Weeknotes 24:07

February 19, 2024

Week of February 11–17

Work highlights

  • I got some help from a teammate to improve the user experience of the badge generator I worked on last week. I was very happy with the changes because I believe we improved the product significantly with just a little bit of work.
  • I found a solution for a bug that we had discovered the week before. It was an issue in Chrome and Edge where part of an image in a Swiper carousel was clipped. We had tried many different things the previous week but to no avail. I decided to try some new things this week. The final solution involved using overflow: clip, which I had learned about the week before through a Kevin Powell video.
  • I gave a presentation to our team on Wednesday at our All Hands meeting. I talked through our quality assurance process (QA). I talked about how it tied into our value of “caring more than the client.” I talked through who was involved, what was involved, and what tools we utilized in the QA process. I am planning to write a post to summarize the presentation.
  • I spent all day on Thursday adding a global header and footer to the Connect2Canada site. It is part of an effort of the Canadian government to create a unified experience with all of their sites. We were happy to discover that there was some flexibility in implementing the solution. I integrated both the header and footer into a staging environment. The next step is to get their signoff and approval.
  • I used ChatGPT to help me write a script for that project. On the mobile view, the global header will scroll with the page, and the site header will be sticky and attached to the top of the page once it hits the top of the viewport. I needed a way to calculate the remaining height available in the viewport so I could set the toggled navigation to be that height and allow the content to scroll within that container. I wrote the steps of my script down on paper as I thought through what needed to happen. I then composed it into a prompt in ChatGPT. And it gave me a script that solved my problem. I plan to have another developer on our team review the script before moving it into production. This is the first time I have used AI to help assist me in my work.
  • I enjoyed playing Codenames with my teammates on Friday. We had a larger group than we have had in the past and it was a lot of fun. I was the spymaster for the first round. Unfortunately, my team picked the card that was the bomb. We randomized teams for the second round and my team fell short. But I had a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs.

Super Bowl Champions back-to-back

As a Chiefs fan, I was on edge all night watching the Super Bowl. Early on, the game felt eerily similar to the time the Chiefs lost to the Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55. The offense struggled to move the ball. But the defense kept coming up big time and time again to keep the Chiefs in the game.

The Chiefs know how to make the Super Bowl exciting. All three of their wins over the last five years have been comebacks. I think this year’s game is the most memorable of the three. All the drama led up to getting to witness Patrick Mahomes orchestrate a championship-winning drive capped off by a play very similar to what helped them win the game last year.

Favorite Super Bowl moment

Although I enjoyed the game, especially the outcome, my favorite moment during the broadcast came during a commercial. It was during the Volkswagen commercial celebrating 75 years since the first Beetle was introduced in America.

Both my daughter and I reacted at the same moment and tried to “slug” each other. The look on her face was priceless. I am sure I had a very similar look. We enjoy a good game of “Punch Buggy” or “Slug Bug” when we are out together. She usually has the upper hand because I am driving. She also remembers where a couple of the bugs are regularly parked. I always count it a good day when I can get her first.

It was so funny that we both reacted to the commercial the same way. We finally had to call a truce since there were an awful lot of bugs in that commercial.

NieR Automata concert in Barcelona

My son got to attend a NieR Automata symphony concert on Saturday in Barcelona. NieR is his favorite video game and he loves the soundtrack. He found out last summer that they were doing these concerts in Europe and they were doing it in Barecelona around his birthday. So he jumped at the chance to buy tickets even before his study abroad was finalized.

Not only did he get to hear the music, he got to see new HD video projections from NieR series director Yoko Taro and composer Keiichi Okabe. The performance also featured the solo vocals of original NieR series singers Emi Evans and J’nique Nicole.

He had great seats and really enjoyed the evening. He told me that it was a night that he will remember for a while. I am so glad he got to have that special experience during his time there.

I wish that I could have gone to see The Lord of the Rings Symphony with Howard Shore back in the day. I think it would have been a very similar experience for me as the NieR concert was for Ryan.

Rock Chalk!

On Saturday, I got a text from my former co-worker Molly. She just said, “Rock Chalk!” It was a Saturday afternoon in February so I figured it had something to do with the men’s basketball team. I looked it up and they were playing OU. I found out that Molly had driven down to Norman to attend the game with her parents. She grew up in Oklahoma but their family were Jayhawk fans.

When I checked my phone, the Hawks were down 34-29 at the half. I told her to cheer loudly in the second half. I checked back later in the afternoon and saw that KU had won 67-57. I texted Molly and told her, “You must have been cheering loudly.” I am glad she thought about me and it was fun to hear from her. And I am glad that the Hawks beat the Sooners.

What I wrote

Articles I read

What I watched

  • Super Bowl 58: Chiefs vs. 49ers (CBS) – I was on edge most of the night. But the ending is what every sports fan dreams about for their team. The chance to see their star orchestrate a championship-winning drive. Mahomes came through and the Chiefs are champions again.
  • Super Bowl 58 Game Highlights (YouTube) – I watched this before I went to sleep on Sunday night. It was fun to relive it again before going to sleep.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix) – My daughter wanted to watch this with us.
  • Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix) – I visited Buenos Aires, Dublin, Copenhagen, South Africa, Seoul, and New York City this week. This is the third or fourth time that I have seen most of these episodes but I continue to love them.
  • Project Runaway Season 15 and 16 (Prime) – We are on our last one on Prime. Season 17 is on Netflix so we will probably watch that one to finish it out.
  • The Franchise Ep. 4 2023 (YouTube)
  • The Franchise Ep. 5 2023 (YouTube)
  • An American Dame Teaser Trailer (YouTube) – My daughter was an extra in this short film shot in Chattanooga. I wish we could find the full short film streaming online. She shows up in several places in the teaser. She is wearing a lighter red dress in the bar scene.

Books I am reading

I returned The Practice to the library. It was an okay book but just not something that was keeping my attention right now. I think it is the type of book you pick up from time to time and read the short pieces of advice. Not as conducive as a borrowed book.

What I played

  • FIFA23 (Manchester City)

1 Comment

  1. Weekly Links 02.19–02.25 – ntdln

    February 26th, 2024

    […] Weeknotes 24:07 (Jeff Bridgforth) […]

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