this is my very first personal website. I began building it during winter in the beginning of 2025 – around this time I'd been feeling nostalgic about visual elements of old web design from the 00s and had also made a new goSupermodel account after the site had opened again (I used to play it a lot when I was younger, starting in the late 2000s). the more colorful, compact arrangements of visual elements and delightfully pixelated characteristics of many older web pages and bright, small-windowed online browser games were something I hadn't really come across in a long time and which I kind of started to miss, especially with more and more contemporary websites being redesigned in a quite different, minimalistic way that in contrast spreads out text and images far bigger and wider, often on a neutral, white background (which has, for example, made me zoom out on many sites I visit to get a less 'brutalist' visual experience on recipe sites, for example), something I've seen others point out related to their motivation to create a personal website.

in my gSm days I used to spend many hours crafting creative projects on the site: virtual magazines I vaguely remember the names of and am sure I sat down and screenshotted once (still hoping I'll be able to find the images somewhere 'cause I'm very curious to revisit them), rooms you could decorate for goMoney with retrofuturist furniture and decorative details in bright hues, and your own profile page you could put together (and code) to your liking with loads of blinking gifs, images, pixel art, and fonts (some of these I've come across again through neocities which is quite fun!) I don't remember doing any coding then, perhaps a few lines of HTML provided by other users – I do remember people sharing profile 'layouts' created in photoshop in the form of multilayered, gleaming templates in digital collage styles and wondering how those could be made. this past winter of 2025, though, I think I searched for examples of older web design and, maybe in this way, first heard about neocities. one of the places was this youtube video explaining why to create your own personal website, and I was quite positively encouraged to try it out (thank you to the video creator)!

I was pretty much completely new to coding but decided from the start to try to make it a fun creative project for myself and not something to pressure myself over working on (still reminding myself of this). enthusiastically motivated and uplifted by what felt kind of like a growing collective encouragement from other indie web users, I started looking up HTML tutorials and youtube videos, joining the neocities reddit, and slowly learning each little element emerging on my site. it's been and is quite satisfying to see every single one of your additions and changes gradually appear on the screen in front of you, and it's been a both joyful, wholesome, inspiring, challenging, contemplative, satisfying, and meaningful project to work on, customize, and experiment with so far when I log on here. I came across neocities just at the right time, I think, and it has scratched that itch of not just being able to visit old-fashioned web elements (such as the visual pleasure of finding still-existing pixel food cursors that I'd never seen before but that instantly took me back to the older web) as well as having provided a great new creative outlet and much inspiration from many people's personal sites I come across along the way.

having my own virtual space that is both more expansive and different than goSupermodel or social media, and especially sharing written reflections online, has been and still is something pretty new for me, and I've spent much of the past couple months on here reflecting on how I should and want to use my site. as someone who has/is studying & is very interested in visual, cultural, and social phenomena (how humans live, how we express ourselves visually, why things look the ways that they do, what different visual characteristics can signify, how visual phenomena make people feel, etc.), having this site on a platform that is also social in a way where my site is connected to others and isn't as isolated has sparked many questions in my head, both academically, creatively, and personally (these are just my personal thoughts and not requirements for everyone, just suggestions!) through questions like:

I guess these choices are gradually explored through trial, experimentation, and learning from and listening to others over time. as with many other personal sites I've visited, mine will, excitedly for me, be a work in progress as I try things out, reflect, and find out what I'd like to create along the way :)

intuitively named after my experiences of calmness, freshness, freedom, creativity, nostalgia, and introspection being close to the sea, the name and design of my site so far is in part inspired by many visits and enjoyment of witnessing many of the coastal inhabitants in my area. I've chosen visual elements inspired by the ocean first and foremost as a wholesome, warm, and invigorating space for myself to come back to and spend time with.

I'm curious if you have had any of the same reflections or questions surrounding the old web, web design and/or your own site - feel free to share your thoughts!

this page might be updated in the future ^_^