context

why is building a just a blah static site with no js and some simple-ass blog posts so difficult? it’s probably that famous zillenial lack of work ethic– everything should be automated! anyway, that’s why i’m demoing Hugo as a nifty little static site generator that makes it easy to do these sorts of things without overwhelming my poor nd brain. neat, huh? this post (and the surrounding website) is using it.

thoughts

stupid simple to use, automatically adds a “recent posts” section on the home page and a button that redirects to the main blog post page after reading a little preview snippet. we’ll see what the theming options have to offer, but really doesn’t look too spooky. takes care of all the formatting and loads hella fast. we’ll see what it looks like once i push it to the live site, but i’m pretty happy at the moment. maybe i’ll even make a RealActualPost(TM) if i get frisky! see ya in the future, meatbags

reviews

it’s the future, meatbags, and i’m back with some reviews. mainly of themes pulled straight off of the main Hugo page, which helpfully includes a directory of user-generated themes. how nice! there are lots of themes for many different use-cases: blogs, businesses, portfolios, documentation. i wanted something dead simple, though, no bells or whistles, a neat, minimal configuration, i-can-write-words-and-they-show-up kinda theme. i tried a few (dear god don’t look at the number of submodules in my git repo) and played around with each of them for a bit.

keep in mind that i’m not a programmer, i haven’t studied Hugo’s internals, barely even understand toml! i’m not one to go wading through mountains of complex docs to understand how to set build hooks or configure SEO or whatever. don’t complain to me about how i’m an idiot and blah blah blah it’s all in the manual blah blah! i don’t care. thanks in advance.

anyway, on with the reviews!

1. ananke – this is the default theme that the Hugo quickstart guide includes. it’s neat, modern, and quick. the focus is on visuals, though, which i’m not a huge fan of. not for my site, anyway. we’re really trying for an old “small web” sorta look. it’s hip, ya know? timeless. whatever. ananke is cool, but not what i’m looking for, good for a photographer’s website, maybe a professional portfolio or something, idk i’m not a web designer. github link

2. terminal – this theme is much more in line with what i wanted! it’s high quality, even includes a color scheme generator! the customer service is unmatched! unfortunately, the configuration was a little difficult for me to figure out. again, this is certainly a me problem, but i do wish that the documentation was a little more fleshed out for this theme (this is going to be a common trend throughout my reviews, fyi). but overall not too shabby. the very petty thing that ultimately broke the theme for me was that the logo text just refused to change! i moved the param around, copied exactly what was in the docs, but alas! nothing! again, super petty, but it’s my website dammit! ah well, on to the next. github link

3. re-terminal – i got so excited when i found this one! yes! a revamped fork of terminal! surely the functionality will be so much better! configuration a breeze! and it’s true, the docs are much more robust, it’s clearly a well-maintained and loved project, very apt for the computer-inclined. it’s beautiful, really. i loved it. but the same darn problem with the logo text happened again! and i had a lot of trouble with menuing. again, all me being lazy and not bothering to put in the work. blame my addled brain and lack of motivation! good work, though, re-terminal. github link

4. cyberscape – this theme is sick. just absolutely nasty. i mean that in the best possible way. it’s styled after the geocities pages of yore, with the clunky css, animated backgrounds, hover effects, and all the rest. it’s a work of art. true hotness. but i mean… look around. i clearly didn’t pick it. now cyberscape, i really hope you believe me when i say this: it’s not you, it’s me. you provided the tools and the inspo, everything a stronger person would need to meet the standard you set. but i am weak. i really don’t want to put in the effort to learn css, especially not a new(-to-me) flavor of it like Tailwind. sorry. github link

5. bear cub – and here we are, arrived at the ultimate choice. bear cub is just about perfect for what i’m looking for. tiny footprint, no js requirement, no fancy pictures or social implementations needed. it’s barebones (like me, i think to myself wistfully) and quick. the documentation is thorough, the examples are helpful and well commented. it’s easily extensible in the nitpicky ways i want it to be. the full package! so, as of now, it’s my favorite. and my pick. i really want some sort of recent posts thing on the front page, though. we’ll see if that works out. github link

conclusion

this all seems pretty nifty. it is way less effort than drafting a new html doc, adding links to all my old pages, indexing everything, making sure formatting is the same, and on and on and on… i’m getting tired just thinking about it. i like this. i like how quick it is, i like the automaticity, i like how easy it is to customize. i think i’ll probably stick with it, at least for now. and i’ll probably even post more since it’s not as daunting. cool stuff. for sure check out Hugo and look at all of those neat themes that lots of neat people put together. they’re pretty neat. thanks for reading. catch ya later, nerds.