π° Dev Log #5: Indulging in Creative Expression Through CSS Customization (ft. Dreamwidth, Bearblog.dev, and status.cafe)
Last updated: 53Β minutes ago
This week I've been go go go with this revamp. Even trying to slow down writing this is incredibly painful. But I will persist.
This whole revamp project includes my main website, my side website, my status log, and my new journal. Of the four, I've worked on three so far.
Journal
Unlike mainstream social media and twitter-likes, Dreamwidth is a journal platform that allows for custom styling. Thus I jumped to the trenches of CSS and creative to make it pleasing to the my eyes.
After choosing a layout, I applied the Everforest hard contrast theme as best as I could for both light and dark mode. It took a couple of tries but I think I'm satisfied with the result. I also created new tags and added emoticons to drafts that I might want to make public.
I've been having a lot of fun writing on this journal. Props to Brennan for the recommendation. A writing platform that allows private entries is wild under this surveillance capitalist economy. I can't believe they have been operating since before the 2010s. Wow.
As someone who has never felt comfortable participating on social media as themselves, it's really nice to be able to do what I love, writing, in a place with fine privacy controls that allow creative expression. Posting on social media feels like either walking on eggshells or yelling in a busy marketplace. With the encroachment of fascism on the net, I don't feel safe nor comfortable posting on social media.
This journal is for myself. A place where I can work through ideas in a place that's not as private as my Obsidian vault but also not as public as a social media account. It's digital, but not inherently public.
And who knows, maybe one day I'll find people who I'll feel safe and comfortable welcoming them to :).
status.cafe
Before I joined omg.lol, I already had a statuslog. As I'm debating whether to keep using the former service, I decided to dust off my account and style it with the same theme.
I'm honestly quite intimidated by the omg.lol circle, so using a casual service alternative that also allows for CSS customization instead of status.lol eases the knot in my tummy for microposting.
Personal website
As I've been threatening for months, I finally began to remake my website hosted on Bearblog. I joined because I ranted about spending an hour to add a blog post to my website.
Like the rest of the aforementioned platforms, Bearblog allows for custom styling. It's where I fist started experimenting with themes. Since then, I've learned a lot. Even been writing a blog post about it.
Back to topic, I wanted to remake this site as a sort of place to showcase my hobbies. Previous attempts at website-making included a now defunct WordPress blog called "Mary's Writing Garden" which was supposed to be a digital garden.
Keeping up with the green theme, I renamed my site "Mary's Digital Garden." Like my other accounts, I added decorations and edited the color schemes.
Because accessibility is always a priority, I cleaned up the CSS and made the site mobile-first. I condensed the sections into a common directory like I always intended to, added some pages to the footer, and transfered the pages about my crafts into a brand new section.
The homepage is more busy now. With the changelog on its own page, I added the latetest five blog posts, journal entries, and crafts; as well as my latest micropost and status.
I think the site looks more organized. All pages are accessible under two taps and it looks pleasing to the eye.
I still however have some stuff to do such as fixing some links. Some pages are also incomplete like the About and some crafts projects.
I want this website to be something I feel comfortable sharing with people IRL. I"m happy to indulge in my hobbies in private but if I don't write down stuff, I forget about all about it. A place to showcase my thoughts, creations, and experiences, would be nice to use as conversation topics.
Main website
Last but not least, I have yet to work on my main website. The rest of this section will be a game plan.
- Remove blog. I genuinely do not need it anymore.
- PORTFOLIO!!!
If my personal site is a place full of whimsy and memories, my main site is where I want to record the unchanging. The closest thing to a "self" that is also my ideal. A place where I can see my showcase my creations and remember the reason I wake up every morning. A prayer.