20 years of NOVALISTIC.com!

Today, November 2, 2021, marks 20 years since the domain NOVALISTIC.com was first registered, originally by my dad in support of my big brother for his personal website. To this day I don’t know how my brother came up with the name… but it’s unique, it’s (somewhat) pronounceable^{1 2}, and it’s got a certain timelessness that appeals to me. Which is why I was more than thrilled to take it so I could say I had my very own online domain name at the age of just ten, two years after first learning HTML at the age of eight (two years is a long time when your age is still a single digit!).

The fact that its first three syllables happen to be exactly the same as the name of a planet in the first Ratchet & Clank game that came out the same year I took ownership of the domain is merely the icing on the cake!

You’d think a lot could’ve happened in 20 years. Well, a lot did happen, but not the kind of “a lot” you might expect. But still — in the interest of not being overly introspective in what is meant to be a quick commemorative post and an update of what’s going on — what my site has been through over the last two entire decades, what I’ve been through growing up together with the site, is pretty bittersweet to look back on.

From my brother’s teenage whims when he first owned the domain, then my eclectic childhood whims that made NOVALISTIC 1.5; up to my better-developed, standards-compliant personal online space in NOVALISTIC 2.0; past what NOVALISTIC 3.0 “Oltanis” aspired to be; through BoltPress 2.0 followed by a bona fide professional portfolio in NOVALISTIC 4.0 “Sarathos”; and back to my roots in NOVALISTIC 5.0 “Veldin”, where I can be my most authentic, personal and passionate self… it’s been, indeed, unquestionably a lot, even if I know due to my own insider knowledge there could’ve been so much more. And so I don’t want to beat myself up too much over it. Instead, what I have is an opportunity to congratulate myself on going through all this, iterating and learning, and doing it all with God even in the years before I knew Him personally.

The last day of this month will be the 6th anniversary of NOVALISTIC 5.0 “Veldin”. This version of the site never actually reached my original vision for it, and indeed has evidently been falling into disrepair over the last couple of years.

Someone reached out to me through my contact form just last month inquiring about the LEGO Room, which shows that people are still interested in my site and what I do. So, tough as it’s been for me, this month I will honestly, definitely, wholeheartedly make a renewed best effort to update my site again. The web platform and the technologies underpinning it have changed tremendously in such a short time (and “short” here is not the memetic exaggeration of the passage of time people have liked throwing around over the course of the pandemic), which means I’ll even have to re-learn certain things. I’d have to do so sooner or later anyway… so I might as well start with the safest space that is my own website, and start this month so I’ll be at a decent pace once 2022 comes around.

What this means is that, before the end of the year, my site will look pretty different beyond the home page (which will itself see one noticeable but not at all radical change). In fact, different enough to probably warrant a 6.0 version number (in time for the 6th anniversary) and a new codename… but it’ll match the original vision I had, thereby finally bringing 5.0 “Veldin” to a sort of finished state. You know what I mean; no need for additional comments to clarify, I won’t be approving those for the sake of reducing clutter.

I can’t really say I’m excited for this change; I don’t think “excited” is quite the right word for it due to the season I’ve been going through. But I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about it, and I can also feel my motivation creeping back in, and all I need now is for it to stay. I want my site to be the best it can be. And I want to show myself that I can do the work to make it happen. After all, I already did the work to make what you’re seeing right now happen. And I can do more.

See also, on this day last year: :where(:is(#daniel.now))