Welcome to the new Larakin Systems!
I’ve spent the last few weeks slowly remaking my web presence and picking up a few new skills along the way. I’ve never been—nor will I ever be—much of a writer, but I can certainly talk to computers. (Not literally talk to them; I’m too old for that, I still type… badly.)
Where “Larakin” Came From
Larakin Systems has a long history. Many years ago while working as a teenage mountain bike guide in Park City, UT, one of the liftie/bike patrollers we called “Kiwi” started calling me “Larakin.” That’s how I spelled it back in the ’90s when setting up my very first online accounts. Only about 10 years later did I stop to actually look up what the word meant:
Close enough.
larakinsystems.com was the first domain I bought who-knows-how-many years ago. I even had an old blogspot site parked there. I recently unearthed an archive of those old posts and restored them to the new site’s /blog/tags/archive/ section.
A few fun highlights from 20+ years ago:
- My very first post from Dec 2004
- A surprisingly accurate 2005 prediction on cord-cutting and streaming TV in Media 2010
- Freaking out over Google Maps adding satellite imagery in Goooooooooooooooogle
- Proof that I was talking about starting a consulting business 20 years ago (which is now live over at Larakin.Consulting)
What Powers the New Site?
Instead of relying on heavy CMS platforms, slow databases, or bloated JavaScript bundles, this iteration of Larakin Systems is built on a clean, modern, static stack:
- Obsidian: The content directory for this site is literally an Obsidian vault on my local machine. I write every post in plain Markdown, taking advantage of wikilinks, local file organization, and clean frontmatter.
- Astro: Astro pulls directly from those Markdown Content Collections and builds static, ultra-fast HTML/CSS files.
The goal was a flat, lightweight site with zero tracking bloat, no fluffy comment widgets, and instant page loads.
I’ll be adding more content going forward—probably non-writing projects, tech experiments, and code snippets. Also, the DnD campaign is back after a few-month hiatus!