First month with Neocities

It has been a month since I officially published my website on Neocities . I technically set up the account last December but it took me 6 months to actually sit down and relearn how to code.

One of the biggest friction I had with it initially is that I don't know how to do CSS and I already forgot to do HTML. You need to at least have basic coding knowledge to set up your site. The only work around with it is using a free template, but even then you still have to know the codes to put any content on your website. So, if you are not ready to start a new hobby, then it really might not be for you.

To be honest, I don't know what led me to actually sit down and just do it. But last month, I had a burst of energy and opened W3 schools then a month later I have a fully functioning personal website. And it was fulfilling. Currently, I still have a lot of empty pages. I am planning to put every single interest I have on it. But the basics are already polished and intact.

I want to write this blog to remind myself that it is not impossible to start something new. Especially in this era where creativity is under siege by hustle culture and tech bros. It's okay to keep your humanity. We, as human beings, are made out of curiosity—our species will not evolve without it. So it is also okay for me to be curious and try something I know nothing about.

Last year, I wanted to learn how to draw. But I got frustrated with it and abandoned it. I hope I can pick it back up again in the future because I really wanted to make art. I have so many things running in my brain that I want to visually be able to express. Describing it with words is the best thing I can do, but I am a visual learner so my words are simply not enough. Maybe with me coding seriously, I can also wake up one day and just pick up the pencil and draw until I am able to put my imagination into paper. After all, I did not expect myself to be coding at this age but here we are.

If you are sitting there, and new to this, you might ask me about Ai. Well, I do not want to talk about AI but it is a topic that, annoyingly, is always tied to almost everything now. And I absolutely do not want to do anything with generative AI. Fuck that.

I will do this the hard way because that is the whole point. The whole point is for you to evolve as a human being. If your robots need to be fed fresh information why can't you? "Well I don't have time!" If you have the time to doomscroll on your phone you have time to do other things.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about that. There is no part in my coding journey when I thought about asking chatbots to solve a problem.

Once I reach a dead-end with something, I pull away and do something else. I still have a lot of other hobbies to fall back on when I get frustrated anyway. And then, when I finally am ready to tackle the problem I always surprise myself with solving it in one go. And that. That is the reason why we are doing this. That is the reason why I am still here.

You will never understand the euphoria of making something work because you discovered it all on your own when you don't allow yourself to try and fail. I will always be proud of myself for still acquiring new skills after failing multiple times.

Within a month, I got to learn about basic animations with CSS. I also discovered iframes. I am also getting a hold of CSS better. Now, I'm staring at JavaScript… I don't think I'm ready for that though. I have a bad experience with a C++ class back in college and they look similar in my brain so… Maybe next time. However, I did yoink some scripts from elsewhere to have a basic filtering element for my books. I will be honest and say, I do not understand it at all. I just crossed my fingers hoping it will work and when it did, I never touched it again.

Now, I wish more people will go back to making personal websites and starting their blogs again. For the longest time a lot of people are claiming that the indieweb is getting more traction, but in reality it has always been there. It never left and some people might just be coming back to it. The reason why you think that more and more people are doing it is because you are sharing it with your community and friends, thus surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals. So keep talking about it.

Art and human creativity will continue to survive. Just as it has been for millennia. So continue making art, continue creating, continue discovering. Don't let your humanity be taken away from you.