Jigsaw puzzles

September 10, 2026

I've been really getting into doing jigsaw puzzles again haha. Me and a couple friends will sometimes get to school early to hang out and work on the jigsaw puzzle in the library, and it's making me remember how much I used to enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles!

My family usually has one going too, so I need to remind myself to work on it from time to time haha--it can sometimes be tricky to find time with all my schoolwork and other responsibilities I need to do xP.

But anyways, the one we are doing at school right now is a cute puzzle with a lot of animals. It's a bit easier compared to some of the more expansive ones, I think it's like 500 pieces or something, and the one I am working on at home right now is a bit bigger, at I think 1000 pieces. But both are super fun!

Another kind of cool thing I learned from our family friends in the UK--in England, they have these things called Wasgij's, (a certain word backwards lol).

Basically, the picture on the front of the box is usually gonna be people looking at something, and the "something" they're looking at is what you will make with the puzzle! Super fun concept, I get to theorize about what it is while putting it together!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find wasgij's in the USA yet, but I'm happy to stick to normal jigsaws as well xP.

Oh--final thing, so I'm planning a couple more things for the site, including the birding starter guide I said I would make, and also some shrines to things! I also want to add a webgarden to display some people's RSS feeds--once I learn how to make my own :p

Quiet mornings & loud evenings

September 6, 2026

This morning I was walking through the woods and I found this little truck beside a creek xP. I'll show it here:

Anyways, it got me thinking about stories haha. How every object out there has some sort of reason it is where it is and how if only we could know the history of something by looking at it. We'd probably be able to learn so many things--I can't even imagine!
But yeah, my morning walk was nice. And later, I got to go see the musical Hairspray along with my mom & sister. It was fun, but I got pretty overwhelmed. My moments of panic have gotten worse lately. I wonder if it's because of a lot of change going on in general. A few years ago, I had horrible noise sensitivity, and then for the past couple years, it's gotten a lot better. But now, things are regressing a little bit.
I'm trying not to think too much of it XP. I know that these things happen to a lot of people, and that it probably won't last forever. I just wanted to talk a bit about it out in the open haha. I haven't felt truely overwhelmed like what happened a few hours ago in a while, so having a space like this to process things is nice.
Anyways, on a completely unrelated note, I found this version of Don't Forget from Deltarune a couple days ago, and it's been in my mind ever since! The extended lyrics are so powerful and cool.
See you all later!
-Aurora

Starting School

September 1, 2026

So I'm getting back into the swing of things with school! I'm a senior in high school currently, so my final year of that, and it's feeling a little wild. Not so much because of the work, but just because this is kind of my last year before my life will look very different. I'm still not really sure what that will entail.
On the one hand, I'm super excited, and on the other, it's a little nerve-racking to imagine everything changing.

If I had to describe how I was feeling in one word, I think I would say "nostalgic". Something about the idea of this being the last year of school has made me kind of reignite some of my passions in the stuff I enjoyed when I was younger.
I mentioned in my about me about getting back into doing stuff on the 3ds; pokemon was a big interest of mine as a kid.
I've also started getting into space & astronomy more; that was probably my biggest childhood passion! I feel like I've been stepping back a little bit and appreciating these aspects of myself that for a while, I was trying to "grow out" of, y'know?

There's something so fun about acting like a kid even when you're not anymore. It really puts things into perspective. One of my biggest goals as an adult is to still make time for fun and joy.

Disappearance

August 27, 2026

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the world was the exact same in every way... except you didn't exist?
Okay okay, I KNOW that my blog went from "birdwatching" to whatever kind of a question this is haha, but I promise I'm not trying to be like "weird and edgy" with this kinda thing xP.
It's just something I've been wondering about. What if... you disappeared? Or, just never existed?
I think at first glance, this question seems obvious. You wouldn't exist! Big whoop. But when you really start to unpack aspects of it, it goes a lot deeper.
Think of everything you've ever bought or owned. Where would it be?
Think of the people you´ve met along your life journey, both good and bad. How would they be different without you?
Hmm, I need to figure out how to add a comment section into this thing lol. If you all think you have an answer, (I certainly don't), you´re welcome to share in my guestbook or chatbox if you want! I'll think about it for myself I suppose.
So, I think the truth is that the world, on a global scale, wouldn't be that different. I'm certainly not someone that has made a monumental impact on the world. And yet, I'd like to think that I've made an impact on those around me in a way that is for the better. I feel like I have? I guess you never truly know.
This question, for me, is almost a way to remind myself of that though. I know that I can be prone to feelings of self doubt--and many others can too. I feel like in a weird way, thinking about this question can actually remind me of the logical truth that I do make an impact on others, often in a good way. And for anyone reading this, I'm sure that's true of you too. Stay awesome!
Ok yeah--definitely a turn haha. Maybe I'll outline this one in a different color so people know it's a weirder kind of post??

Birdwatching

August 22, 2026

This will certainly not be the last time I make a post about this topic haha--but since I just completed the basic bird list that I want to do, I feel like I should make at least a little post about it!
I've been into birds for a while--ever since I took an ornithology class at my school. It's so awesome that there's so much variety of things to see, even just in my hometown. Who would have thunk!
The other thing is that even when I'm not specifically going on a "bird walk" per se, I'm still learning enough about them to just hear and see them in my day-to-day life. When I saw them around, I used to just say: "Oh, cute bird!", and now I can say: "Aw, what a lovely chipping sparrow!" or, "oh my gosh a chickadee!" Even just being able to put a name to the face--or coloring--is super nice and awesome and it's been a great hobby.
If anyone reading this is considering getting into birding, totally try it out! (and let me know :o). You don't even really need binoculars--I haven't used them all summer haha
I'm working on a little bird starter guide, so you're welcome to look at it when it's done, but also, the best way to learn is to just get out and do it! Whether you're in a city, the forest, the beach, even a desert, there are often birds around, so there are things you can see.
Anyways, just a little ode to birds haha.
-Aurora

Webrings

August 18, 2026

Okay, so I have just discovered the incredible world of webrings. What an awesome concept! I'm assuming you all know what webrings are, but in case you don't, webrings are basically collections of sites that are all linked together by a central piece of code embedded on each one. Usually, each website will have a button that lets you go to the next, previous, or random site within the webring database. Before search engines like google & bing were as big as they are now, webrings were how many people would sometimes find new sites.
Pretty cool!
Anyways, I'm on two webrings now, and it's actually crazy and extremely fun to just browse websites through there for a while. I've stumbled across some amazing places, some on neocities or nekoweb, or some entirely self hosted! You never know what you might find, and it's really such an awesome adventure to go travel through a webring for a bit.
If you found this website through a webring I'm in, let me know in my chatbox or guestbook! I'd love to hear from anyone who stumbles across this place.
Cheers!

Redid the homepage!

August 16, 2026

Hey everyone! This morning I woke up... and decided to redo the entire homepage! Since I've only been learning html/css for about 3 weeks, I'm still figuring out a lot of basic things. Meaning: I didn't understand how parent/child divs and flex displays worked until yesterday haha. But, now that I've gotten the hang of that more, I decided to take some inspiration from other neocities I've seen, specifically houseinthewoods.neocities.org with their three column design, and redo my main screen with some new code knowledge. I did really love the simplicity of the old one, but I think I was due for an update haha.

Modding a 3DS

August 11, 2026

Topic change haha--but I did this last night and thought it was fun! Using the website https://3ds.hacks.guide, I installed custom firmware on my old nintendo 3ds. I got a super cute theme too! I thought about using a deltarune one but didn't really like the one I found.

Since nintendo stopped supporting 3ds servers in 2023 :(, firmwares like this one have been lifesavers because they bring a lot of that functionality back. I am now able to download any 3ds game onto my device, as well as emulate other systems like playstation 1, nintendo 64, etc.

It's kind of incredible how communities adapt and change to this kind of thing. Even neocities is kind of doing that, bringing back this older internet culture, while also shaping it into something new as well. I remember a while back, one of my favorite minecraft SMP's closed down, but the community members managed to archive vast swaths of the world and set it up on a new server entirely for us to play on. The ingenuity and resilence of communities, both in real life and online, is something to be proud of in many contexts.

(Tone shift again haha--yay modding a 3ds!)
-Aurora

Excited...

August 9, 2026

Ok... I know I shouldn't be doing two different blog posts in one day... yeah yeah--but I'm just so excited!!! I'm really starting to feel like I'm beginning to get into the culture of this amazing corner of the internet--the indie web and neocities.

I was scrolling through websites and ended up on Ransei's void--an incredible neocities! I scrolled to the links page out of curiosity. AND I SAW MY BUTTON THERE!!!

I know for anyone reading this--that's likely not a big deal haha, but to my knowledge, it's the first time that my button has been added anywhere, and on a site as cool and fleshed out as that one??!! Idk I just found it super awesome and had to talk about it somewhere haha.

Once I can finally comment on profiles in a couple days, that'll be great. I'm really excited to start delving into the social aspect of this more; that's part of the reason I was so excited to get on neocities in the first place. Talk to you soon!
-Aurora

First blog post

August 9, 2026

Hey everyone! I'm pretty new to this kind of thing, but I thought I'd give it a try!

Welcome to Silent Shadow. This website is mainly gonna be for me to learn html and css along the way, but I also just wanted a spot to share my writing & my love for hidden mysteries and puzzles.

Along different pages of the website, you will discover that not everything is as it seems. Stories may have elements you can interact with, links to find, etc.

But I also hope that my writing will be interesting to any readers who happen to pass by should they take the time to look through.

And I'm so excited to see the other websites out there! Feel free to let me know--on my profile or in my guestbook--if you would like to add each other's buttons at any point. I'd love to get to know you all!
-Aurora

P.S. - At the time of writing this, I just made my website a few days ago, so I can't comment on profiles yet! But I've already found some very cool people--expect to hear from me soon!