Weeknotes 23:34
October 19, 2023
Week of October 8–14
Overview of the week
I was able to ease back into work after taking the previous week off. I also had Monday off for the federal holiday. My workload continues to be pretty light as we are starting some new client work in the discovery phase. I was a part of several meetings about those projects so I could get familiar with them and be able to give some input.
I worked on several smaller tasks for a number of our clients.
- I updated the content on a marketing resource site for NAPEO.
- I added a newer version of a hero video and updated the script to animate text that goes with the video using the Vimeo API.
- I made some content and styling updates on a project launching very soon.
- I read through and reviewed the creative brief for a new project.
Nesting CSS
I appreciated the advice from the CloudFour team on a recent post, Nesting CSS. They give a few types of situations that they nest CSS–pseudo-classes and attribute selectors, modifier classes, media queries, and parent modifiers. I have been using nesting for over ten years in Sass and have evolved to use it only in situations very similar to the advice CloudFour gave in this article.
I also tend to nest tag selectors (like h2) under parents. I will also use the same generic class for text containers or image containers and will nest those underneath the parent.
I try to not write complex selectors and try to keep them to two levels and try to use unique classes for elements when writing my HTML.
I appreciated that someone is thinking about nesting and giving advice like CloudFour as nesting now being available to native CSS.
“Will you help me build it?”
On Saturday, my youngest called and told me that she wanted me to help her build a new LEGO® set when she returned home from the store. At first, I was a bit reluctant because I was in the middle of something else. But then I came to my senses and realized that these opportunities are not as plentiful as they once were and I need to take advantage of them while I can.
I am really glad that I did. I had so much fun hanging out with both of my daughters. My youngest put in the most amount of work but made sure to let me help her at various times during the build. We all pitched it to build the branches and the flowers. It was time well invested.
Why We Love Baseball
I was really excited months ago when I learned that Joe Posnanski was writing a follow-up book to The Baseball 100. I had really enjoyed that book so I was looking forward to another great experience with a new one. I bought the book and got it in the mail a day after it was released.
Why We Love Baseball is a collection of over 50 “moments” in baseball. Some of the moments I experienced personally, like the Pine Tar Game. Others were ones I had read about or heard about. But there were plenty that I was not aware of and some of his moments were very personal stories.
Joe is a great storyteller and I enjoyed getting lost in the book each day as I would read a couple of chapters at a time. I always came away thinking of my own “moments” that have been meaningful to me over the years of being a fan of this sport.
I really liked that one of the last chapters was a collection of the best moments from every team. I agreed with his selections for my two favorite teams, the Royals and the Rays. I am inspired to try my own hand at writing about my own baseball moments in the future.
The worst part of reading the book was finishing it. It was a celebration of my favorite sport. I love baseball.
Articles I read
- WCAG 2.2 and what it means for you
- No one actually wants simplicity
- Finding a way to make it happen (Brad Frost) – I think that this is really cool that Smashing Conference has made a space for Brad to realize a dream.
- ‘Every Campus’ Movement Aims to Reach Hundreds of Unreached Colleges for Jesus – I enjoyed reading this article and watching the video about a strategy that I was involved in when I worked for Cru. One of my former teammates coaches the church volunteers who are helping to start new ministries on college campuses.
- What’s happening in Israel and Gaza, and how should Christians pray?
- Rachel weeps for her children (World Magazine)
- event.target.closest (Jeremy Keith) – I need to file this one away for future use in my scripts.
- When to Nest CSS (Cloud Four) – I think this is pretty solid advice about deciding when to nest in CSS (or Sass). It is very similar to what I practice.
- Minetta. (Ethan Marcotte)
- Random Thoughts About Unity In The Church
- The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church
- A Trinity of Trinities (Paul David Tripp)
- Are Churches Growing Or Are Christians Just Shifting? (Stephen McAlpine)
- Increment by increment (Jeremy Keith)
The Athletic
- Orioles’ season was special, which is why the last four days were so painful
- The troubling Arizona Cardinals workplace culture that had some employees ‘working in fear’
- Reliving 14 seconds of mayhem, from Michael Harris II’s catch to Bryce Harper’s retreat – This looked like a play out of MLB The Show as I have done this before–run on a fly ball that I thought was going to drop for a hit only to get doubled up after the ball is caught and thrown into the infield. I liked that Bryce Harper did not make excuses. He was honest in saying he took a chance and it did not pay off.
What I watched
- Second half of Chiefs-Vikings games (FOX)
- Star Wars: Rebels (Disney+)
- Bluey (Disney+)
- The Night Agent (Netflix)
- Project Runway (2004)
- The Great British Baking Show – Collection 11 (Netflix)
- Loki (Disney+)
- Second half of Chiefs-Chargers game (Prime)
- American Pickers (DEFY)
Books I am reading
- Why We Love Baseball – see my comments earlier in the post.
- The God Who Gives
- Think Again
- Making Sense of God
- Making It So – I am absolutely loving Patrick Stewart’s new autobiography. I got it from the library late in the week and have been diving into it every day.
- Engineering Management for the Rest of Us
What I played
- MLB The Show 23 (Rays) – I played two games at the end of the week against the Phillies and split those games. I won the first one 6-4. I came back twice in the game before taking the lead for good. I really enjoyed playing that game. My offense was none existent in the second game.
- Madden 20 – I played a couple of exhibition games with the Chiefs against the Vikings and the Chargers.