Reasons why this website is so plain.

Text-only browsing

I use a terminal-based text-only browser called w3m. I love it because it's so plain and quiet and fast. Since switching, I've come to better appreciate the importance of thoughful writing and accessible content design.

My site is not perfect, but it felt like a natural starting point for learning to do better.

Nostalgia and cosy comfort

I take comfort in sites that don't yell at my eyes with flashy graphics, banner ads, and noisy images that don't add much value to the information.

Sometimes the web feels like a deluge of visual junk food, and it can be nice to munch on a bit of bland internet porridge under a blanket of empty space in a terminal window. It reminds me of being slightly less inundated and advertised to before certain technologies and digital marketing became so ubiquitous.

Reducing energy footprint

As in, the energy it takes to transmit data from my webserver to your computer, and the energy it takes for your computer to render it. Even at this miniscule a scale, this energy has a carbon cost, and we are in the midst of a climate crisis.

Maybe this effort makes no difference in the grand scheme of things, but I think of it as my "couch to 5k" training for learning to think and care about the earth.