Think of this as part 2 of Our Protagonist Returns.
For the past year-and-a-half, I have really wanted to overhaul this site.
I started this incarnation of Text and Hubris exactly 8 years ago. I learned this because I archived the old site today and saw that my first commit was made March 20, 2014. It was a strange synchroncity, but it felt oddly appropriate. Like me, this site has gone through a lot of changes. When I began, I had just finished my masters degree and was starting on my doctorate. I was in a new town (I miss you Milwaukee!!), in a new school, and facing a ton of new challenges.
This site was an expression of that. I wanted to share what was happening and to talk about what I was learning. There was a palpable excitement about the future and what was coming next.
Somewhere along the way, in the midst of deadlines, papers, graduation, job hunts, moving, job changes, pandemics, and general life chaos - this site (and, of course, I) lost that a bit of that enthusiasm. In the future, I will consider that a warning sign. When I stop wanting to share or feeling like I have things to share, something is wrong with what I am doing. When I draw back in stress and concern, I need to stop and evaluate what is going on. This site, then, is my proverbial canary
in a coal mine.
The truth is, I am still really excited about the future, and there is a ton I want to share. So, I am going to do it.
But first, the old site needed to go. My workflow with Pelican was slowing me down. That is not Pelican’s fault, that is mine. I began using that software a long, long, long time ago and my overall process never changed even as they improved. I had a custom build environment that was not portable and required a significant time investment just to set up. This made posting a chore. I like static hosting because it gives me flexibility, power, but it is also fun. I wasn’t getting that with Pelican anymore.
Hugo was always my choice for a new static site generator. It’s fast and I love the design approach. I was just extremely leery about moving away from my theme. I put a lot of work into making the previous site look exactly the way I wanted it to, and I built off the work of a ton of talented people. I wasn’t sure I was ready to let that go.
Then I discovered Terminal. I love this look and it was a great starting point for me to start redesigning what I want this site to be.
You’ll notice a few modifications to the theme. I really like the cool blues of Nord, so I built a version for Terminal. Nord provides ways for better integration, though, and I am going to set that up in the next iteration of the design work. I also intergrated Fontc Awesome with a shortcode for quick inclusion into posts. Hugo has emojify for emojis, but I wanted broader flexibility and Font Awesome allows me to keep the same visual aesthetic (including duotone where possible) as the rest of the site. I also added support for social icons (using Font Awesome) and placed them in an unobtrusive spot near the logo. They work for me, but I think I can make them even more flexible in the future.
I did move over several posts from the previous site. The actual URLs have changed, but the content is still there. I would rather not use the previous URL structure, and this saves me the work of having to do that.
So, here we are: new site - new face - new start. Let’s see where it takes us!