This Website
so i finally got around to building this thing. its been sitting in my head for months and i kept putting it off because you know how it is with side projects. but here we are
why i built it
i needed a place to put my thoughts and projects somewhere that was actually mine. github is great but its not really a portfolio. linkedin is whatever. i wanted something clean and simple that actually represents me
the goal was simple: showcase my work, write about stuff i care about, and maybe help someone else along the way. nothing fancy
the tech stack
went with next.js 14 because why not. typescript for the type safety. tailwind for styling because writing css is boring. vercel for deployment because its stupid easy
the motion library for animations because i like things that move smoothly. nothing crazy just subtle stuff that makes the site feel alive
the design process
started with a blank canvas and just started building. no fancy design tools just code. the layout is minimal because i believe in content over decoration
dark mode was a must. light mode too because some people are weird like that. the color scheme is simple - mostly grays with some accent colors here and there
the challenges
the biggest pain was getting the blog system working. markdown parsing, metadata extraction, all that jazz. ended up using a simple json structure for posts because i didnt want to deal with a cms
responsive design was another thing. making sure it looks good on phones tablets laptops whatever. tailwind made this way easier than it should have been
what i learned
building your own site teaches you a lot about what you actually care about. turns out i care about clean code and good architecture way more than i thought
also learned that sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. overengineering is real and its dangerous
the future
planning to add more projects as i build them. maybe some technical blog posts about things i learn. definitely going to keep iterating on the design as i get better at this stuff
the goal is to make this a living document of my journey as a developer. not just a static portfolio but something that grows with me
final thoughts
if you're reading this and thinking about building your own site just do it. its not as hard as it seems and the satisfaction of having something that's truly yours is worth it
plus you learn a ton along the way. win win
this site is built with next.js, typescript, tailwind css, and a lot of coffee. deployed on vercel because life is too short for complicated deployments