Version 3 has been released

I started this website journey around 2015 for university assignments: writing blogs for modules. I decided to create my own CSS and index page to better structure my work. In 2021, midway through my PhD, I progressed onto GitHub pages with Bootstrap and a terrible repo structure. Now in 2023, I’ve decided to try Hugo.

A few months ago, with COVID, I decided to revamp the site and intended to go with the markdown-file route. Whilst ill with the decision to improve the blog, I had some time off work, so my 5-day isolation weekend turned somewhat productive.

With the exception of some commands, Hugo uses markdowns allowing for many automated features. My goal was this to be simple. I didn’t want to wrangle with HTML or design. To start, I spent hours looking at the theme list - choosing tags/categories that were most important to me.

The design was a toughie. Many themes I explored were great, others relied on dependencies, and in the end, I was looking for something quite minimalistic. I finalised on Monochrome as I liked the minimalistic design and responsiveness. Though a top contender was PaperMod.

After some playing around with the Hugo features - thinking perhaps this was overly complicated for my purpose - I’ve come to appreciate the autonomy and usability. For example, I won’t need to create any search features as it’s automatic.

Below are the only commands I needed to set up this page:

hugo new site [NAME]
cd [NAME]
git init
git submodule add https://github.com/kaiiiz/hugo-theme-monochrome.git themes/mono
echo "theme = 'mono'" >> hugo.toml
hugo new content posts/hello-world.md

Then run with Hugo server - adding parameter -D to see my drafts.

Where have I been?

My last blog post was in 2022 and before that 2021. I have a not-so-great habit of starting a project, become invested, and then when I aim to write-up: I lose the energy. I’d like to find more time to post about projects, work, or more.

So where was I this past year? I completed my PhD! Now officially a Doctor in Clinical Informatics. I aim to write-up the PhD: experience, Viva, and corrections. My graduation was in July, my family visited Birmingham for the first time and although it rained, it was an amazing day spent with my favourite people.

Even bigger news is that I’ve officially moved to Oxford! Throughout 2023 I have been living in a caravan on a Farm in Swansea, saving, to make the big leap and move closer to work. I’ve been at my current job since 2022, Data wrangler/scientist at the Big Data Institute, the University of Oxford. Stay tuned for hopefully more content!