This website was originally supposed to be an experiment for myself when the idea for it's creation originated. It started out as me wanting to test the skills and knowledge I had obtained at Valdosta State University by hosting a simple website off of my raspberry pi, and it turned into a week-long project. Not only has this website been extremely fun and rewarding to develop, it has led me to a better understanding of how HTML and CSS really work from the bottom up. My motive throughout this project was that I didn't want to spend any money on service providers, nor download any template or pre-written code to manipulate to be mine. I wanted build it using my own creativity and skills and see how far it took me. The entire web server is being hosted from my raspberry pi 3b+ using apache, which is being controlled from my main PC through an SSH connection. Software such as puTTY and WINSCP have made changing and transferring files an absolute breeze throughout this entire process. After apache had launched the web server, I moved on securing static IP addresses for both my home router and my raspberry pi since I knew that waiting for my website to go down due to a dynamic IP change was not something that I wanted to mess with. Thankfully, unlike others, my ISP provided a dynamic to static IP change at no charge, and changing the raspberry pi's IP was made simple with puTTY. With that being done, I decided that it was time to switch over to sublime to start coding the actual design for the website. Using HTML and CSS, I first designed the home page to give myself an idea of what I actually wanted this website to do and, since I am in the process of looking for a job, I decided the best use for this website was to make a sort of portfolio for myself along with a representation of what I am capable of. I wanted each of the pages on the website to be unique in their own way, with each one displaying different techniques, purposes, and formats, showing the wide range of knowledge. The home page being the main hub for everything, projects page showing knowledge of text management along with button placement, and the contact page displaying the understanding of forms. The projects page was by far the most challenging, mostly because of the differences between the desktop and mobile view. Although I think I have reached a place of satisfaction now, I do plan on strengthening that page along with the contact page. Since my motive in the beginning was to not rely on many outside resources that require payment, and sticking to HTML and CSS, there was a major workaround in getting the messages sent to my personal gmail. These two pages are definitely my main focus when moving forward with the development of this website. As for my plans for the future, I am looking at incorporating other languages and techniques into the mix to get to where I really want to be with this website, and I also plan to break the "no money spent" rule to secure an SSL along with a premium domain to make it look more professional.

-Matthew Swinson