Weeknotes 22:17

July 10, 2022

Week of July 4 - 9

Two Dimensional Man

The highlight of the week was reading through Paul Sahre’s graphic design memoir, Two Dimensional Man. Paul wrote one of the essays for Marvel by Design. I enjoyed that essay and was interested in reading his book after discovering he had written one.

The book is an interesting blend of personal history, influences, and discussions about his work and processes. I enjoyed the read. It reminded me a bit of Why We Make Things and Why It Matters: The Education of a Craftsman, which I read in 2020. Similar storytelling techniques. I liked how Two Dimensional Man was organized around episodes, some of them only a page long. Others were more like short chapters. I liked the unconventional layouts that add to the stories Paul was telling.

There were a lot of nuggets of wisdom in the last part of the book as he talked more about his projects and processes. My son plans to be a graphic designer and will start his studies at Murray State University in Kentucky in August.

I enjoy reading books about people who make things. Some of their experiences overlap with mine. Others are completely different. As I was reading this book, I started thinking about how I would write my own memoir. I am not sure if I ever will be it is fun to think about. I started thinking about stories from my own life that help tell the story of my journey as a developer.

Project work

  • I built out the teams page for Kauffman Real World Learning this past week. I got to apply things I learned several weeks ago with SVG masking. I am keeping up with the development timeline and had a day on Friday to go back and address some QA issues that my teammates uncovered.
  • I revisited the Toyota Policy Drivers project that I built last week. I went back and reworked a section for smaller screens. I decided to use Grid layout on tablets to reorder some of the content instead of having it all in a carousel, which I am still using on mobile. I am much happier with this new solution.
  • My team, LGND, has been trying out some new processes around our daily standup. I like the direction that it is going and I think it helps us to keep the focus on the priorities. I really appreciate how the project management team keeps looking for ways to improve how we work and how we communicate.

Articles I read

  • How Toyota Built a Corporate Advocacy Program Employees Love – LGND, the agency I work for, has helped Toyota to build three gamification projects. This article gives an excellent overview of what Toyota has done. I am currently involved in a project to help Toyota employees understand the Policy Drivers program and encourage them to sign-up to participate.
  • Vibe Check No. 18 (Dave Rupert) – Dave was one of the many people that encouraged me to start doing these regular posts. He has moved to more of a quarterly update. An interesting peek into the life of another developer.
  • It’s 1997 and you want to build a website (Jay Hoffman’s The History of the Web) – This one really piqued my interest because I made my first website in 1997. I used a combination of tutorials I found on CompuServe and then read the book, Creating Cool HTML 4 Web Pages. The tutorials were written by Dave Taylor, who also wrote the book. Jay’s article was a fun read. I hosted my first site through CompuServe.
  • Masonry? In CSS?! (Michelle Barker) – As Michelle points out, interest in masonry layout seems to have died down. I built some sites about five years ago using David DeSandro’s Masonry library. I am glad that Michelle revisits where things are at along with her thoughts on its future.
  • The Surprising Case for Marrying Young – I married in my twenties right out of college. Next year, we will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. It’s interesting to see how countercultural this idea is today.
  • Transformation of a Transgender Teen

Books I read

  • Knowing Sin
  • The Power of Christian Contentment
  • Two Dimensional Man
  • User Friendly – I just started rereading this book on Saturday. I read this book at the beginning of 2020 and have wanted to read it again. The book tries to chronicle how “user friendly” was invented, how it now shapes our everyday experiences, and where it is going next. I enjoyed all the stories of people that progressed in the field. I also appreciated that the author looks at both how it has improved our lives and how it has been detrimental. Looking forward to my second read.

What I watched

  • Ms. Marvel (Disney+)
  • Everybody Loves Raymond (Peacock)
  • Bernie Mac Show (Peacock)
  • Finest Hours (Disney+)
  • Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (DVD)
  • I started to watch Jeremy Keith’s talk for CSS Day, In and Out of Style on Saturday. But I did not pick a good time to watch it. It was later in the afternoon and I ended up falling asleep. Please know that it had nothing to do with Jeremy’s content but it was very interesting and I am looking forward to taking some time to watch it when I am less inclined to rest instead.

What I played

  • Wordle
  • MLB The Show 21 (Braves) – I finished the 162-game season on Saturday. I did not have a good final week as I went 1-2 against the Mets. In my final game, I was leading 4-0 going into the ninth and my bullpen blew the game and I lost 7-5 in 10 innings. A disappointing way to end the season. But I did win the division as the Marlins beat the Phillies a couple of times to help me out.

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