Building A Portfolio Site

Why now?

I'll admit, life has been pretty easy as a full stack developer over the last two (almost three) decades. I've neglected one of the most important aspects of a developer's career, the ever-present portfolio website.

In 2024, it was time to correct that. What I didn't realize is just how much fun I would have building this thing. It is a blast! And more than that, it is an addiction.

Everything you see on this website, gause.dev, is completely written from scratch. No libraries or modules beyond basic stuff. Even this blog is hand-coded. Just the way I like it.

Stack

For this project, I chose a newfound love of mine, the Next.js framework. Best decision I ever made. It is backed by a MondoDB nosql database. I host everything on Linode (now part of Akamai) and do all server administration and setup myself, of course.

Nginx and pm2 help round out the solution. And of course, git.

Structure

The site at the time of this writing includes a portfolio page, a contact me form, an about page, a blog, which I am quite proud of, and an admin portal. The admin portal is where I add new projects to the portfolio and create these wonderful little blog posts. It's also where I get messages from clients wanting to connect.

Open Source

Everything you see here has been released under the ISC license as open source. Feel free to use any of the code, but not the content, as you wish. I hope it can inspire others to tackle their own portfolio project and discover just how much fun it can be.

ISC License

ISC License

Copyright (c) 2024, Gary Gause

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.