Finally Built My Dream Site! 🎉 (or the first version of it)#
I’ve been wanting to create a site that could hold both my resume and blog for ages, but I always got stuck on the design phase. You know how it is - you start with grand plans, spend hours researching themes, get overwhelmed by choices, and then… nothing happens!
Well, I finally broke through that barrier! The secret? I discovered that AI tools like Claude can help accelerate the entire development process. Instead of getting bogged down in design decisions, I focused on what I actually wanted to share and let modern tools handle the heavy lifting.
If you’re curious about how I built this site using Hugo, AWS, and Claude AI, check out my detailed guide: Building a Professional Blog with Claude, Hugo, and AWS.
What You’ll Find Here#
Technical Deep Dives#
I’ll share detailed walkthroughs of solutions around automation, testing and cloud infrastructure. Expect posts about:
- Deploying static sites using modern tools
- Automated tools and how they’re used
- CI/CD pipeline optimisation
- Infrastructure as Code best practices
Lessons Learned#
Every production incident teaches us something. I’ll share sanitized versions of real-world challenges and how we solved them.
Tool Reviews and Comparisons#
The DevOps toolchain is constantly evolving. I’ll review new tools and compare them with established solutions.
Career Insights#
Thoughts on growing as a DevOps engineer, team dynamics, and industry trends.
My Current Tech Stack#
This blog itself is built with technologies I use and recommend:
- Hugo: Fast static site generation
- Blowfish Theme: Clean, responsive design
- AWS S3 + CloudFront: Reliable, scalable hosting
- GitHub Actions: Automated CI/CD pipeline
- Terraform: Infrastructure as Code
The entire setup demonstrates the principles I advocate for: automation, version control, and infrastructure as code.
Why “BuildWithEM”?#
If you were wondering about the site name “buildwithem”, this comes from my initials (E.M.) combined with my passion for building things with technology. Whether it’s automating infrastructure, creating CI/CD pipelines, or building this blog itself, I love the process of creating solutions that gives us time back to do other things! Plus, it’s a nice play on “build with them” - because the best DevOps work is always collaborative.
The name perfectly captures what this blog is about: sharing how I build things, the tools I use, and hopefully inspiring you to build something awesome too.