Freedom is not always good, in some cases, it would bring to you difficult decisions.
That’s right. This is my website, I thought I could quickly and easily make it because I can do whatever I want. I can pick any technology, any frameworks for the front-end and back-end. I’m also free in designing, it’s not like someone already designed it, did all the UI/UX stuff and you have to follow their guidelines, as my job, a web developer.
It’s freedom. Yeah! I was so excited.
However, it turned out to be stressful very soon. To be honest, I’m a perfectionist, it’s quite hard for me to make the decision. Many questions appeared in my mind: “which frameworks I should choose?”, “should I build the web from scratch to prove my skills?”, “what does my website look like? A static web page, a full page scroll, or a single web page with ajax call?”. Oh dear, I was so confused 
. It could be easier if I just make my website like what I did at work, but I consider my website is a side project to experiment new tech, so bring it on!
For my first question, which frameworks I should choose, I decided to use javascript stack. By the way, I was a Java dev for over 3 years but I want to try using Nodejs because making my website is a great chance for me to learn new things. After doing research, I choose KeystoneJS framework. It’s a Node.js CMS & Web Application Platform, built on Express and MongoDB. KeystoneJS is a great framework, easy to use and customize. I’ll use KeystoneJS to manage the website’s content and handle the backend.
For the frontend, I will go with Angular 2 and Material Design Lite (MDL). MDL is a lightweight CSS framework made by Google. It has just been released for 2 months but has about 15k stars on Github, very promising, that’s why I want to give it a try. There are many website templates that I can use quickly build the website but I think I should not use it, building the web from scratch would give me more that just a web although I need to finish this project as soon as possible.
Another hard decision is the web flow, the UI/UX. I’ve seen many cool portfolio websites which are the inspiration for me. I really admire the authors of those websites and would love to make the same good job. However, I don’t want mine is just a copy, I need it to be different. I made many prototypes but still not happy with it. After all, I need to face the fact that I’m not a UI/UX designer to make a unique beautiful layout.
This kick off phrase took me more time than I thought. But I like what I’m doing. 
Update: 25 March 2016
This blog was written a half year ago, many things were changed. I recommend you read these blogs:
https://leetrunghoo.com/life/im-back/ about why I discontinued developing my website last year and what I learned from my mistakes
https://leetrunghoo.com/tech/about-my-website/ about what technique I use for building my website
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