Website Refresh

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged on this website. As often happens with personal websites, it’s easy to get distracted with other responsibilities and not make an update for awhile. I’ve enjoyed refreshing the website and getting reacquainted with Gatsby though, so it’s all good.

I started this site as a Jekyll blog, then switched over to Gatsby and am glad I did. The GraphQL Data Layer is actually really helpful for dealing with different types of content. I explored rewriting the website with Next.js, but the Gatsby ecosystem is made for exactly this kind of thing.

I’ve also discovered a new blogging workflow using NotePlan that I’m really liking. I made a folder for blogging in NotePlan and have it symlinked to a drafts folder in my Gatsby repo, so I can blog in NotePlan and it automatically previews on localhost. It even works with the mobile app, so I can make updates on my iPhone and it gets pushed to my local dev environment. I use NotePlan every day, so maybe it will make me want to blog more often.

I also switched over to Tailwind CSS which is amazing. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it’s lots of fun. It’s great to be able to add styling rules without having to come up with a name for a new CSS class, and it makes it easier to keep styling consistent. Tailwind UI has been pretty helpful too.