👋 Happy 2020, Happy Easter, Happy Isolation.
I know, I know - I’ve sparingly spread content across this site like vegemite on toast. In the last four years I feel as though I can count as many updates, both in usability and, more importantly, content.
Between work, travel, and the reluctant pain of using a site I was unhappy with for years I can finally, and hopefully, say that this is changing.
My old site was a Wordpress CMS, hosted externally, paying more money than I needed to for a couple of static pages. The feature sets were monstrous, the load times horrendous, and the customisations were out of my control.
So, with that in mind, I had one goal:
Write more.
The path to getting there was to remove all 🚧 r o a d b l o c k s 🚧 in my way e.g. "ditch Wordpress". This would allow me to:
- Save money on hosting
- Improve site performance
- Edit content in the simplest way I can
- Start simple with my code
- Support writing from anywhere, anytime
I want to have my blog infrastructure reflective of me. Using the tools I use all day, every day. I don’t want flash and fancy. I want it to be simple and dumb.
To get there, I needed a simple, fast, static site.
- 🤯 I didn’t need a CMS. That’s what I have Git for. I use it hours and hours every day, it’s my jams.
- 😍 I wanted to be able to write in Markdown, I use it hours and hours every day, it’s my jams.
- 👨💻 I wanted to write my client-side code in React, I use it hours and hours every day, it’s… sorta, kinda, a little-bit my jams? Okay, that one I can be flexible on, because I also wanted to learn something new.
But… working as a web developer writing software all day, the last thing I want to do when I get home is write software and build websites. So I found myself in a self-imposed Catch 22, not updating my site content because I was unhappy with the site. Not updating the site because I was burnt-out.
Then comes the Silver Lining; The COVID-19 isolation has given me a calm amongst the storm of moving countries and jobs, planning and executing a wedding, and work-work-work.
The Easter weekend has allowed me to catch-up and delve into my new site. It’s not perfect, it’s not complete, but I did it.
- First you do it;
- then you do it better;
- then you do it right… or you start at 1 again because the brief has changed.
So here we are, the start of a new era. For those that care:
- All content is written in Markdown and published to GitHub
- Continuous Deployment kicks in and publishes any release to Netlify as a static site
- I’m using Sapper and Svelte for managing the client side code
- I’m using Front Matter to tag, label and date my posts
- I’m still hosting all my photos at Flickr.
Sure, I’ve lost maps and categories but I get to add them on my own terms at my own pace - if I even want them again :)
EDIT: I now have maps and categories. Updated to the latest Svelte and Sapper and made a few minor tweaks.