Hello, world
The first post: how this blog came to be, and why it's called Arvak.
This is the first post on Arvak.
Arvak is a horse from Norse mythology that pulls the sun's chariot. Its name means "early riser." I suppose I chose it in the hope that I'd write more, even if it's just a few scattered notes.
Why reinvent the wheel?
There are plenty of ways to start a blog. Notion, Feishu Docs, and all sorts of SaaS platforms can get you up and running quickly. But I still wanted a fully static site, with content in MDX and everything under my control. I'm not trying to show off; I just like the feeling that this little corner is mine.
The site is pretty simple for now:
- Next.js 15 App Router with static export
- Content lives in
content/*.mdx, ready to deploy when I write - Article pages have a smooth-scrolling table of contents on the right, inspired by smooth-toc-example
What's next
I'll post technical notes now and then, and maybe other things too. Depends on the mood.
If you're tinkering with something similar, I'd love to hear from you.
A quick thank-you to himself65 (Alex Yang), whose personal site inspired the visual design and typography here.