Weeknotes 20:14

June 28, 2020

Week of June 21-27

  • Monday was a day off as it was an LGND holiday (aka founders wanted to build in a day off for the summer). I had taken the previous Monday off for a personal day and this coming week, we have Friday off for the Fourth of July. So three short work weeks.
  • I started working on a new project. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is partnering with LGND for the second year in a row to create their annual report. I built the digital version of the report last year. This year’s version will be five separate trend reports with the first focusing on innovative COVID-19 solutions. The first report will be released on Tuesday so this project had a quick turnaround.
  • I finished development for Credential Engine’s toolkit, which I mentioned last week.
  • I finally updated my portfolio page with projects I have worked on with LGND over the past two years. Most of the projects that had been on my portfolio page were no longer live. My plan is to move toward case studies for the future so that projects will remain relevant after they are retired online.

Transcending CSS Revisited

This past week, I started rereading my copy of Andy Clarke’s Transcending CSS. Andy released Transcending CSS Revisited last December and it inspired me to revisit my copy of the book. I first read the book January to April in 2007.

I would be hard-pressed to think of another book that has been as influential on my career as Transcending CSS. The semantically structured code I write every day contains the fingerprints that came from the inspiring examples in this work. I am still quick to embrace the “transcending spirit” to expand the creative possibilities of the sites I build. (I wrote this as an endorsement when Andy released the Revisited version last December).

As I am rereading the book, I am adding post-it notes with my own commentary that I plan to feature in a future post.

Reading (Online)

  • Thoughts on personal websites and full-time jobs -Lara Schenck is considering using the making a Twenty-Twenty child theme for version 5 of her site. She lists several reasons including not want to spend a lot of time coding outside of work and the time commitment of building a new site. An interesting idea that several others have embraced.
  • What Happened to the Webmaster – I enjoyed this post from The History of the Web site. My first job title was that of “webmaster.” I enjoyed this nostalgic trip down memory lane. Like many webmasters, I did not go away but evolved into a front-end developer.
  • When frontend means full stack – Chris Coyier reflects on the shifting priorities of front-end developers.

FIFA20

I mentioned last week that I finished playing my first season with Borussia Dortmund in FIFA20. On Sunday, I played the UEFA Champion’s League final against FC Barcelona. Barcelona had embarrassed me in the qualifying rounds with a 5-2 victory (most of the goals coming in a burst in the first half). I was able to beat them in the second game on the road which helped me to qualify for the knockout rounds. But I knowing it was going to be a tight game.

As expected, it was a tight game. I scored first but Barcelona tied it up right before the half. With about twenty minutes left in the game, I drew a foul just outside the penalty area. I have yet to master free kicks in FIFA 20. My aim is good but I have not figured out how to put some power on it to get past the goalie.

I was very excited to score a goal in this free kick as I hit the post in the top corner and it bounced against the second post before landing inside the goal. I decided to record the goal so I could enjoy my accomplishment later. I ended up scoring one more goal about five minutes later to have a cushion. My keeper made three awesome saves in the final minutes to preserve the game and a Champion’s League title.

I started a second season with Borussia Dortmund later in the week after playing in a pre-season tournament with second and third-string players as the majority of my starters were playing for their countries in other tournaments.

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