Try.Fail.Repeat. (Katakana)

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A Fresh Start

Written by Mark Jardine on June 1, 2025

It's been almost 2 decades since I've had a full on website. I once had a site built on ExpressionEngine, but I was never good at long form writing and when Twitter launched, I was hooked. My website slowly became a relic and eventually I turned it into a single-page "bio".

I’ve always loved single-page bio sites. They are fun to design and something you can get done in a week versus months. I updated mine a few times over the years:

  1. Version 1
  2. Version 2
  3. Version 3
  4. Version 4

There have been many moments where I have thought about building a website with a CMS, but always felt it would take too much time and that time was better spent on Tapbots. But with my recent interest in building a little apparel brand, I just felt that it’s time for a website where I can build a story around my initiatives and products. There’s a million websites selling products out there. I want to set myself and my brand apart by creating a bond between the product and the designer behind them.

Work in Progress

I’m launching this website a bit undercooked as the work that needs to be done feels endless and I just need to get it out there. I started this project back in December of 2024. Right now there’s a lot of bits and bobs that need to be tighted up. I still need to finish my shop pages and set up my actual store front. Then there’s the RSS feeds for this blog and potentially other pages. I also realized there’s currently no way to contact me from my site (other than finding me through the social media links in the footer). Things will get done as I find the time.

Built on Kirby

Kirby is the CMS this website has been built on. Not having a database backend has made it so easy for me to experiment and make big changes quickly without breaking things. I still have so much to learn, but it’s been an absolute pleasure to work in this CMS and has made building this website such a joy.

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