Garbage Collectors Daughter

Colophon

A behind-the-scenes look at how this little corner of the internet works.

The site is a tiny operating system for my brain. Part writing desk, part lab, part scrapbook, part dev diary.

I built it because I wanted a place that wasn’t algorithmic, or corporate, or beige. I wanted a website that felt like my bedroom: personal, specific, curated, a little messy, and filled with things I actually care about.

Garbage Collector’s Daughter is my attempt to recreate the early-web magic of “here is my space,” combined with the engineering clarity of “here’s how I think about systems.” It’s a museum, a reference library, a house with many rooms, and also a place that’s unapologetically cute.

That’s the point.

Philosophy

This site exists because I believe:

  • the internet should feel like a place again, not a feed
  • personal taste is a feature, not something to sand down
  • knowledge is easier to explore when it’s beautiful
  • engineering writing doesn’t have to be sterile
  • playfulness and precision can coexist
  • websites should delight, not extract

My goal is not to optimize for scale or virality. My goal is simply: make something I love to spend time on.

Architecture & Structure

This site is organized as a house with multiple “Rooms,” each a different mode of thinking:

  • The Study (Principles)
    • the invariants, the core truths, the bones
  • The Observatory (Systems)
    • where consequences unfold
  • The Machine Room (Breakage)
    • loud, hot, and slightly leaking
  • The Cabinet (Notes)
    • a drawer of scraps and sparks
  • The Library (Narrative)
    • essays with personality

On top of that, there are the other major sections:

  • Writing – the essays themselves
  • Learn – tutorials, guides, walkthroughs
  • Reference – glossary, cheatsheets, taxonomies
  • Experiments – tools, toys, generators, visualizers
  • Collections – series and curated reading paths
  • About – the meta layer you’re currently reading

The information architecture is intentionally opinionated.

How It’s Built

Under the hood, everything is boring and stable.

It’s built with:

  • Next.js (App Router)
  • React + TypeScript
  • Tailwind v4
  • Headless WordPress as the CMS
  • WPGraphQL for structured content queries
  • Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) to define Rooms, metadata, themes, and experimental blocks
  • Vercel for hosting the frontend
  • Hostinger for the domain and hosting the backend.

I prefer typed boundaries and predictable behavior, so most of this site’s logic is built around simple contracts, clean schemas, and well-defined interfaces.

It’s very well-behaved.

Themes & Aesthetic

The site has multiple themes:

  • Rainbow OS – a soft, pastel, dreamy desktop UI
  • Pixel Princess – pixel borders, crisp sprites, retro-cute window chrome
  • (More themes may appear)

The aesthetic principle is simple: cute, but correct.

I want the site to feel handcrafted, with visible seams, rounded edges, and deliberate warmth, all while still being fast, accessible, and technically sound.

Content Workflow

All content lives in WordPress.

I write in the WP editor, use structured fields for metadata, and fetch everything through WPGraphQL. Each post has its own:

  • room
  • series (optional)
  • tone
  • version
  • difficulty
  • reading order
  • related content

The point is to make the site feel alive. Like it’s evolving, growing, and accumulating.

Acknowledgements

The site is built in the spirit of

  • the personal web, before it became a market
  • the engineers who taught me how to think
  • the artists who taught me how to see
  • and every weird corner of the internet that ever made me feel at home

Thank you for wandering through the house with me.