everything.
a collection of writings. thoughts, feelings, and NONSENSE. everything that makes me who i am.
usually when writing (especially when writing my journal entries) i listen to my thinking playlist. it’s all just soft instrumentals, so it always helps me think, or even to set the mood for when i’m reading books.
lore
i’ve been journaling (intentionally) since i was 18, throughout my first relationship. i used to write everything in my iphone’s notes app, but a few years ago i switched to Notion (and Obsidian), where i write EVERYTHING, they’ve become my 2nd brain.
journaling has become a healthy(ish) outlet for me to understand and look back at the life i’m living. i tend to write about love and relationships the most because i believe it’s just naturally the most powerful emotion i’m capable of feeling.
i suddenly got the urge to
why ?
i’ve always written things, so even if this system didn’t exist, my writings still would. i wanted to share my writings because :
- i suddenly felt inspired to (see inspirations below).
- sometimes my writings sound poetic, i wanted to share those.
- i’m learning to be more vulnerable. this system forces me to behave (irl) as honest as i do here.
- i like the idea of owning my files (hence why i love using Obsidian too). if Notion ever vanishes or loses my data, this system will act as a surviving archive.
- or if i ever die unexpectedly, everything written here will be my receipt of the life i’ve lived.
- i wanted a way to shout into the void.
i’ve come across this video recently and it captures some of my reasons as to why i write too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQROgXldDRY
‘not to record thoughts, but to generate them’.
how the system works
i’ve made this system using Notion’s API and a lot of help from ChatGPT (sorry).
the system turns every entry within a specified notion database into a HTML file with my own CSS wrapping , allowing it to look the exactly way i want it to. not ALL my pages are shown because i want to keep some level of privacy / vulnerability.
the system at it’s current state is a little barebones and slow, it’s not perfect. i’ve made it so i can use both the manually exported notion file, and or the automatically converted file (via API), because the manually exported files retain more of it’s properties, like dropdown menus or callouts.
Behind the scenes, this is what my system does :
- fetches all pages within given databases.
- turns notion properties (from fetched pages) into a packaged HTML file.
- wraps generic HTML file in my CSS and HTML templates for custom styling.
- reads page properties to decide if and where to upload wrapped files (/feelingsIveFelt, /booksIveRead, etc)
- sorts all pages into a JSON file.
- reads JSON file to create and sort sidebar elements for system-wide navigation.
Inspirations :
one of the biggest sources of inspiration for this new site/system. a friend sent me a post, and it lead me to have a little gander through the site as a whole. i’ve always known garry through gmod, and so it amazes me to see the human behind all the work i grew up with, theres something special about seeing all their thoughts and feelings laid out like this. i so badly wanted to make one of my own. it’s helped me not to shy away from just doing it myself too.
while garry is a sort of internet persona that i will never connect with on a physical/human level, the person behind this page IS someone i’ve connected with in person. they’ve shed light on what it means to share your vulnerabilities to the world wide web.
Future Improvements for this system
- Search bar (for post titles, like Notion’s search bar)
- Index queries (for everything contained within a post, like Obsidians search bar)
- System-wide page references
- Fetching only updated pages