#buildingablog

If you’re one of the very select few who’ve been following my journey of building this blog, you’ll know one thing: it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. In fact, my last update was back on June 1st, 2024, where I boldly declared that I was starting a second blog. Spoiler alert—it didn’t go well. Let’s be real: it was a disaster. The second blog barely gained any traction, and trying to link it…

Today begins my grand experiment to see if everything I've learned over the past few months has actually been worth something.

Starting point: 7 months ago I knew some basic HTML/CSS (enough to make modifications to emails and websites, but nothing to make something from scratch).

Tools:  Over the past few months I've been working at a web development intense job as well as taking several Udemy & Lynda.com courses on the side.

The Project: Redesign Andreyryazanov.com in Angular.js / PHP / mySQL

Why those 3?

Typical hosting providers don't allow for installing node.js/no-sql databases which normally play better with angular.

I don't want to pay for a dedicated server until/unless I need to due to large volumes of traffic.

My current job works with PHP/WordPress so this would be genuinely useful for work.

Project requirements:

Photo library (with upload functionality)

Running graphs/charts (ideal if I can get this data via api from Runkeeper/Strava/or other before graphing myself)

Blog (sans using a pre-built CMS)

Static elements (i.e. work experience/resume/about)

Fully responsive

Not required: