I like to keep the Internet at a distance. I like to watch it at a safe distance and hope my ‘fight-or-flight’ instincts do not start to kick in. However, this semester I sought to change this behavior.

So, I enrolled in Digital Storytelling  (DS106) with instructor Jim Groom for my final semester of undergrad. I expected to learn a few tips and tricks about blogging and that’s about it. Honestly, I was expecting an easy ‘A’. What I did not expect was being left on an Internet island of doom with a domain name and no map.

Now, I am in the driver seat with a steep learning curve ahead. In the last week I was able to successfully connect my domain name (mc-guirk.us) with a webhost, installed WordPress (most proud of that one), and successfully installed a WordPress theme. Easy.

Not easy: learning why the next day it all disappeared. Network caching is a horrible, horrible thing, but my to-do list is slowly getting accomplished.

To Do:

1. Install Akismet API key, check.

2. Subscribe to Comments, check.

3. Install Titter Tools, check but still working on it too.

4. Get JetPack, check, still need to learn more about what it does.

Currently, I’m working on the sites look, how to customize its font, and where my blog posts go (don’t judge). In short, Jim Groom, fellow ds106 pioneers and my parents, I look forward to embracing this new challenge and seriously would love any tips you can throw my direction.