I've been combing through the Spotify data. Some of the .json files don't make a great deal of sense. The one labelled "Marquee" mainly has artists labelled as "Previously Active Listeners" (presumably this is what the algorithm uses to produce the "Jump Back In" suggestions). After messing around with data filters, I've managed to pull together a couple of pages for this site: a wishlist of the digital music I'd eventually like to add to my collection; and a comprehensive list of artists I've streamed over the years.
As I noted on that page, a small number of artists were omitted from the .json file of my "Streaming History". I was able to add in the omissions I noticed, but it saddens me that there may be artists missing from the list because I didn't know their names, even while I enjoyed their music in my playlists. All the more reason to work on building my own collection and record-keeping.
I've been thinking on whether/how to include photography on this site. I'm already growing more attached to the idea of this site acting as a kind of Master Archive. However, I've never been comfortable with posting my photos on the Internet (even though I gleefully and greedily consume others' photos on platforms such as Pinterest). I suppose I'll have to look through what I have and see what's anonymous enough to be shareable. I would like there to be at least a small section, I have really gotten into taking black + white pictures over the past year or so, and some of them I'm quite proud of. Something to think on! ❊
Got my Spotify data back in .json format, so I need to find a way of converting it into something that's sortable. No rush on that front, and genuinely impressed by how quickly my request was fulfilled (less than 24 hours, with a 30 day timescale given).
I'm starting to have ideas for how I ultimately want this site to look. I don't imagine it will be super different to how it looks now - I haven't really got the time or energy to put into coding aesthetics - maybe just a bit tider, and perhaps a few navigation buttons. I'm also toying with the idea of changing the font colour to a soft grey, rather than bright white, but the jury's out on that one. I kinda like the 8-bit vibe (granted, I'm currently using gold instead of yellow, but maybe I can make a bolder choice on that front, hehe.)
Ended up picking up a copy of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power" by Shoshana Zuboff (2019), after watching a video essay on the topic by Brendan Morris. I haven't dug deep into a sociology theory for a long time and I'm very much looking forward to engaging with this subject in depth.
No other site updates of note this time, so I'll leave it here. ❊
Started the database last night, pushed hard on it today. Won't have another clear day off for a while so I was keen to get the biggest job done: the music archives for my vinyl collection & the iPod Nano. It's weird, it doesn't look like much, just a couple of tables. But I had to manually make them. In HTML. Manually. I'd forgotten how arduous some tasks can be that are comparatively seamless in software designed for the job. Fortunately, I find repetitive tasks quite relaxing/soothing, so I got stuck into it, and I'm actually quite proud of what I've made. It's nice to have a record of where I'm at right now, before I start my new chapter with Murphy.
It was... kind of cathartic, going through the iPod Nano stuff like that. Music has a way of stirring memory, and it felt good to recognise how long ago I was listening to the music in that little 8GB capsule. Some of that music has stayed close to my heart across time. Others, it's almost like a Marie Kondo moment: "thank you very much, goodbye."
Working on this site is, from here, going to be more of a pet project. I'll dip into it as and when I can. It's a nice way to connect with my inner child, I think, as well as a way to keep recording things moving forward. Kind of like a digital commonplace book, I suppose. ❊
Made some good progress this morning with the site. Sorted out the mess of folders/images, and set up a file tree for things I'm hoping to include on the site. It's really nice to see it organised like that. Nested folders are a beautiful thing. Also figured out how to make this page look better! divs! borders! so fancy.
There's a slight problem though: for reasons I have no hope of fathoming, I had to switch off the cursor sparkles on this page, because adding the borders borked it. (It was tempting to leave it for a laugh but honestly, it's too terrible to look at even for my trash site.) Literally just raining white bricks that got bigger instead of smaller. :smiling_face_with_tear:
It's wild how much of this stuff is coming back to me though. I haven't touched html in what... almost twenty years? But I guess that's the nice thing about it, there's a logic to it, so it's not so bad once you get stuck in.
And it's been really nice to get stuck in. I think this site could end up being pretty fun, honestly. We'll see how it goes. I dunno how much time I'll be able to put into it after today/tomorrow. Certainly won't be this amount of rapid updates again. On the other hand, though, a lot of this has been set-up stuff that I won't really have to do again. So that's kinda cool.
We'll see how it goes. ❊
I fixed the sparkles! :D I was trying to be too clever and make my divs CSS, but that overwrote whatever the js file is using to set the size of the sparkles. So all I had to do was set the style for each section instead of setting a style for the div in the page. idk if this will make sense later but anyway, dear future me, do not try to be clever with the div styles, it breaks the sparkles ^_^ ❊
it's really just a test page. but it might end up being a longer log of sorts too. just kind of a place to keep track of what I did when in the process of building this site.
today, I worked on initial Setting Up™. I made the home page and figured out how to fix my list of Sturf To Do. I think it'll be fun to leave that list there, for a couple of reasons: firstly it means I'll always know what I was planning to do next after I've taken a long break. Secondly, it'll be kinda funny if it ends up being really long. :P
It feels... weirdly nice, to have a home place on the internet again. A place that I made from scratch, not somewhere I've been stuffed into someone else's template or idea of what looks good.
None of these thoughts are "new", of course. The indie web has been trucking along quite happily, it seems. I feel like I'm both late to the party, and catching a headwind at the same time.
I have a lot of thoughts about what I might include on this site. I kind of see it as a living place to store things. My box of creative seeds, so to speak. (GOD that sounds pretentious. But true, as well.)
Anyway. It'll be really cool to see where this goes, how it grows. Today is just the first page, the first step.
Things I hope to include:
We shall see. ❊