Here you can find out about things to do with the history of this domain. I’ve had it for a few years now, and it’s been constantly changing. With ups and downs, yeah, but it’s been fun nonetheless. However, there is a bit of a funny story behind this domain.

Why "striped-socks"?

Haven’t you heard? Striped socks are the Key to Awesomeness!

In all seriousness, back when I came up with this domain, I was obsessed with striped socks. I still am, actually. But back then I used to wear striped socks every day. There was never a day without striped socks. Knee high socks, over knee high socks, ankle socks… As long as they were striped ;)

My e-mail alias was “gestreeptesokken” because it was nice and random and not boring like “name.surname”. ["Gestreepte sokken" is Dutch for "striped socks", by the way.] I wanted a site that would go together with that, so I went for gestreeptesokken.tk. When I decided to switch to English to cater to more people, I simply translated it.

I know my site has little to do with striped socks. I don’t care, it’s a personal site. I still love striped socks and use it as an alias for several things as I have become attached to the name.

Why .be?

Long story short: The moment I got sick of my .tk-domain, .be domains were freeeeeee! So of course I did![Tis was when I didn't believe in paying for anything on the internet.]

Over the years, I’ve changed hosts a couple of times, trying to get the cheapest service possible although this has backfired on me a couple of times. It wasn’t always pleasant. I just got so attached to my .be-extension that I kept it, everytime I moved hosts.

The funniest part is that in the end, I moved my physical self to Belgium …and then I moved away again.

Sometimes it’s a little bit complicated, because my most commonly used e-mail is connected to my more "professional" site, ff-anders.nl. People just automatically assume you’re from some place just because of your e-mail or website extension. It does make sense though, doesn’t it? I assume people come from places if they have a certain extension, too.

In the end, the moral of the story is: don’t be cheap. Get an extension that fits. I will keep my .be because it’s this way now and it has a funny story.