Moving blog pages in preperation for '23. Getting this annual task over with now instead of right before the new year.
"In preperation for the new year, I've moved over the blog archive pages to accommodate for the 2023 blog archive page."
12.22.22Hi folks. I'm putting boxes around things. That's cool!
I have just added some stuff over to interests. Some music I like. A little more about what I do. Feast your eyes, because you finally get to know more about yours truly.
As mentioned in the first sentence, you may see some boxes around here for a little while. I am experimenting a bit on overall redesign. Putting a little more pizazz into this place as I speak. The boxes do look a little bit janky, but that should hopefully change as I get some design quirks worked out.
I've been adding more and more journal blog stuff over on extras. I've found a way to get my thoughts out and It's actually been fun. Hopefully you folks enjoy reading them.
You may have noticed that my writing mannerisms on this website has gotten a little more cheerful and personal. Maybe you did? Probably didn't. Anyways, I've been feeling a bit regretful about how impersonal and apathetic I may have come off as in the past year, so that's why I've been adding a little more about myself in terms of the content aspect of the website. I think this is because as of recent, like maybe the past couple of months, I've been strongly feeling a pure sense of accomplishment when it comes to what I've done with this website. This project is beginning to feel like it's ending up exactly how I want it to look and be like. Hell, I'm even feeling happy just typing up this blog entry!
'22 is ending. That's crazy. No, seriously! I cannot believe how much has happened. I'm really glad it's ending, though. I've always cherished the changing of the year, but that's also maybe because my birthday gets ever-so closer...
12.3.22Hi all. American colleges are sending students home for Thanksgiving, which gives me some good time re-allocate my attention-span to this place for a little bit of time! Hooray for holidays.
Gave this place a new logo. I am distancing myself from the moniker "cnug". Just a little bit. To my neighbors that are using my 88x31 button with the original "cnug" name on it, don't worry. I'm not going to start messaging you to change it, think that's too much of a stupid hassle.
Decided to make the logo, with my URL/profile name, like a two sided paper, hovering over it showing the other side. It was an idea I wanted to go for back when I made the last logo, but was too lazy, as always. Instead of it being a fade-in/out CSS hover, I could make it a flip animation. That'd be cool!
I wanted to make my interests page a really cool and advanced looking webpage some time ago. I even planned it out on some loose-leaf with some CSS notes on how I should margin, float, and style parts of the page. This, of course, never came to fruition. I planned it out all the way back in February '22.
So now, instead, I will likely just make it some simple list of things I like. I've been wanting to do this fairly recently because there's a heavy lack of personality on my website on my part. I feel like the only thing you guys know about me is that I like photography and collecting cameras, which is a bit lack-luster now that I think about it. Hoping maybe in the next few days I can get something out for the page? You'll see on my Neocities profile. May even update the blog by then, too.
My giant Dell P2417H has been dying on me recently. It's been a great monitor for me since '19 but for some reason it's constantly giving me these "screens of doom" -- e.g. turning it on to see my screen flashing with a bright white fog slowly coming up, or sometimes just not turning on all together. One day it just completely refused to turn on, so I had no other choice but to cycle through my other monitors. I made my previously secondary 1704fpt my main monitor, a 5:4 1280x1024 TN display, and made my second monitor my E153FP, a 4:3 1024x768 TN display. Both monitors are from 2004, almost 19 years old, yet still work flawlessly, except for some screen blemishes that don't seem to hinder anything. I thought that using more square-like aspect rations might bring some problems and some getting used to... But surprisingly not! I've been actually enjoying using these monitors. It's a huge shame that my far newer and maybe slightly better monitor is crapping out on me, but I really don't care.
Using any application that isn't a media editor (like Vegas or Photoshop) isn't actually that bad, and browsing the internet is totally fine, that is when it comes to using the 1704. support for resolutions greater than 1280x1024 is still common, but when it comes to using the E153, issues are somewhat present. Except if you're browsing the web on older websites, which I must say is actually terrific with older monitors, using the E153 outside of that application is really all that it can do. Websites and applications, even as far back as '08 - '10, quietly dropped support for resolutions lower than 1280x1024, so using them with a monitor below that resolution can be a clunky nightmare. It's great as a second monitor, but not a main one. It's a humbling surprise that the 1704, a monitor from the same era with a slightly larger resolution, is a hundred times more useful than the E153.
Anyhow, that's the end of that. What do you guys think of these longer blog entries? I thought I'd utilise this section of my site a little more to give personal updates, instead of it just being some bland changelog about what's new. I've got an entire website that I can utilise at my will and I should be taking advantage of it, dammit!
Semester ends mid December. Expect maybe some fun updates by then, hoping that my job won't get in the way. That is if I can get my job back by then.
New guestbook is up! Check it out here. Seems like it's more fun to use than SmartGB. Also, managed to snatch up the "awesome" URL, pretty proud of that. Previous guestbook entries can be seen here.
I did add some new digital photos, as promised.
Been thinking for a while about changing my logo for the site's index page. my button will remain the same, though.
Someone somehow managed to get an IA snapshot of my website despite disallowing ia_archiver in robots.txt???
11.9.22I plan on changing guestbook services soon, as Smart GB has been causing a lot of issues for me lately. People who are using extensions like HTTPS Everywhere, or have built in secure web browsing features (specifically Firefox users) may not be able to access the guestbook due to the secure web browsing stuff automatically forcing a secure page for it, but not being allowed in because of the fact that Smart GB only allows a secure link for those who are subscribed to the service. You may have been greeted with a page like this, unable to get out of it:
So yeah. That's just fantastic. I don't know if this is a recent implementation, but given the fact that my Guestbook has been inactive for about two months now, I would like to think it is. On the topic of secure webhosting, the fact that Smart GB is hosting their subscriber-free guestbooks on unsecure websites is concerning to me. If you use the service, you should now that each guestbook post is logged with the poster's IP, even if you submit something anonymously. A function like this can be helpful to blacklist someone from using your guestbook even if they leave no visible information, but the fact that this stuff is stored unsecured and technically unencrypted is quite jarring to me. I'm not a huge internet geek to know if this is actually a huge deal or not, so forgive any ignorance that I may have shown in the last paragraph.
Once I get my new guestbook set up, I will have a link on the guestbook page to a HTML file hosted here that contains all the guestbook posts from Smart GB. Don't want those getting lost!
A few months ago, I mentioned wanting to give up on Neocities hosting and having a website for myself that redirects from my Neocities URL. At least I think I did? I'm pretty sure I posted something along the lines of that fairly recently. Well, anyhow, that ship has rightfully sailed away. I'm currently unemployed, so I cannot spend my money on mildly pointless stuff like that, at least until the end of the semester when December rolls around. I don't know if I'll even go through with it anyways, my mind jumps on to so many different projects, plans, ideas, and the such that by the time December will come around, I'll probably want to do something else with this website. So yeah, that's some info regarding that.
More of my photos to be uploaded soon, I promise!
11.2.22Hey all. Long time no see again as usual, but just giving the monthly reminder that I am alive and still kicking around this website.
The only thing I can leave you all off with is the fact that I have joined a radio station. It's fun! I've met a lot of people within a short period of time and it's been a social re-awakening for me. I love the world of analog and how it carries my voice across the atmosphere.
10.22.22Thinking of adding a music section to my site to catalog and talk about some of the records I love. I've got a growing music collection and work for a local radio station now. I just don't know where I'd put this section though... Probably in the (forgotten) interests section?
Some of my contact sheets I printed over the course of October '21 to June '22 are now scanned, albeit in shit quality. I don't care a whole ton so I wanted to get it done quick and fast. It will be uploaded in the film projects page in the a gallery format the same as the new one soon, I'll just have to get to it as time goes on.
9.23.22New photo gallery demo is up on here. Go check it out, enjoy it, critique it, whine at my css skills, do whatever. The gallery is not ordered chronoligically, rather instead alphabetically by filename. Some of the photos have datestamps, so that can be your point of reference. The approach of using resized photos as opposed to CSS resized photos still from the source file is a pretty classic tried-and-true method of going about making HTML galleries, and it's neater that way. I hated dealing with CSS resized photos and would rather not take that route again.
Considering getting a proper domain and url for this website. $10 a month on Neocities is fantastic and all that just to get extra benefits and to support the community, but I can spend that much a year on a domain. I'm having a mildly shitty but not too bad financial situation that may get shittier soon. Gas money will be a worry soon once I get a car, and I am already dealing with my campus food courts (I do not get dining hall benefits because I am a commuter), which cost a fuckton. I have a job but only work once a week for like 7 hours because time is tight. Not enough pay to facilitate keeping up with this monthly fee... If you see me lose my Neocities supporter status, you guys will know why.
30k hits in this corner of the world wide web. Awesome. (enthusiastic)
9.12.22Considering reworking the photo galleries into a more condensed version of what they are, straying away from the photo exhibition style the pages are now... Key word considering. I've got college now so time is a little strained, but not too strained. I already got started with setting up the pages to see how they'd look. Will probably update the blog soon about progress. Speaking of galleries, I also bought an FD73 and it works surprisingly well with camcorder lenses. I have photos on it in the digital gallery.
I have these contact sheets laying around from a photography class I took last year that I'll be scanning and putting up on the projects page. I miss being in a darkroom...
Today is a special day. 4 years of having this website exist on the web... Wow. 4 years fly by, although I feel like I've had this site up way longer. I love how far this site has come, and perhaps this anniversary will give me a drive to really work on this site again. It's not a problem about losing interest, it's just gotten way harder to sit down at my desk and say, "This seems like a good time to work on my website!"
8.31.22Hey all. I don't know about completing that journal entry at this point. I would maybe like to rework it out because I reread it and rework it a bit because I don't agree with what I originally typed.
Don't expect it to be long because of how long I "worked" on it. I may need to reopen the file for the first time in a month...
Also, I finally acquired a Mavica, FD88. Bought some floppies on eBay recently, hope to be shooting on it soon..!
8.16.22Hey all. Been busy with work. Doing closing shifts for my supermarket department kills my energy, quite literally.
Around two weeks ago, I got some film prints back from the lab. Expect some of them to be uploaded soon to my film page, which hasn't been updated in a long ass time. I actually don't even know when I last uploaded some pictures onto that page, jesus.
7.13.22Put some photos on the projects page just as a small sneak peek for what's to come.
In the process of changing all my date formats on my site to the mm.dd.yy/mm.dd.yyyy format from the yyyy-mm-dd format. I honestly don't know why but I feel inclined to do so.
Still working on that journal entry...
25k hits!!! Wow!!!!
6.23.22Been wanting to add journal entries to my site, so I linked an upcoming one on the extras page (which leads to a 404), but haven't uploaded it because it's a WIP.
The projects page won't be done likely until June to July 2022. It'll involve scanning lots of darkroom prints i have done, which takes me god-knows-how-long on my awfully slow 600 DPI scanner.
6.5.22Sorry for the complete radio silence on this site. Been preoccuppied with other important and somewhat unimportant things making up my mental sphere. I probably won't be working on this site until June when life calms down a bit, though I could work on this site next week if I can try to squeeze time in the afternoon. My priorities are the interests and film projects site, so expect those to be out soon.
These kinds of announcements seem to be commonplace on my blog section...!Also, I may change the site font soon. I just feel like doing it for whatever reason.
The 1 year anniversary of this current redesign is coming in a week, so hooray for that!
5.14.22It's been a while since I've touched this website... I've got some stuff to do, but I hope to get back to working on this place soon!
I can attest that working on my interests page has been a real pain in the ass. I'm trying to go with something that pushes the boundaries of my CSS skills, and kind of want it to be a bit more "variable" in terms of how elements float on the page, rather than a page where everything floats down.
I've been scanning a lot of my hand-developed negatives, so expect my projects page to have a lot of photos by the time I have everything ready! (And the push to actually get the work on it started!)
4.6.22Just rolled out a bunch of little updates to the site!
Finally got to adding some cool people's sites to my links page! Don't know if I missed any, but if you'd like your site to be added to it, feel free to contact me! It's really nice to get to know people around here.
Revised the about page to add a new 88x31 button for those of whom that are going for a more GeoCities/old-web look to their site yet still want to add my button to their site, and an email link to those of whom who don't really prefer to use (chat application).
I've been scanning a lot of my negatives, so expect some of those photos to be added to the photography section soon. (and my projects page, eventually)
As for things I want to get done... my interests page is currently a work in progress, but it may take a while since I want to kind of push the envelope in terms of my web design limits for that specific page. I would also like to completely revise my photography section, too. It's mostly organizing each of the photos by either year or camera used, so it may take a long time.
Forgot to mention this since this just happened, but 20k views!!! On my little site!!! In this corner of the web!!!
3.20.22I feel so terribly sorry for the people of Ukraine. I hope everything works out right, and this war ceases.
2.27.22I've been working on this website for the past few days in the background, getting the stuff that I told myself to get done months ago.
I finally added my 88x31 button! It's at the bottom of my about page. Feel free to add it to your website!
Very soon, I'll be adding various self-developed photos I've done in a photo lab to the new photo projects page, which include some scans and prints.
I just added my site to Gossip's Web, a small directory of various handmade websites. I thought it would be cool to be apart of this little directory and to gain a little more traffic to my site through other people who are also interested in the handmade aspect of making websites. Upon adding my website, I got a guestbook message from the creator of the directory, which was really sweet to see. Elliot, if you're reading this, thank you for the message!! I'm not too keen on most modern cameras, but I can give you a list of some cool old cameras that produce amazing photos/videos! Edit as of a few hours later: I found out that you can reply to people on smartgb. Took me 7 whole months to realize this. Sigh.
2.3.22Back again with my monthly blog post... Just checking in on things here. Sorry for the utter lack of updates. Been doing my best to clean up the markup on cameras.html but it's proving to be a very grueling task. More updates to come soon! I hope...
1.30.22