Hello World

# Welcome to the Internet

I'm Dan. I go by "Dan". There was a time when the world was full of opportunity. Opportunity to shape the BLOGOSPHERE. I missed my chance, and as I approach middle-age, I feel compelled to make up for time lost.

Writing: an art all should master. Amidst the incessant cries of "SMASH THE LIKE BUTTON" and the relentless push to "BUY THIS STUFF ON THE TIKTOK SHOP", the internet beckons for substance amidst the chaos. A void that only my brand of rambling madness can fill.

# Start Here

This website, a continuous labor of love, its source code, project process, CI/CD reports, and realtime analytics are all openly available. While the chances of anyone noticing or caring are slimmer than a blade of grass, it's an excellent space to build and share.

And, oh yes, finally, I've carved out a nook to share my delightful recipes.

Shall we dive in?

# What?

For the past six months, I've been meticulously "building in public." Across the vast expanse of the internet, you can explore:

• Every bit of the source code
• The overflowing bucket of self-assigned issues
• The intricacies of ongoing project planning and execution.
• Real-time site analytics via Plausible, hosted here (ad-blocker enthusiasts, continue your noble journey, but brace for a likely blank page).
• Ongoing reports from CI/CD, masterfully orchestrated through the brilliance of GitHub Actions.

# What Else?

The overarching technology stack is comprised of:

# Content (Backend)

• Strapi
  • Sentry Plugin
  • SEO Plugin
  • S3 Upload Provider
  • Custom Hacks and Patches
• Terraform (or should I say OpenTofu?)
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • AWS Relational Database Service (RDS)
    • PostgreSQL
  • AWS Simple Storage Service (S3)
  • AWS Route53
  • AWS CloudFront
  • AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS) Fargate and Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
    • Docker
  • AWS CloudWatch
  • AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)/Networking Shenanigans
  • AWS (Elastic) Application Load Balancer (E/ALB)
  • The Hellish Torment of AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)

# Website (Frontend)

• Svelte/SvelteKit
• Tailwind CSS (base.css)
• PostCSS
• Vite
• Plausible Analytics
• Sentry
• AWS
  • S3
  • CloudFront

# CI/CD

• GitHub Actions
• BackstopJS
• Docker
• Terraform
• AWS
• Lighthouse
• Pagespeed Insights
• cSpell
• prettier
• svelte-check

# Time Well Spent

Each of these buzzwords and acronyms presented its own set of challenges and learning opportunities. In the weeks, months, and years ahead, I'll be sharing insights gleaned from these and others from the past ~25 years of making things on the internet.

# Closing

There we have it, the curtain-raiser, the "Hello World" post. No clean exit strategy here. We never talked.

In closing, remember, only closers get coffee. And what do you know? I hear a cup calling my name.

Stay tuned for more…