Weeknotes 22:40

December 20, 2022

Week of December 11–17

Toyota Policy Drivers

I enjoyed spending the week focused on this project that I started the week before. I made quite a bit of progress to set me up to take the final two weeks of the year on PTO. I worked on animating elements in the hero section of all the pages. The homepage hero was the more complex animation. It contains a transparent image that overlaps the circular background. I had the idea that I wanted to isolate the image and be able to animate the image by fading it up and in.

In order to do this, I needed to create a clip-path on the parent element (figure) that would allow the image to animate up inside the image. I needed a circular mask to clip the image from showing as it animated up. I created the clip-path by creating a vector image and then took the path data and used it in the CSS clip-path.

I referenced a clip-path converter tool that I had documented in my weeknotes to convert my path from absolute to relative values so that the clip-path would size responsively. It took me longer than it should have to figure it all out. I made the mistake of putting some code on the wrong element-the SVG instead of the clipPath. But in the process, I came up with a better solution for other elements that I needed to pull off the effect I was looking for.

I have really enjoyed working on this project. I love being able to make a design come to life with HTML, CSS, and a sprinkling of JavaScript. It has been a great project to end the year on and I look forward to coming back to it in January and finishing the site.

Video of the hero animation on Toyota Policy Drivers site

12 Days of Web

Stephanie Eckels is back with another series of articles to end the year and learn about the fundamental Web technologies of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This year she brought her friends along and sprinkles in guest posts from authors like Eric Meyer, Ryan Trimble, Kevin Powell, and more. I read several of her articles last year and they were a great introduction and hands-on experience with newer Web technologies. Her article on Intersection Observer has been one that I have revisited several times this year and helped me finally understand threshold.

The State of CSS 2022 Survey Results

I have not had a chance to read this yet, but the results from the State of CSS 2022 have been posted. I took the survey back in October. I shared some thoughts in response to taking it and how it helped me to gauge my current knowledge of the language. I look forward to reading the summary and learning more about how other developers responded to the survey.

LGND Secret Santa

We ended the week with our annual LGND Secret Santa. We all received a name from DrawNames.com. Our teammate Taylor put together a spreadsheet where we entered our address and could add wishlist items to help the teammate who drew our name to have ideas for buying a gift. Other teammates enlisted the help of other teammates to help them buy something with personal meaning for their person. I have utilized this in the past. This year I decided to take the suggestions from the spreadsheet for my teammate. I also took a chance and bought her a book that I found super helpful as a remote teammate (she mentioned that she likes to read and was open to recommendations).

It was a lot of fun to see what my teammates got for each other. Some did a lot of homework and all the gifts were very thoughtful and personal. One teammate received a pizza from his favorite place via Door Dash. Another teammate, who is a sugar addict, received jelly beans and an Oreo house-building kit (like a gingerbread house). A photographer in the group that likes old cameras and uses physical film received some film and other related items. It was a fun time of hanging out and trying to guess who was each person’s Secret Santa.

My teammate liked her gifts. And I received a Kansas Jayhawk blanket that I have used every night as I sat on the couch to read or watch Downton Abbey with my wife. The blanket has sleeves and makes you look like you are wearing a uniform for the team. Thanks, Kosta for the very thoughtful gift. Rock Chalk!

Surprised by burnout

On Tuesday, I had my end-of-the-year review. LGND has review periods every six months. This conversation was harder and more difficult than normal. As I was processing the feedback I received, I reviewed notes that I had taken earlier in the year from the book, Beating Burnout at Work.

I read the book primarily to learn more about the subject and be able to make suggestions to our team on how anyone who found themselves burned out. I also learned how we could make small changes to our culture that would help minimize the risk of team members experiencing it.

Little did I know at the time that I would be the one needing help. I was surprised by burnout. Even after reading up on the subject, the burnout I experienced manifested itself differently than expected. I think that is why it took me longer to identify that it was at the root of an immense amount of frustration and dissatisfaction I was feeling in my life.

I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about what burnout really is. It is not primarily about overwork. I think a lot of people are quick to use the term when it does not really describe the “burnout” condition. Burnout is caused by an imbalance between your job demands and job resources, more likely when demands outweigh resources. Just taking a vacation does not solve the problem. The books that I read both discussed the important roles that teams play in helping employees to avoid or to beat burnout once it happens.

Because I think people misuse the term frequently, I have been very careful and reluctant to throw around the term. But as I reviewed my notes, I kept seeing connections to talking points from my review conversation. And it just made a lot of sense that is what I had been experiencing.

I am just beginning to process this. I had been trying to put my finger on it over the last three or four months and kept coming up short. I am hopeful that I have identified the source and now I can put things in place to get out of it and return to a healthier version of myself. I am trying to take a break for now so I can enjoy time with my family and enjoy the holidays. I plan to think more about it once the new year starts.

Articles I read

Books I read

What I watched

  • Willow (Disney+) – I have enjoyed this new series.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special (Disney+)
  • Downton Abbey (Prime)
  • Kim’s Convenience (Netflix)
  • Rogue One (Disney+) – I have wanted to rewatch this movie after seeing the Andor series this fall.
  • Moneyball (Netflix)

What I played

  • FIFA 23 (Manchester City and US National team) – My US national team lost to Brazil 1-0 in the semi-final but I took the third-place game from the Netherlands 5-4.

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