Chris Kuhl's Web Log

A strange static website written using Pollen, by way of Racket.

A mystery for all parties involved, including myself.

It's tempting to ask "Why use Racket when it is obscure and obtuse, but the answer is an unsatisfying 'because it is obscure and obtuse.'" When anything is possible and everything is a competition, sometimes joy can be found in creating something no one else would want to create.

Structure

The basic structure is thus:

• Meta: The structure roughly reflects project structure
• ./docs is where the compiled site is generated before publishing
• ./src/ is source of the Pollen site
  • ./src/pollen.rkt defines meta-functions that affect the rest of the site
  • ./src/{archive,css,images} stores static content
  • ./src/weblog/ for web log content
  • ./src/et-cetera/ for, uh, miscellaneous content
• Makefile does what it says on the tin

To-do list (i.e. things that may never get done)

• More archived content:
  • Iterations of my previous web site
    • Option 1: Use links to web.archive.org
    • Option 2: Download and run site locally, freeze content
• More different content:
  • Arrange in a certain booklike fashion
  • Document exactly how Pollen works
    • Or at least, well enough that I understand it
  • References to sites I think are neat!
• Style points:
  • Update background - lined paper is amusing but suffers from legibility
  • Work on / fix the nav bar at the bottom
  • More totally radical 88x31px footer images
• Project structure:
  • Can / should I store static content separate from dynamic content?
  • e.g. specially .gitignore dynamically generated pages and store the static pages in ~/docs
• Internals:
  • Fix the way page tree references are done
  • Fix the generation of navigation elements by notional sibling
    • e.g. "Next X article, but not next X in the page tree"

Inspirations

GIF content

• Random content mirrored from Geocities
• GifCities (as provided by Archive.org)
• Pixel See for 32x32 and 88x31 gifs

Cool style

• Ironwood Solar
• Solar Low Tech Magazine

Other Racket sites

• Dangermuse Blog (archive.org) (source for Dangermuse)
• How this blog works, or, embracing chaos • AndreGarzia.com
• sky blue trades | A(nother) New Start: Pollen!
• Migrating my blog to Pollen
• Calculum (source for Calculum)

WIP notes: RSS and ATOM

Yet-to-do: Style the RSS feed:

• Style your RSS feed
• Example styled RSS feed

References from setting up my site's RSS feed

• TODO: Can / should I write a web log post on this? Maybe!
• RSS feed from otherjoel/try-pollen (GitHub)
• Dangermuse Blog's RSS generator
• Blevs Pollen Feed Tutorial (archive.org) (source for Blevs tutorial)

Notes to self

• Mac: Option + Shift + V for ◊