The story of Sidequests! with Diwa begins with a small python bot.

It is currently the application process to get into my org, the UP Gaming Guild, and one of the requirements is to spend x amount of hours hanging out with members and fellow applicants. Naturally, a gaming org would spend some time on discord together but a problem arose: how do we discourage applicants from "farming" their hours? Typically, being deafened would count your hours out. What even is the point of being on the voice channel if you're deafened? So i tried looking for bots that could help and was surprised to find out that there weren't any!

Long story short, with a bottle of mountain dew and a boyfriend who made me a github and replit account, I glued together a little python bot that would kick a defeaned user to the afk channel. ChatGPT held my hand through most of it, and I was able to get the bot up and running after about an hour or two of tinkering.

That was supposed to be where my coding journey ended.

But a few weeks later, I was doing some reflection about the phrase "niche down". If you're ever content creator adjacent, this phrase is ubiquotus among social media gurus. To be clear, I don't think it's bad advice. I just think it's not authentic. I exist and I am able to view this existence in a way where I can recognize my pluralities. So how do i even begin to niche down? And on that note, why should I? I'm not a business. I'm just a person who exists parallel to the social internet.

That's when I decided I should start logging these multiplicities down -- beginning with my hobbies. Honestly, I have too many of them! I'd even call myself a natural at collecting hobbies. But in order for others to view this plurality, I must make an effort to let others know about them and what i've been up to! And so, I began hunting for a site to start blogging. I initially tried Substack, even considered Tumblr, but they both felt too formal. I figured the best way to get me writing and to keep me writing is to avoid as much friction in the process as possible. How was i supposed to do that if I felt too self-conscious about having the first draft be the best draft?

That's when I recalled the movement shifting away from the core web -- people forming pockets of personal and personalized spaces in the peripheral web. Perfect! if i make my own blogsite, i can decide my own conventions! no need to worry about grammar or proper capitalization, and i can litter my site with gifs and emoticons.

I spent around two weeks trying to learn as much as I can and need to get this website off the ground. With my very limited knowledge of HTML from the trenches of Tumblr, I began to piece together this site. Honestly, I think I've really outdone myself with this impromptu project and I'm super excited to see how my skills will develop as I continue writing and coding for this site.

Thus, Sidequests! with Diwa is officially christened! If life is an rpg, then it's time to optimize my build. How else do you level up quicker if not by taking those sidequests? For documentation, this blog is beginning with the following "sidequests" (otherwise known as hobbies): gaming, fitness, tech, fashion, makeup, wrtiting (more cnf), poetry (more cw), and visual art, linked here but also accessible using the navigation bar on the right.

This pioneer blog post is tagged meta, as i documented the thought process behind the website here. I have also tagged it tech because, well, I talked a little bit about the development of the website itself. I honestly cannot believe I coded this myself! Granted, I had a lot of help from w3schools, stackoverflow, and eggramen, but I think it's still an achievement worth patting on the back. I need to remind myself that not everyone is willing to brute force their way into learning HTML and CSS for a silly little blog!

I hope you enjoy your stay here and I hope you find something that resonates with you! If you have any questions or any comments you'd like to share, feel free to reach out to me on my socials! The site's guestbook/ comment box and my contact details can all be found on the contact page, also found on the navigation bar on the right.

first published: 2024-05-12.
edited on 2024-05-30 for grammar