HeyChristine.com

Tuesday, December 19th

My cup runneth over...

HELP. I leave tomorrow and have a kazillion things to do. I spent way too much time last week looking into web host companies trying to figure out which one I should choose. No wonder Gus used to bitch and complain about this. It's an area I never had to deal with until now. Ugh. Asia Online is still out there but they are still in the process of building their data center in Taiwan, so that's that. I need to get this hosted ASAP.

I really liked the Verio website and almost signed up with them just because it was so user-friendly, but Gus said he had a bad experience with them and suggested that I go with Interland instead, which that "friend" of mine had also recommended a few weeks back. So I signed up online last Wednesday. Two days went by. Nothing happened.

The website, service, or product displayed here is used and/or endorsed by Yours Truly.

A rather embarrassing moment...

So I called Interland on Friday using my Internet telephony thingy and spoke with a guy named Morris. It was actually a rather embarrassing conversation for me because all of a sudden I felt really STUPID having to tell him that my site was called Hey Christine dotcom. I have no idea why.

Morris: (rather business-like) "Your domain name please?"

Me: (also business-like) "It's H - E - Y - C - H - R - I - ..."

By this point I lost him, I think because the connection wasn't terribly clear.

Morris: "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

Me: (like a retard) "Uh, sure. H - E - Y - C - H - R - I - S - T - I - N - E dotcom."

Morris: (he's on to me) "Is it... Hey Christine dotcom?"

Me: (still trying to play it off) "Ummm... yes..."

Morris: (ever so politely) "And... are you... (pause) ... Christine?"

Me: (blushing) "Errr... yyyes..."

I sounded like such an idiot. ANYWAY. Morris said that my online order must have fallen through the cracks (I'm thinking, this is AMERICA, not TIAWANA) and that he would cancel that order immediately and place one on the spot, and that I should get my password info emailed to me within the hour. Great! Two days went by. Nothing happened.

So last night I called them again around midnight, and this time I spoke with Raymond in tech support. Raymond said he'd take care of it and to call back at around 2 o'clock to see if everything was alright. No longer am I feeling generous with my time. My response was, "Raymond? I'm in Asia. I'm going to bed now. When I get up tomorrow morning, I'd like to have access to my website. Can you just take care of it?"

The website, service, or product displayed here is used and/or endorsed by Yours Truly.

The worst is over, I hope...

Both Raymond and Morris were pretty cool. Despite the fact that I had to wait a week to finally get set up, I was unusually patient with them, mostly because they were quite pleasant with me on the phone (thanks guys!), but also because Gus warned me of the frustrations I might encounter. I should have done this weeks ago but I had initially thought that I could finagle a corporate sponsorship deal such that my host needs would get comped. But the bigger the entity I was dealing with, the more hoops that had to be jumped, so I said, forget it. It's just not worth my time.

I finally got all the info I needed, and Gus installed my BBs for me. The only problem is that I now have to wait a few days before "HeyChristine.com" is recognized, or, as was stated on the Registrar website, "please allow 24 hours for these changes to propagate worldwide." For now it's just an IP address. Gus was pretty psyched that the installation of the BBs only took 20 minutes. I was too.

Hey Gus! Thanks Gus!

And somehow in the middle of it all, I also worked on the Yellow Pages which is going to take some time to categorize. Several people had written in, unable to find the link to the Business Directory from the Employment pages, which prompted me to take another run through the directory again. Of all things, ING Barings wasn't listed, just as I shot off a quick email to Walsh, so I worked on that for a little bit.

We're going to have to pay someone to enter all of the company names from my business cards (I have TONS) or perhaps include a request in the next EB for people to submit their own company listing. Gus and I were also working on developing a visual for Joanne at Discover Taipei. It looks like we'll be working with them afterall. I can't believe how busy I was today. I haven't even stopped to think about packing.

Almost forgot to mention. The reason why Gus and I continue to go with Stateside web hosting companies for our various Internet properties is because, as far as we can tell, service in Taiwan and Hong Kong still appears to be lacking.

The website, service, or product displayed here is used and/or endorsed by Yours Truly.

YESTERDAY | THE NEXT DAY