New Blogginings

the journey of building this blog

Feb 14, 2024

Happy Valentine's Day!

Initially inspired by Benedict Neo's website, I decided to embark on my own journey to create my very own website.

1: Breaking the ice

Following pixegami's tutorial to understand the basics of Next.js, Tailwind CSS, and create the skeleton of this blog.

Things I learnt:

• Download node, Next.JS and npm on WSL - NOT on Windows! It won't work :< Helpful links for setting up your environment:
  • Set up WSL environment
  • Installing Next.js
  • Setting up Node.js on WSL
• Use WSL and do not create your Next.js project in /mnt/c/...

2: Static blogs(?)

npm run build to see which pages are static vs which are rendering at runtime. It appears this blog is fully static but I am still trying to learn what that really means.

3: Adding a navbar

I used Lee Robinson's navbar code and adjusted it to my own preferences.

• Lee's portfolio site
• Lee's github repo for his site

4: Deployed on Vercel...contemplating domain

I deployed this site on Vercel (thanks Benedict for the guidance)! Not sure when I will get my own domain. I want to be happy with the site and there's no rush anyway!

5: Adding pages and styling

No use for a navbar if there aren't any pages to navigate to! Lots of adjusting and styling of the different components. Colour picking could be a full time job.

6: Fun features

Found this Spotify Status Markdown Widget from a stack overflow post. Can be found directly here. Added it to my about page!