Vibe coding was the gateway drug. But I kept needing to understand the "why?" of it all and eventually that got me interested in learning to program.

Over the last year, I've progressed from building websites on Squarespace, to building sites on CSS, to starting a Github acount to add Javascript to my pages, to fiddling around with React, Next.JS, and Vite, before feeling like I finally found a framework I liked in Astro..

But when I watched a Laracasts video and I threw it all out and started over.

My familiarity with Tailwind CSS and Vite took care of all my front-end worries.

I'd learned how Frontmatter worked to make it easy to build a content library where the data/content could live in a file, the same file in fact. I'd grasped the basic concept of islands and hydrating with Astro.

I'd been looking for a framework that would grow and change as I did, and which would allow me the most flexibility to use my content how I want. I've learned this word is "extensible."

Plus, I wanted it to be as simple as possible because as soon as code looks too much like math my brain no longer gets the dopamine it gets from interpreting language and I stop wanting to learn how to code for a decade.

I want code to feel like a Hemingway sentence.

I've already watched videos where people are doing things with Laravel I will never ever ever ever need to do.

But on the off chance I want to start getting fancy, I can already see how Laravel will let me grow with it.

It took a year or so to get here. But I finally found the framework I'm going to use as my starting point for all projects going forward.

S/O to Laracasts, Tighten, and TailwindCSS

Next

1. Random Intro app

• Develop feature: on page load, page should grab (at random) a different blade.php file from a folder I'll specify
• Develop a feature where the theme changes dynamically too. That 'layout.blade.php' should have a spot where you open up php to select a theme from app.css
• Add 'Music' page
• Eventually: (Filmmaking, Very Important Artist, Big Important Business Boy)
  

2. Dynamic Metadata for sharing pages on Bluesky

• Learn how to use frontmatter to dynamically populate metadata for shared pages on Bluesky