Excessive

I've tried to redesign Excessive Rambling multiple times in the last year or so. Pretty much starting when I got my current job as a primarily Laravel developer, I wanted to bring all the advantages of using Laravel into the Excessive Rambling system. I think I've started the project four times and this is the only time where I've made any significant progress. I have a habit of diving in too deep and eventually losing interest as I make progress too slow.

I think the key this time was getting a working prototype finished and establish it online as my current site, so that way I have visibile results; something to show for my work, and motivation to keep working and improve it since people can be visiting and using the site.

The main goal was to mainly improve the behind-the-scenes stuff... the dashboard where I write the entries. Using the Laravel framework allows me to spend less time with the technical aspects, and focus more on the creativity. I can just come up with interesting ideas and work to implement them instead of worrying about writing my own account system and comments system.

I also wanted to change the visual look of the site to take advantage of the things I've learned as far as design goes. While most of what I design is different bits and pieces taken from various templates (I like the typography I see here, the button style from there, etc), I've learned a lot that should hopefully make it easier to read, navigate and enjoy my writing.

I also wanted to integrate the meda that I'm consuming without having to write entire entries about it. I wanted to be able to display what TV shows I've been watching, music, movies, games, etc, as just even more information to have a history of, so I've included that in the initial version.

I hope to bring a lot of neat features in the future, and hopefully they'll just seamlessly appear and just enhance and already enjoyable experience. Right now you can't search entries, or view archives beyond paging back from the main page, but those are things I hope to add sooner rather than later.

I think it's going to be an interesting time if I actually succeed in making time to both write, and work on this site. I'm excited now, and I hope that lasts.

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