Merge Develop into Main

.gitignore

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# Ignore local sample blog posts
+content/blog/sample-*.md
 # See https://help.github.com/articles/ignoring-files/ for more about ignoring files.
 
 # dependencies
@@ -39,3 +41,4 @@ next-env.d.ts
 #Idea
 .idea/
 .idea/personal-website.iml
+content/blog/hello-world.md

README.md

@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 # [Personal Website](https://jasonthompson.org)
 
-This is the source code for my personal website, built with Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. The site showcases my portfolio, skills, and contact information, and is designed for performance, accessibility, and modern best practices.
+This is the source code for my personal website, built with Next.js (App Router), TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. The site includes a portfolio, skills, contact form, and a Markdown-powered blog, with a focus on performance, accessibility, and modern best practices.
 
 ## Features
 
-- **Next.js App Router**: Server-side rendering, static site generation, and API routes.
+- **Next.js App Router**: Page routing, layouts, and static rendering.
 - **TypeScript**: End-to-end type safety and strict configuration.
 - **Tailwind CSS**: Custom semantic color system and responsive design.
+- **Blog**: Markdown posts with frontmatter (via `gray-matter`).
+- **Page Transitions**: Framer Motion “curtain” transition that delays navigation until the screen is fully covered.
 - **Accessibility**: ARIA roles, focus styles, keyboard navigation, and semantic HTML.
 - **SEO**: Per-page metadata, OpenGraph, robots.txt, and sitemap.xml.
 - **Security**: Content Security Policy, security headers, and client-side rate limiting.
@@ -15,17 +17,51 @@ This is the source code for my personal website, built with Next.js, TypeScript,
 - **Mobile Friendly**: Responsive layouts, touch targets, and mobile navigation.
 - **Developer Experience**: Utilities for analytics, rate limiting, and reusable style constants.
 
+## Getting Started
+
+- Install dependencies: `npm install`
+- Run locally: `npm run dev`
+- Production build: `npm run build`
+- Start production server: `npm run start`
+
 ## Project Structure
 
 - `src/app/` — Next.js app directory (pages, layouts, API, etc.)
 - `src/components/` — Reusable React components
 - `src/constants/` — Design tokens and style constants
 - `src/data/` — Portfolio and skills data
+- `src/lib/` — Shared helpers (e.g., blog parsing)
 - `src/util/` — Utilities (rate limiting, analytics)
+- `content/blog/` — Markdown blog posts
 - `public/` — Static assets (images, robots.txt, etc.)
 - `tailwind.config.ts` — Tailwind CSS configuration
 - `tsconfig.json` — TypeScript configuration
 
+## Blog Content
+
+Blog posts live in `content/blog/*.md` and are parsed with `gray-matter`.
+
+Frontmatter fields used by the site:
+
+- `title`
+- `date`
+- `description`
+- `tags` (optional)
+
+## Transitions (How Navigation Works)
+
+The site uses a Framer Motion curtain transition to avoid flashing the next page before the transition is fully covering the screen:
+
+- Clicking a navbar link triggers `startNavigate(...)` via a context hook.
+- The curtain animates up (cover).
+- Only once fully covered, the router navigates.
+- Once the new route is active, the curtain animates down (reveal).
+
+Key files:
+
+- `src/components/transitionProvider.tsx`
+- `src/components/transitionNavigation.tsx`
+
 ## Improvements & Highlights
 
 - Comprehensive metadata and SEO for all pages

content/blog/Why-I-Added-a-Blog-to-My-Personal-Site.md

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+---
+title: "Why I Added a Blog to My Personal Site"
+date: "2025-12-19"
+tags: ["personal-site", "nextjs", "blog"]
+---
+
+I’ve had a personal website for a while now, but until recently it was mostly static: a short bio, a resume, and a portfolio. Useful, but finished. The problem with finished things is that they don’t really reflect how I actually work.
+
+I decided to add a blog not because I want to become a “content creator,” but because I wanted a place to write things down publicly as I build, learn, and occasionally get stuck.
+
+## Why add a blog at all?
+
+Most of my day-to-day learning already ends up somewhere: scratch notes, README files, random Markdown docs, or half-forgotten Slack threads. A blog felt like a way to bring some of that together in one place.
+
+Writing helps me think. It forces me to slow down and explain things clearly, even if the only guaranteed reader is future me. If something here ends up being useful to someone else, that’s a bonus.
+
+## The constraints I cared about
+
+I didn’t want this to turn into a side project that needed constant care. I set a few constraints up front:
+
+- Static hosting only
+- No database
+- No CMS
+- Markdown files in Git
+- Fast builds
+
+If posting ever felt like friction, I knew I just wouldn’t do it.
+
+## How the blog is built
+
+This site is built with Next.js using the App Router and statically exported. Blog posts live as Markdown files in the repo, and the site is generated at build time.
+
+A few details I cared about more than I expected:
+
+- Each post has proper metadata, including titles, descriptions, and canonical URLs
+- Links generate clean previews when shared
+- Everything works without a server
+
+None of this is particularly novel, but it’s solid, predictable, and easy to maintain, which is exactly what I wanted.
+
+## What I plan to write about
+
+This blog will mostly be notes from things I’m already doing:
+
+- Building and refining side projects
+- Things I learn at work that are safe to share
+- Homelab experiments and setup notes
+- Small problems that took longer than they should have
+
+I’m not aiming for a strict posting schedule. I’m aiming for consistency over time.
+
+## What’s next for the blog
+
+The blog is intentionally simple right now, but I already have a couple quality of life improvements in mind:
+
+- Tag filtering (so you can click a tag and see related posts)
+- Search (so you can quickly find older posts)
+
+I haven’t built either of these yet, but they’re on my list as the number of posts grows.
+
+## Closing thoughts
+
+This blog exists mostly for me. It’s a place to document ideas, decisions, and lessons learned so I don’t have to relearn them later.
+
+If you’re reading this and find something helpful here down the line, that’s great. If not, that’s fine too. It’s doing its job either way.