My new website
Welcome to the first blog post of my new website redesign!
If I were to use one word to describe my life for the year of 2025, it would be: Change. Okay to be honest, Alignment is probably a better word, but change works better for the rest of this paragraph. This new website redesign is part of the many things that are changing in my life, and I wanted to use this first blog post to share why I’ve remade my website.
Human
At this moment in time, unless you are someone I personally know, then I’m actually not sure why you would be here on this website reading this blog post. But whatever that reason might be, I do appreciate you being here and taking your time to read this. I hope that somewhere on this website you might find some information you find useful, or some things that I’m proud to show off that you might find cool.
And that right there is one of the main reasons I’ve decided to remake this website and even consider writing blog posts at all. My name is Christian Licona, and everything on this website represents a small part of who I am. This website contains a small pocket of humanity, my humanity, that I’ve decided to share with you. I know that this place is just another speck of light in the night sky that is the internet, but I still want to contribute a little part of myself and my knowledge to any person who is looking.
Learning new skills
This past year I’ve been learning a lot of new skills and I’ve generally been trying to improve my skillset. 4 months ago I didn’t know a thing about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or really much about making a website. My previous website was made in squarespace and it got the job done (being my portfolio site), but I wanted to really make this place my own. Plus I wanted to stop paying a ridiculous cost every year for hosting my website on squarespace.
So I started learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (I didn’t really need to learn JavaScript, I just wanted to round out my basic knowledge of webdev). I learned from a really great teacher on youtube: Giraffe Academy. This past year I also grew a much larger appreciation for the markdown file format and how portable it is, so I learned how to use Hugo so that I could build most of the content on this site using markdown files.
File over app
Speaking of markdown, this past year I was fully indoctrinated into the philosophy of file over app. I’ve been using an app called Obsidian to take all of my notes and organize my life in markdown format. Personally, I like websites that look simple like my new website, and so I decided that I am going to write most of the content on my site using markdown files which then get converted into HTML with Hugo.
My previous website and all of the content I made for it was basically locked into the squarespace servers and web builder interface. Now, my website content exists in a much more portable format. If I ever wanted to completely wipe the slate clean and redesign my website again, it will be way easier to do this time while maintaining all of the content.
Articulating my thoughts
Of course if I’m being honest, one more large reason for this website existing is that it’s also my portfolio site and I’d like to be able to properly communicate the work I’ve done and advertise my skills. Even if most employers won’t care to visit a prospective hire’s website, I want this place to exist on the off chance that an employer does look at my website. And if no one does, then at the very least I’ve gotten practice articulating my thoughts and ideas and my work.
Inspiration
I credit the overall appearance and design of my new website to the inspirational https://usgraphics.com website. I knew that I wanted a more readable and easily navigable website design, but none of the hugo themes I looked at really spoke to me. When I first stumbled upon the usgraphics website, I instantly knew that this was the style that I was looking for. I worry that I might have made my site too similar, but mimicking the style helped me a lot as I learned html and css. It gave me a starting point. And as I got further along making this site, I was able to figure out how to start throwing in my own flair and added functionality like: nicely formatted code blocks, custom styling for various html tags such as highlighting, a dark/light theme, and more that will become apparent as I add more content to my site.
What’s next?
I’m currently working on new projects that will surely show up in my projects page, and I already have some new blog posts in mind as I continue to blog more this year. I hate promising what might come next, but I think for my next blog post I want to share the new workflow for my day to day life that I adopted in 2025 which helped me start overcoming my (self diagnosed) ADHD tendencies and helped me become more productive.
Thank you for spending your time visiting, and I hope you have a good day.