Weeknotes 22:21

August 7, 2022

Week of July 31 - August 6

It was a crazy week and at times, a surreal week. It was my son’s last full week at home before he moves to Murray State University at the end of next week to start his freshman year. The week also contains several curveballs and changed plans.

• We received some unexpected feedback from a stakeholder late in a project that will delay the launch. We were originally planning to soft launch the site in a week. This is one of the curveballs that got thrown at me this week.
• I spent four hours in the ER Wednesday night with one of our children. It capped off a difficult day I had already had. The child is fine and it seems to have been a fluke thing. I am grateful that the ER was not busy. I had been told it had been up to a five-hour wait at different times during the week.
• I sat in on a couple of kickoff meetings with new clients. One of the projects will probably hit my desk in a couple of months.
• I spent Friday afternoon with my son at the Classic Arcade Pinball Museum in downtown Chattanooga. We had originally planned to do it on Thursday but with my unexpected visit to the ER on Wednesday, we delayed it by a day. I had fun spending time with my boy and making some memories before he leaves for school next week. I really enjoyed playing different pinball machines, some classic arcade games, and playing Street Fighter with my son. We also walked around downtown and got some treats at the Peach Cobbler Factory.
• I made some small improvements to this site. I added the ability to display category or taxonomy descriptions on those archive pages. I also implemented a more robust pager solution.
• I am taking time off next week to help move my son to Murray State at the end of the week. It will be nice to step back from the work and focus on my family. I always find that I return more refreshed and engaged in the work. I am anticipating starting a new project as we build a new site for the Energy Efficiency Hub. We will be expanding the one-page site we built for them in the fall.

Discipline

There are consequences to an undisciplined life. And I had to pay those consequences on Saturday. I put off mowing our yard for a couple of weeks. But on Saturday, I needed to take care of it. It had grown pretty tall in places. I wanted to get out early and beat the heat. But the grass was still wet from the rain that we got on Friday night.

The combination of tall wet grass made it a challenge to mow. Grass kept collecting by the discharge and I had to stop to clear it out. So it was a lot of stop and go. I also determined it would be better to push the mower back on the track I just did so that I was not mowing over the discharged wet grass. I also went back over the front yard with the grass catcher on the back of the mower to collect the clumps of grass. I did not have the energy to do it in my backyard.

As I mowed, I reflected on the consequences of my undisciplined decisions. The previous time I mowed was similar in that the grass was very tall in places and I had told myself not to let it go for more than a week. But I did and I paid for it on Saturday with four hours of yardwork.

Update on CSS Tricks

Back in March, I shared some reservations that I had on the heels of the sale of CSS Tricks to Digital Media. I was having a conversation with my son this week about it and realized that I have read several very helpful articles on CSS Tricks in the last month, a few that I share below. It gives me some hope for the future of CSS Tricks especially after some articles right after the sale did not seem to be as high in quality.

Articles I read

• Engineering manager or individual contributor: Which path is right for you? – I appreciated this perspective from Jason as it is a topic I have struggled with over the past 3 years.
• A Crucial Court Case Exposes the Darkness of America’s Worst Industry
• Honour & respect are culturally bound
• Directory enquiries
• Perspective Comes Before Skills – Some good thoughts to consider for your own professional development or others on your team.
• Subheadings, subtitles, alternative titles and taglines in HTML – I appreciate the solutions that the author puts forth in this article on how to semantically add subtitles, taglines, or eyebrows (not something he mentions but has application) to HTML code that is accessible.
• Solving “The Dangler” Conundrum with Container Queries and :has() – I can’t wait until both :has and container queries are implemented in all evergreen browsers
• Exploring CSS Grid’s Implicit Grid and Auto-Placement Powers
• Implicit Grids, Repeatable Layout Patterns, and Danglers
• Points, break. – Ethan Marcotte reflects on where the term “breakpoint” came from. He did not know. It was not in his original article about Responsive Design but did find it’s way into his book about the subject in 2011.
• Truthish.
• Quick Tip: Negative Animation Delay – another great tip from Michelle Barker.
• Encouraging Inclusion Through Healthy Team Collaboration

Books I read

• Surprised by Jesus – I finished this one mid-week. I really liked it and plan to read it again in the next year.
• The Storytelling God – I just started this one at the end of the week.

What I watched

• CSI: Miami and NCIS: New Orleans (ion Mystery)
• The Bernie Mac Show (Peacock)
• Marcel The Shell with Shoes On (Theater) – my son saw the movie earlier in the week and wanted the family to see it with him before he left for school.
• Blown Away Season 3 (Netflix)
• Light and Magic (Disney+)

What I played

• Several classic arcade and pinball games at Classic Arcade Pinball Museum in downtown Chattanooga
• MLB The Show 21 (Braves) – I won two more games to sweep the NLCS from the Giants. I will face the White Sox in the World Series.