Weeknotes 26:14

Posted 6 hours ago

Week of March 29–April 4

• I worked on a lot of small tasks at work. Some of those tasks included working with our South African and German sites as we move them from WordPress to Django CMS.
• I started working through the Layout Maestro course from Ahmad Shadeed. I worked through the foundations module and then got into the core module looking at Flexbox and CSS Grid.
• I enjoyed a three-day weekend as I had Good Friday off.
• I started reworking the stylesheet for this site on Saturday. My goal was to create a new light and dark theme and to un-Sass my site. I got a good start as I started refactoring my code to accomplish the second goal. I used several of the techniques that I talked about in my CSS Tricks article.
• I wrote some thoughts sparked by Brad Frost’s article, The Creative Infinite.

Articles I read

• Works & Wonders (March 29) — Delighting in God, Not Just His Gifts (Tim Challies) – I like this series of articles that Tim has started writing adding a short devotional and other uplifting content to celebrate the Lord’s Day.
• True Happiness Is Only Found in the Last Place Many People Look (Randy Alcorn)
• The IOC is Late Out of the Blocks in its Transgender Ruling (Stephen McAlpine)
• More Projects Please (Tyler Sticka) – I hate to see such a quality agency is struggling a bit. I am hoping they are able to connect to more work this year. Things continue to be challenging for agency work.
• You’re Looking at the Wrong Pretext Demo (Den Odell) – Too many people give their attention to dragons and miss the important stuff.
• Endgame for the Open Web (Anil Dash) – A sobering article on the state of things today.
• Moments That Reveal Our Sin and Our Need for a Savior (Randy Alcorn)
• I quit. The clankers won. (David Bushell) – I am not quitting. I am continuing to write.
• The Risk and Reward of Standing in the Pulpit (Tim Challies)
• Fancy Short Screen Recording Tools (Chris Coyier, Frontend Masters Blog)
• Front-End Fools: Top 10 April Fools’ UI Pranks of All Time (Lee Meyer, CSS Tricks) – I saw this article right after I wrote on Bluesky that I missed all the prank sites that people use to post for April Fools’ Day.
• I want an alarm clock (Andy Bell)
• Mouthwords (Mandy Brown)
• How “Project Hail Mary” Answers the Call for Positive Masculinity (Joseph Holmes, guest post on Aaron Renn’s site)
• On Networking and Platforming — and Generosity (Joy Allmond) – Steward your connections and your platform.
• Site-Map-ish (Joe Crawford)
• A Sliding “Liquid Oozing” Reveal Effect (Temani Afif, CSS Tip)
• This, Still Not for Everyone (Matthias Ott) – It is frustrating to see a commitment to accessibility take step back backwards.
• Should Links Open In New Tabs? (Vitaly Friedman, LinkedIn) – I sway each direction depending on the day.
• Comfort for Those Praying for Prodigals (Lori Hatcher, Revive Our Hearts)
• Offline break in New Forest (Ana Rodrigues) – I enjoy reading posts like this where people take a break. Glad you were able to step away for a bit, Ana.
• Google Just Patented The End Of Your Website (Forbes)
• Applying accessibility fixes with stealth for the greater good (Steve Frenzel, Piccalilli)
• Weight Loss and the World Wide Web (Jason Grigsby) – Thanks Jason for pulling back the curtain and being vulnerable.
• Mistrust (Jeremy Keith)
• Why I’m a Disabled Person, Not a Person with a Disability (James Abernathy, The Gospel Coalition)
• Why Do You Do What You Do (And Not Something Else)? (Tim Challies) – These are the type of stories that I am interested in as well.
• Native HTML components don’t guarantee good UX (Adam Silver)
• Studio Notes #78 (Dan Cederholm) – Check out the photos inside various musical instruments.
• You Are Capable of Being Virtuous (O. Alan Noble)
• Three Holiday Cards (Joe Crawford)
• Ozempic dreams (Dave Rupert)

What I watched

• Simplifying CSS animations (Kevin Powell, YouTube)
• Queen of Chess (Netflix) – I enjoyed this documentary and this story of this woman who is the queen of chess. I enjoyed hearing Hungarian.
• The West Wing (Netflix)

Books I am reading

• Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age (Tony Reinke)
• Made to Tremble (Blair Linne)
• The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood (Jane Leavy) – I bought this recently on Kindle for a couple of dollars.
• Overcoming Sin and Temptation (John Owen, Kelly Kapic, and Justin Taylor)

Walking

• Sunday – 3.80 miles in 1 hour 10 minutes
• Monday – 1.29 miles in 25 minutes
• Thursday – .83 miles in 17 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 23 (Orioles) – I went 3-1 this week. I won the final 2 games against the Angels to get a split in the four game series. I split the first two games of a road series against the Blue Jays.
• NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I won two games against the Spurs to sweep the playoff series and move on to conference semi-finals.