If you’re a long-time reader, you’ve probably noticed that my site has gone through a few makeovers over the years. I’ve hopped from WordPress to Jekyll and a few other platforms, always searching for the perfect blend of performance, customization, and ease of use. Well, I’m excited to announce that I’ve finally found it. I spent the last week completely rebuilding my site from scratch with Astro, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
The “Why”: A Much-Needed Refresh
The timing for this project was perfect. My company offers “Dev Days,” which are essentially paid time off for us to learn new skills and work on personal development. I decided to use this time to finally give my site the overhaul it deserved (along with a host of other accomplishments). My old site was showing its age, and I was itching to learn new stuff.
Astro had been on my radar for a while, a simple content-focused framework with the flexibility to use any UI components I wanted was too good to pass up. The official tutorial was a breeze, and I was up and running with a basic site in no time. From there, it was just a matter of making it my own.
A Little Bit About Astro
For those who are curious, Astro is a static site generator that’s designed for building content rich websites. What I love about it is that it ships zero JavaScript by default. It renders your entire site to static HTML during the build process, which makes it incredibly fast.
You can still use UI components from React, Vue, or Svelte, but Astro will only load the JavaScript for those components when they become visible on the page, something they call islands. This island architecture is what makes Astro so performant. If you’re looking to build a blog, portfolio, or documentation site, I highly recommend checking it out.
What’s New: A Tour of the Upgrades
This wasn’t just a fresh coat of paint; it was a complete architectural overhaul. Here are some of the highlights:
- A Brand New Theme: The most obvious change is the new look and feel. I’ve gone for a cleaner, more modern design that’s easier on the eyes.
- Light & Dark Mode: That’s right, you can now switch between light and dark themes! Your eyes will thank you during those late-night reading sessions.
- Improved Code Readability: I’ve updated the syntax highlighting for my code blocks, making them much more readable and visually appealing.
- Responsive Design: The site is now fully responsive, so it looks and works great on any device, from a large desktop monitor to your smartphone.
- PWA Support: I’ve added PWA support. This means you can “install” the site on your mobile device for a more native-app-like experience. It was surprisingly easy to set up, and it’s a cool feature to have.
- Integrated Search: I’ve added a search bar to the top of the site, allowing you to easily find projects and blog posts. No more endless scrolling!
- A Dedicated Projects Page: I now have a dedicated page to showcase some of the projects I’ve worked on over the years. It’s a great way to see what I’ve been up to outside of my blog.
- Social Media Metadata: I’ve added proper social media metadata, so when you share a link to one of my posts, it will have a nice-looking preview with a title, description, and image.
- No More Dead Links: I’ve gone through and updated many of the links on my older posts, replacing dead ones with links to the Wayback Machine where possible.
Hosting: Still on GitHub Pages
While the underlying technology and code have seen a complete refresh, one thing remains constant: my hosting solution. This site is still proudly hosted on GitHub Pages. I absolutely love it because it’s a free option for static sites, and it integrates seamlessly with my development workflow. All the code is managed in a GitHub repository, and every push to the main branch automatically triggers a deployment, making the publishing process incredibly smooth.
Other Goings-On
It’s been a busy week for me outside of this project as well. I’m proud to announce that I’ve officially earned my AWS Certified AI Practitioner certification! The exam was more straightforward than I expected, so I’m going to schedule the Associate-level exam for next week.
I also put the finishing touches on my MTG MCP server, which you can learn more about on my new Projects page.
It’s All Open Source!
I’m a big believer in open source, so I’ve made the entire codebase for this site available on GitHub. Feel free to browse the code, and if you have any questions or suggestions, don’t hesitate to open an issue or a pull request. Just be sure to check out the license first (code is free to use, not the content).
I’m really happy with how the new site turned out, and I’m excited to continue sharing my thoughts and experiences with you all on this new and improved platform. Thanks for reading!