Weeknotes 26:21

May 27, 2026

Week of May 17–23

Kevin Powell wrote about the lack of motivation and passion in the Web industry. I have felt that I read different people’s posts on social media over the past month. I have felt less excitement and enthusiasm about the work and less inclined to write recently. It is a challenging time. I confess it has been a challenge to keep writing these weeknotes but I feel like this is my small act of resistance.

In the workshop (what I did at work)

  • I worked on a lot of smaller tasks this week. I did have a few medium-sized tasks that required more attention. One was to rework the podcast landing page on Revive Our Hearts. For SEO purposes, we want to bring content out out of modals and onto the page. I spent the afternoon working on a new layout and then consulting with a colleague on how to display podcasts from our other language sites without having to use JavaScript since the content is in Django CMS.
  • I also spent an afternoon building out a new homepage for our German site as we move it into Django CMS. The work was mostly taking pieces of content and pasting in the German translations for the content.
  • I put the finishing touches on some pages that will launch next month. The work including making some content edits and rethinking the layout of a couple of sections on the pages. I also reworked a page updating the layout and graphics to match changes that we made to The Wonder of Word page earlier in the year. The updated page is for content producers to sample the content we are creating in English as other languages consider participating in the project in the future.
  • On Wednesday, I delivered a zip file of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and asset files for a project that I worked on in March. Due to some different circumstances, the review process took a bit longer than planned. But the client has signed off on the site so I delivered the files to the agency I am contracting with. Their team is planning to integrate the files into the client’s CMS. I look forward to seeing the site come live in the near future.

Saying goodbye

My team leader Bryan, pictured above in the maroon shirt, is leaving Revive Our Hearts for a new opportunity. Bryan’s last day was on Friday. I am bummed to lose a close colleague that I was able to form a quick friendship with. I have a lot of respect for him as a leader and as a person. Just over a year was too short a time. I would have liked to have had a lot more time.

I am grateful for the three times I got to spend with him in person–when I first onboarded at the Revive Our Hearts office in Michigan, spending a weekend with him and two other guys on the team at Beer City Code, and spending several days working backstage with him at the True Woman ’25 conference.

I find that the older I get, it is more challenging to make new friends so it is hard to lose one after such a short time. I am grateful for his encouragement, times of lending an ear to talk through a solution, and just laughing and enjoying a joke or story together. I appreciated that he got my humor and familiarity with things that I like (The Lord of the Rings).

Bryan was gracious enough to make some time in his final week to give me an informal review. I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity for some feedback knowing it might be awhile before I have someone who can give that perspective. For the interim, his absence means that me and many of my teammates will take on several of the responsibilities of his job until someone new is hired to take his former position. Goodbye Bryan and thank you.

Mohs surgery

On Thursday, I had Mohs surgery to remove a Basal cell carcinoma (the most common skin cancer) from the right side of my face. My dad has had several of these procedures so I was pretty informed going into it. The surgeon and his staff were very kind and made the experience as pleasant as it could be.

The procedure involves removing thin layers of tissue and then examining under the microscope. If cancer cells remain, another layer is removed and this process is repeated until no cancer cells remain. They were able to get it all cancer cells on the first pass so I was there a shorter time than I expected. And then the doctor stitched me up. The procedure is painless except for the initial shot that numbs the area they work on.

I was surprised to see this poster in the room I had my Mohs surgery in. The poster is from the book, Laws of UX, which I was familiar with. My doctor mentioned that he saw a lot of application of UX principles beyond products.

Articles I read

What I watched

Books I am reading

Walking

  • Monday – 3.57 miles in 1 hour 9 minutes
  • Tuesday – 3.09 miles in 58 minutes

What I played

  • MLB The Show 23 (Orioles) – I went 3-2 this week. I swept the Mariners and lost two to the Reds.
  • NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I played three games against the Kings this week and won all three of them in the Western Conference semi-finals.

Comment on this post