About me and this site!

Welcome to the wiki of my life!

For a collection of buttons you can use to link to my site, visit "The Neighborhood"!

This page describes what this website is all about, as well as my personality and how and why I like to do the shit I do.

Mood: Formal (I'm really inspired by the way stuff on gwern.net is written, which is why I like writing these on the point texts here now instead of the blurry emotional stuff I've written here earlier. There is probably space for that emotional space elsewhere as well (I might make multiple versions accessible by tabs that switch the text after the mood I've written them in))

About this website!

Current Status

I would say that I'm comfortably done with the basics and able to handle any further design and structure question as I continue working on this site! On the other hand, I could still probably write articles. Writing requires nothing except a thought you want to smear down and something to write it on. Anything else is just fancy extra's that can make browsing this more fun, but are nevertheless useless. Some content is tied to the structure of the website which I'm still not sure about. For example, the Timeline of my life I'm planning is still not planned enough for me to be sure what text to write. The texts I can write are articles.

Here is a list of features I'd like to make some day™:

• General Site Features:
• A dark mode

During the day, my website is pleasant to look at, but when the environment around me is dark (which it usually is at night), it's harder to look at this website. This can be solved through simple ways like actually putting in the minute or two to turn my lights on or downloading an extension that generates a functional (albeit ugly) dark mode for me. And although good alternatives,

• General Support

I want this website to look good regardless of what browser you look at it from. That makes things way more complicated

• Mobile Support

I like the idea of being able to read my articles on the go, so first and foremost, I'd try to make articles read as nicely as possible. Other stuff that is more artsy and complicated can wait for that. The more content, the higher the priority for mobile support. For that, a specific layout must be created (which I already half-way did)

• Meta-Info for every/most article(s)

One feature I like is to have a box of meta-info about the article at the top of every article (similar to how gwern.net does it).
Meta-data would include the status of the article (like if it's a draft, finished or somewhere in-between) and an importance tag that indicates how important something is (for instance, an article about a big issue is more important for one's general well-being than a silly story).

Purpose

The main goal of this website is to essentially be an online encyclopedia akin to Wikipedia, with the only difference being that it's all about me! It's supposed to catalogue everything about me: From stories and experiences, personal projects I had, art I drew and thoughts I've had - everything should be somewhat organized in a big place (if you like visual metaphors like me, just imagine a big, intertwined library in slight disarray). It also documents how I grew up and changed throughout my life, mainly (probably - I'm still unsure about it) through the as of yet unfinished Timeline.
Included in that goal is to encorporate every feeling into this. I want happy, cozy and cuddly articles; articles I've written where I felt like crying and wanted to just hug someone for a long time; articles where I discuss various matters that interest me; to articles in which I tell fun, little stories.

Besides that main goal, this will also serve as a place where I collect and share resources and websites found online that I find useful. There might also be the occassional guide or summary about certain topics like "How to start making webpages yourself" and "GeoCities, NeoCities, and the culture of it". I might even write the odd review or two to things I played or something.
I joined this website at an attempt to join the NeoCities bubble thing or what you would call it, and am partly interested in having good overview pages of what NeoCities is and what it all entails to make it easier for newcomers to understand it all (Since the official Wikipedia article is rather lacking. I might even make the effort to edit it myself instead of writing it just here on this website!).
To show my innocent self when I first joined this website, have this paragraph I've written in the first version of this page:

Since I'm also new to the culture of the revived 90s, this is also quite a new experience!
I want to learn everything about it (and will probably make an article to help out others too)!
One of the things that made me join was the thought or feeling that this is more interconnected, like the feeling that the webmasters of different websites actually communicating and collabrating and stuff (To this regard, I link to this!).
I know that there are banner button-thingies that link to one site, that there may be a thing called "The neighborhood", that there are so-called keyrings and that guestbooks are a thing.
Other than that, I'm a helpless fish that's flapping around!
~Me, 1977

Target Audience

The Target Audience consists of both myself as well as everyone else that is looking at this (Hello!).

1. I'm making this website for myself...

...to clarify my thoughts and document my growth. I've had the idea for making a website like this for years and this is my swing at it! It also serves as a creative project to work towards and makes me feel a bit more purposeful, and I would say that it's one of my life goals to develop this website to as big a place as possible!

2. I'm making this website for others...

...to share all of that with everyone else, with the ultimate intention of helping other people. Just holding my ideas to myself doesn't really do anything, but sharing it let's me contribute a bit to other people's lives. Either through linking to resources that'll help them do stuff, or to give a new perspective on a problem they have and can't quite get behind. Or by simply giving something interesting to do! - I would find it interesting to see how a stranger would document his entire life, and just generally the concept of having the most raw form of a human available for you to look through has something to it.

Content & Structure

Structure

The way pages are structured. Ways to navigate the website. My struggles with merging different types of content and what I did to solve it.

The basic structure is mostly based on Common Sense and just generally on what others have already done before.
This includes having a Splash page, a Home Page and the navigation sidebar akin to Wikipedia and a general not_found page. The sidebar on every page that leads to every hub which then further branch out, combined with the many interconnected pages shouldd optimally support a style where you can start at something that interests you and see how it links with all the other pages I have out here.

Many of the articles will probably have links and footnotes strewn around that can list and name examples, stories or whatever else may fit to the flow of the text.

One idea I like and try to adhere to while making this is the idea of easily finding what you're looking for.

Content

The way the content itself is written. How I write, how an article should be structured. Things like footnotes.

This website is an amalgimation of everything of me. Each article here was written during different times and emotions of my life. In one article I may be slinging jokey left and right while in others I might be sad and write in a matter of fact way. Some articles are silly and lighthearted, while others are going deep and sensual. Reading this might be a jarring experience thus far.

Style & Design

Design

User Experience, Features, How should I put what in the general structure of a page.

Stilistically speaking, you probably were able to tell that this website looks quite similar to Wikipedia. This design will be present in most articles, where the main focus lies on the writing. Other pages will probably deviate quite a bit depending on how much effort I'm willing to spend on the fancy schmancy effects that HTML & CSS allow for abuse.

One litte design thing I want to shortly ramble on is that I made a custom tag for content inside paranthesis (these thing -> () ) and I really like it since it makes me visually able to tell some random thought that trails off the main path and I can quickly skip it by just looking where that color ends!

Style

The idea behind the visual style of this website.

The background with it's squared grid was made because I like drawing, particularily sketching out ideas, thoughts, images and whatever else in a visual way. It's supposed to be a sketchbook or big piece of paper (like with the doodles in the Index Page or the marker behind the section titles on the Home Page), where - if I wanted to - could draw on. It mimics the piece of paper I have on my desk at all times on which I can always scribble notes on when I get an idea. Other than that, I'm also quite charmed by the pixel art aesthetic that some websites have (modern day examples include:)

This doesn't mean that I'll strictly tie myself to this design. Some pages will probably have a completely different style since sometimes it's fun to experiment around! (Plus they make browsing this a bit more varied. I imagine that once when the website flourishes and I have a really large amount of articles, these little experiments will be a little treat for delving into my dabblings!)

The Making of this Website

How I approached making this website. How the website changed as I did.

yeah, im too lazy to write this atm.

Credits

Tools Used

• The website is being hosted on NeoCities, a service where people can create website for free (and which I - very surprisingly - would recommend!)
• The higher resolution art was created using Krita (together with an cheap art tablet for ~100$) while the pixel art was made using Aseprite
• I additionally used the program BoxySVG for some graphic work
• The code for this website was written in the program Atom (which I now learned will no longer be supported from the 15th December, 2022 onwards)
• I use the static site generator jekyll to help cut down on monotonous tasks

Graphics

• The font for the title (like the one seen on the landing page) is called TSCu Comic.
• The Background Grid Texture is shamelessly stolen by taking a screenshot of the background of a diagrams.net document and tweaking it a bit. (Copyright strike incoming!!)
• The icon of the Article Index is the Minecraft Book texture with a hue shift.

About me!

The WEBMASTER introduces himself.

[The description of me will change according to the mood I'm in. Sometimes my positive and sometimes my negative characteristics stand in the spotlight. So maybe I'll include multiple descriptions of myself. Have this quick blurb I made right when making this page as compensation while I think of a better description]

I'm a late male teen individual with, when actually up for it, a lot of interests or at least things I like to do! These things include dancing, thinking through problems (like with programming or making a complicated thing using redstone in minecraft, for example!), drawing, writing, creating cool stuff (mostly in video games, like an elevator in minecraft), singing, drumming, making things look beautiful and contributing to various projects I find worthwhile! I'm struggling a lot with emotions, so expect a handful of articles on how I perceive them, and even more about how I tackle them! I have multiple sides in me (for example, at times I really like adorable stuff and want to smile and cuddle and hug with anything adorable, or at times I'm joking around in my head and can bring myself to laugh at them). I can speak the mystical language of German and English, and I like the way people in other places talk (like in Britain, Canada or Australia)! I also enjoy listening to music from mostly video games and when I'm in the mood (rarely) even talking to people and sharing my thoughts and all that!

I've grown quite fond of making pixel art because of all the pixel art things I've made in here! I'm specifically referring to my button as well as the Louis Rossmann button on the Neighborhood page.
Something about this pixel art at such small resolutions (instead of seeing it upscaled in video games and such) is really pleasant!

Style and Organization

I like it quite messy and strewn about! It feels cozy to me and has a charme I like. This extends to my sketches and drawings, where I like it when it's chaotic in a way that's visually pleasing, with a lot going on and such. I like the theme of jesters or generally characters that are thoughtful and trickster-like; knowing a lot but playing around with that knowledge to toy with others. As such, I do enjoy the one or other prank. It's tense in that it's a trick that needs to be prepared for and depending on the prank stealthily executed, but the stakes aren't as high to risk anything of value!

Contact

Want to dump me some text discreetly?
Have some weird reason to text this random guy you've never met?
Now, under the immensely creative email of squaredpancake [at] protonmail.com (I have no idea how good that email service is, I just went for it without much thought so don't see it an recommendation), you can contact me!

Do note, however, that I don't frequently check my emails and could not respond because of reasons ranging from "I don't know what to say" to "social incompetence"!