lLama23 — a blog about my engineering path

Context

I wanted a place to tell my own story, not just leave it inside a project list. E-book readers inspired both the design and the reading experience: focused, page by page, with as little distraction as possible. I want people to follow my path without the site feeling like a résumé in a browser.

Approach

I shaped the homepage as a sequence of eight story frames. The project pages carry that story further: context, decisions, limits and what I learned from each one. I wanted to show not just which technologies I used, but why I built things the way I did.

System

• Astro generates the English and German pages as static HTML; there is no runtime backend.
• Bilingual story and project data live as typed source in the repository; project lists and detail routes are generated from it.
• Responsive layouts adapt from a large screen down to a narrow phone.
• Semantic HTML, keyboard access and reduced-motion behavior are part of the implementation; browser and accessibility tests check the generated pages.
• No cookies, analytics, advertising, tracking pixels, remote fonts or embedded third-party scripts.

Engineering decisions

• I chose a quiet, reading-first structure inspired by e-book readers instead of a dense portfolio dashboard.
• Astro keeps the site static: content is generated at build time and needs no application server at runtime.
• Accessibility, responsive layouts and reduced motion belong in the design, not in a later cleanup pass.
• For me, privacy starts with leaving things out: no trackers, cookies or unnecessary third-party embeds.

What did not work

There is deliberately no CMS or runtime backend. When I change content, I edit the source data in the repository and rebuild the site. That is less convenient than a visual editor, but it keeps the runtime simple and easy to understand.

Result

llama23.com gives my story a home in two languages: a readable narrative on the homepage, with deeper project stories behind it. I can show how I work, not only which technologies I know.

What stayed with me

I didn't want a louder portfolio. I wanted one where people can pause, read and understand why this work matters to me.