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authorBrandon C. Irizarry <brandon.irizarry@gmail.com>2026-03-08 19:16:04 -0400
committerBrandon C. Irizarry <brandon.irizarry@gmail.com>2026-03-08 19:16:04 -0400
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-+++
-title = "Writing My Blog With Eleventy"
-tags = ["blogging"]
-date = 2025-12-03
-
-summary = """
-
-This is a reproduction of a post I had on my old blog, which I've \
-since migrated to a custom engine.
-
-"""
-
-+++
-
-# Introduction
-
-This is *at least* my third time trying to start a blog.
-
-First, I experimented with using Org Mode's HTML exporting feature to
-create posts; unfortunately, that didn't get me far, though there are
-some [interesting attempts](https://one.tonyaldon.com/) by others to this end. I might've
-published this material at some point, but at any rate it didn't stay
-up long. An early topic from this time include a post about a [Java
-build system](https://github.com/BrandonIrizarry/Hydraulic-Make) I once wrote that scanned a `.java` file for its
-dependencies (defined by things like package imports and code syntax),
-so that those would get passed into `javac` along with the target
-file.
-
-# Hugo
-I then started writing a blog using Hugo. Hugo was my first encounter
-with an SSG. Because of this, I was a bit impatient with Hugo, and hit
-a wall every time I came across any sort of complexity. I also got
-frustrated with how themes never follow a consistent template; each
-does something different, with different elements, and so each one
-effectively has different rules. In the end, I published a blog post
-or two on GitHub pages using this setup. It was passable, but in the
-end configuring it still felt wonky and cargo-culted.
-
-Another reason for why I didn't have success with Hugo was my use of
-`ox-hugo`. It's a fun package, and you can tell the author put a *lot*
-of love into it. However, using Org Mode as a middleman between you
-and Hugo obfuscates the nature of Hugo, something I'm realizing now as
-I go deeper into using Eleventy.
-
-
-# Eleventy: The Soup Actually Tastes Good
-
-I went ahead and did a little bit of "shopping" for SSGs. I ran into
-[Eleventy](https://www.11ty.dev). I watched the author's [intro video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzf9A9tkkl4), and
-immediately took a liking to it. After a few false starts, I cloned
-their [official starter project](https://github.com/11ty/eleventy-base-blog), tweaked it here and there, and
-the rest is what you're currently looking at.
-
-A huge shift in my thinking which made the leap from Hugo to Eleventy
-possible occurred when I learned to stop worrying and love the
-Markdown.
-
-I used to think of Markdown as an icky, second-rate version of Org
-Mode. Then, I eventually got the hang of writing Markdown using Emacs'
-`markdown-mode` package, which is a [masterpiece](https://jblevins.org/projects/markdown-mode/) of a plugin: it
-makes the experience of writing Markdown rival that of using Org, and
-smoothes out a lot of Markdown's pain points (significant whitespace,
-noisy links, etc.) And so I slowly let go of the attachment of using
-Org Mode in all the things, and embraced the idea of writing blog
-posts directly in Markdown; this also alleviated the complexity of
-sundry issues arising from exporting from Org to Markdown.
-
-At first, Eleventy looks like a deceptively complex pile of language
-soup: JS, Markdown, templating languages, HTML, and CSS—at times all
-occurring within the same file—all somehow live under one
-roof. However, tweaking the starter project ended up being a
-relatively easy, even pleasant experience.
-
-# Painless Deployment
-
-Even deployment is simple. This site's content is version-controlled
-locally. I then build the site, then simply `scp` the `_site`
-directory to the appropriate directory in my VPS, where this blog is
-hosted. The previous remote `_site` directory is simply overwritten
-with the new files. I don't need a GitHub workflow, as I did when
-using Hugo with GitHub pages; I don't even need to push to a remote
-repo. Copying the files suffices.
-
-# Conclusion
-
-On the one hand, I'm nowhere near able to make something like the
-starter project from scratch. On the other hand, neither am I
-daunted. Eleventy in a sense reminds me of Emacs, in that there's a
-certain joy to be found in its eclectic complexity. I look forward to
-continue using Eleventy as I grow this blog.