Tech

This is a static website. I edit HTML and markdown files, Jekyll builds and compiles a site, and Netlify pulls the latest build from my Github and serves it out to my domain name. I’ve relied on the work of Agus Makmun’s Jekyll template that I’ve edited, and a very helpful StackOverflow comment giving me the automatic post tag generation code.

With this configuration, I am not tied down to any platform. The least-stable link is Netlify, only because it is off-machine and they could start charging in the future. I’m looking at becoming more independent and simplify the code — there are a lot of scotch tape solutions.

Color

I wanted a simple design, but still some personality beyond just black and white. Instead of choosing a single color, I have a javascript snippet that holds the hex codes of colors I enjoy. I then have a variety of classes that all pull the same random value on page load and color the site together.

$(document).ready(function () {
  var back = ["#703030", "#1F3663", "#355485", "#E3B480", "#705D8F"];
  var rand = back[Math.floor(Math.random() * back.length)];
$('.colorBlock').css('background', rand);
$('.colorFoot').css('background', rand);
$('.colorStyle').css('background', rand);
$('.colorBorder').css('border-color', rand);
$('.colorBorder:hover').css('border-color', rand);
})

Tags

The tag functionality took the most work to integrate within this template. The categories are created by adding them in post front matter and then creating a page in a “Categories” folder. This works with a handfull of items, however I wanted to be able to tag posts with many things and the idea of creating that many manual tag files seemed too hectic. There is now an automatic page created for all tags just by entering them in front matter. Since I’ve copied the posts for the Bookshelf section, I am able to use tags on individual books as well.

Bookshelf

This is my own creation, coming out of a passion for used books and perhaps some vanity. This is a Jekyll collection with some custom front matter and custom photography. It has the capabilities to do quite a bit, however for now I just list the books and link out to goodreads or leave some comments on individual pages.