War is over!
With this blog post being posted, my year long webweaving drought is officially over and my first substantial update since then. I am extremely relieved to have gotten past it; an unhealthy amount of my brainpower for the past year has been dedicated to wanting to revamp my website but being eternally unhappy with it. I've probably remade my website a total of... 8 times? in the past year alone. I just couldn't find a design I was happy with, including my already existing design! To understand how we got here, and where I'll be going from now, I think it's important to understand what my journey leading here was.
Maximalist Hell
My preference ever since I started creating my website were ones that showed an extreme mastery of CSS and were interesting to go through. I thus became interested in doing image map styles (exemplified by ribo.zone or melxncholyman, which is based on the former). I loved having a website where you navigated around it like it was a physical space! It brought me a lot of joy and my second phase of my website (the one where I entirely handcoded everything without assistance from others) emulated this and incorporated some lore with the whole "Aster's Asterisms" persona, so there was a lot of space theming.
My first issue with this came from the fact that each page had its own unique CSS, which became very daunting when I wanted to create something. This was especially for creating image map sections, as it takes a lot of time to position them correctly. Even worse was the fact that none of this was mobile friendly. I know for a lot of webweavers its not a priority, but my friends do check on my website and the vast majority of them look at it on their phone! Turning an image map into something accessibile for phone users was another bridge that I was going to have to cross... but the website worked for now and I liked it.
But I soon wondered if I could link all the pages together, not by CSS but by lore. Thus the next part of the website began and the design that this design replaces. I wanted to have this house that could be traversed and alternated between a "real world" and a "fake world", with different pages depending on which world you were in. There would be ARG aspects that you could discover in order to solve the mystery behind the website. Soon, I grew dissatisifed with even this and wanted to take it further. I wanted to add character storylines you could solve in order to get through, a custom calendar for the website, special weather and holiday events that changed what could be accessed on the website, and much more. The problem is is I do not have any drawing nor programming ability, so this ambition came with the increasing dread of having to learn one of those skills (which are both infamous for being hard to make something "good" quickly after beginning it). So I was at a stalemate. I couldn't do anything because I wanted to have the assets first or the complex calendar and weather mechanics first. I never realized that at some point I was no longer making a personal website, but a video game.
With months of being like this, I resolved to break my stalemate by going hyperminimalist, inspired by XXIIVV and LOW←TECH MAGAZINE, as it would force me to worry more about the text than the actual styling. Unfortunately, the blank canvas effect got to me and it was difficult for me to write about anything as it just felt too plain. However, I do think this pivot was the right move. Beginning on my winter break, I started working on this version of the website, inspired by crotovane and vulpecula, both of which I feel have more minimal styles but are still visually interesting. And for once... I actually enjoyed the CSS I made! I think it looks nice! Even more amazing, I actually enjoy WRITING in my website! It probably isn't a coincidence that the time I feel content with my website is when I don't have classes or other societal obligations going on, but I'm glad that I am finally feeling peace.
I did, however, have a bit of a fear in making my website outside of the image map. Isn't that what people on Neocities followed me for, which was that very specific type of branding? This resulted in my first attempt at minimalism actually being on another website, but I'm not including it here since I barely put anything on it and I am letting the domain and hosting lapse. However, I need to remember that my website is made specifically for me and if people don't like it... that's not really my problem, is it? This can be partially solved by just... not having my website on Neocities, but I do quite like the social aspect of the website. So here I am! But you may also notice a name change...
The Name Change
Previously my website's title was "Aster's Asterisms". Now it's "Leveret Star," or more simply "Leveret." Why the change? First, I think Aster's Asterisms is a little bit less... mature than I like? I think it's cute, but I feel like I've outgrown it! I also didn't want to be beholden to any name just in case I decide to change my name for whatever reason, even though it's unlikely for that to happen. Leveret Star came from keeping the space themes that asterisms has (side note: so many people have told me they learned what an asterism is and asked if that's why the title had asterisms in it LOL). Leveret comes from 兔兒神, or the Leveret God, which in Chinese folk religion is the god of homosexuality! I always had some fascination with the deity and, since being gay is a big part of my identity, I wanted to honor him in some way. Also I just really like the word leveret lol.
What's Next?
Hopefully this will be the design that I will maintain for a long time to come, since doing full redesigns unsurprisingly results in not actually writing anything down! I want to have this design as a base template which I can change as radically as I wish for individual pages. For shrines and such I will probably indulge my maximalist tendencies to create more complicated pages, but I like the comfort of knowing that I also don't have to do that and can keep it as basic as I want. It's kinda nice to have lower expectations!
I'll be keeping what I need to do next on my to-do on the front page. There's a lot of pages I want to add; a lot of ideas have been stored away over the year and it's time to let them out!