ABOUT THE SITE:

Like it says in the homepage, this is a website I made because I wanted to try my hands at web dev, have a space to document and display what I love, and connect with other people. On this page you can learn more about my inspiration, what the site offers you, and the concept as a whole. You can also visit this page to see more info about the development or the about me page to get to know me.

Story:

My main inspiration for this site is the sense of wonder that I got from the internet (and computers in general) when I was a child. We didn't have an internet connection in my house until I was like 12. So before that, my only contact with the web was in my dad's office when he took me to work, or sitting beside my mom in an Internet-Café while she worked on her thesis.

Back then, the web seemed like this magical, almost-physical dimension. It was full of interesting spaces where I could play games or look at cool pictures. Each website was like its own world for me to explore.

It was 2013 when we finally got a connection at home. The era of Facebook had already started and everything was changing. But I still had a lot of fun finding community in forums and YouTube comments. Little by little I got more familiarized with computers and the web got more and more corporate. I still love the internet, finding small niche communities, learning old forgotten lore and just seeing all these expressions of humanity in a digital form when you least expect it. But naturally, as I grew up, that childlike wonder started to disappear. And that's ok, I mean, it's expected.

So, I'm making this website to kinda revisit that feeling and just for fun

I discovered NeoCities back in 2024. It was my last semester at Uni. I was a little bit frustrated doing my required-for-graduation internship and thinking of things I could do when I finally had all the free time in the world. I don't remember how, but I found this place, full of cool people expressing themselves freely, with no pretentions. Compared to clinical looking social media, everything here it's so colorful and creative. It took me a year to finally get the motivation and creative drive to actually start working on it (and learning to code), but finally, here we are.

Amenities:

What can you find

I didn't make this site with any purpose apart from self-expression and learning to code. So it's mostly gonna be me yapping about stuff that I find cool.

Still, I can offer you:

• A blog mostly about media that I like and internet in general
• A media log of things that I get obsessed with everyweek (It could serve as recommendations)
• Gallery documenting other creative projects I get into throughout the years
• Some info about the development of this website, in case that's useful to someone

What even is a Cyberspace Highway Motel anyways?

Back in 2024 when I discovered Neocities, my first idea was to make a blog where I talked about appreciating the small details of videogames as digital worlds. It was inspired by the YouTube videos I was watching at the time (AnyAustin, Internet Pitstop ).

I've also always been obsessed with the concept of the internet as a "physical" space. Think of that one episode of Fairy Oddparents or popular 90s terms like “websurfing” and Information Highway.

I especially love the famous YouTube checkpoint. If you haven't heard of it, it was a random upload of a videogame soundtrack with a japanese title. Somehow, YouTube started recommending it to a lot of English/Spanish speaking people. Everyone was very confused by it, but also taken aback by its calming atmosphere. The whole point was that you did not search for the checkpoint, but that you somehow reached it. Eventually, the comment section turned into this very close community of strangers sharing their life experiences and struggles in the form of “checkpoint logs”.

So anyways, I had all of these ideas in my mind and eventually it all manifested in the Cyberspace Highway Motel. Think of it as this resting place besides an infinite road between the sea and a Windows XP bliss background prairie. An old Motel turned museum or road site attraction.

The Translucent Skies part came as I was doing brainstorming for a username. It relates to the aesthetic influences that I had for this website, clear plastic, Y2K retrofuturism, the cyberspace. It was too good not to use it. And I think it's catchier than Cyberspace Highway Motel, so it works better as a title.

I eventually plan to develop more of this whole motel concept and maybe make the whole website more immersive, but for now, this is the main idea.