Introduction of My Website
My website is here. I have added an About page with my basic information. I changed the theme to a template that feels more concise, and I modified the background color to my favorite light brown-red. On the main page, people can click on “About Me” to check the about page or click on “Contact Me” to write me an email directly.
Next Steps
I plan to add some of my personal projects to the website. I want my website to reflect my interests in cognitive processes, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence. For example, in a previous cognitive science course, I created a comic to explain the “brain in a vat” problem, which could be fun to post. I also built a blackjack player using a Q-learning algorithm in Python that can play optimally against users. Right now, it only runs in the terminal, but I can add it to the website once I create an interface for it. Beyond coursework, I might also share reflective blog posts about the science-fiction books and manga I have read, or even post fan-fics that I have made.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Hosting My Own Website
One benefit of hosting my own website is that I can customize almost everything to make it personal. Unlike social media platforms with fixed structures and styles, I can easily adjust the overall theme with existing blocks or additional CSS, and I can customize specific pages or blog posts with further modifications. I can own my domain name, so people can immediately recognize that this is my site by simply looking at the link.
One drawback could be that I have to be responsible for all the updates and maintenance. I already use the Akismet plugin to filter out comment spam, but I know I will need to explore more plugins for security and functionality. I would also like to check comments regularly to get a sense of feedback and improve the site. There is still a lot I need to learn about WordPress, but I see that as part of the challenges and learning goals of this course.
