Why Amber Theme?

The story behind the amber theme of this site.

The First Amber

When I was about four years old, I remember staring at a jar of honey.

I would hold it up and study the color, how light passed through it, and that deep golden tone.

I knew I loved that color.

I've loved it ever since.

Bad Taste but Worth It

One night in the late 1990s, Jolynn and I were out eating with my brother-in-law, Yes Serious, and his wife, Allie Nawt, at an Asian restaurant.

During dinner, I learned he had an old amber VGA monitor sitting in storage.

I asked if I could have it.

He said yes, but only if I ate a whole octopus.

It was small. A whole baby octopus.

I didn’t think long. I just agreed.

It tasted awful. I tried not to think about what I was eating. I didn’t finish all of it, especially the head part, but I ate enough to satisfy my brother-in-law.

I went home that night with the working old amber VGA monitor.

It was worth it.

Monochrome

When I was 14, in high school in the early 1980s, I started on a white monochrome monitor—white text on a black screen. That was normal back then. My computer class had both white and green monochrome monitors. I preferred the green one.

One night at home, I browsed a thick electronics catalog and spotted an amber monochrome monitor. I ordered it along with an 8 MHz turbo computer. The amber display was easier on my eyes than the white or green ones.

I spent hours reading, coding, drafting, and learning.

The glow was warm—not harsh, not sterile. It felt steady.

Amber became my color for the rest of my life.

Technology Moved Forward

Near the end of high school, I upgraded from amber monochrome to CGA. It had only a few colors. It felt like progress, but it was limited. Many of the games were mostly red and green—not pretty.

I sometimes switched back to my trusted amber monochrome for long coding or CAD sessions.

Then came VGA—256 colors. At the time, it was impressive. I could see photos on the screen that looked real—not blocks of color, but actual images. Later, I moved to 32K colors, then 64K.

Each upgrade felt significant.

But I still missed amber.

Sometimes I modified color themes to nearly match the old amber monitor. I did this off and on until it became too much work. I created my own themes for Slackware Linux and later Debian. Again, too much effort. Eventually, I switched to full-color monitors with the standard operating system themes.

Major Downgrade

Color by day at work.

Amber by night at home.

The amber VGA brought it back.

It was VGA with 256 shades of amber. Photos looked like black-and-white images, but warmer. Everything had that golden tone.

I wrote code on it.
I worked on CAD drawings.
I spent long evenings in front of that glow.

The center of the screen was slightly brighter. The edges are darker. The amber power LED lit up when I turned it on. The whole room took on a faint golden tint.

Amber phosphors—I never tired of that glow.

That look stayed with me for years.

Personal Website

I built this site with an amber theme for one simple reason.

It feels like home to me and my eyes.

I spent the last two weeks shaping the colors, contrast, CRT glass texture, and glow to match the look I remember. It’s not exact, but close enough.

I named the theme Retro Terminal.

Amber is the one I built it for. But I also added green and white phosphor modes, the same two colors from that computer class years ago. A visitor can switch between them. I mostly won’t. Amber is still home.

This theme and this site are for me. Browse it or not.

This is similar to what I read and wrote every day in my early years. Except for the font, the experience is familiar—black background, amber text, clean contrast.

It’s not nostalgia for its own sake.

It’s the environment where I learned to think and write.