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Updates

12/16/2024 This month, I know better than to set my sights too high. It's always hectic for me this time of year — it's the busiest season for work in my field, and of course the holidays come with their own stresses. But this year has been uniquely challenging. Still, within the chaos, there is much to be grateful for — that I have a job I enjoy, and that I have family and friends to celebrate with and support me when I need help sorting through it all.

I'm also grateful that I still found time to work on the site. I'm working on so much more cool stuff that I'm eager to share, but this time of year always reminds me that it's OK to slow down and shift focus. Everything has its time.

I probably won't make any major updates until the new year, but I'll be working on stuff behind the scenes. For now, a small update:

That's all for now. See you in the new year!


11/14/2024 Well. I was entirely too confident about my momentum with the site last time I updated. I have perhaps been too confident about a lot of things lately. I won't get into all of it. Yes, the U.S. election was part of it — I was certain this country would vote for whoever Beyoncé told them to. We live in a Weird World indeed! But for real, even the president-elect seemd unsure about his chances when he was making claims of fraud on election night, so I think his win was a surprise for everyone. And beyond that, life just continues to give little reminders that in this world, few things are certain. It's not all bad. Sometimes it can even be a good thing — if nothing is certain, that means things you want may not work out, but it also means your worst expectations may not come to pass. We can only hope!

Even still, the disappointing turns in life can teach you important lessons. Like, I was kind of bummed that I wasn't able to make an update on the site last month, missing my goal of doing at least one update per month. That goal was important to me not just because I enjoy working on this site, but because it's also a way for me to try to improve my time management skills and self-discipline. I found comfort in reminding myself that I had two months this year where I made multiple updates. And I pretty much rushed my last update to try to push myself to make even more progress. I could have taken a little more time and published it the next day and still made good on my goal.

Yet, as I thought through this, I realized I was putting too much pressure on myself either way. The thing about goals is you don't always meet them — and that's OK. And when you don't meet them, they're still a useful benchmark for tracking progress and making future plans. That provides additional comfort — if one update per month is still ambitious, then that means I don't have to strive for anything more than that next year. But most of all, as important as my goal is to me, at the end of the day, this website is primarily a creative outlet. And I chose this space — Neocities, the small/independent web — specifically because it doesn't put as much focus on generating "content" as social media or a regular Substack newsletter. There was actually a recent thread on r/Neocities that helped remind me of this. As it often goes, when I let go of the pressure to produce, I slowly rediscoverd a desire to create. (Life is unpredictable, yet it's predictible in how it repeatedly teaches us the lessons we stubbornly refuse to learn.)

So if you've been putting pressure on yourself, if you're certain that the end is nigh or are having any similar stresses, let this be your reminder to take it easy on yourself. The only thing you absolutely have to do is get through the day. You can always give your goals another attempt tomorrow. And when you least expect it, at any moment, things can change for the better. That's the good part of living in this crazy world!

All that being said, I was really happy to make a few of the updates I'd been working on over the past couple of months recently, including a new look for the main page. Featuring Addison Rae in the music video for her single "Diet Pepsi", it's inspired by the election, 80s and 90s soft drink vending machines, desire and death. It's dark, it's glam, it's sad — it's America. I'm really happy with it. I say this everytime I update my layout lately, but this might be one of my all-time faves. I'm sure I'll say the same next time. We can only hope!!

Here's a complete list of what I got done:

I'm still trying to polish off some of the writing I've been working on, but I'm excited to share it once it's complete. And I hope to make some more updates before then. But I guess we'll see, haha.


09/30/2024 Finally one of the updates I've been excited about is here! I created a new page featuring some premade website layouts that are free to use on other websites. I'm not an HTML expert by any means, but I've managed to make my site somewhat useable and the layouts I created are based on a similar code. I honestly might have to go in and do some housekeeping on some of them, but wanted to log the update so I could have two updates this month haha.

Here's a list of everything I've been up to since last time:

I'm probably going to do a little housekeeping in the next couple weeks, and then focus on creating some new written content for a couple of sections. Check back!


09/16/2024 I've been hard at work behind the scenes working on some exciting new content and a new layout for the site's main pages. I was hoping to polish everything off and log it all at once, but then I watched Lisa Frankenstein with some friends and I got inspired to do a layout based on it for ~spooky season~. The name of the layout is Brand New Image, after lyrics from "Image", a single from Magdalena Bay's awesome new album. I immediately thought of the song when I watched the makeover scene in Lisa Frankenstein. I have a ton of other thoughts about the movie and will probably write about it soon. But for now, here's a list of what I've got done.

I have some more housekeeping to get done and I'm excited to share everything else I've been working on. Check back!

NOTE:This entry was updated 09/17/2024 to add two updates I'd made previously but forgot to include.


08/25/2024 So I actually kept up pretty good momentum since my last update, but then I fell deep into my biannual Sims hole and I got distracted lol. I was hoping I would be able to do a bit more work on the site before I logged anything, but since we're just a week away from the end of the month (this year is flying by!!), I wanted to give a quick update:

I have some new stuff I want to add to my current sections, then I hope to get started on a couple of new things I'm excited about! Until next time.


07/26/2024 I am entirely too pleased with myself for managing another update in July. But then again, it is pretty significant, and not just because it's the first time this year I've logged more than one update in a month. Part of why I haven't been able to work on the site as much as I want is because — I am happy to say — I have developed a pretty active social life in the past year. It's been a lot of fun, but it has been a challenge to manage my time and money enough to do all the things I want to do.

But as a result, I've made more of a conscious effort lately to carve out some me time, both to work on my hobbies and save money. I love the friends I'm making and I love going out, but it's important to balance it all. I'm learning how to do that as my calendar, to-do list and bucket list fill up! And being able to do that — not only have such a full life, but taking such an active role in it — feels like growth and positive change for me on a personal level. Maybe this isn't America's Decline after all! Haha.

Anyway, here's what I've added since the last update:

Every time I work on this site, I get excited and inspired. The new layout and these recent updates have reminded me that it's truly an important creative outlet for me. I hope I'll be able to make more time to express that passion through more updates! Until then...


07/15/2024 FINALLY an update that isn't coming at the very end of the month — and it's an exciting one! I'm pleased to share this new layout for the main site — the fifth since I started this site, and it might be my favorite one so far. I named it "Apple", after the Charli xcx song from her newest album BRAT, which came up on shuffle as I started typing this update — BRAT summer is in full force!

I've been inspired by that song and album, and their themes — hedonism, decay, euphoria, ambivalence, drugs, partying, introspection and wisdom — and bright, brash imagery ("the apple could turn yellow or green," as Charli observes on "Apple," and "lemons on the trees and on the ground ... neon orange drinks on the beach" from one of my personal favorites from the album, plus the controversial low-fi puke green album cover) since the album dropped.

But I was also inspired by the banner on the homepage, which I made a couple of years ago to use as a cover photo for my Facebook page (lol). I had just moved and was feeling homesick, so made this semi-ironic collage to pay homage to summers growing up in South Texas — listening to Selena, riding my bike past countless multi-colored murals paying homage to artists and icons like Selena and Frida Kahlo, going to the fruiteria or raspa stand and getting a giant fruit cup topped with pounds of Tajín or a plate of Hot Cheetos drenched in nacho cheese sauce, watching MTV, eating Whataburger. I randomly came across it while organizing my desktop files recently and was inspired to make a summer layout for the site.

Even though the header image was made with some leval of ironic detachment, when I started coding this layout, I kind of saw the connection between it and the themes that I've been inspired by this summer — from BRAT and beyond — and it made me appreciate it in a new way. Whether or not that meaning comes through in the layout, I also think it's just visually fun and summery. I showed it to some IRL friends while I was working on it and they thought it was cool. I hope you do too!

I have a lot more I want to do and I hope this new layout will inspire me to work through my to-do list for the site — if #BRATSUMMER activities don't distract me, haha.


06/30/2024 Once again, hopping on with a last-minute update, purely to make good on my one update a month goal. Unfortunately, it's a very minor update, but I:

I've seen so much great content around BRAT online and it's moments like this I'm annoyed that I'm not a full-time content creator because the hype might be dead by the time I finish this page haha. But I'm excited to dive into some of the content for research and report back. Hopefully it inspires a more robust and timely update next time — although with brat summer in full swing, it may be a minute... idk we'll see!!


05/31/2024 Sat down to make one very minor update that I've been meaning to make for awhile. I've been busy and otherwise occupied, but this website is still a project I'm excited about and want to make good on my goal of making at least one update per month, even if they're small! Today, I:

As usual, have so much more I want to do, but so little time! Looking forward to the next time I'm able to work on the site. <3


04/28/2024 Wanted to get more done before I updated the log, but also didn't want to not make good on my goal of updating monthly, so a small update:

I'm going to try to get some more work done in sections other than my shopping sections... but it's been a big shopping season for me and I'm excited to yap about it. We'll see what I get up to. TTYL!


03/20/2024 I really want to commit myself to making at least one update a month on here, even if it's small. I wish I had more to share and hope to do more than that somewhat regularly, but for now:

Hope to write more soon!!


02/06/2024 I am very excited to publish this new layout for the main site! It's inspired by bedazzed velour Juicy Couture tracksuits, Barbiecore and Valentine's.

I'm working on refreshing some other pages on the site and I wanted to debut them all at once, but I couldn't wait to share this new look. I'm hoping to be able to update select other pages soon!


01/20/2024 Happy new year! I've been plugging away at some different parts of the site since my last update, but didn't feel like anything was in a place to log yet. But I just published my first significant update in awhile, and it's been a few months since I last logged something, so I figure it's time to note some of the things I've been working on:

I'm really proud of a lot of the writing on this year's Wrapped feature, and I had a lot of fun making the layouts for these updates. I'm more inspired than ever and really hoping I can be more intentional this year with working on the site.

Until next time!

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