Weeknotes 23:42
December 11, 2023
Week of December 3–9
- It was a short work week as I took off Wednesday through Friday to travel up to Murray, Kentucky to help my son move completely out of his dorm. He will be leaving in a month to spend the spring semester in Barcelona at the Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering.
- After doing some prep work at the end of the previous week, I filled out a review document for my team. LGND does reviews twice a year. It is a good opportunity to take a step back and reflect on the work and what I learned over the past six months.
- I did some site maintenance on a couple of our client sites. I added some pictures to the About page of the Toyota Policy Drivers site as one of my teammates took portraits at their team’s offsite meeting. It was nice to replace several placeholder images for team members who had joined the team since we launched the site in February.
- I enjoyed a 1:1 with one of my teammates who is going through a challenging time right now. We had not met recently so it was good to catch up.
Update: Post each day challenge
As I mentioned last week, I decided to take up the challenge to post each day on this site for a month. So far, I have been able to meet the challenge. A lighter work load early in the week helped me to be able to cover those days. I also had some extra time on my trip up to Murray and was able to write four of my posts while I was there. I was able to write several posts ahead of time and schedule them for when I was traveling to and from Kentucky.
The challenge pushed me to get several ideas out of my head that I have been holding onto. I wrote a couple of posts related to reading in Dan Cederholm’s book, Twenty Bits I Learned About Making Websites. Several other posts have come from suggestions from Michelle Barker’s What to Blog About When You Don’t Know What to Blog About.
I anticipate that it is going to get more challenging as the days past. I went through all the ideas of things I have thought about but never pulled the trigger on, like Getting ready for the :has() selector. I had been wanting to put that together for several months. It was an opportune time to write it as support for the :has()
selector will be complete on the 19th when Firefox 121 releases.
Other posts seem to just present themselves. I wrote about my first trip to Chattanooga to interview for the job that relocated us here. I was sparked from a memory on Facebook and the familiarity of staying in a room with the same layout at the same hotel chain.
I am looking forward to what I will find to write about this week and beyond.
I got to eat at one of my favorite fast food places this week, Culver’s in Murray, Kentucky. Chattanooga does not have a Culver’s so I don’t get to eat it very often, which is probably a good thing for my health. I really enjoy their mushroom and swiss butter burger and their cheese curds. I also enjoyed a turtle sundae one evening at the end of the day.
Articles I read
- CSS Wrapped: 2023! (Chrome for Developers) – A great overview of the exciting year it was for CSS.
- The Shohei Ohtani brand — Free agent’s value is as much about business as it is baseball (The Athletic)
- Who Are You When Only Your Family Is Looking? (Tim Challies) – A good article for evaluating your character.
- Keith Green: A Christian Singer Who Changed My Life
- Why the Post-Christian West is Eagerly Pursuing ‘Skynet’-Level AI – An interesting perspective about the motive behind the pursuit of AI.
- The UX of HTML (HTML Hell) – The first entry into this year’s advent calendar.
- The Thin Line Between Admirable and Stupidity – I may write a post later this week with some thoughts about this one by Geoff Graham about career management.
- Three Decades of HTML (Eric Meyer) – I am five years short of the time Eric has been writing HTML. I enjoyed reading Eric’s story as I was fresh off of telling my own story last week.
- Gift Guide 2023 (Chris Coyier)
- Blessed Be the Name of the Lord – A grieving husband shares his hope in the midst of losing his spouse. I had read one of his posts several weeks ago as his wife’s health declined.
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Our Constantinian Moment
- Pain needs interpreting
- Your love for Jesus is measured by what he asks of you, not by how you treat Christmas
- Blood Pressure (Chris Coyier) – I relate to Chris on this one as I have had to monitor my blood pressure for the past couple of months.
- Kirk Cousins, Focus on the Family, and How God Uses Opposition to Spread the Truth (Randy Alcorn)
- A `/random` Route on a WordPress Site (Chris Coyier)
- I am a poem I am not software (Robin Rendle) – Some thoughts on the right balance between expressing yourself and keeping a professional image to sell yourself.
- Gnostic Christmas leads many of us into sin
- Tribes, Trolls, and the Power of Technology
- The Beauty of Difference
What I watched
Kirk Cousins: Living as an Ambassador for Christ – I was quite impressed with Kirk Cousins after watching him on the Netflix series Quarterbacks. I enjoyed hearing his thoughts on his faith in this interview.
CSS4 Is Coming (Not a Clickbait) – I wrote a post about the content in this video on Saturday.
‘Piano Man’ (BILLY JOEL) Song Cover by The HSCC Feat. Danny Lopresto
- Season 43 – The Concord Country Cape of This Old House
- Project Runway Season 8 (Prime) – We watched the finale on Tuesday. We were not all that excited about the designers who made it to the final of this season.
- Project Runway Allstars Season 2 (Prime)
- Bluey (Disney+)
- Gilmore Girls (Netflix)
What I listened to
I enjoyed getting to listen to Chris and Dave on the Shop Talk Show podcast. I only listen to podcasts on road trips and I have not taken as many of those this fall.
- Shop Talk Show #594: Wiping Your Laptop, UX of Password Codes, and :Has Tips and Tricks
- Shop Talk Show #587: Why Ethan Marcotte Thinks Tech Workers Deserve a Union
- Shop Talk Show #590: Twisting Through Websites
- Shop Talk Show #592: Web Component Therapy, SEO Therapy, and Learning Something New like Swift
Books I am reading
- Trusting God
- The One True Light
- Twenty Bits I Have Learned about Making Websites – I am enjoying rereading this one. I wrote several posts last week about chapters in the book.
- A Craftsman’s Legacy – I have been wanting to read a biography of a designer or craftsman. I have not found one I haven’t read so I decided to reread this one.
- Tactics
What I played
MLB The Show 23 (Rays) – I played one game on Sunday and won 3-0. I am currently on a six game winning streak. But the Yankees are on a 10 game winning streak and 1 1/2 games ahead of me in the division.
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