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Portfolio Site History

1st Attempt​

My first attempt was completely overengineered and I abandoned it once I realized this. So on a VM in Azure, I had .NET Core MVC, I had a SQL Server, I was using an ORM... Like Why??? The "justification" is that other people could use this as a base for their portfolio sites, but the whole thing was unnecessarily complex and I felt it was unlikely that people would even want to use it due to the UX/UI. I never ended up finishing this or deploying it, but it was still good C#/NET experience.

2nd Attempt​

A bit too simplified, but at least I finished it, deployed it, and used it to find clients (as well as doing updates every once in awhile for a couple of years)

React in the frontend, no backend because I don't need it... so just build, push to my S3 bucket, and then I have Cloudfront, and Route 53, so TLS works... and that's it. In less than an hour I can have an MVP running. (and at a cost of $0.50/mo! + registration ($1.00/mo) = $1.50/mo). One thing cool that I did here was use playlists in youtube to manage categories of videos and my portfolio would then just call the Youtube APIs. So if I published a new Youtube video, I wouldn't need update my site to show it, I just add it to the appropriate playlist. I guess you could call this leveraging OPB (Other People's Backends 😆)

gif of 2nd portfolio

3rd Attempt​

This site! I've finally found a porridge that tastes just right. My hope is that this will allow potential employers to get a better sense about me and maybe fasttrack through some of the drudgery of the interview process.

Over the years I've created several resources but nothing centralized. My resume contained a link to a visualization showing my experience, but that wasn't directly integrated into my portfolio site.

This project started as simply the effort to migrate my Evernote notes to a place where they were publicly available, but after using Docusaurus for awhile I've come to love it and realize this is a proper replacement for my portfolio site. Docusaurus is markdown based. It is fully featured out of the box, but still flexbile enough that don't feel restricted with what I can build.

Worst Case Scenario:

  • This project serves as a valuable reference for me.
  • The process of developing this site is enhancing numerous skills that I consider to be highly valuable.

Best Case Scenario:

  • The UX/UI delights users, encouraging them to use the site as a reference and subscribe to updates.
  • Users become enthralled with the gamification elements, enhancing engagement and community building.
  • Integration of affiliate links, such as in book reviews, creates potential for revenue generation.

Either way I believe that this site is something I can continue to use and update for several decades