I think personal websites and the "indie web" at large are a great remedy to mainstream social media platforms because they represent a much slower and healthier consumption compared to what we're used to. Websites are personal expressions of their owners, a reflection of what they enjoy, find interesting, or want to show to others. It is the equivalent to a friend inviting you to their tree fort, or looking through someone's box of keepsakes.

This website exists as an expression of my creativity, coded the good old fashioned way by hand in notepad and vscode. It's a collection of things I like, a way to keep myself accountable for my hobbies, and a place to talk about things I wouldn't talk about otherwise.

Some things have changed as the website has undergone reconstruction, but at it's core it's always just been something that I can do to challenge myself and stave off boredom.

Why the name "Deer Mask Archive?"

It's a striking image, it's strange, and it works with your imagination. What the hell is a deer mask archive?

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Failure] - You cannot grasp an image to match the name. You almost had it, even if just for a fraction of a moment, but it dissapeared so quickly that it might not have been there in the first place. This might have all been mere wishful thinking.

Some technical stuff...

Deer Mask Archive is hosted on Github through Github pages. This is convenient as both hosting and version history are consolidated, which saves me an extra step. It's free, and it's pretty intuitive to grab a domain name when/if you feel ready. I recommend Porkbun for domains, took me less than 5 minutes and cost me under ten bucks. If you're using Github pages you can even connect the two from Porkbuns website.

I usually just use plain old vscode for writing the website, but I don't think your code editor matters all that much as long as it's something you're comfortable using. I do use the HTML preview extension by George Oliveira in the formatting/coding process, and would highly recommend it as it is invaluable to me in that process.