A blog is born!
Welcome to Snowdrift, a handmade blog built of blood, sweat, and tears (otherwise known as javascript) and C#! A blog is something I've wanted to maintain on this site for a hot minute, as a place to record my thoughts, processes, and tidbits of wisdom as I navigate various new technical experiences and fortify my existing knowledge.
Oftentimes, while exploring the depths of software (usually Unity) to do something outside of its normal usage scope, I've wished to be able to record and share my findings and solutions towards what may otherwise be a scarcely explored, niche topic on the internet. I figured a blog was a great medium to do this, though I wanted it integrated into my site because... Well because it's cool to have here rather than on some random hosted CMS blogging platform. Additionally, it was something I'd never done before, and shockingly I quite enjoy the occasional web development adventure. I considered integrating an existing CMS into my site, but that sounded both arduous and tremendously boring, so I made one!
I suppose a blog isn't really the most exciting thing in the world, as is evidenced by the politely feigned interest of those close to me I've excitedly shown, but it is an opportunity to share my thoughts not just with other people, but with my future self. On top of that, it serves as a great way to fortify things I've learnt, at least as long as my high school teachers had been telling the truth at the time, and it's another addition to my repertoire of skills.
So, behind the scenes, what exactly is this blog? The answer: an ASP.NET SignalR backend reading from collections of XML and custom markup files duct taped with websockets to a javascript frontend, all hammered into the existing site architecture. Despite this, the javascript source of the site is actually cleaner than when I began. I guess it's a case of "the straw that broke the camel's back"; the addition of the code required for the blog sent the monolithic main.js over my personal "this is unworkable" threshold. It's a bit besides the point, but I'm bewildered as to why the original author of the HTML5 template shoved all the code into a single file. Whether it's some obscure performance concern I'm not aware of, or simply the fact that javascript developers are terrifying, I am unsure.
I plan to write something for my current project "The Devil's Cookbook" on here sometime soon. Hopefully that post is a little less dry and more useful than this one was, but as recompense (and as a way to test my image markup) I provide a picture of my favourite little girl in the entire world, my forever-a-baby cat: Kit.
