I Revived My Personal Website

Who am I?

A little bit of context. Back in November 2021, my father gave me money as a birthday gift for me to buy my domain and pay for the hosting server. So, I made my website. It’s just my simple corner in the vast void of the internet.

I use my domain to have my professional email address, do some testing in the background, and pretty much used it as my playground. But it was not a sight to behold back then, my website is only filled with “Lorem ipsum” paragraphs.

Work Life

Back then, I was working in the government sector and I maintained and managed the official government website. So, before implementing the change in the government website, I first test and apply it on my website to avoid any conflicts and issues that would affect the government website.

It was a good workflow (emphasis on the WAS), though the pay is below minimum wage even in provincial standards. And don’t get me started with the toxic work environment and the never-ending politics. But that’s a story for another time.

Fast forward a little, there was an issue with the government website, and I was forced to migrate the entire government website to my hosting plan. I was promised to be incentivized for using my plan hosting plan, so I thought, “Why not?”

Spoiler alert: it was the worst decision of my life.

What’s the issue? The issue is that the government website is being hosted by a third party that used to work there. Because of that, our options for managing the government website are too limited. Hell, we didn’t even have administrator-level access to our government website. And that’s where I come in.

First of all, since I used to work for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), I know about their service of having a free web server for government agencies and that they manage, maintain, and issue out every .gov.ph domain. The problem lies in the slow process of requests, even on the government-to-government level.

I can’t afford to wait months on end to have my full request at least acknowledged. I was running out of time, and I only have within a month to save the government website and its data. So, I resorted to moving everything to my hosting plan.

This is what they promised me in exchange for moving the government website to my hosting plan: I’ll be paid the full price of my hosting plan for as long as the website is hosted on my hosting plan. The problem: my hosting plan can only hold one website. So I had my plan upgraded to handle the large data (we’re talking about gigabytes of data) and the government website.

Another problem is that I have to pay the hosting plan using my own money first, and THEN I’ll be reimbursed. After a few weeks, migrating the whole government website to my hosting plan is a success. I saved years of data, and we finally have full control of the website.

It was great, I managed to do something. But reimbursing me took 5 months. 5. Bloody. Months.

I mentioned earlier that I have a below-minimum wage salary, and I upgraded my hosting plan. Guess what, I had to pay 10k pesos for the upgrade up front. My salary is 6k pesos that I get every 2 weeks, BUT, the process of getting my salary takes so long that I only get 6k pesos PER MONTH instead of my full salary of 12k per month. I had to use my emergency funds for the upgrade.

Then came 2022, I was assigned to be the team leader of the Office of the Provincial Administrator after the old team leader was… fired… I mean, quit. You know… politics. Basically, my new position is sort of like a “vice-boss,” Just below the Administrator. I was called the “Little Administrator” because I hold power that is almost equal to the Administrator. And well, because my attitude, demeanor, and point of view are the same as the Administrator even before I was assigned to this position, so they see me as a good fit to fill this role. It was a “promotion” per se, but my salary remains the same. But that’s a story for another time too. I’ll make a separate blog post about my life in the provincial government.

The point is, my life there is going downhill at that point because of politics and the toxic work environment. Back to the website.

The unreasonable demands at work are piling up and the work environment is getting worse, especially since election season is fast approaching. Suffice it to say, I quit on July 2022 and went to law school in September. I left instructions and documentation in my old office for my replacement on how to manage the office, workflow, all the software and hardware, and especially the website. Spoiler alert: my replacement and the “higher-ups” discarded my instructions and documentation.

Then came 2023, my father passed away this January, so I put law school on hold. The hosting’s billing date is also fast approaching, so I contacted my replacement and remind them about the due date. My replacement only said, “Okay, sir, I’ll ask about the billing tomorrow.” March came, and I received an email from the hosting provider that the hosting plan will renew. I told my replacement about this, then he only said that he “forwarded this issue to the ‘higher ups.’” I was skeptical. Why? Politics. My replacement was in league with the other side, which is making my life there a living hell. Again, it’s a story for another time.

Weeks went by, and I never got any reply, all my messages weren’t even left on read. I was being ignored.

Deleting Everything

Now, April came. I received a message a week ago that my hosting provider will cancel my plan and delete everything if I didn’t pay the bill. But me being unemployed and no longer going to law school, I have no money to pay for the bill. And nowhere in Hell will I be using my emergency funds to pay for the hosting again.

I was adamant in my stance to just let it all burn to the ground and be lost, all my hard work, forever. But then, I remember that my website was a gift from my late father. My website is like a memory that I hold dear that reminds me of my father. And then it hit me, I have to do something. I’ll let it all burn to the ground, but I should at least save my website.

Trying To Save It

With a conscious mind, I paid for a new hosting plan 3 days ago, then I contacted my hosting provider’s customer support because I can’t access the control panel of the old hosting plan. After all, it was suspended because of an outstanding bill.

A huge shoutout to the hosting provider’s customer support for their hospitality and generosity in helping me with this issue. They made sure to migrate every last bit of my website to the new hosting plan. I even told them that it’s alright with me if they won’t migrate everything, what matters is the domain itself. But they go beyond what I asked and migrated everything, every last bit of my website. I was crying when they told me they’ll migrate everything, and I’m truly grateful for their help.

I didn’t have a screenshot of my website before I changed, but this is the screenshot by the customer service:

Look at it, all barren and filled with Lorem ipsum.

I Revived My Personal Website

And this is what my website looks like now:

Now, I made a few changes on my website, and it looks presentable. Though there are still a few nooks and crannies that need work, but I’m quite satisfied for how it turned out right now.

You can check out my website at https://andreijarellvedad.com

Hosting Provider

Now for the namedrop. The hosting provider that I’ve mentioned is none other than Hostinger. I’ve been using their services for a long time now, since my college days. I own a few domains before andreijarellvedad.com, like ibarrabdosea.website then rebranded to ibarra.xyz for my gaming persona, and 868449.xyz for some testing, all now lost in time from my previous hosting plan.

Here’s the list of the hosting:

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I know this will sound like a long-ass plug for an affiliate, but yeah. If you’re interested in hosting your own website, check out Hostinger.

They have affordable hosting plans for as little as US$1.99 per month per year for the first billing. And they have superb customer service, as I’ve mentioned earlier. Be sure to use my affiliate link, so I can get some kickbacks, and you’ll be able to support me.

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Reposted to Medium.