Subject: "Hello World"

Hey there. Welcome to MONOSPACE. A barren website for now. Have a step in. This website is a place where I can talk about gaming and the thoughts I have behind it in a more raw and detailed manner. I guess the motive behind this website was mainly as a means to learn how to write intriguing content. Itā€™s a pretty valuable skill and I thought NeoCities was the perfect place to start.

This is not my first rodeo on NeoCities. I have already iterated and updated this blog a couple hundred times. The truth is, I usually end up enjoying the coding part of it more and donā€™t commit to the whole ā€˜making contentā€™ part. I like desigining web pages and making them feel like a slice of me - Exploring new themes, testing out cool new animations, making the site responsive, itā€™s all like solving one big puzzle. I really enjoy it but I donā€™t want to make the same mistake this time.

This used to be an older blog called ā€˜Crackden Gaming.ā€™ It was more of a grungier and grittier themed website that mainly hosted content about gaming. I feel like back then, I was trying to copy what others were doing and just aspired to do the same. I realized this time that I wanted to make my identity unique and build the website in a way that I can relate to. I really like modern minimalist design. I love the simplicity that arises out of it.

First iteration - Font is messed up, donā€™t really know why. I actually quite liked this version of the website but it was a pain in the ass to code.

If you didnā€™t read the About Me, Iā€™m really passionate about technology and gaming. I also love to write and snap pictures. Writing is something I find oddly comforting, whether it is journaling something or just writing a review for a game. I always gave up at the starting line thinking, ā€œDamn, nobodyā€™s gonna read this anyway. Why bother?ā€ and stop there. Thatā€™s the failure. This time, Iā€™m doing this as an archive for my thoughts. My ideas. My expression. I want to bring it into something with a shape and flow. Something that others can find useful.

Second Iteration - Trying to make it more minimalistic but just ends up looking tackier than before.

Moving on, I decided to go for an ultra-minimalistic theme. I really liked the way it turned out. I thought it would stand out pretty well. Most of the websites on NeoCities are typically retro-styled going for that early 2000s look to them. I donā€™t mean any harm but I just think it feels kinda boring. I wanted this website to share the same sort of simplicity in UI and UX design that I really adore. No complicated buttons and dials and textboxes. Just a couple clicks and you are in.

I went to great lengths to make it feel like each page of content was typed out of a typewriter. Iā€™m sure its not a perfect replica but I had the name ā€˜monospaceā€™ just stuck in my head. I slowly built up on it, found some nice fonts that fit and eventually built it into what it is currently. I know the website is quite bright. Enough to burn a couple eyeballs in the dark but I donā€™t really intend on changing it for now. Maybe I could add a dark mode down the road but Iā€™m not sure if that will fit the same aesthetic.

Last Iteration - Fully embracing the retro-feel with a terminal-like theme.

I really only used Bootstrap as aid to make this website. Itā€™s pretty much the only frontend framework I know and it comes in clutch a lot for making the website responsive on mobile as well. I had a lot of fun creating this website and I sure did learn a lot more about coding than I did before. Now that the technical part is over, Thanks a lot for reading this all the way to the end. It means a lot to me. I hope you find all my future works interesting as wellā€¦