Dream Fishing First Anniversary

10th of December, 2024

Well would you look at that – this website is now a whole year old! Ah, they grow up so fast. I thought a good way to celebrate would be writing a little blog post about my experience with webmastery and such.

It can seem very daunting to get into making a website, and in all honesty it kinda is. When you start out it feels incredibly overwhelming and for a good reason. Webmastery requires quite a few skills in different areas, maybe that’s part of what draws me to it, the multimedia of it all. You have to have a good eye for color (unless you want to burn other people’s eyes on purpose, which, I guess, is also an option), be good with layouts, coding, graphics and general problem-solving. But thankfully nowadays you don’t have to figure it out by yourself!

Infinite blessings to every person that shares their code and lets people use and edit it freely. Truly the pillars of the community. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to take a template a kind soul has made and be able to use it for my nefarious needs. And that’s a good way to learn! I love looking at other people’s code, figuring out how things work, even if I don’t plan on implementing them.

Special thanks to sadgirl.online, EGGRAMEN and W3schools for making the current iteration of this page possible. I implore anyone looking to start their own website to check these links out.

Speaking of iterations, wouldn’t it be fun to look at what this website used to look like when it first launched? Well lucky for you, dear reader, I have a screenshot to share with you. It’s interesting to see an earlier version of a project, really puts all the growth into perspective.

Now, on the more personal side of things I would say that running this web page has been a great joy. It’s nice to have a long-term project like this to chip away at in various ways, be it coding, writing, drawing or animating. Many times throughout the year, whenever I wasn’t having a great time I would find myself adding new features, filling out sections or working on more graphics. I have a draft somewhere saying something along the lines of “webmastery as a coping mechanism”. Obviously, that is said in jest, but there is some truth to it. As I have mentioned in my art thoughts post, control is an important part of the creative process for me. Well, maybe not necessarily ‘control’, as I am not so opposed to spontaneity and happy accidents, but certainly decision-making. I like the endless opportunities something like a personal website provides. Great tool for self-expression!

And what a useful one too. I have recently used a link to my Gallery section as a portfolio for a community project and got in. That makes me very proud of myself. I know the organizers were focused on my artwork, but it is a part of this website, isn’t it? And I feel like the layout and colors really show my work in a flattering light.

As time goes on it is becoming more and more tempting to leave all mainstream social media and become a personal page recluse. However, dealing with the same temptation irl for many years, I know well enough that self-isolation isn’t the answer. It’s important to interact, to keep in touch, to be in the know (to a reasonable extent). But it’s nice to have a place you can retreat to, away from the noise and traffic. A home, in a way. I am well aware of how horribly cheesy that sounds.

This has been a wonderful experience and I hope my dedication and love shine through. I would like to say Thank you to my friends and visitors that leave nice messages and enjoy this page. It means a lot to me. Sure, I would probably still be making it even if no one was looking, but you, dear reader, truly make this more special. I’m going to work hard to make this place the best it can be, so that we can all have a great time fishing.

- Best regards,
internet user riverbankwillow

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