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Restarting my website from scratch

Last year, I had the intention to re-launch this website.

Here we are at the end of 2023 and that didn't happen. I'm a year late now. Another year won't pass me by with no action, so I'm cranking this side project up.

What kind of content will be on this site?

Updrift has always been intended to be my work-side. What do I do for work? I'm a developer, which would imply this site would have developer related posts.

The topics will be varied. Programming related mostly, but I'll probably write about my search for a new office desk, as well.

What's first?

First up, is a new logo. My original one feels a bit outdated to me and the orange-y color doesn't lend itself well to both light and dark backgrounds.

old-updrift-logo
Old Updrift Logo

The icon was reminiscent of a wave or swirl of wind.

Introducing the new Updrift logo, which makes use of Dan Cederholm's Cartridge Font available at simplebits.com. My wife, Pamela Winningham, came up with the new icon which is patterned after a parachute riding the air currents. She also hand-kerned a few of the letters.

new-updrift-logo
New Updrift Logo

What's next?

Soon, I'll strip away the styles on this website completely and start building a fresh site design step-by-step. Documenting everything here along the way.

My goals are:

  • Hand coded CSS. No frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Tailwind.
  • Limited Javascript. At first I was thinking absolutely none, but I would like to keep track of simple metrics like web views. That typically entails some javascript or possibly some hidden image. May use some to colorize code examples, as well.
  • Accessible. I'm amazed more business sites don't pay attention to making their sites and applications easier to use by everyone. Individual developers tend to pay more attention to it. Businesses mainly seem to care after a lawsuit is initiated.

That's mainly it. So expect a mess for a while. I'm sure once I start, it'll be slow going.

I plan to stick with using CraftCMS which I'm still happy with.