(Sunday, February 17, 2002, 8:07 PM Pacific Standard Time.)

Well, my 30-day trial period ended with the Xanga, and now if I want to use their premium software package to post my web log there in a decent and efficient fashion, I have to pay them money.

Which is not going to happen right now. One of my goals right now is to get out of debt. So for the past several days I've remained glued to my computer looking for free web hosts where I can install free web log software. I had to find this particular type of web host while I was at it that met certain specifications that would be user friendly for the type of web log software I wanted to use.

This is not going to happen right now either. I met defeat at practically every Internet turn I took. All the web hosts I explored would first hook me in with their "free" space to post my web log. But then when I wanted to use the web log software that would cost me money.

Despite not getting what I wanted, I still came out of this a better person. Now if I ever go looking for a new web host that I have to pay for, I know that I may want to hook up with one that offers such goodies as CGI bins, and Perl 5 scripting capabilities and MySQL databases. Mind you I only have vague notions of what this stuff is all about. Its still Greek and too computer geek to me, but nevertheless I know that it is required for certain web log software such as GreyMatter and Movable Type and pmachine.

So I didn't get what I wanted.

Or did I?

Earlier today I suddenly realized I could pretty much make do with what I already have. That is, I do have this remarkable word processing program I can create my own customized web page templates. And it is now real easy for me to upload these web pages to my current free web host provider.

Of course I won't have contact with the web communities that places like Xanga and Blog and LiveJournal provide, but what the heck, I need the community of people out in the real world as opposed to those here in Cyberland.