3.16.24 - 4:25 am | Homepage Update
On this episode of doing everything except for what's on the to-do list I redesigned the homepage! It's not totally done, I still want to tweak some things, but overall I'm super happy with how it turned out. I originally wanted to undo all of the previous work of making my site pages more uniform because I thought it would give me the ability to make each page more visually interesting. I ended up not going through with that though because I remembered Mark Twain's quote 'I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.' (Listen I know that's a bit pretentious for me to be quoting Mark Twain on a blog post but hear me out) It would be much easier for me to make the site less uniform in an attempt for increased visual interest, but I totally could condense down everything I wanted to do in a 600x600 window.
As far as the things that have changed, there are some new gifs and welcome text, but more importantly, the introduction of the To-Do and Update lists! I know the blog is basically one long update list, but I talk a bit too much so short-form patch notes are probably a lot more accessible. The code for the lists comes from this site and same with the scrolling “Kate Says….” Honestly, daikonet has ended up being one of my biggest inspirations, they just have one of my favorite sites on neocities.
3.7.24 - 5:03 pm | Big Changes
Definitely hasn't been that long since my last blog post, but, despite that a lot has happened. I don't really discuss personal matters on this blog, although that's subject to change, but seeing as it's relevant to the website I feel it merits mentioning that I recently went on medical leave from college. I realized I never mentioned I was at college but it's true! Typically, I'm a full-time student, but until the Fall I'm going to be taking a break from all that. I do want to get a job, and I'm in the process of applying to local coffee shops and bakeries, but even with that, I'll have a lot more time to work on this website! Already, I've made some changes with my newfound time such as a mild revamp. I know I just did one last month, but it's more minor, just a new background and centering of the website but still a lot of code that's been added. I'm currently in the process of changing all the pages to have the cool new background that I fully got from this amazing website. I'm probably going to do a much bigger revamp soon, a 3.0 of sorts I guess along with adding a more stylized index page that leads into the home page. There are also other things I want to do to this website but they're all mentioned on my to-do list and definitely aren't as major. I'm really optimistic about the future of this website with all my free time, so here's to a lot more updates in the future!
3.7.24 - 8:43 pm | New Index Page
This is what I meant when I said I'd be updating this website more because like two blog posts in one day is truly unheard of. Not much is new, I'm still in the process of changing all the pages to reflect the new background but I did add a new index page! I've been wanting one for a while just because it feels more welcoming, however, I'm not fully sold on it yet. It needs more to it but without a site logo or mascot I'm not sure how much I can actually do to make it stand out. In line with my last two blog posts I fully got this idea from another website this time this one! I know they're not the first to make a cool index page but I got the idea for the TV and static from them.
3.7.24 - 5:03 pm | Big Changes
Definitely hasn't been that long since my last blog post, but, despite that a lot has happened. I don't really discuss personal matters on this blog, although that's subject to change, but seeing as it's relevant to the website I feel it merits mentioning that I recently went on medical leave from college. I realized I never mentioned I was at college but it's true! Typically, I'm a full-time student, but until the Fall I'm going to be taking a break from all that. I do want to get a job, and I'm in the process of applying to local coffee shops and bakeries, but even with that, I'll have a lot more time to work on this website! Already, I've made some changes with my newfound time such as a mild revamp. I know I just did one last month, but it's more minor, just a new background and centering of the website but still a lot of code that's been added. I'm currently in the process of changing all the pages to have the cool new background that I fully got from this amazing website. I'm probably going to do a much bigger revamp soon, a 3.0 of sorts I guess along with adding a more stylized index page that leads into the home page. There are also other things I want to do to this website but they're all mentioned on my to-do list and definitely aren't as major. I'm really optimistic about the future of this website with all my free time, so here's to a lot more updates in the future!
2.23.24 - 5:07 pm | Media Log and Links
Apart from school, I've spent most of today just coding, so the site has seen two updates to it!! The one I'm most proud of is that I added a little heart icon to the media log. When clicked, it expands to reveal a little review about the media. It's the first use of JavaScript on this website, although I didn't code it by hand, so I'm pretty unsure about how it works. It still feels cool to have there, though, and in the future, I'm going to be doing reviews for everything posted. Hopefully people realize that that's what happens when you click the heart because it's not the most apparent thing, but I couldn't think of anything better. I was inspired by this cool website that has a gamelog and I really enjoyed reading what she posted about each game.
Secondly, I added a links page. Definitely less impressive, and I'm still not totally happy with how it looks, but hopefully, I can find a look I like in the future. Right now it has links to all my friends' websites and the sites that served as big inspirations for this website you're on right now. I sort of want to join a webring in the future, but as of right now, I'm not fully happy with how my site looks, so I'm going to wait on that for later.
2.12.24 - 2:26 pm | Kate Dorf 2.0
It's been a while since I've done a blog post, so I'm not even sure how to properly start this, but Kate Dorf 2.0 is underway! I'm calling this the 2.0 version of my website because, for those of you who are new here, I've redesigned all the pages to have a more consistent look between them that I'm pretty fond of. I've also added some new pages to the website, although no new content is on them yet.
It's been a slow process, but I'm almost done updating all the pages to reflect this new look. I'm not sure what the new plan will be for my website after I'm finished with this overhaul, but I'm sure I'll be inspired by some other site and begin redoing everything all over again. Anyways, I'm writing this while on a study date, so I should probably get back to actually doing my homework, considering I was just complaining about the amount of coursework I have this semester.
1.24.24 - 1:55 pm | Review Page Updates
I had another night where I was having trouble falling asleep which means I added a bunch of new content to the website! Most significant is the release of my first written, hopefully of many, review! It's of June Henry's album somethingpet. I had to add a new category to the review section to do this labeled "written works" since my original plan of having them be in the respective categories of music, video games, etc wouldn't really work with how the website is currently laid out. It does stink that this means you can't filter to just see my reviews on albums or video games, but I can always tweak the formatting in the future, so we'll see. Right now, I'm just happy to finally have reached the reason why I created this website, posting reviews.
Also new to the review section are little pixel art category labels. It definitely wasn't difficult to see what each category was without them, but I think it's a cute little addition, and also I just wanted to try out making some pixel art for the website. There's definitely still a lot more work to be done on my website, it's honestly probably going to be never-ending, but at the very least, this feels like I'm out of the early stages now.
1.21.24 - 4:16 pm | Media Log
As the title suggests, I just created a media log page for the site. I'm a big fan of apps like Letterboxd and Goodreads just because there's something so satisfying about finishing a piece of media and reflecting back on your experiences with it. The media log functions just like any of those apps where it tracks the day(s) the media was consumed and thoughts in the form of a star rating. I also added the ability to write a little about the media, but realistically, I'm not sure how often I will do that. If I have thoughts about something, they're probably too big for the media log and would be better suited for an actual review.
As for the page replaced by the media log, the favorites page, I'm unsure if it'll ever return. I never had a complete plan for it other than the vague idea of using it to gush about my favorite media pieces. Realistically, though, that's what the review page will eventually be for, so there's no need to have both. I will ultimately need to make some changes to the review page because, as it stands, there's not any room for actual long-form reviews, which is the reason why I created this site. That will be a future project for me, along with adding the navigator tab to the review section.
1.21.24 - 10:17 pm | Welcome to the Blog!
Finally created a blog section for this site! This is where I will post patch note type updates about what changes I'm making around here, along with some possible more personal-type journal entries. Generally, I won't be posting the more minor updates like bug fixes, but stuff like new pages, design changes, and posts to other sections will get highlighted here.
After finishing this blog post, I think my next project is going to be to post more reviews and add more of my collections. Also, for those who have seen the review page, I plan to add long-form content eventually, but at the moment, my priority is getting the site up and running to how I want it to be. I am getting a lot closer to that point than I thought I ever would which is a very exciting prospect!
