Pam

This year Pam turned 40, and she immediately decided that if 50 is the new 30, then she must now be 20.

She has applied to the local college and starts classes this winter. Her plan is to finish her BA degree at Portland State University with a double major in Business/Marketing and Advertising Management. She’s got so many Graphic Design credits already, that two more classes are all she needs to get the double major. To make things easier, she found out that she qualifies for tuition reimbursement from work, and her job in the call center allows her to study between calls.

Pam has also been busy working on launching her own business, Pass It On Plates, which makes and sells a gift packaging concept for people who give home made food gifts.

The website for the plates and diaries is www.PassItOnPlates.com

During the process of launching the business, she found that while time consuming, it was easy to develop the product and make the components, design and build the website, and figure out the business aspect of all this. The part that frustrated her to tears was when she needed to get her easily designed website onto the internet. While learning a whole new language, she banged her head against the wall, pulled out her hair, and whined to Frank throughout the whole process of logging in to her host (you’d think that would be easy!), configuring her DNS (‘domain name server,’ maybe?), finding an FTP program (could stand for ‘file transfer protocol?’) then actually using the darned thing to upload files to her new “under construction” website.

“You mean this program doesn’t come with SSL and I have to have SSL? What is SSL and how much is that going to cost me?”

“Hmmm, simple guest book php. What’s php? It says ‘Download and configure in under 5 minutes.’ I’ve been fighting with it since 6:00 this morning but it still doesn’t work, and now I’ve got to get supper on.”

“Pick a shopping cart? I’d like a blue one. Ohhh, I have to pick a shopping cart service. There are 30 choices listed here, and their features include words I don’t understand.”

Through the miracle of we-don’t-know-what, the website is live. The links work, the pictures show up, and the email program works. The dents in Pam’s forehead are healing, and the bald spots where she yanked out chunks of hair have started to fill back in.
With gray hair.

Meanwhile, if you visit the website and want to buy something, be advised we only accept mail order at this time. Online shopping will be available as soon as Pam has completely recovered from the self-inflicted injuries sustained while getting the website online.