After a few days and lots of tears, I revamped my site, registered my own domain name bouncingoffthewall.com and started over. I decided to make it a kid friendly site for the kids at the new school. It would be full of learning aids, games, puzzles, computer information and other fun things for kids. When I emailed this news to our principal, she sounded delighted. She said it sounded like a great idea, and would place an announcement in her regular weekly note. She also promised a link to my site on the schools new site.
Things looked up. Now I could do my own thing and not have to answer to anyone. What I was thinking at the time, was that I could make it as colorful as I wanted to. I had previously been asked to tone down the background of one of the pages. Something I did immediately without question at the time. Now I wouldn’t have to. I could also provide information about things I felt my visitors wanted and supplement what the school’s site didn’t offer or couldn’t offer given the constraints of time, or space.
On the last day of school, I came up to school. The principle’s weekly note had come out, but there was no mention of my new web site design. When I asked her about it, I got a mumbled and not very convincing “Yeah I forgot.” I was hurt. That was the last note of the year. Now how was I going to get the word out.
I decided to put a notice in the church bulletins. When that Sunday came, Mine was mentioned on our bulletin. I came home to check the web site of the other school ( their bulletin was the only current thing on their site at the moment.) I was really pleased to see not only my information but a large banner and an enhanced announcement. Then I checked my own churches site. Where my announcement was in the paper bulletin was a blank white space. I scoured the whole thing. It was nowhere to be seen. That jerk had not only taken the site away from me, but he was now also censoring the bulletin of my own church to leave my site out. Letters to the new pastor were useless. He claimed to have no control over the site. Who the heck was running the show over there, and why wouldn’t someone tell me why they were doing this.
Looking back I realize now how much this consumed me. It made no logical sense and violated all rules of the "do unto others" that we all hold so dear. What happened to acting like good Christians. I just didn't and still don't understand. Hidden or even not so hidden agendas are foreign to me. Maybe that's why I like computers so much. They responde (for the most part) in expected ways, they don't ridicule you or do things out of pure spite. They are like I am-- WYSIWYG
Friday, June 17, 2005
Sunday, June 5, 2005
Rejection
Plans began to finalize as the school year drew to a close. The teachers were hired and our principle was chosen to lead the new school. She was getting so busy that I substituted for computer class the whole month of May. The kids kept asking me to come teach at the new school. It was the supreme compliment. At a school tour, I had seen the brand new fancy computers there. I told them all about it and how fast they would be. I also told them that I would be offering to help and maybe start a computer club after school if the new computer teacher would allow it.
When the powers that be finally decided on a name for the school, I immediately updated the home page of the site I had built and registered a domain name after getting the go ahead of a consolidation team member . Yes he was my husband but he was also the head of the school board and a committee head. I shot an email off to the principal informing her of my activities and offered to meet with her to discuss any additions to the site she might have.
Before I received her reply, I saw her personally at her office. That’s when she informed me that she had given the school’s website to the church’s web master. There was no reason given, other than she thought my site was supposed to be temporary. Something I had never been told.
Yes I was devastated. I didn’t know what I done wrong or why this was happening. I wondered if I had offended her in some way. I found out later that the webmaster felt I was horning in on his territory by fixing the computers in the lab. I had seen him several times but he never said anything to me. In fact he always appeared to be so tired and busy and annoyed with the fact that the kids had wrecked up the computers again. I didn’t want to take away his job as the designer of the churches site. Surely there was enough work involved there. It wasn’t updated that often so I assumed he was busy with his day job. and of course there was the fact that I thought that a site separate from that associated with either church would somehow, appease the other school. They felt we were taking over their school as it was and they had to make so many changes because of us. Needless to say, I left in tears, never being able to control those emotions.
When the powers that be finally decided on a name for the school, I immediately updated the home page of the site I had built and registered a domain name after getting the go ahead of a consolidation team member . Yes he was my husband but he was also the head of the school board and a committee head. I shot an email off to the principal informing her of my activities and offered to meet with her to discuss any additions to the site she might have.
Before I received her reply, I saw her personally at her office. That’s when she informed me that she had given the school’s website to the church’s web master. There was no reason given, other than she thought my site was supposed to be temporary. Something I had never been told.
Yes I was devastated. I didn’t know what I done wrong or why this was happening. I wondered if I had offended her in some way. I found out later that the webmaster felt I was horning in on his territory by fixing the computers in the lab. I had seen him several times but he never said anything to me. In fact he always appeared to be so tired and busy and annoyed with the fact that the kids had wrecked up the computers again. I didn’t want to take away his job as the designer of the churches site. Surely there was enough work involved there. It wasn’t updated that often so I assumed he was busy with his day job. and of course there was the fact that I thought that a site separate from that associated with either church would somehow, appease the other school. They felt we were taking over their school as it was and they had to make so many changes because of us. Needless to say, I left in tears, never being able to control those emotions.
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