About

I'm danrivvxx. Miami, born and raised, and still here.

I used to skate a lot. I'd take the bus around Miami to check out different skate parks. I'd spend most of the day skating and exploring, and somehow I'd usually end up at Barnes & Noble for a few hours. I don't really skate anymore. It's too damn hot, so these days I either go to the gym near me or just work out at home.

Most of the time I'm either playing something, hanging out with friends, or coding. I spend a lot of time on Discord with my friends, usually playing something together. I tend to stick to competitive games, but sometimes they join me, and other times we're all just doing our own thing while hanging out.

I have a server that's basically become our little place on the internet. Everyone hangs around there, plays games, and posts whatever they feel like, whether it's something they're working on, some random thought, or just something stupid they found.

I usually lean toward competitive games because I like feeling like I'm actually getting something out of them. Casual games give you XP, skins, and whatever else, but competitive games actually put a number on how good you are. There's something satisfying about being able to look at your rank and know that you earned it.

I've tried getting into Valorant, but I'm terrible at that kind of game. If someone asks me to play it, I'd probably rather play CS:GO. It's way more fun when you can accidentally—or intentionally—kill your own teammate with a grenade. I'm usually the guy who does it on purpose, which is probably why my friends don't trust me with grenades.

I read whenever I get the chance, but I have to read physical books. I'm currently reading Goodnight Punpun, I've finished all of Junji Ito's manga, and I'm keeping up with Jagaaan. I've been trying to get into more manga lately, but I honestly don't know where to start looking. So if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

I'm trying to get back into drawing. I used to carry a sketchbook with me whenever I went skating and draw whatever caught my attention. I liked sketching plants and trees, especially because Florida can look completely different depending on where you are. But honestly, I probably spent more time looking at people.

Everyone has something a little different about them. Even when everyone is wearing the same clothes and following the same trends, people still have their own features, builds, and little details that make them look different from each other. Whenever I notice something interesting, I'll make a mental note of it and maybe use it later for a drawing or a character.

I'd like to get into painting too. I'm probably going to be terrible at first, but that's kind of the point. Maybe some of the mistakes will end up making the painting better.

I also want to learn piano. I already play drums and guitar, but there's something about a piano that I really like. The sound is calming, and I'd like to eventually use a keyboard with FL Studio too. Eventually I'd like to have a real grand piano, mostly because they sound amazing and would make my living room look ridiculously fancy.

I also miss writing. Whenever I get an idea, a strange dream, or a story that suddenly appears in my head, I usually write it down before I forget it. Sometimes I get an idea and immediately wonder why nobody has thought of it before, then I end up writing the whole thing.

I prefer writing on paper instead of a computer. My handwriting changes depending on how I'm feeling or how fast I'm writing, and I like that it becomes part of the story. I also like adding my own drawings to what I write—not really comics, more like a light novel where an image shows up every now and then.

I'm really into horror, especially the strange kind. SCP, creepypasta, ghost stories, Silent Hill, and pretty much everything Project Moon has made.

A big reason I like horror is that it gets me thinking about the choices people make and how those choices can completely change what happens to them. A lot of horror games put you in situations where you have to wonder what you would actually do if you were the person in the story. Would I survive? Would I make the same mistake they did? Would I do something completely different and somehow get out of it?

That's probably why I like Silent Hill so much. A lot of its horror isn't just about some monster chasing you. The places you visit and the things you encounter can reflect the character's fears, guilt, trauma, and state of mind. It makes me wonder what I would see if I ended up there. What would Silent Hill look like for me?

I think about the same kind of thing with SCP. If I were a Class-D, I'd probably just be one of the unlucky people thrown into whatever horrible experiment they need to run that day.

Project Moon takes that idea in a completely different direction. I love how much emotion is built into its world, especially the way people's minds and emotions can physically affect them. Abnormalities, E.G.O., and Distortions all take that idea in different directions, and I like how much the stories let emotions actually matter instead of just being something characters talk about.

I'm Christian too, which is probably a little funny considering how much horror I play. I just like it when there's more to the story than gore and cheap scares.

When I'm bored, I'll usually play a competitive game or look around for something else to do. I try not to get sucked into reels or short-form videos, and I don't really use TikTok or Instagram. I'd rather spend that time doing something useful, even if it's just cleaning my apartment.

I'm both a stay-at-home person and someone who likes going out. I used to want to be outside all the time, but these days I spend a lot more time at home. I still make myself go outside, though. Sometimes you just need to touch grass and stand in the sun for a while.

I've always stayed up late. I like when it's colder, quiet, and most of the world is asleep. My friends are usually around during those hours too, so it works out. Having a remote job that starts in the afternoon also means I can finally sleep for a normal eight hours instead of pretending I function on less.

I actually like being alone sometimes. I used to meditate quite a bit, and I still like having time where I can just sit there and think without having anything else going on. Sometimes I'll picture things really clearly in my head, almost like I'm watching the event happen, and it helps clear my head.

Most things that make me laugh are stupid, completely out of nowhere, or just something I never expected a person to say or do.

The things that actually annoy me are people who are unnecessarily cruel or inconsiderate, especially when it comes to animals or other people. I never really understood the point of hurting something that can feel pain just because you can. Sometimes I wish everyone had Minecraft Thorns and had to feel some of what they put onto other people.

My relationship with Miami is complicated. I grew up here, and honestly, I've hated a lot of it for just as long. I feel like a lot of people here care way too much about how they're perceived and spend a lot of time trying to be someone they're not. I don't really understand it. Maybe it's useful for money, work, or connections, but I still think you can get where you want to go without pretending to be somebody else.

The driving doesn't help either. I swear there's always someone trying to hit my car. People either drive way too fast or way too slowly, and somehow both are equally annoying.

The Everglades are probably the best part of Miami for me. I love being around the trees and seeing the animals, and it's one of the few places where I can actually forget I'm in a city. I also don't mind the heat nearly as much as most people seem to. I've been around Florida my entire life, so I guess I'm just used to it. I've never even experienced real snow.

So yeah, Miami and I have a complicated relationship. I don't really like the people, I don't like the traffic, and I don't understand half of what everyone is trying to prove to each other. But there are still parts of Florida that I wouldn't trade for anything.

The thing I care about most is nature. Plants and trees have always made me feel strangely safe and calm. I don't really know how to explain it. Sometimes I'll go somewhere quiet, take my shoes off, and just stand there for a while. I get this weird feeling of energy running through my body, almost like I'm finally somewhere I'm supposed to be.

I have this idea that we're only borrowing our energy from nature for a while. Eventually, we'll give it back and become part of everything around us again. Maybe we'll turn into something completely new, or maybe the cycle just starts over. I don't know if there's any real way to explain it, but it's something I've always felt connected to.

I've liked computers and technology since I was young, but for a long time I had no idea where to actually start with coding. I had all these ideas for things I could make, including some that were probably a terrible idea in hindsight. When I was a kid I wanted to mess around with malware just to see if I could make it, but I never wanted to risk doing something that could hurt my friends or break their trust, so I dropped that idea completely.

I've always liked taking broken things apart and trying to fix them instead of throwing them away. I have a hard time giving up on something until I've completely exhausted every way I can think of to repair it. At some point I realized I approach computers the same way.

Part of why technology interests me so much is that I can see similarities between how computers work and how we work. A CPU is kind of like the part doing the thinking, RAM is temporary working memory, and storage keeps things around for later. It's obviously not a perfect comparison, but I like thinking about things that way.

Now I'm finally getting deeper into coding and actually building things instead of just thinking about them. This website is one of those things. Eventually I'd like to build a proper home server once I have a house: storage for my photos, a 24/7 Minecraft server, other game servers, security cameras, and whatever else I can think of. I already have some old hardware to work with, so I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can push it.

I usually prefer making something useful, but if one of my friends asks me to build something completely stupid, I'll probably do it anyway.

I got into music because there was a time when I wasn't very good at expressing how I felt. Sometimes the easiest way to say something was to send someone a specific song and let the song do the talking. I never really told anyone that until now.

I've played drums and guitar for a while, and I used to be in a band until everyone eventually got busy with work. It worked out anyway, because that's how I ended up getting my own drum setup.

I've also tried making my own music, although producing is a lot harder than I expected. I've taken classes and tried figuring it out on my own, but I still feel like I'm terrible at it. I have a bunch of notes and random ideas written down for lyrics, so maybe I'll actually do something with them eventually. I think I mostly just need to find that motivation again.

I made this site because I got bored and wanted to mess around with HTTP. Now it's basically a place for whatever I'm working on, whatever I'm testing, and whatever random thing I decide to put here.

I don't really know what I'll end up putting here over time. Probably projects, random experiments, things I'm interested in, and a lot of stuff that makes sense only to me.

Stick around and you'll probably find some dumb stuff too.