This is the first note in a new era for this website. So far I have kept the structure pretty grounded on corpo brand styles. A blog section, and about me section, pretty boring stuff. We are now going into a Digital Garden style. Pages will be connected and intertwined like wiki pages and you can explore everything like a mind map. I believe that is the best way to express myself, the things I do and how I do things.

The Vision

• The homepage will now be a Graph. Perfect for the mind map vibe and perfect for someone who really loves Computer Science.
• Everything is a note - no more “blog posts” vs “projects” distinction. No more rigid structures. Things connect organically and links will take us from ideas to projects to other ideas.
• Notes link to each other with wikilinks
• We will work on the graph visualization with cool filters and different views.
• Big hub nodes like svelte or “cars” connect to smaller notes, this will happen naturally as more notes connect to popular nodes.

Technical Approach

Staying with sveltekit but building garden features:

• remark-wiki-link for parsing links
• Custom build-time graph computation
• Backlinks automatically generated
• d3-force (or similar) for the interactive graph

The Journey

Day 1

Decided to burn it all down (figuratively). The old site was too corporate, too “personal brand”. I want something that feels alive, that grows, that connects ideas the way my brain does.

Hashing out the architecture, Key decisions:

• Graph is the homepage, not a feature
• Full wikilink syntax with backlinks
• Mobile can wait. “Best viewed with a computer.”
• Everything becomes notes, even this meta-documentation

Next steps: prototype the graph computation and see how it feels, and restructure all my MD files.

Day 2

• Upgraded to Svelte 5 and SvelteKit 2
• Installed all the graph related libraries like d3-force to build an initial version
• Experimented with filters and categorization

Next steps: organize notes, add proper tags and wikilinks to have a better looking graph.

Day 3

• Consolidated all note scanning into a single prebuild script
• Proper parsing with gray-matter and remark instead of regex hacks
• Tags now create implicit graph edges - projects auto-link to their tech stack without needing explicit wikilinks in the body
• Went from 59 to 74 edges just from that
• Created my cv as a note with wikilinks everywhere - companies, universities, hobbies, all connected
• Built gardening scripts: pnpm forage finds missing notes, pnpm sow plants seedlings for them
• 56 seedlings waiting to be planted

Next steps: actually sow those seeds and start writing content.

Day 4

• Fixed note detail pages not rendering - the universal load in +page.ts wasn’t spreading server data
• Fixed wikilinks not rendering as links - wrote custom remark plugin that converts linkReference nodes to proper links
• Key insight: remark parses [[text]] as [ + linkReference + ], not as a special node type
• Removed broken @flowershow/remark-wiki-link dependency, replaced with 40 lines of custom code
• Site now builds as fully static - ready for GitHub Pages and Neocities

Next steps: layout adjustments to all pages to fit new style of site.

Day 5 - The Great Seedling Expansion

Expanded seedling. The approach: pick a note, chat about it with my LLM, gather the real stories and details, then write it up properly.

Upgraded to budding:

• All 13 gigs/jobs notes (eBay, LoadSmart, LogRock, Giphy, Instituto Eldorado, Empreguei, Teleo, Utyl, Safe Trace Café, Traço Leal, Repunzel, UNIFEI, University of Maryland)
• Bass - actual gear setup, Boss pedal OCD, custom pedalboard from Brazilian hardwoods
• Dactyl Manuform - the full rabbit hole from “maybe a smaller keyboard” to buying a 3D printer
• Chevette - including the legendary 6-hour nighttime heist story
• Woodworking - Steve Ramsey to Paul Sellers pipeline, the eternal workbench, multiple chickens and eggs
• Electronics - telecom background, the Bandeirante’s 32 connections, projects in limbo

Also updated:

• Toyota Bandeirante - pristine condition with original manuals and dealer tag
• GM Classic - seedling outline with the real story
• Fixed wikilink pipe syntax across the entire codebase (was using [[slug|display]], now just [[Note Name]])

Stats: Went from 85 seedlings to ~70. Garden is growing.

Next steps: more seedlings, maybe tackle the tech notes or car sub-projects.

Day 6 - Meta and Machines

More conversational expansion, but this time with a focus on organizing the chaos.

Upgraded to budding:

• Planted Aquarium - the full DIY sump setup with custom siphon overflow, now with Excalidraw diagrams
• Gaming PC - specs flex (9950X3D, 5080, 64GB DDR5), Lian Li RGB ecosystem hell, Linux gaming edge cases
• Bandeirante Power Steering - completed project write-up, Junior Cordeiro the steering wizard, F350 pump kit with Mercedes pulley

Major updates:

• Toyota Bandeirante - full roadmap from the Google Drive list, everything from done items to “maybe someday” dreams
• Transfer case corrected to 3-setting (not 2-speed) - the “tractor mode” is its own thing

Created meta notes:

• Notes to Expand Next - prioritized list of what to write next, balanced across hobbies/tech/life
• Ongoing Projects - every loose end mapped out, including the famous chicken-and-egg dependency chart

New seedlings planted:

• Gridfinity - the Zack Freedman modular organization system
• Underware - under-desk cable management project
• Bambu Lab A1 - the printer that started as “I’ll just use a print farm”
• Welding - currently learning for Chevette bodywork
• Fishkeeping - hub note for the aquarium hobby

Stats: 116 notes total (75 seedlings, 36 budding, 5 evergreen)

The garden is becoming self-documenting. Notes about notes. Meta all the way down.

Next steps: tackle tech stack placeholders, maybe expand the car sub-projects now that the roadmap is clear.