@thejavamonk

thejavamonk.github.io

This is my personal blog + portfolio site where I write about things I build and keep a curated list of projects in one place.

What it includes

  • Blog articles on software engineering topics (written for practical learning)
  • A projects section that highlights the things I’ve shipped
  • A simple, clean layout focused on readability

Why I built it

I wanted a single home on the internet that I fully control—somewhere I can publish writeups, document projects, and point people to my work without relying on any third‑party platform.

Highlights

  • Lightweight site that’s easy to maintain
  • Clear separation between articles and projects
  • Hosted on GitHub Pages

Technologies used

  • Jekyll (static site generator)
  • Markdown for writing posts and pages
  • Liquid templates for layouts and reusable includes
  • Sass/SCSS for styling
  • Kramdown + Rouge for Markdown + syntax highlighting
  • Plugins: jekyll-feed (RSS) and jekyll-paginate-v2 (pagination)

Architecture (high level)

This site follows a simple static-site workflow:

  • Content lives in Markdown (posts + pages)
  • Presentation is handled by layouts and includes (shared header/footer, post template)
  • Build step generates a fully static site (HTML/CSS) from content + templates
  • Deployment publishes the generated site via GitHub Pages

In repo terms, the important pieces are:

  • _posts/ for blog + project entries
  • _layouts/ and _includes/ for the site structure
  • _sass/ and css/ for styling