The Blogger's Blueprint
A few days ago I wrote about rebuilding this blog with Claude as my copilot.
The TL;DR is that I took a Next.js template, made it mine, and learned a lot about what "making it mine" actually means when you're not a developer.
That was the foundation. This post is an attempt at mapping out what comes next. I'm publishing it for two reasons.
First, accountability — a list in public is harder to ignore than a list in a notes app.
Second, this post itself is going to be a small experiment. I'm going to update it as I tick items off, which means by the time you're reading this, some of these may already be done.
The original publication date will stay the same; the "last updated" timestamp (item three on the list, ironically) will tell the real story.
Okay, it's actually a wish list
Here's what I'm thinking about, in no particular order.
A carousel for the title. The blog is called Fun with Gen AI, but in practice it's been broader than that for a while. I want the title to cycle through fun with words, fun with pictures, fun with code, and fun with gen AI — a small piece of motion that reflects what's actually here.
A functional favicon. It's embarrassing this isn't already done. Near the top for a reason.
A "last updated" timestamp. Alongside the original publish date, so posts that get revisited (like this one) say so honestly.
Navigation. Definitely an About page — overdue. Probably an Archive page. Possibly category pages, depending on item six.
Pagination. The homepage currently loads every post in one go. Fine for now, less fine later.
Categories and tags. Building on the carousel idea: words, pictures, code, gen AI as proper categories, with tags layered on top for finer browsing. This one shapes a few other items, so it might move up the list.
A search bar. Lower priority, but useful once there's more to search.
A CSS refresh. Colours, fonts, image treatments, the small details that make a site feel considered. I'll do this in passes, not one sitting.
A content refresh. Some of the older posts could use another pass. Ongoing.
A back-to-top button. Some of these posts run long. A small kindness to you, dear reader.
An updated description. The current strapline says "Words & Pictures made with Generative AI." Given the carousel direction, it'll become something like "Words, pictures and code, with gen AI." Still mulling it over.
An updated README. The repository's README document is inherited from the original template. I should personalise it for this project.
Between the visible feature work, there's also the boring background work — keeping dependencies current, tightening types, checking that the bits people don't see are doing what they should. That's ongoing and largely invisible, which is how it should be.
And then there's comments... I keep going back and forth. Comments invite conversation, but they also invite spam, moderation, and a certain tone I'm not sure I want. So: should this blog have comments? Tell me — well, you can't, because it doesn't have comments. You see the problem.
The process
A note on how I'm doing this. I'm working with Claude in the regular chat interface, not Claude Code or anything fancier. Branch per feature, preview on Vercel, merge when it looks right. The work happens in small, reversible steps, which suits both my skill level and my patience.
I'll update this post as items get ticked off. If you're reading it and the list still looks identical to the day it was published, feel free to assume I've been distracted by something shiny.
Finally, here's a screenshot of the first post published on this here blog, so readers can (eventually) evaluate how much it's grown in terms of look and features.
An unmodified screengrab of the first post published on this blog. Based on the key visual, there's a strong probability I wrote it when I was hungry.
Prompt for key visual
Midjourney: "Editorial illustration, top-down overhead view of an architectural blueprint unfurled across a wooden kitchen table, filling the center of the frame. In the foreground at the bottom edge, a pair of hands holds the blueprint flat against the table. At the top edge of the frame, a single hand reaches in pointing at a detail on the blueprint. A ceramic coffee mug sits on the bare wooden table to the right of the blueprint, off the paper. A small plate with a half-eaten croissant rests in the upper-left corner of the table, off the blueprint. A diagonal shaft of warm morning sunlight cuts across the table from upper left, illuminating part of the blueprint. Warm gouache illustration, painterly textures, visible brushwork, muted earth-tone palette, soft shadows, mid-century American editorial style, lived-in domestic atmosphere. --ar 16:9 --s 350 --no deformed hands, extra fingers, text, food on blueprint, mug on blueprint, photorealism"
