Is this still on? My blog in 2016 and rebuilding ClarkNarvas.com

Hello everyone! Happy New Year.

2020 has concluded, and with that out with the old and in with the new. Welcome to the brand new blog!

My first blog... from 2016

As a small commemoration to kick start the new year and the new blog, I thought it might be a good idea to show you my very first personal blog from 5 years ago (Woah)

2016 seems like a far cry to today. Donald Trump was elected President, Brexit, We could go outside! I was also about to do my SATS, and unlike many other people, I didn’t revise until the last week. 😬

The ‘Clark Toast’ blog ran in the most wholesome way possible: I would bring a blue notebook into school every day and interview friends and classmates. A precursor to this blog?

I would also give a small insight into my own life: school gossip, misadventures and ‘rotting water bottles’, kind of like a virtual diary.

A weirdo with pride ✊

Most of my blog posts were just written in my notebook or on my phone very quickly in my spare time, or the moment we had nothing to do in class. Arguably you could say this blog is much better because it had way more content 😂

I feel like time went so fast. One minute ago I only just started Year 8, and a minute later I’m about to take my GCSE’s and right afterwards go to a Sixth Form (during a pandemic 😭)

Rebuilding ClarkNarvas.com

RIP 😪 2019-2021

My site was rocking a heavily customised version of the default WordPress template. It was becoming a bit bloated, so I decided to completely redo the site from the ground up.

The most significant change was the switch from WordPress for the backend to Jekyll. This makes the site a lot cheaper to run and also makes it more efficient and faster.

The site is also way more accessible to those with disabilities. Images now have alt tags, and most elements are configured with accessibility in mind.

Migrating all of my blog posts was the most straightforward process but had the most hassle in the entire website build. I had to copy and paste all of them into a markdown file and then format them so it looked as close as it could to the old site.

Some parts of the website are still being worked on, such as the category filters. I will be migrating those features onto the new website soon!

I hope this year will be less memorable than last year. 😂

Keep wearing a mask, stay safe and let’s go into 2021 with optimism. 🙏🏼