What could be a more fitting hello world than a dev log for making this very site?

If you're reading this you know the internet sucks.

While getting this site up and running I've thinking a lot about why the internet sucks so much. Why do we miss the "old internet" so much? I barely even interacted with it growing up and I still miss so much of what it stood for. The internet was once an exciting thing and now its part of everything blah blah blah I could go on talking about how its lame.

When the internet first started to make it's way into homes it was something you had to know how to use. A place for the geeks, the engineers, or anyone willing to learn. Your website didn't need to be easy enough for grandma to understand because she wasn't on the internet! It was a place for people who wanted to see the internet. The internet itself was the piece of art. The website was what made it interesting along with the stuff hosted on it. A beautiful symbiotic relationship that strengthened the message of each other.

I don't think anyone uses a website these days because the website itself is particularly interesting. It's a means to an end to find the stuff you care about on said websites. Regardless of their "vibe" algorithms are really nice for discovering new things that you vibe with! I found plenty of my favorite bands through discover playlists on that one green music app, discovered youtubers that have fundamentally changed how i view the world and solve problems, and incredible life long friends through apps like Twitter. The concept of an algorithm isnt inherently flawed, but it's lacking something.

◆ intentionality

Most of my critiques of the modern internet boils down to intentionality. By and large content is served, not shared; playlists are generated, not curated; and essays are machine-given, not written. Regardless of how good or bad the situation is, it lacks intentionality, and I think this is what a lot of people desire whether they realize it or not.

rework: Eddy Burback's wonderful video I hate my phone so I got rid of it

is a fabulous video that helps demonstrate our lack of intentionality. Instead of firing off a text, his loved ones left voicemails. Something that requires intentional thought to both record and to listen to.

Did I get rid of my phone because of this video? No. In fact I'm still on it way more than id like to be.

In early 2024 I got really interested in iPods, which started to plant the seed of this thesis in my mind. I couldn't press play and have Spotify's data center pick what I listen based on weights in their models, I had to choose what to play. Even if I decided to shuffle all of my music I knew everything I was listening to was playing because I intentionally put it on the iPod myself.

the web went from something that was only accessed by the biggest nerds ever to something that everyone uses. i know from working retail that the average person is very very dumb. knowing that it makes plenty of sense to converge on the most simplistic streamlined design ever. the bastardizeation of the web isnt all bad i have to admit, sites are way more accessible than ever before and thats obviously a great thing.

orignally i had intended on using Ghost for blogging purposes but it was far too 'polished' for me. i wanted something that i could really make my own rather than something that looks nice by default. i have been very inspired by eevee's site that she recently redesigned at the time of writing this. her blog post Fresh start details her feelings about the blog itself and the direction she wants to take it. she gave her reasoning for opting to use pelican as the backbone for the site and since i trust her knowledge and enjoy the design of it i thought i might as well follow her paw prints and go the same route.

i'd like to outline my goals and methodology in this first post and will update links to future posts about developing specific features. Dillan Stock of The Stock Pot on Youtube posted this fantastic video discussing his goals for his smart home and i find his thought process absolutely genius. i highly reccomend his channel- nothing but the best content, especially if you're interesting in smart home automation in the slightest. he breaks it down into what he actually wants rather than being influenced by what flashy smart home gadgets exist out there. finding specific devices is about what fits your desires, not picking up the cool devices and trying to force your desires to fit that product. this is why Ghost wasnt the right pick for this site. yes- its a good product as far as i can tell but its not primarily addressing what i want out of a blog. its the flashy smart home device that i could learn, but i'd be tackling it the wrong way.

i want this site to

• be a place where i can really get into the weeds on projects im doing.
• function as a digital busniess card like caard or other sites do.
• allow me a place to write long form nuanced opinion pieces that wouldnt work well on the bird app.
• be a portfolio for all of my different projects: fursuit making, web development, microcontroller tinkering, and whatever else i end up getting my paws on.
• be a home for my silly little projects that dont fit elsewhere in the world i.e. i'd love to make a nice sudoku app.
• share accounts of my convention experiences.
• let me have fun !!!

i'm so excited to get to make my own place on the internet. i've been wanting to make a blog for the longest time, but im a very busy puppy and starting is always the hardest part. i'll probably write a more indepth analysis but i really believe that more critters should focus on blogs rather than social media. social media is great in a lot of ways but i think its eroded a lot of intentionality. i'll expand on this when i write about ipods, physical photos, and my friend's amazing idea for bringing physical media back in the modern era.

pelican

wow. this is a lot. the version of me at the end of this post will be a lot smarter than i am now.

the first time i dipped my paws into web dev was a few months ago and it has gotten me hooked. i started out using Processing javascript, hacking with some quickstart templates, and then going full into making ExpressJS backends and frontends. with how much i've fallen in love with js it's going to be weird departing it to build this site. i'd like to have fun little interactable javascript elements, but the core of the website should be as lightweight as possible. modern web design really struggles with optimization and that is another facet of a lack of intentionality.

making it is more important than making it perfect.

goals

[ ] - business card top left with socials [ ] - zoey ref sheet page [ ] - fursuit work [ ] - list of projects with articles and pages inside

business card 'header'

whats funny is that you can see this element right now! even though i havent designed it yet as of writing this!

i've mocked up this concept for a business card that can sit on the left side of the site which can have a link to all my socials on the back. i'd like it to flip over with a nice 3d effect when its clicked but show the front side otherwise. i think this can be implemented with just css, but we will have to see if thats really possible.

from digging into it this absolutely could be done with pure css. BUT it would not be dyanmic at all and would only be able to be a toggle. I'd like the card to "lift" a corner based on where the cursor is in relation to it. as far as i can tell thats not something that i can do with just css.

pelican doesnt natively support javascript files so ill be using the webassets plugin rather than pelican_javascript which seems to be deprecated.

I'm realizing that pure css for text cant give me the embossed look i want, so its time to delve into the very scary world of svg... i'm not going to act like i fully understand whats going on but ive gotten this to work:

tangent

something interesting about the modern internet is how browsers are SOOO advanced. the amount of things you can do purely via html and css is mind boggling. so then... why does the internet feel so dead now? its too sleek and too 'perfect'. its obviously not about the technology!

i want to build a really nice toolkit NOW so that future me can write articles quickly and easily without having to fuss about with making things look the way they should