I started this project hoping to have a webpage that I could upload my CV and publications to so that I could have a professional-looking online presence. The tutorial, a 4 1/2 hour session hosted by Andrew Mead of Udemy, was free on YouTube used a static generator called "GatsbyJS" to build all of the components you see on my site.

This was a fake post that we made during the video so that we could learn how to do everything. With Gatsby, which uses React Javascript, it is actually surprisingly simple at the root of all of it., once you get the hang of it of course. However, I had no idea that webpages were so complex when I started this project.

Photos are easily embedded into the post and will then be rendered on the page. Here is a photo of my doggo, Courtney so you can see how well it works!

Courtney, the Feisty Corgi at Christmas

This format uses a web-app called Contentful to source my posts will make life way easier because it allows for a lot of different customization options that the browser plugins from Gatsby will automatically encode into the static-source HTML files.

With this set up, it's simple to make an update and have it show up dynamically on your site. All you have to do when you make a new post trigger a new deploy from your web-hosting site and after it builds, your new content will be automatically, and dynamically, available on your website. Neat!

I'll keep you updated on my progress and will try to post weekly, or more often with this whole quarantine business, depending on my motivation.

Remember, it's not the price, it's the principle.

Lots of love,

Eric