Bought a domain name!

If you're up to date with me, you'd be able to see how this blog can be accessed through asmahamid.com! I've been wanting to have one since forever but I always felt that I did not want to waste my money. Little did I know, it's not that expensive or difficult. It did take me quite awhile to decide and figure it out, however.

It all came about when Sus said that she wanted to get one so I decided to search it up. I texted my family saying that £10/year wouldn't be too bad but Dad helped me search around and he found cheaper options. I then realised that there are more services out there that's related to this new world I'm trying to explore. Below are a few things that I understood from the 'research' that I did before getting a domain name:

a) Domain Name

Basically just your basic www.xxx.xxx. It's just a name - that's it. To register, registrars will take care of your domain registration and renewal, so you pay them for the service. You're unable to do it directly with ICANN (the people handling all this) because you basically just can't (refer below).

Source: ICANN

Registrars like GoDaddy and 1&1 will charge you very cheap for the first year but then the price will increase significantly for the years after. Compare registrars and decide who you want to go with, I obtained the chart below from Cosmotown.com.

b) Hosting

A hosting service is basically a 'space' given to you by the provider. You can do whatever you want with this space - including making a website but it does not provide you with the service to actually create this website - just the storage space. Provided that you can build a website from scratch or you have a web developer, this would not be a problem. However, if it is an issue, the next section is handy.

c) Website/Website Builder

A website builder is a platform or a service that provides you with tools and templates to allow you to create your own website without having to excessively code. Wordpress, Wix and many of the registrars in the chart above provides this service.

In the end, I decided to go with just getting a domain name from 1&1 because:

• I don't know how long I'd like to keep this domain name - basically doing a one year trial run (I'm paying £1/year this year - would pay around £14/year for the years after)

• I am too busy to be making my own website (because assigning the domain to this blog is already a little bit complicated - this is how)

• I am already on blogger and it allows to me to have my own domain name linked to it - for free

• I don't want to be paying a lot for something I'm probably not going to use (hence, I did not go for the web hosting service/website builder)

Life Update!

Work

My initial project got scrapped (by me, as advised by Liz) due to the fact that international students under a Tier 4 visa are not allowed to engage themselves in any business activities. This includes selling/trading things on any kind of marketplace (ebay, etsy and etc.) You will be deported if the home office finds out that you're 'self-employed'. This would mean that my platform would only be available for home students which isn't very ideal.

However, Liz did help me come out with other plans which involves skills exchange. After a few days of thinking, I decided to have a main project of creating a platform to aid skills exchange and a subproject which is of a skills showcase. But because the skills showcase will be big enough on its own. I'll be writing proposals for two different projects. YEAY?

Studies

I'm half way through the semester and I'm overwhelmed by the amount of work that I have to do. My final year project is starting to really speed up so I'm trying my hardest to keep up with it. I've been spending my whole Monday and Tuesday night doing my FYP but it really isn't enough time. Besides that, I have 3 different assignments to also do. It's starting to get really difficult if I must be honest. Last year, I took a lot of modules that were 100% exams so now I feel like I'm in second year again.

Life

My best friend came over from Germany for 5 days! We went to a Halloween Party that played KPOP which was SOOOOOOOO FUUUUNNN. We also watched an Alice in Wonderland show (thanks to Mick for telling me). Unfortunate that since she has gone back, I'll be back to staying at home every single night. Syaza was really lazy so we stayed at home when we were supposed to be going out of Sheffield. But honestly, because we stayed at home, we managed to catch up and have a lot of discussions about life. She also got to meet all of my friends that I've always talked about so that was interesting.