Building a Website the Slow Way, with Help

I’ve owned a computer since back when 4 megabytes of RAM felt like a fortune. In fact, I vividly remember purchasing my first 4MB RAM chip. When I went to the one computer store in town to pick it up, they had to retrieve the chip from their vault. That is how rare and expensive that little 4MB chip was back then. You’d think by now I’d have built myself a proper website. You’d be wrong. 🤦🏻‍♂️

For years I had good intentions and not much else. This year I finally got around to it. I did it slow, and I had help. Here’s how it went.

Getting a place to live

Every website needs a home, so the first thing was hosting. I went with Namecheap. They offered exactly what I needed at an affordable price.

Then I put up a simple landing page at rickduncan.net. Nothing fancy. Just who I am and where to find me. That’s where the old motto lives: jack of all trades, master of none.

The help came from my crew of AI helpers. I’d tell them what I wanted, they’d take a crack at it, and I’d tell them what I didn’t like. Mostly I told them what I didn’t like. 😂

Picking a look

Here’s where I spent more time than I’d care to admit. We looked at a handful of designs, and I kept coming back to one called “Game Day.” Tennessee orange and navy. If you know me at all, that shouldn’t surprise you. 🍊🏈

It felt like me. A little bit Saturday afternoon in Neyland, a little bit old-school, and easy on the eyes.

Then came the logo. I ended up with what we call the RD Weave, a monogram with my initials woven together. The look was clean and professional.

I’m no designer, and I’ll be the first to tell you so. But I know what I like when I see it, and that turned out to be enough.

A Now page and a blog

Somewhere along the way I learned about something called a Now page. It’s a simple idea. Instead of an “about me” that never changes, you keep one page that says what you’re up to right now. Mine is at rickduncan.net/now. How cool is this? 🤔

And then there’s this blog, running on WordPress. I wanted a place for the longer stuff, the things that don’t fit in a short post on X. Random musings about technology and life, just like it says up top.

With the blog, you can expect to find little snippets of my life. Much of the content will be technology-focused. However, some will just be me yapping about everyday life.

What I learned

Today I learned that “slow” isn’t a bad word. I didn’t build this in a weekend, and I’m glad I didn’t. Taking it a piece at a time meant I actually understood what I was looking at.

I also learned that having help doesn’t mean you’re not doing the work. I still made every call. The bots just did the typing and kept me from breaking things too badly.

Is it finished? No website ever is. But it’s mine, it’s orange, and it’s out there. That’s good enough for me.

— Rick