What did the 0 say to the 8? Nice Belt

Never let reality get in the way of a perfectly good theory.

- Bill Jetzer

Benjamin Barlow




I am Benjamin Barlow, a multi-faceted tech nerd living in Madison, Wisconsin. I have a wide variety of skills and hobbies that range from photography to web development. The favorite pastime has been (and probably always will be) theatre. For the four (and-a-half) years I spent studying Mathematics at UW-Platteville, I participated in 20 productions. That is almost one production every 80 days for 54 straight months (that’s how you really put a math degree to work!)

My real life super power is the ability to visualize relational data manipulation in my head. Essentially, it is instinctively easy for me to understand, query, and plan/model relational data.

What to use to build websites?

Feb 10, 2025

Background We’ve all seen folks getting started in web development asking for advice on what to use. They want to pick the best tools right off the bat! I’ve now built websites using WordPress, Drupal, and Hugo. While I have not solely built an entire web app using a technology stack, I do have a really good understanding of how they work.. I wanted to share some of my thoughts on what to use. There are so many tools like Astro and Craft CMS that I have yet to have the pleasure of using, so take all this with a big grain of salt that this is based on personal preferences. ...

Starting with Hugo

Feb 8, 2025

Moving to GreenGeeks and Exploring Hugo Background For over two years, I’ve been using GreenGeeks hosting for Mad’s Theatre while still maintaining my old GoDaddy hosting. Last week, I finally completed the transition, closing out all GoDaddy-related items and fully committing to GreenGeeks. While planning the migration of my personal website, I debated whether to use a CMS or a simpler approach. Ultimately, I decided to abandon WordPress (in this instance) in favor of a static site generator. ...