Mandaris

Near the end of the year, I look forward to two sites that release some amazing articles about web development.

HTMHell Advent Calendar 2024

In 2022, I launched the HTMHell Advent Calendar, which was a great success. Since then, dozens of authors worldwide have contributed fantastic articles on security, accessibility, UX, and performance every year. This year, we’re back again with twenty-four more posts.

When I was in college, I had a web development class where the teacher would start off every session with websites that had questionable decisions about the design. This site seems to be a continuation of that but shows you how to correct it.

12 Days of Web

A year-end celebration of fundamental web technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

In addition to the articles, the authors post links to charities that they are raising money and awareness for.

This was a pretty nice article about things getting focus and how that plays with accessibility.

In accessibility, “focusable” UI elements are represented by two separate yet equally important concepts: the elements who can be focused sequentially and those who can only receive focus programmatically. These are their stories. Dun-Dun

This morning, I saw that micro.blog is now allowing a new version of Hugo. The new version is 0.140 and is a fairly big jump from 0.117. The thing that I’m excited about the most are the changes that were added in 0.134.

@jsonbecker has been discussing this on micro.blog and on his blog about this and I’m pretty excited about what things I’m going to incorporate in the future.

38. How do you feel about writing? Is it often cathartic, fun, a chore?

I genuinely enjoy writing. I feel that it gives me a creative outlet and allows me to see my thoughts in words. I don’t consider myself prolific or especially gifted when it comes to the written word, but I feel that sharing my thoughts online might help someone else out there. Another version of me who might feel the same way and didn’t know how to put it in the right way. Or, is looking for that one resource that I’ve linked to on my blog.

I don’t have as much fun editing my writing. I do like writing tools and there are certainly a lot of options available. So many that it sometimes stops me from making longer pieces.

37. Do you have any good or bad stories from your relationship with social media or Internet communities?

A story that comes to mind happened when MySpace was starting to take off. My roommates sister was visiting for the first time and some of the first questions for me was how many followers that i had and whether I could put her in my top 8.

I don’t remember her name or anything else but that really left an impression.

Here it was in front of me… The gamification of increasing a social network of strangers.

36. What do you remember about your first computer and learning to use it?

The first computer that I remember using on a regular basis was a Tandy from RadioShack. I don’t feel that I really appreciated it because it was hard to use. I was younger and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get things working on it. This was especially bad when I would attempt to run shareware that I would get from different magazines and grocery stores. Yes, they sold software at my local grocery store right next to the checkout and candy.

35. What is your typical day like from the time you wake up until you go to bed?

I think this is a nice little compliment to a post I did recently about my goal of being more intentional. The only thing that is typical about my day is the time that my alarm goes off. After that, I get out of bed, make coffee for my wife and lunch for my kids. Then drop them off at school and see where the chaos takes me until I pass out for the night. In between that, I try to make it to all the things on my calendar.

34. Write a book review of the last book you couldn't put down.

I already wrote about the last book that I finished, but wanted to talk about the book that I’m currently working through which is How to calm your mind by Chris Bailey. I picked it up after listening to an interview that author was doing on the Mac Power Users podcast.

I’ve been feeling a little lost recently and I feel that having a sense of inner peace will definitely help me in the coming months and years.

This is an interesting question because I've heard of people saying that most people are single issue voters and we recently had an election where someone complained about the price of eggs being a key factor in how they voted.

33. What are five issues that have affected your political life?

1. Being a minority
   There are many things that are related to this and people have written many books and articles on this subject. It’s part of my identity.
2. Being unemployed at one point in my life
   I was a new father and having a no income really affected me. Who was I if I couldn’t do the things that I had set out to do? It was one of the lowest points in my life and it still affects me to this day.
3. Seeing some of the inequalities for women
   It’s kind of sickening on how people view women. It’s not enough to recognize that they are our mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters. They are human beings and should have the same standing.
4. Having the Columbie shooting happen when I was in high school I remember being in the hallway and being ushered into a class room for safety where the teacher had news broadcast discussing the event as it happened. I remember seeing the students running from the school. Sad to say, we haven’t done much to fix the situation since. Even sadder, I remember feeling a little relieved during the start of the lockdown for the COVID pandemic because I wouldn’t have to worry about a school shooting.
5. Access to things that make your life better I really appreciate being able to do things such as go to college, the library, and other public works. There are also programs available for you to find the help you desire to help you with various things. I have several posts where I list places you can go for help.

This was actually a pretty hard challenge for me and I appreciate the opportunity to write out some of my thoughts and feelings.

32. What is your perfect record album?

I feel that Off the Wall by Michael Jackson is the perfect record album. This is essentially the same answer for me as prompt 24.

31. Is there a particular country other than your own that fascinates you? Why?

Not Really.

I’m a homebody and ignorant of the outside world.

I think there was a point in my life that I looked at Brussels. I half remember it being a place that would welcome remote work, but I feel that was before the pandemic and a huge influx of people going over there and raising the cost of living.

This is a pretty big milestone when it comes to working through these prompts.

30. What is something you are passionate about and why?

It is an interesting time to think about this. What is passion? And am I passionate about anything right now? I feel that I could wheel out the standard answers - such as “family”, “giving back”, “movies”, etc. - but it doesn’t feel right at this moment in time. I think I’m just growing numb as so much has been happening in the last couple months/years. I love my family. I love writing on my blog. I love spending hours reading comic books. These things get me out of the bed in the morning and keep me awake at night. Are these examples of “passion”?

Years ago, I dedicated myself to a theme inspired by Mike Hurley and Gray’s yearly theme methodology. I told the people around me and even put my money where my mouth was by purchasing the associated notebook.

I didn’t use the notebook.

But, I kept it with me, and it acted as a reminder that I was going to follow that theme.

It was a good year.

I want to go back to feeling that way again.

So, I’m declaring it here that I’ll be going back to my theme and making it my way of life going forward.

That theme is Intention.

I intend to live the rest of my life with more purpose in what I do. It doesn’t need to be planned to the minute, but I want to be able to say that the things that I’m doing are by and large because I intend to do it.

I know that life is unpredictable, but I have seen it time and time again that unless I’m present in that moment, the decisions in my life will be made for me.

I don’t know how much time I have left, but I’m intending to be there in the moments that I have left.

29. Can you make a list of 20 moments in your current or past life that you would classify as sublime?

I would say moments with my wife and children have been sublime. It's very rare that I feel that kind contentment with life.

I want to be get back into my writing.

28. Do you have an /Interests page on your blog? What is on it or what would you put on one if you made it?

No, I do not have anything other than an /about page on my blog. I sometimes have trouble writing about myself and leave something like this as a project for future me to do one day.

If I was to make one, it would have comics, music, and movies listed. The second draft would have my favorite musical performers (Michael Jackson, Jameroquai, Daft Punk). The third draft would include things about web development and accessibility. Followed by a fourth, where I’d write about writing and how it’s so important that I left it to the last part of my fourth draft.

27. What kind of decorations do you have in your workspace? What do they mean to you?

The place that I’m currently working has a “hoteling” requirement. This means that I’m required to book an appointment with a cubicle within an allotted set two (2) days a week. We can only book a cubicle 2 weeks in advance and we’re only required to be here two days, there is no guarantee that you’ll get the same cubicle. Also, if you do not book the time someone else can sit there. You can’t book a cubicle and not sit there.

So, it discourages us from taking the time to decorate the workspace.

They’ve tried to make it more “fun” by placing pictures up of excited places, but it’s roughly the same 8-10 pictures in a certain group of cubes.

It’s not all bad, I do have access to a cafeteria and a printer.

This is a short episode where I only talk about the following topics.

1. Allowing myself to get a gift
2. What to do while the storm is quiet
3. Monkey Man

Music by LofCosmos from Pixabay.

Transcript