Oh, hello.
My name is Eleanor Merces and I’m a 6th year math student located in Calgary, Alberta. I was bored recently, so I decided to make a simple website for myself where I can upload my math notes. Obviously, it would have been way easier to just upload them to obsidian or google drive or anywhere else that wouldn’t have costed me an embarrassing amount of hours to stress over / configure; but I’ve been wanting to learn more about web development anyways, plus the idea of doing it myself seemed appealing.
I can’t do all of that myself since I barely know anything about computers, so of course I cheated a little bit - went to GitHub and typed in “static website generator”. Quartz, which hooks directly to your Obsidian vault? Hell yeah!
I ended up doing a deep dive into Jacky’s Quartz philosophy, plus checking out his blog, and I realized that this might be a way more fun project than just a place to store my math notes. Cue me buying a domain for 2 dollars and finally, after spending an amount of time I will not disclose here, deploying to Github pages. We all start somewhere, I suppose.
A little bit about me:
- I’m a philosophy nerd, and my specialization is scientific epistemology. I was hugely inspired by a class that I took on the philosophy of science in my third year of university. I am particularly interested in methodology, as I believe that the key to a pragmatic science is in targeting/focusing on methods that have more impact. Method is the engine that drives a pragmatic science.
- I’m a huge bibliophile! I have a massive book collection that keeps on growing. I once dated someone who said they needed to buy a house so they had a place to store all of their books - no other reason - and I 100% understood what was meant.
- I really enjoy sports of (almost) any kind. Right now I’m really into biking. When I was a teenager, I smashed my front teeth on pavement skateboarding and had to get them reconstructed…yolo, I guess.
- I love comfortable, “vibe”-y spaces that feels personalized. My house is small and my room even more so, so to make space for a desk I got a loft bed and stuck my desk underneath. It’s decked out with a bunch of polaroids, fairy lights, books, (unfortunately) fake plants, and stuff for my cat Jax to feel comfy as he hangs out with me while I work.
- An extension of the former point is that I’m a sucker for analog stuff. Cassette tapes, vinyls, polaroids, camcorders, physical books, handwritten letters. I keep physical journals that I like to stick receipts, photos, flowers, and other memorabilia into so I can look back on them when I’m older. It’s gonna be so awesome!
- I think that I can be overall described as a person who is insatiably curious, open, and who loves their life. I really enjoy taking the back seat and exploring the places that life wants to take me.
I really loved the idea of a ‘digital garden’ as an intentional alternative to traditional social media platforms like instagram, facebook, etc. In an age where everything is marketed to us as complete, perfect, and smooth, a digital garden feels more representative of something more real: a growing network of ideas that are processes rather than end points.
I’m looking forward to writing more, and I hope that I can plant some seeds in the garden of your mind. :)
Cheers!