Why is your site so ugly?

I was inspired by This page is under construction. It reminded me that the first websites I built around 1998 weren’t about aesthetics—they were about fun. They were messy, filled with tags (CSS was still in its infancy), clashing colors, and low-res animated GIFs. But they were also personal, unique, and creative. Back then, the “personal website” was truly a thing.

So why this design? Simply put, I’m a terrible frontend developer and an even worse designer. That’s why I went with a DOS-style interface—I’ll leave the polished designs to the professionals.

It’s also deeply nostalgic for me. It reminds me of the first programs I wrote in QuickBASIC, the essays I typed in WordPerfect, and the games we installed on our 386s using 3.5” floppy disks (“insert disk 1 of 3”). This design isn’t just a throwback—it’s a tribute to the early days of computing that shaped my love for technology.