Music: See You Tomorrow From OMORI
Well. It's been almost a year, hasn't it? Since I created this website, I mean.
I might as well take this opportunity to check in and share my thoughts on everything. Maybe, Y'know, actually use my blog like a blog. Wouldn't that be nice
I've learned a lot these past several months, at least when it comes to HTML and CSS. Y'know, website stuff. Starting out, I knew next to NOTHING. I took Neocities' HTML tutorial, sure, but that doesn't teach you anything about CSS, or site styling in general. Nekoweb taking a more hands-off approach allowed me to go out and learn a bit more, I think. Especially thanks to W3Schools-- if that site didn't exist, neither would this one. At least, not in the way it is now. It could be a lot worse (just take a look at the one screencap of my neocities website from my first blog post). looking back, I should probably use an external coding tool to work on my site-- Nekoweb's own editor is nothing to scoff at, don't get me wrong! It just pushes your site to the top of the "last updated" list every time you hit SAVE on any given file. So if I haven't updated my site in 2 weeks and I go to fix a typo or smth then my site'll go straight 2 the top even though almost nothing changed lmao
but oh well! It's not that big a deal anyhow.
Tell ya what, I'm starting the process of learning JS. Mostly just bit-by-bit, like I'll go on stackoverflow being like "how do I do this specific thing" and I'll learn little strats along the way. Still got a long way to go though.
I joined the Nekoweb Discord a few months back, mostly cuz I was still on that old-net hyperfixation grind (and also to get help if I needed it). I haven't interacted in that server as much as I'd have liked to, but that's just kinda what happens a lot of the time. Servers with a lot of people get put in the "really active servers" box and then I never look at 'em again. That's what happens when you got lurker tendencies like I do
Still though. I have interacted with other folks, just... not on Discord. Mostly thru email... And mostly just to get into webrings LMAO
Doin' that was a bit of an eye-opener, though. As a lurker I always just assumed that anyone else online who I didn't know would be averse to getting messages or emails from someone like me (or just, messages or emails in general). I always thought people were too busy, or concerned about their privacy, or otherwise wouldn't react well to getting messages from a stranger (maybe that's just reflective of myself? Idk. I don't often get messages from people, so I'm probably just not used to it). Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be just the opposite! Hell, the first webring I joined liked my website so much they made a special variant based on it (evehibi, if you're reading this, it's been a while, but it still means so much to me. Thanks!). I don't want it to seem like I'm bragging or anything, just... I don't know. I never thought my website could even be inspiring like that. Having people whose own sites I admire speak positively about my own, it's... an eye-opening feeling. I always viewed this place as... nothing to write home about, I suppose. The look changes, sure, but the actual content of the pages themselves doesn't change quite as often. Don't get me wrong-- I do wish I could make this site more interactive, get some more meat on its bones, I suppose I'm just limited by my own website-coding knowledge. I just... want it to live up to people's appreciation of it.
So, I've started to get more ambitious with the site's layout changes. It started in March, with the Y2K-inspired site overhaul. The palettes had been... rather formulaic up until that point-- again, just taking an image, swapping some colors, and tweaking some CSS. Compared to that, creating the Y2K overhaul was a humongous undertaking. It was a lot of fun, though! It allowed me to experiment in Krita to some pretty neat results. After finishing that up, and as March was drawing to a close, I didn't really want to go back to the normal palettes that much. Just seemed like a step back compared to what I'd done before. So, these past few months... haven't really been palettes at all! At least compared to what I was doing before. The jet set palette was the most fun to make, though, if I'm being honest. I wanted to add some kind of cameo, sort of because it fits the theme, sort of because it's a way of showing my appreciation for folks. I made sure the two people I asked (thepersonever and darkosparko, who have EXCEPTIONAL sites go check 'em out) were cool with it, and they loved it! It's just surreal, the idea that they like my site in the same fashion that I like theirs. It begs the question, though: what'll I do once August rolls around again? I'm not sure I'd really want to go back to the very first palette I made. Just seems like a major step back. I don't know-- maybe I'll keep the originals up for archival purposes, and then I'll just make some new ones and call 'em "NEO palettes" or something. Might be neat.
I've still got some things that I want to accomplish. learning more Javascript, streamlining the process of switching palettes, learning to draw/code in Flash 8 so I can get into the FlashFans webring, stuff like that. I'm not done yet!
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