Weeknotes 26:44

Posted 2 hours ago

Week of October 25–31

Around the workshop

• Wonder of the Word Hub – I started looking through the Hub on the different language sites and started adding conditionals to show content based on the level of participation. We launched the Hub on the English site at the beginning of October and we will launch it on our Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German sites later this month followed by South Africa (Afrikaan) later this month or in December. I panicked a bit during an align meeting when I realized that were close to having to launch those other sites. I have been so focused on the English version that I have not had the time to look at what changes I need to make in my template to accomodate the different levels of participation. But now that I have taken a first pass, I realized that we are on a good course to hit those deadlines.
• Adding background color to footer in light color scheme – I finished up work on this project and tested it in all of our language sites. We pushed the changes to production around mid-week. I like the blue at the bottom of the page to “frame” the page.

CSS Tricks in back!

Wow! I did not expect this turn in the CSS Tricks drama. I am excited that the site is back in the hands of the community and I look forward to see where Geoff takes it. The news was celebrated by the community as a huge win during a time when many feel despair with the state of the web development industry.

Remembering Patrick Stewart

I was sad and surprised to hear of the passing of Patrick Stewart late on Thursday afternoon. I enjoyed Patrick as an actor. He brought to life my favorite Star Trek captain, Jean Luc Picard. I also enjoyed his portrayal of Charles Xavier in X-Men. He seemed to have the same warm and friendliness in his personal life that he embodied in his characters. I enjoyed reading his autobiography, Making It So, in 2023. (I just saw that Amazon is running a deal on the Kindle version right now for $2.99). I took some time on Sunday to share some of my thoughts about Patrick and the characters he portrayed.

Memory Keeper

I did some work over the weekend on my Memory Keeper personal project. (I want to do a proper post about it sometime soon.) Essentially, it takes the idea of Facebook Memories and I expand it with other entries and memories. I spent most of Saturday afternoon scanning pictures from a 1997 trip to Prague and other memories from our year living in Debrecen, Hungary. I also added some memories from my engagement to my wife, which was 34 years ago on October 30.

I have spent the last two years manually entering memories from Facebook, Instagram, and then adding others from digital pictures from our family. It is a project that I had wanted to do for many years but just lacked the umph to get started. I probably could have found ways to import my data from Facebook and Twitter but doing it manually has helped me to curate it and enjoy pausing to reflect on the moments that I am capturing in my WordPress project.

What I wrote

• Why I am rooting for the Rays – We first started attending Rays games in 2009. Soon the Rays became my second team, our family’s team.
• Make it so – I wrote some thoughts about Patrick Stewart and my favorite starship captain that he brought to life. Engage.

Articles I read

• ‘Bloody Thursday’ and the mystery of the Kossuth Square massacre (History Skills) – I was brushing up on some facts about Bloody Thursday. I learned a lot about it a few years ago when I visited the memorial below Kossuth Square in Budapest.
• BLOODY THURSDAY, 1956: THE ANATOMY OF THE KOSSUTH SQUARE MASSACRE (Gábor Jobbágyi, Hungarian Review)
• The Index: Issue #203 (Piccalilli)
• All My Hobbies Are Getting Slopped Up, And It’s Exhausting (Chris Person, Aftermath) – An interesting take on how AI slop is affecting the gaming industry.
• The story of Tupo, my new daily logic puzzle (Josh Collinsworth) – I enjoyed seeing the evolution of Josh’s side project game idea.
• The backstory of the Milwaukee Brewers’ logo (Salina Heller, Up North News) – I was glad when the Brewers brought back this logo several years ago. One of the more clever sports logos.
• Friday Miscellany (Joe Crawford)
• Why My Dad Didn’t Have a Cell Phone (Jim Nielsen) – “Why would I want to allow other people to contact me whenever they want?” Amen.
• Fostering Intimacy in Marriage: Baring Your Soul, Not Just Your Body (Tim Challies)
• HTML New Line: How to Add Line Breaks Correctly (Steve Faulkner, HTML5 Doctor)
• Asynchronous communication is beautiful and humane (Joe Crawford)
• CSS-Tricks has a new owner! (Geoff Graham, CSS-Tricks) – Wow! I did not expect this turn in the CSS Tricks drama. I am excited that the site is back in the hands of the community and I look forward to see where Geoff takes it.
• I wrote another book. It’s called Standout Designs for the Web (Andy Clarke) – I am excited about Andy’s new book. I have enjoyed the beauty of his previous books as much as the content. I am hoping to he finds an on-demand printer so I can buy a physical copy.
• CSS-Tricks is Back (Declan Chidlow)
• Taking Back CSS-Tricks (Mat “Wilto” Marquis)
• Creating Dynamic Social Media Cards for User Content (Chris Coyier, Master.dev Blog)
• Welcome to the Valley of Pain (Matteo Wong, The Atlantic) – An article about cybersecurity, software vulnerabilities, and the use of AI to exploit attacks.
• Here’s how to protect your information from the PHP flaw, according to cybersecurity pros (Truman Dickerson, Business Insider)
• Sexual Intimacy in Marriage: Should You Schedule Time for Sex? (Mark Sanders, Harvest USA)
• Can Heaven Be Better than Earth if Our Marriages End in Heaven? (Tim Challies)
• I’ve Changed My Mind About CSS Variables (Aaron Gustafson) – I can’t remember if we talked about CSS Custom Properties when I worked with Aaron at Easy Designs.
• CSS is incredible now (Dave Shea)
• The Lord Is My Light: An Audio Sanctuary and a Book to Hold (Trevin Wax, The Gospel Coalition)
• Celebrating SIM Cards (Jim Nielsen) – I am always amazed how easy SIM has made it to change phones.
• The Day the Focus Died (Jeffrey Zeldman) – Jeffrey revisits a decision by A List Apart to broaden beyond front-end topics to address customer research, content strategy, customer safety, inclusive design, and a broader spectrum of building web sites. He accesses that it was probably not a good business decision but still think it was the right decision. I know that my attention was drawn away by other publications as my interest were more focused as a front-end developer.
• Studio Notes #108 (Dan Cederholm) – A lot of great links in this week’s edition.
• The Index: Issue #204 (Piccalilli)
• Patrick Stewart RIP (Joe Crawford)
• Fixing Illustrations on a Dark Background with CSS (Robb Knight) – I like Robb’s creative solution for dark mode. Reminds me of some solutions I found with displaying logos in dark mode for a conference website.
• If we stop, we lose (Piccalilli) – A call to keep publishing educational content for web development. I am committed to continuing to share what I learn here on my personal site.
• It can happen here, too (Carl Trueman, World) – Carl Trueman warns that what’s happening in Europe could also happen in the United States.
• Confetti Shape Explosion using random() (Temani Afif, CSS Tip)
• Throwing Confetti with CSS Random (Schalk Neethling)
• Demo deep-dive, praise and thoughts from Fronteers Dark Mode conference (Cyd Stumpel)
• The ship is anchor’d safe and sound. (Ethan Marcotte) – Ethan’s tribute to Patrick Stewart.
• Created to Do Good Works, to God’s Glory (Randy Alcorn)
• How Mental Illness Became an Identity (Myles Werntz, Christianity Today)
• New Album: Gone Dark (Geoff Graham)
• How AI Brought a Mathematician to Ecclesiastes (O. Alan Noble)
• Why I Resist Generative “AI” (Esther Weidauer) – A great selection of thoughts and observations about “AI.” I liked her observation that AI is not a tool but a service.
• Designing the pages of Standout Designs for the Web (Andy Clarke) – I liked this behind the scenes look at Andy’s process for creating his new book.
• Making God (Emily Gorcenski) – An article Esther referenced in her article.
• Take Up the Fight Against Small Sins (David Mathis)
• Wonders of Web Weaving, Behind the Scenes – with words, wonder (James) – James reflects on a personal project of interviewing Indie Web creators.
• Wonderful Wonders of Web Weaving (laze.net) – Author shares why he enjoyed James Wonders of Web Weaving podcast.

What I watched

• No more clamp() magic numbers (Kevin Powell, YouTube)
• Don’t Abdicate to AI What God Delegates to You (Jordan Raynor) – I appreciated Jordan’s thoughts on determining what work to delegate to AI and what you need to do yourself.
• Craig Winslow’s light projections celebrate an age-old craft (Oregon Public Broadcasting) – This is an awesome story about how Craig is bringing ghost signs back to life. Thanks to Dan Cederholm for the link in Studio Notes.
• The Voice (NBC)
• World Series (Game 3, 4, and 5) – I had to turn to another channel during the Brewers 8 run 5th inning in Game 3. I didn’t start watching Game 5 till the 8th inning and was rewarded with an exciting ending (and the Rays only win of the Series). And I watched Game 5. I am bummed that the Rays lost. But the Brewers were playing with fire and it just seemed like it was their year from the beginning of the Series.
• Boston Blue (CBS)
• The Great British Baking Show (Netflix) – We rewatched last week’s episode (my wife had slept through some of it) and then we watched this week’s episode.
• Top Gun: Maverick (Netflix)
• Miss Congeniality (Samsung TV Plus)
• Enola Holmes (Netflix)
• Chiefs-Seahawks (NBC) – I watched more of the first half closely but it was more in the background as I was on my phone or tablet. Probably better given the Chiefs poor performance.

Books I am reading

• The Discipline of Grace (Jerry Bridges)
• Enjoying Jesus (Tim Chester)
• Desiring God (John Piper)
• The Heart Taken Up (Stephen Yuille)
• The Bridge at Andau (James A. Michener) – I finished my third read of this book on Friday. I enjoyed rereading it on the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
• The American Puritans (Dustin W. Benge and Nate Pickowicz)
• Irreplaceable: Humanity, Vocation, and the Limits of Technology (Gene Edward Veith Jr. and A. Trevor Sutton) – I found out about this book from Tim Challies New Noteable Christian Books for November. Borrowing it from Hoopla. A topic I am very interested in reading about.

Walking

I took several short afternoon walks to help get going after lunch. It was so nice outside that I just had to get out for awhile.

• Tuesday – 1.33 miles in 25 minutes
• Wednesday – 1.31 miles in 26 minutes
• Thursday – 1.38 miles in 26 minutes – I needed to get out early before I started work to pray over several things that were on my mind.

What I played

MLB The Show 23 (Orioles) – I won Game 6 to win the World Series over the Dodgers. I was glad to close out the season with Kyle Braddish pitching a gem and getting his only win of the post season after leading the league in wins and getting the Cy Young. I am a bit sad to finish. I enjoyed playing with this team. I am comteplating buying MLB The Show 24 and playing with the Royals. The 24 version was the last MLB The Show made for the PS4. And the Royals went to the playoffs that year. I would like to play with Bobby Witt Jr. Also thought about playing 23 with the Braves.