July 2025 Blogs

7/24/25 | RIP Ozzy (and Hulk Hogan too)

This has been SUCH a weird week. So many famous people dying left and right. We've lost "Pretty Little Baby" singer Connie Francis, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, actor who played Theo from The Cosby Show, jazz singer Chuck Mangione, and Ed Feulner, founder of the Heritage Foundation (eww).

But within the span of a few days I was really shocked by two particular deaths. Because WHAT DO YOU MEAN OZZY OSBOURNE AND HULK HOGAN DIED???

Funny enough I discovered both of their deaths in the exact same fashion. I went to bed. I woke up. I opened Facebook. First thing I see is headlines saying they're dead. I fact check them to make sure they're real. Sure enough, they're both dead.

Also Trisha Paytas just so happened to announce the birth and name of her baby around this time. WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING??? Literally anytime she announces a baby, a celebrity dies. First she got the Queen and the Pope. Now she got Ozzy 😭😭 (She did just announce that she got her tubes tied, so that reincarnation portal is officially closed. Sorry Hogan) Note to Trisha: You got the wrong old, white, orange man in his 70s!!!

My feelings on these two are very complicated. I know that they're both absolute legends who have made major impacts on their respective industries, but they weren't perfect people. I don't know much about Ozzy's life, but I have a lot of thoughts about Hogan... and they're not good... So I'll just say Rest in peace Ozzy Osbourne, and RIP Hulk Hogan (the "p" doesn't stand for peace).

also dumb side note but the night before Ozzy died i started sketching another cursed drawing that I'll never post and i like to imagine that it somehow played a role in all of this- the aura that radiated from it was too strong and repulsive for them to handle 😬

7/18/25 | A Reflection of My 2 Years of Being on Neocities

Two years ago from today, I officially started my Neocoties journey. I remember learning the very basics of HTML and the ugly layout of my homepage that came from it. Back then I originally planned to just have this site function as an art gallery and show off my characters, but it became so much more than that. In terms of both the direction I've taken my site and what I learned about the independent web.

I don't remember exactly when I first discovered Neocities, but I'd occasionally see links to those sites in Twitter users' bios instead of Carrd. It wasn't until a couple years ago when a vtuber I followed showed off their Neocities site, and that inspired me to finally start my own. I tried out Weebly and Carrd before, but I didn't care for either of them (and I couldn't figure out how to get Carrds to work). I knew of other popular site builders like Squarespace and Wix, but I never used them (plus the latter is headquartered in Israel). I did make a Listography page many years ago, but it's VERY outdated since I was only a teenager. I ultimately chose Neocities because the total customization aspect appealed to me. I didn't mind having to learn HTML/CSS. In fact, I actually thought teaching myself how to code was fun despite the struggles. I don't consider myself a professional in any way. My coding knowledge is still pretty basic.

As stated above, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my site aside from showing off my art and characters. Heck, I didn't even have an actual layout in mind. Over time I kept improvising as I picked up more skills, and now I have a functinal layout that I'm satisfied with. Browsing other Neocities sites also inspired me to add more features that I never thought I'd add. Stuff that includes a guestbook, a blog, a page showing my online quiz results, and even a whole page where I ramble about a silly cartoon goldfish from a 2000s kids movie.

Now I wanna get into my thoughts about making personal sites versus using social media. As someone who uses both, I noticed that they are VERY different landscapes.

I've been on social media for nearly a decade, so I've seen how the climate has changed over the years. I will say that's it's very addicting, especially since short-form content is the norm nowadays. Algorithms determine what's in your feed and how much engagement you get. It's very hard to grow a platform on there. Either you get noticed by nobody or you suddenly blow up overnight, just by pure luck. And if you're inconsistent with your posting, your chances of getting noticed get lower. Nowadays in order to get engagement people compete to be the most horrible person alive. Empathy just doesn't exist anymore. Nobody want to have an actual conversation. Instead people try to one-up others by throwing insults or being seen as morally superior. And seeing a mix of braindead takes, slurs, and actual fascist rhetoric on the daily is very mentally draining. Plus, AI generated content and bots have taken over many platforms (and even get more attention than actual human creators!) There's also a lack of profile customization, so every user's layout has that same, corporate vibe.

On the other hand, personal sites and communities on Neocities are much more niche and peaceful. I haven't seen any toxicity on here (except for the occasional mean message some anonymous person leaves in others' guestbooks). There's no pressure to constantly update your site. Some people take months or even years off from making changes. Early on, I went several months without updating my site because of my lack of skills. Nowadays I randomly get hyperfixated on coding and add a bunch of new graphics and stuff. I also enjoy the uniqueness that comes with each person's site. They all serve a different purpose, and everyone has their own aesthetic and layout that makes them stand apart.

While browsing Neocities, I learned about the Web Revival Movement and the indie web. In short (and from what I remember), it's an online movement based around bringing back the old web. In the early days of the internet, social media didn't exist. People coded their own unique websites to express their interests and such. The Web Revival Movement sets out to bring back unique personal sites instead of relying on social media. I noticed that different age groups make personal sites, and it's fascinating to think about their own perspectives on the movement. As someone who was born in 2004, I've always been fascinated by the old internet. It's a whole other world that's obscure to me but nostalgic to others. Most people on here tend to be in their 30s/40s, or Millenial-aged. It makes sense since they grew up on this version of the internet and they're nostalgic for it. I've also seen younger people like me make personal sites as well (even as young as 14!) We grew up in the age of social media, so we didn't get to experience the GeoCities era. It's cool when younger people pick up such a niche hobby, especially one that reflects yesterday's internet. I'm glad that Neocities and other new site builders like Strawpage, Spacehey, and Nekoweb exist to give us this creative outlet. Personally, using Neocities reminds me of late-2010s DeviantArt (before Eclipse), since many users had personalized profiles with their own custom colors, layouts, and stamps.

To wrap this up, I'm wishing this site a happy anniversary. I decided to give my homepage an updated version of my old wallpaper. However this one has a more pleasing pattern and color palette. I don't think this site will ever be finished, but I can't wait to see what else I guadually add to it in more years to come!

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