'Site Updates (Jul 2021)'

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 09:30:00 -0400

I’ve just wrapped up a handful of changes to the site. The site mostly looks the same, but there have been pretty large changes under the hood.

This site runs on Jekyll. It’s a platform that takes Markdown and converts it to HTML. Previously, I was using a pre-built theme called Lanyon.

The theme looks great, but there were a few things that I didn’t quite like about it. The navigation was an issue for me. I am not a fan of hamburger menus on websites. I never liked the navigation, but I didn’t have much interested in changing it, until now.

I also wanted to take some time to add both a portfolio page and my resume.

Over the last week, I took the time to make these changes. I decided to remove the Lanyon theme entirely and roll my own “theme” using Tailwind CSS. What I have now isn’t much of a theme that can be packaged and distributed, but I built this myself. It still looks a lot like the Lanyon theme, but I know how it works and won’t have much issue adding and tweaking things in the future.

Now, the navigation is across the top of the site. And I’ve also added the portfolio and resume pages. I’ve made a handful of other minor changes throughout the site. Most of the changes were under the hood and will hopefully go unnoticed.

This is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I finally got around to it and I am happy that I did.

'Site Updates (Feb 2021)'

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 19:30:00 -0400

Over the past week, I’ve made a handful of changes to the site. It’s been a long time since I’ve made any appreciable updates to the site. I’ve moved to a new host, implemented dark mode and added category support. I consider them quality of life updates. None of these changes are groundbreaking, but these are things I’ve wanted to do on the site for a while now.

Previously, I was using GitHub Pages to host the site. But I wanted a bit more control over things. This week, I moved to Netlify. Netlify has the same ease of use that GitHub Pages provides, but I get a bit more insight into what’s happening during site deployments.

I’ve also implemented dark mode support on the site. I’ve been using a Jekyll theme called Lanyon for a few years now. The theme has been great, but it doesn’t support dark mode out of the box. Adding it wasn’t too bad, but I’ve probably done it in the most inefficient way possible and missed a handful of elements.

The lack of categories is something that’s been bugging me for a long time. I’ve finally added support for them. Well, kind of. Jekyll (the software that runs this site) already supports categories, but the Lanyon theme doesn’t (out of the box). Adding support for categories was easy enough. Each post will show the categories for that post (see the image above). I’ve also created a categories page. So you can browse posts by categories.

I’ve been thinking about a complete redesign for the site. I’m not sure if I want a new Jekyll theme, or if I want to roll my own design for the site. A new Jekyll theme would be an easy way to get a new look. The themes I’ve seen out there aren’t quite what I want. I’m not sure I have the time (or energy) to roll my own new theme/look for the site.

Please enjoy the new features of the site.

blog on Ryan Grier

'Site Updates (Jul 2021)'

'Site Updates (Feb 2021)'