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How does one define a person? By their physical form, by their name, by their personality or their hobbies, their job or their preferences? And how should they decide on a definition that'll stick indefinitely rather than change day by day, year by year?
I'm Luminescent--Lum for short. You pronounce it the way you pronounce a loom. I'm a nonsense lover, a potion producer, and an enthusiast of a million and one things. I feel bad for newts if I have to use their eyes for potions, so I've been experimenting with using honeysuckles instead, but, well, let's just say that it's harder to see through a flower than through an eyeball.
The me who's writing this today won't be the me who reviews it tomorrow. Even as I snuggle comfortably into my adult years, I find myself changing all the time, perhaps more often than I did as a child. Perhaps more often than I did as a college-aged child.
Then again... Maybe I was changing as much back then as I still do today. That's the kind of person I am. A week goes by, and I find a new way to reinvent myself, a new thing to fall in love with, or a new way to think.
That's who I am then: the ever-changing Lum. Now, let me tell you about my site!
This is my beautiful Potion Shop that I've been turning over in my mind since early 2022. Back then, I fell in love with personal websites at first site (though, like many others on Neocities, this isn't the first one I've made).
I had big ambitions when I first created this Shop. I would fill it with all those neat things I saw on all the other sites: blinkies, buttons, virtual pets, Easter eggs, and so on. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. To say it a different way, my wants exceeded my CSS skills. I got frustrated with my inability to make the kind of site I desired and with how slow I was learning.
So, I took a break, and then I came back. Then, I took another break.
Years passed. The novelty wore off, and all the fancy cool things I saw on websites stopped being shiny and novel (although I still do love some of those things). I started taking joy in minimalist styles. I started using a computer which complained loudly if I opened a website that had too many gifs. I started using Lynx, a text-based browser that runs in my terminal.
I returned to my Potion Shop, took a look at all the overly ambitious plans I had for it, and I realized that I would love it just as much if I made the CSS much more simple.
We catch up, mostly, with the present! Welcome to my beautiful Potion Shop. I'll do my best to stock up on new potions and ingredients frequently(ish). But remember: this site may very well be just as ever-changing as me :).
(One more thing I have to mention: I am not and never will use AI in any part of this site. Every piece of HTML and CSS has been written by me, as has every piece of text. As of now, I have one image on this site, and he wasn't generated by AI either.)