Cam's Webjournal 
About me
cam. they/it. shitty old machine. posts read newest to oldest.
no impressive coding, no real topic to speak of - really just here cause i needed a new hobby. that said, one of the best things about neocities is that you can make whatever you want without having to rely on the structure of a social media website. i once had a professor point out that you can only use social media platforms in the ways their design lets you use them--in other words, it's a little like the laws of physics; even if you can't see gravity, it determines what you can and can't do. even if you can't see the rules of a platform, the way it's designed (the algorithm, post/character limits, set forms of interaction) create pre-determined pathways of usage which are ultimately controlled by shareholder interests. that's not to say that you have zero freedom of choice on social media, or limitless freedom of choice on neocities, just that it's good to step off of the tracks that you're used to sometimes and see what you might create in a different environment. plus--no ads, an excellent free version, and it's up to you to design the aesthetics and structure of your own page--that level of customization is increasingly less common in the consumer landscape of todays tech. and you get to learn a cool new skill! which can be frustrating but also very fun.
Day 5. Rearranging the furniture again. 7/22/22.
Decided to move everything back onto one page. Think I like it better as a scroll than a page-navigation situation. Not much to say today. Have a shot my office wall.
Day 4. 7/21/22.
Ugh. Is it Sunday already? The weekend went by way too fast. Too tired to go back to work already. On the plus side, it's DnD night and I got to spend the day messing around on my computer. Played some Rollercoaster Tycoon, got a youtube-to-MP3 converter set up on my computer, and found out that my favorite videogame has a sequel coming out at some point. If you like puzzle games, I definitely recommend checking out Strange Horticulture. I'd describe it as a Victorian gothic research/plant shop simulator with a supernatural mystery plot.
I wonder if I should start making pages for my different OCs and DnD characters on here... I love hearing about other people's characters so much, so I feel like that could be fun. For me, at least, lol.
Anyway, not much to say today, but I want to get into the habit of writing once per day at least, just to see how that goes. I'm enjoying it a lot so far.
Day 3. Future Dr. Wren. 7/20/24.
Decided to start a new page & add page navigation. I was working on a new page for the site last night and gave myself a godawful migraine. Hopefully that won't be a recurring problem T_T - I didn't even really end up liking the page that I made. I need to work on a good gallery layout before I try that one again.
I don't think I've mentioned yet that I'm a Ph.D. student. I passed my candidacy review last semester, so I'm moving onto dissertation hours in the Fall. God, that's soon... I let my brain rot a little over the summer. Probably better than burning myself out more, at least. Anyway, I'll have to start actually working on my dissertation prospectus soon. There's a chance I'll write about that a bit on here in future posts, if only to encourage myself to do the work. I tend to do a lot of collaging and art-based brainstorming techniques to get into the research groove. Not really dissertation related (well, maybe a little), but here's a lazy little collage collage I made today.
Day 2. Post 2. 7/19/2024. I have ADHD.
Not sure if this is a confession or a warning or just a ramble or what, but the driving force behind this blog is definitely going to be my ADHD. That probably means multiple posts per day when I'm interested and then long stretches of silence when that interest wanes. The nice thing is that I've come back to HTML (and neocities specifically) multiple times as a hyperfixation, so even if I go quiet for a while, I'll likely be back. (Of course, I say that, but I made a new site this time instead of returning to my old one. In my defense, I built my last site with the notion that it had to have a theme or topic--to be about something--in order to "gain an audience." Sadly, that ended up being so specific that I didn't feel like I actually had anything to say about my "topic" and so I didn't return to it once I felt like coding a site again.)
Anyway, this site is less for an audience than it is for myself, as I don't have too much reason to expect people to read my stream-of-consciousness personal journalling exercises. And that's fine, and it's not even an attempt at being self-deprecating so much as an honest summary of my expectations.
If I had to characterize some of the things I had in mind for this site, I'd probably have to admit that I keep trying to think of it in terms of other, already existing social media platforms. I'd love to create a gallery or a moodboard-type space for images relating to the old tech aesthetic I'm cultivating (which I could technically just do on pinterest) and put out blog posts that people could interact with and reply to (which is any micro-blogging platform, but, surprise, I grew up on Tumblr). But the truth is, because this is a static website and I don't have the know-how to host those interactions on my own server, if I wanted that (for free) I would have to integrate data-stealing widgets into this space in order to foster social-media-type engagement, and I'm not really about that. I've linked a dedicated email address if anyone wants to contact me that way, or people can comment through Neocities if they're coming here from their own accounts, but at the end of the day, I have to rid myself of social media expectations and be willing to just yell into the void here. Which is, yknow, fine! And is currently giving me the dopamine hit I was looking for when I came back to NeoCities. I'm not even going to bother linking socials that DO work that way, because again, eh, not really what I want. I'm just gonna have to acclimate myself to a different type of internet-usage.
Anyway, for now I end with the original reason I started this post--a warning about my own natural inconsistency. I'll post a bunch and then not at all and then come back hard, probably. I tend to bite off more than I can chew and imagine all sorts of cool things I could do with a project, so who knows what I'll end up trying. I'd love to incorporate newsletter/zine elements and all kinds of stuff, but again. ADHD. Lol.
Day 2. 7/19/2024. Make ugly websites. You gotta.
Good morning! Made some tweaks to the layout and I'm pretty happy with how the page looks on desktop. The blog post column gets a bit squished on mobile - I'm not sure how to stop that from happening without ruining the desktop view (which is what happened last time I made a website & had the same issue). Also added some fun pics. It's nice, kinda like decorating my house! Decided to experiment with a reverse-chronological order for the posts to keep things fresh. As far as the coding, for the grid layout I started with this guide. and then tweaked it to use the grid template settings from this. That at least stopped my containers from completely breaking on mobile. I may start archiving my layouts so I can see the progress I make as I learn more.
If anyone out there is a beginner like me, this is your sign to make something basic and just start playing around with your site. I know there's a lot of really gorgeous and impressive Neocities pages out there and you may feel intimidated or think that you'll never compare, but to me, the really important thing is that I'm having fun and being creative in a way that's new for me. That's what's exciting. If you see this and relate, give my Neocities profile a follow and I'll be sure to check out your page. I really want to see what other people are doing on here and haven't figured out how to integrate any interactions into the site yet!
Day 1. Post 2. 7/18/2024 again.
Oh wait. Wanted to test out including images in my posts.
Hey, that worked! That's a graphic for an old advice segment they used to have in ZZAP Magazine, run by the mysterious "White Wizard." He would give people tips on computer games and stuff. ZZAP's aesthetic is kinda the vibe I'm going for here. To contradict what I wrote literally 20 minutes ago, I may actually try and craft a homepage that isn't just a wall of text and try and make it look oldschool tech-y. Guess we'll see if I can manage it! I always mess up my grids somehow (；′⌒`)
Day 1. 7/18/2024. Intro post!
Hi. I'm Cam. Felt like starting up a personal blog/contact page thing, so this is that. It's been a while since I played around with HTML, so I don't remember how to do anything, lol. So I figure that I can keep my design dirt-ass simple. I love crappy, old-looking HTML anyway, so that suits me just fine. Current plans: contact page, maybe a comment box (though last time I tried that I ran into issues with the comments not actually saving to the page)(edit: oh, i see, i would need python... ha, well, there's widgets), plus image gallery with fun things I want to post or keep track of. Again, I haven't figured out how to do this without outsourcing to a widget/service, but I'd love working like buttons as well so people can... yknow... validate me without having to do a lot of work.
As of writing this post, I haven't even picked out my color scheme or font or set up any kind of directory yet. For now I'm just going to blog directly to the home page in chronological order (oldest stuff at the top) (edit: or maybe newest first, I am indecisive) until I get tired of that format. I've tried to make themed blogs before on here (as that's supposedly the best way to get more traffic), but I realized at some point that I'm not going to be able to keep up with something like that. Don't really care about views as much as having something to do, but I also sort of imagine that a lot of people on Neocities are also here to chill and do something fun and creative without making anything too impressive or high-effort.
I'm 100% the type of person who buys a nice new journal and then fills the first 20 pages and forgets about it/gives up. That may or may not happen here, but I've learned not to feel bad about petering out on things or even deciding to switch up what I'm doing to stay interested (even if it's not cohesive or pretty).
If you actually read this post (or even decided to follow my site), then wow, thanks so much. Feel free to shoot me an email with any comments or even if you're another old-internet appreciator who likes the idea of pen-palling.