Two of my goals for 2026 were to "take back programming" and to start a technical blog. Now, what do I mean by "take back programming"? Well for the last few years, programming has just become a job for me. I only ever do it within the context of work, and unfortunately, work has sucked the fun out of it. Usually, at the end of the work day, I don't want anything to do with my laptop or programming. This is a huge bummer for me because I really truly love programming. I love that I can create something out of nothing. I love that I can type some stuff on my computer and then the computer actually does something. It's absolutely magical.

Somewhere along the way, this all lost its spark. I have felt burnt out, and because of that, I haven't done anything "fun" in a long time. That is why, this year, I want to take it back. I want to do stuff for fun again. I want to reignite that flame of curiosity that got me to where I am in the first place.

Now this brings me to the second part; I want to start a technical blog. Besides programming, I find that I really enjoy writing. I'm by no means good at it, but there's something therapeutic about putting my thoughts into writing. So why not combine both?? This blog serves as a "playground" for myself and I'll continue to write about me building here. Of course, I'll also write about other projects I intend on working on (MCP since it's all the rage).

As a brief intro, this portfolio/blog/website/digital garden is built with:

• NextJS
• Tailwind
• Typescript
• Vitest

It's a pretty straight forward little website, nothing special. It has done wonders for my love of programming already though. I find myself wanting to come back and keep hacking at it.

Some of my most recent additions here has been the addition of the "Now playing" widget, which I might write a separate entry for.

Now I am working on adding some tests! You gotta have your tests, even if it's for a personal project like this. These tests come in the shape of vitest for unit tests. I am likely going to add msw support for network requests, and eventually Playwright for end-to-end tests.

That's it for now! Till next time

-N