news and and useful tips.