Colophon

Technologies & Techniques

Before WordPress, I tried Cargo for experiments. I also circled around other options like Astro, GitHub Actions, or static site builders, but each leaned toward setups and deployments that would have taken time away from designing. Squarespace or Wix were never in the running. After years of dismissing WordPress as unstable, I gave it a chance. Thus far, it’s been simple and iterative with an adaptable CMS.

The current site runs on a stable release of WordPress with the out-of-the-box yearly community theme. Plugins are used sparingly, and only for one-off tasks (for example, creating a child theme) before being deactivated. The aim is long-term stability without a mess of outdated add-ons.

Most of the interface is plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with PHP. The draggable windows system is Frankenstein-ed together. It was written in on VS Code and WebStorm, depending on which device was in use between Windows and MacOS.

Design Process

The design is content focused. My approach was most of everyone knows how a desktop works, so the metaphor was familiar enough to get out of the way. At the foundation is curiosity: my strongest trait and a focal point I wanted to incorporate into the user interaction. The windows randomly overlap onload with every visit.

I drove the nostalgia home with some memorable wallpapers from the early 2000s and quirks from my childhood: a Magic 8 Ball. There more quirks that speak to my element of nuance and detail spread about this desktop.

Writing & Workflow

Some content is backdated, having been published elsewhere first, but most entries come from my notes app, Obsidian, or long-standing drafts. I perform copy updates in the WordPress editor and I am able to edit on a my phone even if it’s a pain at times. I am happy with anything as long as I can write in markdown.

Typography

Typeset is a system-UI stack:

-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif, "Sans Serif", Icons.

It fallbacks to the next available font option, I didn’t want to choose just one. The browser picks something sensible based on the users device, and that’s good enough to me.

Philosophy

While in the early phase, I defined that the bones of this site should not be overengineer. The people I look up to have had simple, long-standing websites some running since 2011 unchanged that function and carry the WordPress badge.

Open source, at its core, is rooted in collectivism. In this case it’s a freedom to publish to space and back, as NASA runs on WordPress. This site is my contribution to that tradition, even if my sites code itself is private, this year’s WordPress community theme is free for all.

Acknowledgments

Are.na deserves mention. It exposed me to creative tools and ideas I wouldn’t have stumbled into through my normal digital browsing habits. Those influences show up throughout this site’s design and how I will continue to interact with the world ad infinitum.