About the Site
I started up the site in 1999 as a way of communicating with friends and family who are all over the place. This was right after the trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway. I realized that my Internet provider gave the space for free – I had a whopping 15 megabytes to do whatever I wanted with. The site address was long enough to break your fingers typing, it was a one-trip site, but I had a lot of fun putting it together.
My design skills are rudimentary, but at the same time I thought that it should be plain, not to draw attention away from the content. I also felt that several rules should apply. First, it's more about what I saw than about me – I'm probably the least interesting person in all of this, and there are rarely any pictures of me. I have my opinions, but personal details can get very boring, and downright annoying if I tell someone else's. For the rest, keep it light, and be positive. This, anyway, is what I'm hoping to accomplish.
The Trans-Siberian material got a good reception (from my friends, who really are good friends), so I made this an exercise after every trip. I enjoy writing, and the site gave me good reason. After a while you start to accumulate material. Someone gave me a domain name for my birthday, which is one of the more unique (if virtual) presents I've received. I found out how easy it is to get domain names, and also, the same people had a hosting facility. So I moved everything to the new provider, who had much more space and better performance.
The domain that I wanted was travelogues.net: "travelogues" because these are travelogues, and ".net" because it's not exactly commercial (which is what ".com" stands for). The one problem was that the name was already taken. So was every other name that I thought of. I misspelled it as "travellogues.net" and I finally got something. This was fine, and I took pains to explain to everyone that I knew it was misspelled – that's what the Internet does to you. To my surprise, I found out how many people think that that's correct!
Travelogues.net (with one "L") was a mustard-colored site crammed with personal travel photos, but similar enough to mine to confuse people. Its owners finally threw it in, and I was able to take that name. I had to pay some sharks to get it, but finally, after 2 years, I could spell things correctly! I now admit what a relief that is. At the same time, a designer friend suggested a makeover, and this was perfect. I have the same trepidation about change as everyone else, and the site probably doesn't look that different. Having more courage now, I'll keep upgrading as time permits.