Links!

Well, it took me way longer than I planned, and much longer than I thought it should, but I've finally got some test pages linked. I would really like to do buttons, but I can't seem to figure out how and it's getting me really frustrated again, so I've decided to content myself with links for now. Maybe I can figure out the buttons later. I'm really finding this book totally worthless. It just confuses me. I actually find the Nvu tutorials much easier to understand. When I hit a difficult spot or can't seem to make any progress, I go over the chapter in the book several times and find myself getting more and more anxious and frustrated. Then I tell myself to just go with it and experiment and let go of the fear of failure and as soon as I do that, I seem to make some progress.

For some reason, I had this real fear of linking my pages. I was just sure I wouldn't be able to do it. It seemed so complicated and the more I read, the more confused I became. I took a break and when I came back just thought: What 's the worst that can happen if I don't figure this out? I will go to class and I won't have my pages linked and everyone will think I'm stupid and then someone will show me how to do it -- I hope. Maybe I'll get a "C". Maybe I'll take an Incomplete. But then I just tell myself I'll figure it out, sooner or later. I remind myself I have figured out how to do PowerPoint and Publisher completely on my own, so, more than likely, EVENTUALLY I'll figure out how to create a small website with pages that link. Finally I did. I went over the Nvu tutorial at least 5 times and kept trying to follow the directions and finally I got a page uploaded with one link that worked. Then I came back and put another link in to see if maybe it was just a fluke. That worked too. I was quite elated. Then I tried a third one, and that one didn't work. But then I realized I had put in the wrong file name. As soon as I corrected that, it worked also. I have to admit I was stunned that I actually figured out how to do it, even after all the talking I did to try to reassure myself.

So, assuming I can remember how I did this the next time I sit down to work on this, I think I've gotten at least the basic linking skill down. I just wish I had way more time to spend on this, but when I do sit down, it seems to take me hours just to get the basic steps down. I feel like I'm tech-retarded or something. Eventually I figure things out, but it seems to take me way too long. I wish people would participate more on BlackBoard so I would feel like I was not the most technically-challenged person in the class.