Don't Call it a Comeback

Well somehow it’s been over eight years since I last published a blog post on my own website!

Not a conscious decision by any means, just a myriad of different reasons. Number 1 being that I grew to dislike my previous site and the “brand” I came up with as an extremely earnest teenager starting out in the industry. And with that came a kind of organic disownment as I no longer saw it as a home to post my content on.

In the subsequent years, creating a new personal site has simply been bottom of the to-do list. I got married and now have two young children, which obviously became priority number one!

Blogging, I think it’s fair to say, also isn’t quite as hot as it was 10 years ago in the web dev scene! But what hasn’t changed and never will, is the power and effectiveness of writing as a learning tool.

I initially launched my blog (all the way back in 2010) with high hopes of becoming the next Smashing Magazine, posting roundups, showcases and things of that ilk. But it’s when I began posting about my work with CSS that I realised the true value of blogging.

Posting my experiments, tips, tricks and tutorials really fast-tracked my initial progression in terms of front-end development, and particularly with CSS. This content even landed me a book deal, with global publishers Wiley commissioning me to write an extensive book on advanced CSS3.

For me, writing about a certain topic makes me organise everything I know about it in my head, which serves to really solidify that knowledge and make it more easily retrievable in future. It also unlocks a meticulousness within, making me triple-check everything to ensure what I’m putting out there is completely accurate, and also filling in any gaps in my knowledge.

In summary, it’s nice to have a new home on the web where I feel motivated to post new content. In terms of what I hope to be posting about, you can still expect a lot of CSS material, but also a much greater focus on JavaScript, React and framework specific stuff on the likes of NextJS and Astro. And maybe even some non-web content!