TheOverAnalyzed

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Looking Ahead: 2016 And Beyond

Been doing a lot of this lately
Been doing a lot of this lately

You might be wondering to yourself:

“What’s happening with TheOverAnalyzed in 2016?”

I’ve thought about that quite a bit myself.

Options

1. Refactor

In case you don’t dotingly follow the site’s Twitter feed:

At that time of that tweet, I was in the middle of learning a ton about front end web development stuffs.[1] I stumbled on the DevTips YouTube channel, put on by a guy named Travis Neilson.[2] After learning about Jade and Sass (and SCSS and Less), I thought a complete reworking of TheOverAnalyzed was in order. (What else is new?)

I used this as an opportunity to try and change the layout from its current `classic blog` esthetic to a Dribbble knockoff of sorts. I was able to tweak a few of Camel template files and a bunch of CSS, all of which led to the fabled `grid of images [articles] on the homepage.` However, in doing so, I realized I was suffering from non-performant images on the homepage when more than ~30 posts were loaded. Most sites (Dribble included) optimize images server-side before the content reaches end users. I don’t have the back end knowledge to maintain a database (and I don’t really have the yearning to learn how).

For better or worse, Camel really isn’t set up for that type of site (no MySQL here!)

2. Scrap It

So instead of a refactor, I considered sunsetting TheOverAnalyzed completely. After all, how often does a guy’s (designer’s?[3]) first project survive in perpetuity?You may have noticed a logo change across the site and social media. I was thinking I would take the “Smokey” logo and use that in my next project(s) (more on that later). So I created a logo that—in my opinion—better represents the nature of “overanalysis.”

But after a few people noticed the logo change (and approved, for the most part), I realized that I just couldn’t do it.

As proud of it as I am, and as much as I’d like to incorporate it into my next projects, the “Smokey” logo is my first logo EVER, and it belongs to TheOverAnalyzed.

I’ve already started work on my next couple projects’ logos (again, more on that later).

3. No, I’m Just Going to Refactor

Who am I kidding? I can’t sunset TheOverAnalyzed! It was my first blog. It needs to live on.

It was the first time I wrote real HTML and CSS. It was the first time I cracked open a serious text editor and tinkered …for fun. And it was the first time I spent many hours into the early morning `trial and erroring` to get something right (because I didn’t know much back then).

TheOverAnalyzed is here to stay.

But it won’t be the same. The posts won’t be as variegated as they have been in the past. It will still be the container for all my Apple/tech thoughts, pop culture (Star Wars too—for now), and maybe a nifty shell script here or there.

But all front end development topics will have a new home on the internet.

Future Projects

“More on that later” has been the refrain of this post. Enough with that.

Here’s what’s on the docket:

  1. I’m going to make another blog, this one focused on front end development and design in general
    • Sites like CSS-Tricks or one of the myriad of front end focused YouTube channels (or podcasts) serve a real audience
      • I want to be in that space
    • Having the occasional design topic tossed in amongst Apple news or Star Wars stuff is no way to grow a brand
      • I’m not sorry that TheOverAnalyzed is so broad. That’s part of what made it so enjoyable for me
      • But from here on out, design topics will have their own place in my portfolio
  2. I’m going to make yet another blog focused on front end development and design, but this one will contain loads of snark and sarcasm, appreciable to any aspiring front end developer or designer

I’m probably going to use Jekyll. It’s Git/GitHub-derived, blog-aware, and it’s not based on Node (so it’s more customizable than Camel currently is for me). It also has tons of nerdy folks dedicated to the platform, constantly improving it, so I don’t think it’s going away any time soon.

I’ll post here when either of those projects is ready to rock.

As always, thanks for reading.

  1. Oh, and by the way, some 10 months after I started really playing with HTML and CSS, I realized “front end” design/development is what I really like to do. I like learning about all the HTML elements (there really aren’t that many), and I also like styling those elements with CSS. I don’t know enough about JavaScript yet, but when I do, front end dev is where I want to be. ↩

  2. Unlike a lot of front end “tutorialists” on YouTube, Travis is legitimately fun to learn from. For whatever reason, many of the web design tutorials are put on by wholly uninteresting presenters. Though I’m not saying one has to be entertained while learning, it certainly helps. ↩

  3. “Designer” in the most loose sense of the word. I know nothing, Jon Snow. ↩