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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.
+
+"""
+
++++
+
+# Table of Contents
+
++ [Introduction](#introduction)
++ [Hugo](#hugo)
++ [Eleventy: The Soup Actually Tastes Good](#eleventy:-the-soup-actually-tastes-good)
++ [Painless Deployment](#painless-deployment)
++ [Conclusion](#conclusion)
+
+
+<a id="introduction"></a>
+# 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.
+
+<a id="hugo"></a>
+# 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.
+
+
+<a id="eleventy:-the-soup-actually-tastes-good"></a>
+# 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.
+
+<a id="painless-deployment"></a>
+# 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.
+
+<a id="conclusion"></a>
+# 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.