This year I set a goal to journal every day in the hope I can write one of these 2024 year-in-review notes for my site. I didn't get to it every single day but I did it enough that I can look back and remember the year that was! There was a lot that happened this year so I've tri … | Continue reading
I haven't been too online the last two months because things have been really busy offline. It's good busy - no issues or dramas but the School year ending and lead up to Christmas involves a lot of preparation, organising and socialising. Notable Christmas. Christmas has been a … | Continue reading
Last I had a Hobonichi Techo Cousin and I loved so many things about it: the paper, the layout, how flat it lays on the desk. The one thing that bothered me was just how big the pages were. I struggled to fill them and it just felt like a waste having so many half-blank pages. So … | Continue reading
A conversation about the day's playground shenanigans with one of my kids had me asking him: "do you know what social skills are?". He replied "no, what's that?". After I explained, he was keen to tell me which skills he thinks he is good at (being kind and respectful, communicat … | Continue reading
Life has been life-ing. With everything going on I fell off the habit of tracking my activities in Chronicling, (as well as doing a lot of activites, see below). And then I totally missed the September month note. The completionist in me is absolutely *triggered* by this. So the … | Continue reading
Sometimes I've just gotta clear the house of extra stuff. When the energy hits I go through every area in the house and bin, give away or sell anything we're not using anymore. I think that compared to the average household my propensity for accumulation things is lower than aver … | Continue reading
Recently, my attention has been focused on building web apps to suit my very specific needs. The first one was a financial dashboard of sorts, where I took the data from my YNAB account and built out custom reports so help me make sure we're hitting our investment goal and spendi … | Continue reading
It was a kinda-off month in terms of mental health, which I'm still blaming on just one big day of drinking back in July. Feeling much better now in September! Notable I turned 38. Kind of a nothing birthday. I did get to go out for an afternoon with my sister and some besties so … | Continue reading
I had a journal entry in my Hobonichi Techo Cousin for every day this year until July, where I have a string of blank pages. I was doing so well, and I was really in to the swing of journaling every day... until I wasn't. The cause? Doing a little too well at journaling, actually … | Continue reading
It was a busy, and kinda stressful month. I felt like I had a lot on my plate in terms of responsibilities, and a family member had a big health scare. I was glad to see the back of July in the end! Notable My drawing creativity sprint died in the arse. I tried to get some drawin … | Continue reading
Sometimes I get asked by newcomers how one can become a developer like me - specifically, with a job and career like mine. I find this sort of question impossible to answer. My personal situation is the result of the time I started, local and international economic forces, politi … | Continue reading
I was starting to get over the lettering practice by this week, as I had run out of ideas and felt like it was getting repetitive. I definitely feel like having to "finish" something every day is preventing my ability to focus on quality and perhaps improve my skill. So for July' … | Continue reading
Notable Daily lettering. Inspired by last month's blogging challenge, I decided to take up another month-long "creativity sprint". I tried to dedicate some time to making a handlettered piece on the iPad every day. I started rolling around with a pocket notebook. The more I do th … | Continue reading
Three-quarters of the way through this month's creative challenge! I feel like I'm genuinely getting better from all the practice, especially with my control over the Apple Pencil in Procreate. Thanks for reading this post via RSS! Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment o … | Continue reading
I've been trying out a new thing lately - carrying a pocket notebook around with me and using it to capture diary entries, thoughts and tasks instead of my phone. This change has largely been inspired by that moment when I reach the end of a long day, and I'm staring at my Hoboni … | Continue reading
Another week of lettering pieces. One thing I've noticed is that the need to publish something every day means they often feel quite rushed and I find myself wishing I could spend a little more time on them, and do a better job. The pressure is more positive than negative, becaus … | Continue reading
I've enjoyed my daily lettering challenge for the month of June so far! I've been having fun with trying different styles and brushes. Thanks for reading this post via RSS! Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment on the original post or send me an email. | Continue reading
I love a good comedy series. It's my comfort television. These are my favourites over the years. 90s We only had free-to-air TV at our house, so it was slim pickings from the four channels available to us. I was always happy to watch a re-run of these shows though. The Simpsons T … | Continue reading
Notable #WeblogPoMo2024. I added a note every day this month. It was sometimes a squeeze to get a post up, but I think I did less procrastination and time-wasting overall this month. I was thinking a lot about ways to move more. I considered buying a walking pad for my standing d … | Continue reading
Today is the 30th, and tomorrow's post will be a notes & numbers for May, marking the end of the #WeblogPoMo2024 challenge. If you are a subscriber and are tired of having me pop up in your RSS reader constantly, I apologise, and it will be over soon. I don't intend to keep up th … | Continue reading
If you're moving an object from out of the frame/stage in to the frame/stage, use an ease-out variation. If you're moving an object from inside the frame to outside the frame, use an ease-in variation. If you're moving an object from one place to another in the frame, use an ease … | Continue reading
There's a threshold of phone use that once crossed makes me feel pretty bad. I don't think it has anything to do with the content I'm consuming. I don't really read News. I don't "doom scroll". The content I'm consuming through my phone usually falls somewhere between highly amus … | Continue reading
A couple of months ago the algorithm caught on to the fact I'd been told I can't run on a hamstring injury. It started pushing rebounding content, suggesting it was a lower-impact alternative to running. I bought a cheap rebounder and although I enjoyed the exercise, the sound it … | Continue reading
This code sketch is inspired by a Pen by Gerard Ferrandez. I wanted to have squares that kept splitting in to smaller squares when clicked. At first I tried pulling the square that is clicked out of the squares array, but that was causing dramas (as the p5.js draw() function was … | Continue reading
This one was a throwback to an animated background headers inspiration post I made for Codrops just under 10(!!!) years ago. The first demo (dots connected by lines) sparked a minor trend, and many website headers with this effect were shipped for the next year or so. The effect … | Continue reading
This is day and post 24 of the #WeblogPoMo2024 challenge. I think I'm going to make it to the end of the month with a note for every day![^1] This breeds confidence for a new creativity sprint/challenge for next month. I will be hand lettering one word or phrase every day for the … | Continue reading
When I started working in tech in the early 2010s I began running in to idea guys[^1]. Upon discovering I was a developer, they would get very excited and pitch me their big idea for an app/website/service to see what I thought. After receiving a polite reaction they would often … | Continue reading
I don't know if you've tried to use websites lately, but it's largely a mess out there. It feels like things have descended in to a complete shitshow[^1] and are only getting worse. I know for some comrades, fellow developers who love websites and care about making good websites, … | Continue reading
Sometimes when the house is a shambles and there is stuff everywhere I can find the idea of tidying overwhelming. This is because my brain wants to figure out the most efficient way to do the process. I want to know the best place/way to start and because I can't figure that out … | Continue reading
My main goal for this year was to journal something about my day, every day. Some observations: I can't actually believe I've stuck to it this long. My usual M.O. is to declare I am going to do something like this, and then lose interest after about 3 weeks. Some days I have to c … | Continue reading
I started this one with a grid of squares. I imagined an invisible circle growing from the centre of the grid, and the squares changing size depending on their closeness to the circle. First I drew the grid, and also the circle just so I could visualise its placement. See the Pen … | Continue reading
One nice side-effect of doing this #WeblogPoMo2024 challenge is that I'm forced to look at my website every day, and I'm inspired to make little changes to it. I decided I wanted to add some visual distinction between external links and internal links. I figured I'd have to put s … | Continue reading
I was listening to a recent ShopTalk Show episode where Dave Rupert was sharing about his experience of looking for a developer job this year. It made me reflect on my own career. I have a confession to make: I've never done a "real" interview, like in my whole professional life. … | Continue reading
I know we're not supposed to be wearing skinny jeans anymore. The wide leg is what's cool. But every time I pull on a pair of jeans that are not skinny this is entirely the vibe: Play Video: Mom Jeans - SNL Thanks for reading this post via RSS! Let me know your thoughts by leavin … | Continue reading
See part 1. I don't have by-the-minute updates today. But I can tell you that I spent another 40 minutes on this and I have something that writes to the database, reads from the database and works on production. I'd never done anything dynamic with Astro before so I looked up the … | Continue reading
I've been meaning to try out Astro DB and I have a little project I need to make for our school, but I don't have a lot of time. Here's a real-time live blog of my progress. Start: I've made Astro sited before (this website is one), but never with SSR, Astro DB and not on Vercel[ … | Continue reading
I don't know if there's a proper name for this pattern of thinking, so I'll just call it Post Brain. Post Brain is when you go about your day constantly scanning for anything you can turn in to content, or what would make a great "post". I had a bad, bad case of Post Brain for a … | Continue reading
On this Mother's Day, I would like to say that I am so very grateful to be a mother. I of course cherish my children and all the joy they bring: the funny things they say, the hugs and kisses and declarations of adoration, the fascinating experience of watching them grow and chan … | Continue reading
I wanted to make something bees and bombsesque for code sketch #4. Like their old school, minimal stuff. I started with some squares moving around a square path. I created the path just by making even increments along each side, and then moving the squares along each frame. That … | Continue reading
I’m reading Areté by Brian Johnson at the moment (no, not that Bryan Johnson). I would describe it as a summation of every self help book ever written[^1]. As such, it’s long. I’m slowly getting through it. It appears that the message that Brian most wants get across is to follow … | Continue reading
This is my favourite snack to eat at the moment. You need: frozen blueberries cottage cheese peanut butter The amount of each doesn't matter. I probably go overboard on the blueberries because I love them. Put cottage cheese in a bowl Put a spoon of peanut butter on the cottage c … | Continue reading
Something I think about often: how does Anh Do write so many books in such a short span of time? Some context for overseas readers: Anh Do is an Australian artist who started out his media career as a comedian, but has also had another career as a children’s books writer. He also … | Continue reading
I was worried I would very quickly run out of things to write about when I first started on #WeblogPoMo2024, but it turns out if I make myself produce something every day, I find the words. I'm finding there's something to having a default thing to do with any spare bit of time e … | Continue reading
I didn't post anything on this site for half of March and all of April. I also wasn't on socials much. It was such a long quiet period that a couple of people reached out to me via email to check that I was okay. It was incredibly touching and sweet, what with the absolute barria … | Continue reading
I remember when Spotify DJ showed up in my kids' Spotify account on my phone. My oldest asked: "what's that?". I explained it looked like a DJ would choose songs for you, but the DJ was software aka "AI", not a real person. "Can we try it?!" he responded excitedly. I wanted to sa … | Continue reading
We've been running a paperless house for years now. Any paper that crosses the threshold is either scanned and filed (if important) or put in the bin. It's due to a trauma response on my part[^1], but it actually makes general life admin a lot easier, and keeps the house free of … | Continue reading
In yesterday's note I added a bunch of YouTube embeds. I remembered that I've been meaning to use a better alternative for a while now. I didn't have time for that yesterday so I swapped them out today. In terms of performance, YouTube embeds are pretty woefull, downloading way t … | Continue reading
Today my son saw a Marshmello clip on Spotify and asked why he was wearing the marshmallow helmet. I explained that some artists like to wear a mask to keep their actual identity private, but then later I thought about the how I didn't actually know if this is the case for Marshm … | Continue reading