Introduction

I have a confession: I secretly enjoy the thrill of starting fresh projects. The wide-open canvas, the promise of possibility, it's intoxicating. But then the initial rush of excitement inevitably gives way to a familiar sinking feeling. Endless hours spent tweaking layouts rather than writing. Cursing the unintuitive content management system that somehow becomes less intuitive with each update. And this isn't even talking about the performance migraines – I swear some sites take longer to load than it took me to build them.

That's why Nextra caught my eye. It promised a different dance – a harmonious blend of design and development that seemed almost too good to be true. I've always enjoyed the simplicity of well written documentation websites, as well as masterfully crafted knowledge bases. Nextra seemed to be the perfect middle-ground for me here.

Nextra?

I'm someone who considers myself equal parts designer and tinkerer. I want to make pretty things and have them just work, but also get the urge to rip things apart to tweak how they work. Nextra seemed to offer a truce. Here's what really got me:

• Design That Doesn't Suck Out of the Box I've decided to just face it, my CSS skills are passable at best. I could center a div if my life depended on it but really, would it be worth it at that point? With this current Nextra setup, I'm given a solid foundation to work with, letting me focus on crafting content without immediately embarrassing myself with Comic Sans and blinking text, not that there isn't a place for that somewhere here.

• Markdown Need I say more? I was recently exposed to the joys of Markdown when I started using Obsidian as my primary note-taking app. I'm still in the process of migrating enturely from Google Keep, but my experience has been a positive one overall. Markdown is easy, and it doesn't need to be anything more.

• Performance is Not a Punishment Gone are the days of endlessly optimising my websites! Who would have thought that simplcity actually makes things simpler? This curent system with Next.js as its backbone promises speed as a core feature. That's an instant dopamine hit for me, and (hopefully) a better experience for anyone who stumbles upon my little corner of the internet.

What Lies Ahead

So, what's this blog going to be about? Honestly, I'm still figuring that out. Design rants, behind-the-scenes peeks at random projects, maybe even the occasional productivity hack for the chronically curious. You might even find the occasional surprisingly decent bread recipe or embarrassing anecdote from my attempts at adulting.

Think of this as a digital sandbox where I get to build, break, and rebuild things (preferably not all at once). Join me for the ride, and don't be afraid to laugh at my inevitable missteps.