Weeknotes 20:11

June 5, 2020

Week of May 31 - June 5

It has been a crazy week in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. I have been taking the time to read and watch a variety of different sources to better inform my thinking. I had read The Myth of Equality earlier this year and read The Madness of Crowds about identity politics last month. Due to a lot of different things that happened last year, I wanted to take time to think about how I can take responsibility for this important social issue.

Beyond Racial Gridlock

This past week, I started reading Beyond the Racial Gridlock. I wanted to read an African-American author with a Christian viewpoint on the issue. It was one of the books I had put on my wishlist to read this year and I got a deal on the Kindle version in March.

I have really enjoyed this book so far. The author, George Yancey, takes a look a look at 4 secular solutions to the problem of racism in our country. His contention is that all of them present an incomplete solution because they fail to address one or more areas. All four of them fail to address the human heart. After looking at the four views, he will begin to propose a uniquely Christian vision for the solution. I have just come to that section of the book.

Yancey shares an insight that I found extremely valuable in understanding things that I have read or things in the news. He talks about that people address the issue from one of two places–individualistic and structural. Majority culture people tend to favor the first and minority culture the second. I really understand why there is such a disconnect when discussing how to solve this because there is disagreement at a fundamental level and I don’t think most people are aware of these differing viewpoints. Understanding it has made a lot of things make more sense to me.

Yancey believes that the only solution where both sides share responsibility will be effective in addressing the complete picture of the problem. And I am guessing that it involves addressing both the individual and structural.

Other Articles or Videos that address racism or current events

  • Confession: I DO NOT support George Floyd and I refuse to see him as a martyr. But I hope his family receives justice. Candace Owens, an African-American conservative, shares her thoughts on current events. I found it interesting to hear a different viewport
  • I’m Tired – George Yancey, the author of the book I am currently reading, shares his thoughts on current events.
  • How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change – Barack Obama’s thoughts on current events
  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man (Video) – A good video just to listen to seek to understand. Emmanuel Acho plans to make more of these.
  • LeVar Burton’s This is My Story (Video)- series of videos where LeVar tells his story and the story of others who have experienced racism. Another thing to help put yourself in someone else’s shoes. I watched these five months ago but thought of them as I put together this list.
  • Uncomfortable Hope – Appreciate the voice of my African-American brother in Christ.
  • I watched Just Mercy for free on Redbox’s streaming service. I heard it is also on Amazon Prime Video – Really good movie. Powerful storytelling.

Work

  • Another week of juggling multiple projects. I gave a lot of attention to the Greater Washington Partnership redesign that we are looking to launch in a couple of weeks. Continuing to refine the site as we get more feedback from the client. I worked on a search solution this week that is still in progress.
  • On Wednesday, I worked on a blog template for CalmHR. We launched this site at the end of March and now they would like to add a blog.
  • On Thursday, I began work on a new project for Credential Engine. They want to add some resources and highlight their many partnerships at a state level.
  • My company, LGND, has implemented a flexible Friday policy for the summer. I took advantage of it today (June 5) and knocked off around 2.

TIL (Today I Learned)

Responsive Image Syntax

This week I learned two things. First, I learned that I could shorten my syntax for images at different densities.

<img src="image@1x.jpg" srcset="image@2x.jpg 2x" />

versus

<img src="image@1x.jpg" srcset="image@1x.jpg, image@2x.jpg 2x" />

I am not sure where I picked up the second version but it is good to know I can shorten it.

Looping through wp_query multiple times to write different code blocks

On the Credential Engine project, I am building a map so the user can see resources by state. Not all states have resources so I needed a way to build a map dynamically as well as a select box and individual cards that will modal when a user clicks on the state on the map or chooses it from the dropdown. The solution is similar to a solution I implemented on Sharing Solutions.

I needed to loop through the query of the state content type I created three times in order to create the select options, create an array that I would check against to put an active state on states in the content type, and finally to create the individual state information cards with links to the resources.

I realized that I could run the while loop three separate times within the outer if loop.

For example:

<?php if($state_query->have_posts() ): ?>
...
  <?php while($state_query->have_posts() ): $state_query->the_post();?&gt
    // Create my array to use with map
  <?php endwhile;?>
...
  <?php while($state_query->have_posts() ): $state_query->the_post();?&gt
    // Create my option for select
  <?php endwhile;?>
...
  <?php while($state_query->have_posts() ): $state_query->the_post();?&gt
    // Create my state cards to display resources
  <?php endwhile;?>
...
<?php endif;?> // end query

Books

  • I finished Atomic Habits on Monday. My team had a really good discussion of the book for our book club on Thursday. I look forward to continuing to making application on what I have read.
  • Beyond Racial Gridlock – already mentioned that I started this book on Monday.

Watched

The most entertaining thing I watched this week was Reunited Apart: The Lord of the Rings. I felt like a Zoom call with my team. It was a lot of fun to watch the interaction between the cast. You feel like you get to know them as you watch the behind the scenes videos in the Extended Versions and follow their journey as they made the films. The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite stories and I love the movies.  Around the middle of the Reunited Apart episode, the cast reads scenes from the movies. Andy Serkis is a riot. It was so much fun to watch. It felt like an hour with friends. It makes me want to rewatch the trilogy of films again soon. Or re-read the books.

  • Just Mercy – watched it free on Redbox streaming service
  • The West Wing (Netflix)

Comments are closed.