Building This Blog (And the Chaos That Came With It)

So this is my first proper blog post. Fitting that it's about building the blog itself.

What I Actually Did Tonight

Built a complete blog system for my portfolio site. Database, models, controllers, views, routing, markdown parsing - the works. Then decided it looked boring, so I redesigned it. Then the sidebar broke. Then I fixed it. Then I made it mobile responsive. Then I added an entire admin panel with authentication and CRUD operations.

Eight hours. One evening. Too much caffeine.

The Technical Bits

What I built:

Posts stored in MySQL with title, slug, excerpt, content, timestamps
Eloquent model with scope for published posts
BlogController handling list + individual post views
CommonMark for markdown parsing
Blade layouts with @extends and @yield
Sidebar that pulls recent posts from the database
Admin panel with Laravel Breeze auth
Full CRUD operations for posts
Mobile-responsive design

Stack:

Laravel 12
PHP 8.3
MySQL
Deployed on Hetzner VPS (€4.51/month)
Nginx + SSL via Let's Encrypt

The Actual Problems

Problem 1: Script Tags Inside Script Tags

Had the sidebar toggle arrow showing on pages where it shouldn't. Spent ages trying to hide it with CSS. Didn't work.

Turns out I'd nested a @section('scripts') inside @section('content'). Laravel renders this as two script tags which browsers don't like.

Fixed it by making the sections siblings instead of nested. Obvious in hindsight.

Problem 2: Two Scrollbars Right Next To Each Other

Sidebar had a scrollbar. Main content had a scrollbar. Both visible. Both right next to each other. Looked terrible.

Solution: Hide the sidebar scrollbar but keep scroll functionality:

.blog-aside-content {
    scrollbar-width: none; /* Firefox */
    -ms-overflow-style: none; /* IE/Edge */
}
.blog-aside-content::-webkit-scrollbar {
    display: none; /* Chrome */
}

Still works with mouse wheel and trackpad. Just not visually competing.

Problem 3: Cache

Changed CSS. Refreshed. No change. Changed it again. Still nothing.

Had to:

Close all browser tabs
php artisan cache:clear
php artisan view:clear
php artisan config:clear
Open incognito window

Then it worked.

Problem 4: The Cards Looked Generic

Blog cards worked but looked... fine. Boring. Generic.

Redesigned them with:

Borders that change color on hover
Gradient left accent bar (3px wide)
translateX(-2px) slide animation
Shadow effects
Better typography with proper line-height
Uppercase timestamps with letter-spacing and a border-top separator

Went from "yeah it works" to "actually looks good".

The Admin Panel

Built it because manually adding posts via tinker gets old fast.

Features:

Login system (Laravel Breeze)
Middleware protecting admin routes (IsAdmin checks email)
Dashboard showing all posts with status badges
Create/edit/delete operations
Markdown preview in forms
Publish scheduling with datetime picker
Mobile responsive tables

Took longer than expected. Worth it.

What This Taught Me

Technical:

Blade section inheritance matters
CSS specificity fights are solvable with z-index
Cache clearing is not optional when testing CSS/JS changes
Mobile-first design requires thinking at different breakpoints
Middleware is powerful for access control

Soft Skills:

Building beats planning
Polish takes time but matters
Good UX is invisible (like hidden scrollbars)
Documentation is for future you
Shipping something imperfect > planning something perfect

The Mechanic Brain Strikes Again

I keep noticing this. My approach to debugging code is exactly like diagnosing why a car won't start.

Systematic elimination:

Inspect element → Check computed styles
Disable CSS rules one by one → Isolate the problem
Test the fix → Verify it actually works
Clear cac he → Confirm behavior across conditions

Same process. Different domain. The diagnostic thinking transfers perfectly.

What's Next

This blog is live. The admin panel works. I can write, edit, and delete posts from a proper interface.

Tomorrow I'll probably notice something else I want to fix. There's always something.

But for now? Blog's done. Admin panel's done. It's deployed. It works.

Time to write more posts about the stuff I'm learning.

Built with: Laravel 12 • MySQL • Nginx • Hetzner VPS • Way too much coffee

If you're also learning: Start building. Break stuff. Fix it. Repeat. That's the game.