My First Skateblog
“Rannalli”, printed in a hand writing-style script in an oval, flanked by two checkerboard flags and a background of jagged shapes, remains deeply lodged in my mind.
The Rannalli logo and name haven’t become deep lore among other skaters from the 1980s in the way that Vision, Sana Monica Airlines, or Gordon & Smith remain revered, however. And the heavily pixelated image above isn’t mine. It’s an ebay image found linked from this Vintage Longboards post. From what I can gather in an hour or so of searching, Rannalli were better known for making wheels and trucks, possibly for roller skates, than for decks.
This Rannalli logo was on top of my first skateboard, meaning I saw it every time I looked down while learning to ride. The board was a birthday present. If I remember correctly, my folks bought it as a “complete”—all the parts were put together and sold as a set, not ones I chose separately myself.
It definitely felt like “my” skateboard while I was learning to ride. But my subsequent boards all felt like they were “mine” in an entirely different way, as by that time I was sufficiently opinionated and felt sufficiently informed to select and assemble my own parts. (Almost always a Powell Peralta deck, wheels, and bearings, and usually with Independent trucks.)
When my dad would watch me press the bearings into the wheels or attach the trucks to the deck, he’d almost always marvel at how “handy” I was teaching myself to be. It wasn’t super complex to bodge the various bits together, but it certainly felt empowering.
Blaugust2026 Group Project
Yes, this is indeed also about my first blog.
The same nuanced, changing feeling of “mine” pertains to both.
Tumblrs, Plural
Although I believe I briefly had a LiveJournal and a WordPress site, I can’t remember precisely. Which implies that I didn’t use them frequently.
Tumblr, on the other hand, definitely felt like “my” blog at the time. I could lightly change the theme, and typically did. I eventually knew other people on the site, and we even would meet up at library conferences. It was right in-between being a standalone blog and a social media site, which made it quite engrossing as a platform.
But—much like the difference between how my Rannalli board and my subsequent ones felt like they were “mine” in distinct ways, I’m realizing that I now think of this Jekyll site as “my first blog” even though I’ve had it since 2014.
Jekyll, Or 12 Years Behind the Command Line Prompt
Twelve years, huh? That’s a long time to have any blog, let alone a “first blog”!
The main Minimal Mistakes theme has evolved throughout the years. As I’ve learned more about the underlying technologies (Jekyll, GitHub Pages, Liquid, Ruby, and related tools like Bundler), I’ve eventually adapted elements.
I’ve gone through periods where I seriously considered switching to a different static site engine (like Hugo, or more recently Astro or Quarto), but I keep using Jekyll in part because it’s one of the best-documented systems and therefore I feel like my site can be an example for other non-“programmers” and humanities folks who might want not only a site of their own, but one that they can truly, deeply make their own.
If you’re interested in Jekyll and GitHub Pages in particular, Amanda Visconti’s Building a static website with Jekyll and GitHub Pages is an excellent introductory lesson. If you’re wanting to go beyond a solo blog, Amanda Visconti, Brandon Walsh, and Scholars’ Lab Community’s Running a Collaborative Research Website and Blog with Jekyll and GitHub does a great job of discussing how to collaborate with others.
If I were considering making a brand-new Jekyll-based site right now, I’d consider the Al-Folio theme as well as my own site’s Minimal Mistakes theme.
Finally, if you’re on a Mac, you might find this Moncef Beylamani’s long post The fastest and easiest way to install Ruby on a Mac in 2026 a helpful resource. Parker Moore, one of the maintainers of Jekyll itself, also has a post recommending that you use a ruby version manager.
Kudos
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Cite this post:
Randall, Ryan P. “My First Skateblog”. Published August 06, 2026. https://www.ryanpatrickrandall.com/my-first-skateblog. Accessed on .