First, i want to talk about the blogging service. People called it the CMS (Content Management System). Right, I am not gonna explain that things 'cause it's already on google. You just need to search it!
Allright, let's start the story
It's about 2016. I started to explore the local server of wordpress on my OS, Ubuntu 16.04LTS. I feel cool, you know. It's like i am about to have my own website though i have no idea about the content yet. But, the more i spend my time for this, the more i get confused. I mean, how do i make it online? how do i hosting it through the internet? OMG! I feel so noob about that. And then i just leave it.
On the next year, i started to pursue the "digital painting" whether it's creating my own work or just looking at someone else's work on the facebook, twitter, instagram, deviantart, and artstation. I feel it's like i got my passion for my life. I keep drawing and drawing using my laptop and graphic tablet that i bought that time. And wow! it's the first time for my life that i feel so alive. I uploaded all my work to the social media and it's fun to have all the netizen reaction about it. But sometime i wondered, what if someday i just delete my account, what happen to my work on that account? What if i wanted to get it back. Until someday, it's happened... For some reason i just delete my account and lost all my old artworks.
I need a place where i can publish my work but i can back up when i want to disappear.
When 2018 come, i started on blogger. I just used dynamic template (default template by blogger) that time. It's fun for the first time. I keep upload my work to it until someday, i feel unsatisfied about the view of my portfolio blog. And then i bought clean template by Arlina Design. It's last until mid-year, Mustofa feel annoyed about the my blogspot domain 🤣, then he gave me the TLD (Top Level Domain) .com for free and i get my first aflasio.com. That's the first time i've learned and understand about the TLD.
Move to SSG (Static Site Generator)
Right again, i'm not about to explain what the SSG mean this time, you just need to google it, bro!
Hexo
Not until mid-year of 2018, Rania Amina introduce me about Hexo and the top one hexo-theme (i think) that i fell in love for the first time and i started to move on. I upload all the files to the Gitlab and get hosted from there. That's the first time i realize that i can organize my website's directory/folder for freely and put any files on it as i wanted, not like when i use blogger. I can understand the commands of Hexo (it's easy to use) and i can understand that Hexo use markdown for posting. I feel cool with these things. I feel... i am not noob anymore 🤣 (but for the real, i'm noob, still noob).
And then, the unsatisfied feeling comes to me again. Then i started to think about how do i make my own theme?. How do i make it, how? It's keep bugs my mind day by day, month by month. OMG! why i feel so noob? why? It's comes again and make me stress. But oneday, i don't know how. It's feel like i got the inspiration, NO! I feel like i got an unconscious intelligence. Some how, i understand how it work a little bit. And... IT'S NOT WORKING!!! DAMNIT!!! IT'S FAILED.
I just surender again. I leave it and start to learn javascript from the free courses that Mustofa gave me. And you know what happen? I don't have much time since my mom want me to search another job. I leave it again 'cause i'm so busy for the bureaucracy things 🤣. But i still use Hexo for my main SSG.
Gatsby
I saw that website built with Gatsby is so fast. I saw that the displacement from local link to another local link like no loading on it. I saw that the image using some plugin that showing low image for the first time before load the real size of image, and it's look cool. But if i want to use Gatsby, i need to understand the React and it mean that i need to understand Javascript first and hell yeah... I don't understand all of them.
So, i asked Mustofa to work with me to create a gatsby starter project. I'm the designer and he's the coder. You can see our first projet here. But suddently it's stopped in the mid-way. The problem is i want the post has pop-up like instagram web or dribbble view. And it's seem like a little hard to implement it or something i don't understand so much. But i got the positive side. I understand a little bit of coding things, i understand about the Bulma Framework and Bulma makes me understand about html a little bit. And finally... i can create my own hexo theme that you can see here. Do you think that i know how to code? NO! i don't feel like i understand about it. I just copy paste other theme and other script that i found on stackoverflow or codepen. Also, my friends on the JamstackID help me to do this.
But, since when i moved to gatsby?
It's on the mid-year or 2019, i asked Mustofa to work with me again... again, and again to create a new gatsby starter and i'm again the designer, he's the coder. OMG! I'm so sorry to troublesome you so much. But i'm so glad he's agree to colaborate to create a new starter together. (The hell, how much i use "again" for these words? 😐)
It's because, i don't understand React and Javascript that gatsby use it for build a website. Hmmm maybe someday i'll learn about it, if only i have good enough time. But now... I am happy that out project is ready to use, and i'm not so patient to wait until the final release and...
I just moved on.
That's my story. You're freely to use our starter if you wanted too. Just visit our starter here and don't forget to leave the "star", okay? 😉
I'm so sorry if my english sloopy, and please tell me if there something wrong for the better.