My next step was to go to the Internet and hire some fancy company. To make a long story short, because I can go on, I got soaked again. This went on for about 3 years. Lots of money, time passed, and nothing, and I mean nothing, to show for it.
Oh, yes, this was the time for “family and friends”. I almost forgot about this stage. I guess it's because for the first time it didn't cost me any money, although it did cost my wife the time and effort of making a full course dinner for one of my daughters friends who designed web sites. This young fellow was good, I mean really good at web site building, and he had the work to show it. He designed personal web sites for Major League Players. My Saviour had arrived...
After consuming that nice dinner, we had some coffee, talked a bit and agreed on a price to build my first real site (50% when the site was up and the remaining 50% when I was satisfied). What a great guy!!! He gave me a price which he called a “family and friends” price. I thought it was steep but agreed without any hesitations or negotiations, I simply said OK! After all, this was my Net Saviour. He explained that he was busy and this project would take about two weeks to complete. Only two weeks I thought. I had been waiting months and months that turned to years, what was mere two weeks, I was salivating. He promised that he would have a front page “uploaded” (whatever that meant) for me to view within two days. GREAT!!!
Two days later I had a beautiful front page to a site. My Saviour had actually kept his word.... NOT…. Three weeks go by and I still only had a beautiful front page, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, well I guess you get the picture. After 6 months I finally got the picture. One beautiful front page was not going to cut it if I wanted to have a working site. I had another broken promise of greatness on my hands.
That's when I decided I should take the proverbial bull by the horns and try to do things myself. At least I would only have myself to blame if things weren't delivered on time and as I expected them to be. You are now on the site that is my best work to date.
I went through a few design and web building programs that I purchased on this wonderful Internet, and finally found a couple of systems that I really liked and was comfortable using. (At that time and to my amazement I found you could get just about anything on the Internet) but that's another story.
My son keeps telling me I should go into Logo Design (this is the second site I built that needs work also that shows some of my earlier work). He says I have a real knack for that sort of thing. But my real love right now is making www.TMLFever.com and www.TMLForum.net become not only successful, but the best Toronto Maple Leaf Fan sites on the net.
I call these two sites “my babies”.
What the future holds is anybody's guess. All I know is I'm proud of what I have accomplished to date without any formal training, guidance, or help. What I accomplished, I accomplished by the tried and true method of trial and error. I hope you will join me in my quest to have this Toronto Maple Leaf Fan site a place you can call HOME.
Tony Rose
P.S.
Volunteers at this point would be GREATLY appreciated. I really would like to make this site an important part of the leaf fan base. The goal would be to have leaf fans come on this site and feel a real sense of community without cost, EVER.
If you know anything about SEO & SEM (if I have to explain what this means....) would like to help and are a dedicated leaf fan, please contact me at Admin @ LeafsFanClub (remove the spaces)
About Us; or Rather About Me:
Simply put, This site is run by one very dedicated Toronto Maple Leaf fan, me. I live in Milton, Ontario, Canada and love it here. You should visit if you get the opportunity. The site www.MyMilton.com will give you some info on this growing community just west of Mississauga. By the way this is the first real site I built; but it needs some revamping. I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day...sigh...
I have been an avid Leaf fan for more years than I care to remember, The 1962 Stanley Cup Game is still etched in my mind, Yes you read it correctly "62" not the last Cup of 1967 but the Cup of 1962, I was thirteen at the time.
This was the 1962 Toronto Maple Leaf lineup: Al Arbour - with his black rimmed glasses, George Armstrong - The Chief, Bob Baun - It was Baun's winning goal in overtime of game six of the 1964 Stanley Cup finals that made him a legend. Carried off the ice on a stretcher in the third period with what turned out to be a broken leg, Baun insisted on returning to the game, scoring a goal to send the Leafs on the road to their 3rd consecutive Stanley Cup, Johnny Bower - stop the puck with your face if you have to, Carl Brewer, Dick Duff, Billy Harris, Tim Horton - Mr. Muscles, Leonard Kelly, Dave Keon, Ed Litzenberger, John MacMillan, Frank Mahovlich, Bob Nevin who cost my father $52.00 in a hockey pool at work (a fortune at the time) by scoring a goal the leafs didn't need to win the game in the last few seconds of the game, Bert Olmstead, Bob Pulford, (Eddie Shack, "clear the track shack" one of the most entertaining players to play the game), Don Simmons, Allan Stanley, Ron Stewart. (Head Coach: Punch Imlach, - the drill sergeant) each player was a hero to us in his own right. My personal favorites are in bold.
So I guess for those that are not mathematically challenged you have figured out my age by now. My father taught me early on that Hockey Night In Canada was a way of life in our house. Without fail every Saturday and later on Wednesdays nights, we all gathered around the Black and White and watched the Blue and Whites, the Toronto Maple Leafs® battle in the glory days of the NHL with the Original Six hockey teams - Bruins®, Rangers®, Black Hawks®, Red Wings®, and the always hated Canadiens®. Things seemed to be much simpler then.
If you are really bored and have nothing else better to do read on.
Until the beginning of 2003 I new nothing about design, web sites, or just about anything else involving the Internet. (I plow snow in the winter and landscape and seal interlocking stone and pressed concrete in the real world) To date I have designed and maintained everything on this site by myself. I call myself a self taught "net" trucker. If you like this site let me know, if you don't I'm working very hard at getting better.
It really all started when my son decided to get his MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) degree. He was looking to post his resume on the net, when an idea hit me. I thought wouldn't it be nice to have a place called The Resume Center? So I proceeded to register that name and, unfortunately or fortunately, many, many, other domain names; depending on your point of view. If you are my wife you saw this a huge liability (You had to register a domain name for two years at a cost of $35.00 per year for every domain name). Again do the math $35.00 per year for two years that's $70.00 per domain name registered every two years. If you own 300 domain names plus as I do; well let's not do the math on that one as my wife might find out and divorce me. BUT, if you were me, you saw this as an investment for the future. After all good domain names sold in the millions at that time. Let's just say I woke up to reality and have learned much and the hard way since then. I register domain names with my own site now at $12.95 per year for a one year registration. www.RegisterPlanet.com if you are interested.
Now what to do with these domain names, how do I use them? Well I went through the whole gamut of hiring local designers that promised the world but delivered a small piece of dirt instead. I wanted a clean corporate site but after months of waiting most provided sites truly fit for Beavis and But-Head. The design some came up with would have made B&B proud if I had posted these sites.