# Hello, World: Rebuilding This Site to Be Quieter

Why I stripped the glow effects, added a light mode, and kept the terminal — notes from redesigning this portfolio toward minimalism.

Published: 2026-07-05

This site used to be loud. Glow borders, ~40 canvas-animated skill tiles, 3D-tilting
project cards, scroll-triggered reveals on everything. Fun to build — exhausting to read.

The redesign keeps one rule in mind: **personality should be discovered, not shouted.**
The WebGL grid in the hero is still there, just quieter. The terminal is still there
(try the button in the corner, or press <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>K</kbd> and type `>`).
The Konami code still works. But the default experience is now mostly typography,
whitespace, and a single cyan accent.

## The stack

Nothing exotic — the interesting part is what got _removed_:

```tsx
// Before: every skill tile was a canvas animation
<PixelCard variant="blue" gap={10} speed={5}>
  <SkillTile name="React" level="Expert" />
</PixelCard>

// After: it's a <span> with a border
<span className="rounded-md border px-2.5 py-1 text-sm">
  <SiReact /> React
</span>
```

Removing the effect components cut the home page's client bundle noticeably, and
the page no longer runs dozens of `requestAnimationFrame` loops while you're just
trying to read what I do for a living.

## What stayed

- The **terminal** (`NormanCLI`) — now with `theme`, `ls blog`, and `cat blog/<slug>` commands
- The **easter eggs** — `steam balatro`, `akaza`, and the Konami code
- The **shader** — one subtle ambient layer instead of five competing ones

More posts soon — probably about WebGL lighting in [Lighting VTT](https://lighting-vtt.xyz/),
or building dialog-tree tooling for game devs.