get to know your local web "master" (we really are stretching the definition of master here, huh?)

ps. i'll put general "sections" here in red bold, but it's mostly just gonna be freeform paragraphs~

pps. to get the marquees below to work, access your computers advanced system settings, go to performance and turn on animations in windows!

hey everyone! i go by astro (she/her) on this platform.

i'm a 20-something jewish aspec lesbian (heavy on the aspec, light on the lesbian) with a bachelors in physics, and im desperately attemping to code my way out of a quarterlife crisis by building a website where i can reflect on childhood nostalgia while exploring & growing into whoever i'm meant to be.

given that, this rendition of the "about me" won't exactly be sparkling or paint the prettiest picture, but i'll introduce myself as best i can. it's nice to meet you, stranger!

im going through a hyperfixation dry spell right now, so here are some of my faves instead...

• samurai champloo
• lord of the rings
• the "to the moon" series
• wolf359 podcast
• fullmetal alchemist
• codename:knd
• golden kamuy
• princess jellyfish

but before all of those, my first fandom was zelda. watching my big brother play oot and mm on the n64 in our basement as a kid, nestled against the scratchy beige carpet... those are some of my absolute fondest memories. meanwhile, my first online fandoms were black butler and ohshc.

oh, and the word "hyperfixation" reminded me - i'm also neurodiverse. i've had sensory issues for pretty much my whole life, but the main struggle for me is EATING (especially texture and smell). my diet is very restricted, to the point i have gut issues. this + obsessive tendencies = i've been asked multiple times if i'm autistic, but i just shrug. i live with it. sometimes i use that label, but naming it isn't the most important thing in the world for me.

as for my favorite music genres... i love folk punk, black metal, midwest emo, 1960's folk (my mom and dad introduced me to it <333), vocaloid, old-time music, roud index-style ballads and klezmer.

my favorite foods are mac n' cheese and strawberries, and my favorite drink atm is guayaki yerba mate in the enlightenmint flavor! no energy drinks with colorful cans for me >﹏< they make my heartrate go crazy

• the first video i ever saw on youtube was weird al's amish paradise, of which i still know all the words.
• i first encountered the ben drowned creepypasta during the moon child arg arc, which must've been in 2010 or something. i remember looking at the website during 5th grade computer lab and shaking in my little velcro gym shoes over how terrifying that shit was (is).
• i borrowed a banjo from a noble prize winning physicist during a research program in the summer of 2022.
• i grew up in the waning years of geocities and the culture surrounding that, but i never really experienced it first hand! this is bc for most of the time after i got home from school, my dad was busy typing away at the family computer doing record keeping for his job.
• judaism and physics are my special interests, and i could probably learn about them or talk about them for weeks at a time and never ever ever get bored.
  
  

lastly, i'm hidden somewhere in this hell video. it was one of my first few cons, ridiculously fun, and i totally bled through the back of my costume and no one told me. good times.

it also reminds me of a personal maxim of mine: cosplay doesn't need to be perfect - that's not where it gets its spirit. you don't need the bodyshape or the height of the character, you don't need to sew (use fabric pens and glue! cobble that shit together from thrifted items!), you don't need makeup, you don't need contacts. all you need to do dress up. all you need to do is have fun.