Adding Life Events to the Timeline

12 Jun 2015 . tech . Comments
#tutorial

The Timeline is one of { Personal }’s most distinctive features—a visual journey through your life’s milestones using photos, dates, and descriptions.

Configuring Timeline Events

Add events to your timeline in _config.yml:

events:
  - image: "/img/timeline/spidertocat.png"
    date: "September 2013 - Today"
    description: "Saving the neighborhood!"
  - image: "/img/timeline/baracktocat.jpg"
    date: "September 2007 - August 2013"
    description: "Started coding"

Each event requires three fields:

Field Description
image Path to the event image
date Time period or specific date
description Brief description of the event

Timeline Header Image

Set the image that appears at the top of your timeline:

timeline-img: "/img/timeline/default.png"

This is typically a logo, avatar, or symbolic image representing you.

Best Practices

Images:

  • Store timeline images in /img/timeline/
  • Use consistent image dimensions for a polished look
  • Optimize images for web (compress without losing quality)

Dates:

  • Use consistent formatting (e.g., “Month Year” or “Month Year - Month Year”)
  • Events display in the order listed in _config.yml
  • Arrange chronologically (newest first or oldest first, your choice)

Descriptions:

  • Keep descriptions concise (1-2 sentences)
  • Focus on achievements and milestones
  • Use action words to make events engaging

Example Timeline

events:
  - image: "/img/timeline/current-job.png"
    date: "2022 - Present"
    description: "Senior Developer at Tech Corp"
  - image: "/img/timeline/graduation.jpg"
    date: "May 2018"
    description: "Graduated with CS degree from State University"
  - image: "/img/timeline/first-code.png"
    date: "2010"
    description: "Wrote my first line of code"

timeline-img: "/img/timeline/avatar.png"

The timeline automatically renders with alternating left/right positioning for visual appeal.


Me

'Github''s Octocat was designed by Simon Oxley, alongside the white bird Twitter used (before they received a proper logo) as part of a usual routine of cranking out images for iStock. GitHub saw it, and wanted it, presumably under the notion that it can represent how complex code combines to create peculiar things, much like the octopuss... except the CEO of GitHub called it an octocat, and it has been the octocat since then.