How I Began Webdesigning | Hosting | About the Name

How I Began Webdesigning

It's kind of silly, really. I was a kid when the world of Neopets was new, exciting, and very popular. I logged back in while typing this, and it looks like I joined Neopets in 2002. Wow, it's unbelievable that Neopets has been thriving for so long and is still standing. Anyway, users on Neopets had the option of customizing their profiles, "shops," and "guilds," each of which we could use HTML and CSS on. So that's where I started learning some coding to make my pages pretty. After getting a basic hold on coding, I started my first webpage, which was a website for my guild.

Then it hit me that I should create my very own personal website. I named it "Pink Mist" and (surprise) decided to give it a pink theme. It had a lot of random stuff about myself and a lot of random content that was supposed to entertain the visitor. I can't remember too well what my first one was like, but I can vaguely remember a couple of my first layouts and they were pretty terrible. I give my 13 year old self some major props, though, for figuring out how to make my own website (complete with image maps and everything!) while everyone else my age was more interested in watching TV.

Hosting!

I'd say I went through at least 7 free webhosting sites. And the free hosting scene back then was bombarded with tons of ads and slow servers.

One great thing about the personal website community is the amount of generous and friendly people out there. Many personal websites I've come across are very open about giving free hosting under their paid hosting plan to those who need it. I had my site hosted by three of such people. I have lost contact with them and their sites do not exist anymore, but I still remember their names. They were Maggi @Star-Song, Mandy @ Rainbow-Dreams/Grunge-Kitty, and Amber @ Grumblebee. I was first hosted by Maggi on April 5th, 2003.

As you can see, I am now on my own at fadedout.com. It was the best solution. Really, it was the only solution for me at the time because I had to change hosts every month and I didn't want to deal with that anymore. My brother bought me hosting from Blue Host and this domain for my birthday, December 22, in 2005. It was a wonderful thing, having my site on a reliable paid host. I made the root directory of Fadedout.com a collective, listing all of the many sites I had opened up and maintained.

However, after nearly five quality years with Blue Host, we just can't really afford $100 a year for webhosting that I hadn't really been using to its full potential. So now I am back to taking advantage of free hosting from wonderfully generous people (Currently Bubble Hosting), but I have registered the domain name myself under Namecheap.

I used to have a collective and a ton of websites, but I lost time and interesting to keep them. Faded Out was fully revamped, with me getting rid of the collective and merging any content I still wished to keep into my blog for simplicity and ease of updating. So that was my very long history. Hooray for puttin' it all down for the records and memories :)

About the Name

Before Faded Out came about, my website was originally named "Faded Dreams." Why did I pick Faded Dreams?

Simply put, I just liked the name. Duh. However, I won't leave you with an explanation as boring as that! I actually had a dream that kind of confirmed my liking for such a name. Here's the dream:

There was a girl in my dream. It could have possibly been me, but I will refer to her as "she" instead of "I." She saw his face peering through the shadows. Her heart raced faster and faster. She called out his name, hoping he would step out and confront her. It only resulted in him running away, rustling through the leaves in the damp forest. She pursued him and ran after him, calling his name. He ran swiftly and each time his pace was quicker and quicker. He finally stopped and turned around to face her. She tried to gaze into his eyes but everything became misty and blurry. She saw a last glimpse of his faded face. Everything seemed to fade slowly away…she woke up. It was the end of her faded dream.

Of course, finding a unique domain name can be a little difficult sometimes, and fadeddreams.com (along with a couple of other extensions) was taken. I went with the next best thing and thought up fadedout.com. And here we are!

Besides my dramatic little dream, I really like this domain name for its mysteriousness and its slightly pessimistic undertones. It's like, once you have a goal, the other side always seems to be faded out before you can reach it. I do love the cutesy names people come up with for their domains, but I didn't feel like doing that for myself. I've grown very fond of fadedout.com and it's a part of me now.