@jermybiju

#Devlog 5 alright, final devlog for this project.
if you saw my earlier devlogs, you might notice the site looks completely different now. yeah, i basically rewrote everything from scratch.

stardance reviewer pointed out that the earlier version looked too generic / ai-generated, so i took that feedback seriously. i scrapped all the boxes, gradients, and dark-mode stuff. replaced it with a clean, flat design — no boxes, no shadows, just text, borders, and a simple layout. also added some custom js features like a random quote generator and a click counter.

this is the version that got approved by the reviewer (they called it “awesome project” ). so if you’re checking out the live site, this is what you’ll see now.

thanks to whoever rates this. feedback is always welcome. 🙌

Devlog #4 I eventually made time to address the minor issues that were bothering me. spent some time adjusting the light mode; I had to go through CSS to update the skill tags that were previously practically invisible in light mode. Furthermore, it included a floating back-to-top button that only appears when you scroll down a little (far more helpful than I anticipated, lol). Now that the certificate zoom feature is operational, clicking on any certificate causes it to appear large on the screen. Moreover, it made the entire thing responsive so that it no longer appears strange on phones. I’m generally pleased with the outcome. feels much more refined than it did before. I’ll deploy it somewhere and ship it shortly. ✌️

Devlog 3—finally some progress lol. * * So today I kind of wrapped up the portfolio thing. Added my certificates finally—got 4 of them up (WHO long covid, UNICEF AI & Chat, and another one on digital health). It took me a while to get the screenshots cropped properly, but they’re there now. also added a zoom thingy for the certs—click on any certificate and it pops up big on the screen. Honestly, I spent way too much time trying to get the lightbox modal working, but it’s fine now, I guess. Light mode was giving me a headache, though. Everything looked great in dark mode, but the moment I switched to light mode The certificate texts just vanished into thin air lmao. had to mess around with CSS for a bit but finally fixed it. Anyways, I pushed everything to GitHub. Tomorrow I’ll probably deploy it somewhere and ship it on Stardance.

Day 2: Personal Site – Interactive Modal & Bug Fixes

Today was a productive day! I completed the core functionality of my personal site and made it more interactive.

What I Accomplished

• Fixed CSS Animation Bug:
  Corrected the fade-in effect for the cards. Now the page loads smoothly with a nice fadeIn animation.

• Custom Modal Box (No Browser Alert!):
  Built a beautiful dark-themed modal pop-up using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  Now when you click on About, Projects, or Contact, a stylish box opens with detailed information instead of a boring alert.

• Clickable Contact Links:
  Added live links to my GitHub and Email directly on the Contact card.

  • GitHub: @jermybiju
  • Email: [email protected]

• Dynamic Year in Footer:
  Used JavaScript to automatically update the copyright year. No more manual updates!
  Example: © 2026 → changes automatically.

Day 1 - Personal Site Progress 🚀 What I did today:Set up VS Code, Git, and Hackatime for time tracking.Created the full HTML structure with 3 main sections: About Me, My Projects, and Contact.Styled the site with a dark theme, custom gradient colors, and smooth hover effects on the cards.Added a fade-in animation so the cards appear smoothly when the page loads.Added a new “My Interests” section (Space, Robotics, Web Dev, Gaming) to make it more personal.Fixed a CSS warning (background-clip) to keep the code clean.Pushed all the code to GitHub (Public repository). What I will do tomorrow (Next Steps): Deploy the website to Vercel to make it live on the internet.Add a live digital clock using JavaScript.Submit (Ship) the project on Stardance after deployment!Screenshot attached: My personal site homepage with all sections visible.

“From Practice to Project” Finally touched the actual project file for WildfireWatch today 😅 Up until now I’d just been messing around in the day2, day3… practice files — today’s the first time I added something to the real main.py.
Right now it’s pretty simple — it prints the project name, confirms it’s going to run on NASA FIRMS fire data, and a “Status: Starting…” line so I can track where the program is in its startup flow.
Basic stuff, but it felt like a real shift going from practice files to actual project code. Next up — trying to pull live data from the NASA FIRMS API, then figuring out how to parse it so I can start on the distance calculation from a user’s location.