diff --git a/src/pages/about.astro b/src/pages/about.astro index f1c18b1..cc561c1 100644 --- a/src/pages/about.astro +++ b/src/pages/about.astro @@ -4,67 +4,189 @@ import BaseLayout from "../layouts/BaseLayout.astro";
+

Latte / Hidden Den

About

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The Den

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- Hidden Den Cafe is my little corner of the internet — self-hosted, - self-maintained, and free from corporate nonsense. No trackers, no ads, - no data harvesting. Just a cozy space that I built and control. +

+ Hi, I'm Latte. Hidden Den exists because I wanted a personal place on + the internet that feels the way I want technology to feel: calm, + understandable, warm, and fully mine.

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+

Who I Am

- I'm Latte — an IT wizard with a homelab, - a love for privacy, and a deep distrust of companies that treat your data - like their product. I believe in owning your infrastructure, running your - own services, and keeping things under your own roof. + I'm Latte - an IT professional, a + developer, and someone who spends a lot of time close to systems. A + lot of my day-to-day thinking is shaped by infrastructure, maintenance, + deployment, networking, and the quiet work required to keep things + reliable. I like understanding how things fit together, not just using + them from a distance.

- I'm a gay furry developer who builds things because I want them to exist — - not because some product manager told me to. My stack leans toward Python - and self-hosted tooling, but I'm always exploring new things. + I run a homelab because I enjoy learning by building, breaking, + fixing, and gradually improving the systems I rely on. I tend to + prefer tools I can audit, services I can migrate, setups I can back + up, and infrastructure I can replace without begging a platform to keep + my life intact.

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The Homelab

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The Person Behind The Stack

- Most of what runs here lives on my own hardware — Gitea for code, Docker - for deployment, nginx for serving. Where physical infra doesn't make sense, - I rent VPS capacity from OVH and Play.hosting. For work, the Microsoft 365 - ecosystem does what it needs to do. + The technical side is real, but it is not the whole story. I'm also a + gay furry developer with a soft spot for cozy cafe aesthetics, warm + tones, coffee culture, quiet spaces, and slow building. I am much less + interested in performing some polished hacker persona than I am in + making a space that feels thoughtful, lived in, and unmistakably human.

- The goal isn't purity — it's control. Keep data minimal, choose providers - you understand, avoid surveillance-adjacent platforms. Self-host what you - can; rent infra where it's practical; use what you need without pretending - you don't. + Hidden Den reflects that mix. It is technical, but not sterile. It is + personal, but not performative. It is a place where infrastructure, + writing, projects, experiments, and internet philosophy can sit next to + warmth, identity, and the kinds of details that make a site feel like + someone actually lives there. +

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+ More cozy tech wizard than cyberpunk hacker. +

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How I Tend To Build

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Understand It

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+ I am most comfortable with systems I can inspect and reason + about. If I do not understand the tradeoffs, the failure modes, + or the path out, I do not feel like I really own the tool. +

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Keep It Durable

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+ I prefer setups that can be backed up, migrated, repaired, and + replaced. Durable systems are not always flashy, but they age + better and make better foundations for real life. +

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Leave Room For Care

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+ I care about interfaces and environments that feel intentional. + Warmth matters to me. I do not think technical spaces need to be + cold to be serious. +

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Stay Practical

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+ I do not treat purity as a goal. I self-host a lot because it + teaches me things and gives me control, but I still care about + workable systems more than ideological posturing. +

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Why Hidden Den Exists

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+ This site is not a portfolio, a startup brand, or a personal marketing + project. It exists because I wanted a real personal website again: a + place for writing, projects, experiments, infrastructure notes, and the + kinds of ideas that do not fit neatly into social platforms. +

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+ I wanted something quieter than a feed and more honest than a polished + personal brand. Hidden Den gives me room to publish on my own terms and + let the site grow slowly, in the shape that actually suits me.

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Ethos

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  • privacy: Your data is yours. Period.
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  • self-hosting: If you can run it yourself, you should.
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  • open source: Knowledge should be shared.
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  • small web: The internet is better when it's personal.
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    Why This Matters To Me

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    + Working with infrastructure changes how you see the internet. It reveals + the parts most people never notice: who owns the platform, where the data + goes, what happens when the service changes, and how little control people + often have over the spaces they depend on. That matters to me both + technically and personally. +

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    + I care about technology that feels intentional instead of engineered for + surveillance, lock-in, or endless engagement. I want the tools around me + to be legible. I want the places I spend time in to respect the people + using them. Hidden Den is one small attempt to build that kind of space. +

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On The Internet I Want

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+ Too much of the modern web is optimized for extraction: attention, + behavior, identity, and dependence. I prefer a smaller internet made of + personal sites, weird projects, community infrastructure, and spaces + that are allowed to be specific. Not everything needs to become a + platform, and not every page needs to be a funnel. +

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+ I still believe the web is better when more people make places that feel + like their own. Places with taste. Places with personality. Places that + are maintained because someone cares about them, not because they have + been optimized against a dashboard. +

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Privacy-First, In Practice

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+ Privacy is part of the philosophy here, but it is also part of the + implementation. Hidden Den avoids trackers, ads, invasive analytics, and + unnecessary third-party dependencies. Static pages are not a compromise + for me. They are often the cleaner solution. +

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+ The same goes for the infrastructure behind the site. I prefer systems I + can audit, migrate, back up, and replace. People should be able to visit + a personal website without quietly being turned into a behavioral profile. +

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  • no trackers: Visitors are guests, not telemetry.
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  • minimal dependencies: Fewer external systems means fewer leaks.
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  • self-hosting bias: Control matters when the tradeoff is reasonable.
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  • human scale: The site is built to feel inhabited, not optimized.
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What I Want This Place To Be

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+ Hidden Den is meant to feel like a quiet corner of the internet: warm, + thoughtful, technical, and personal. A place where I can share what I am + building and thinking about without flattening myself into a bio, a + brand, or a feed. +

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+ If this page does its job, it should feel clear that there is a real + person behind the site. Someone who likes systems and infrastructure, + cares about privacy, prefers warm light over neon, and still thinks the + internet is worth building on carefully. +

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+ @@ -117,6 +239,14 @@ import BaseLayout from "../layouts/BaseLayout.astro"; margin-bottom: var(--space-lg); } + .eyebrow { + color: var(--color-text-dim); + text-transform: uppercase; + letter-spacing: 0.24em; + font-size: 0.75rem; + margin-bottom: var(--space-sm); + } + .title { font-size: 2rem; font-weight: 700; @@ -131,6 +261,13 @@ import BaseLayout from "../layouts/BaseLayout.astro"; user-select: none; } + .lead { + color: var(--color-text); + line-height: 1.8; + max-width: 36rem; + margin: 0 auto; + } + .section { margin: var(--space-lg) 0; } @@ -153,11 +290,56 @@ import BaseLayout from "../layouts/BaseLayout.astro"; margin-bottom: 0; } + .callout { + margin-top: var(--space-md); + padding: var(--space-md); + border: 1px solid color-mix(in srgb, var(--color-accent) 30%, transparent); + background: + linear-gradient( + 135deg, + color-mix(in srgb, var(--color-accent) 10%, transparent), + transparent 70% + ), + color-mix(in srgb, var(--color-bg-light) 84%, transparent); + border-radius: 8px; + } + + .callout p { + color: var(--color-text); + line-height: 1.7; + } + .highlight { color: var(--color-accent-bright); font-weight: 700; } + .value-grid { + display: grid; + grid-template-columns: repeat(2, minmax(0, 1fr)); + gap: var(--space-md); + } + + .value-card { + padding: var(--space-md); + border-radius: 8px; + background: color-mix(in srgb, var(--color-bg-light) 88%, transparent); + border: 1px solid color-mix(in srgb, var(--color-surface) 70%, transparent); + } + + .value-card h3 { + color: var(--color-accent-bright); + font-size: 0.95rem; + text-transform: uppercase; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + margin-bottom: var(--space-xs); + } + + .value-card p { + color: var(--color-text-dim); + line-height: 1.7; + } + .values { list-style: none; display: flex; @@ -175,6 +357,10 @@ import BaseLayout from "../layouts/BaseLayout.astro"; font-weight: 600; } + .compact { + margin-top: var(--space-md); + } + .footer { margin-top: var(--space-xl); text-align: center; @@ -221,6 +407,14 @@ import BaseLayout from "../layouts/BaseLayout.astro"; .divider { font-size: 0.6rem; } + + .lead { + font-size: 0.95rem; + } + + .value-grid { + grid-template-columns: 1fr; + } } @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {