Mandaris

39. What do you like to read? Books, newsletters, doomscrolling, blogs, paper magazines?

My favorite thing to read are comics. I’ve enjoyed comics since I was a kid and would read the funny pages in the newspaper. When I was younger, my favorites were Calvin and Hobbs, Bloom County and The Far Side. I didn’t quite get all the jokes in Bloom County at the time, but it was so different from things like Garfield and Peanuts that it really stood out for me. It was also easier to grasp the satire for me than Doonesbury. I feel that The Far Side had the most impact on me because of its single panel nature. I had a collection of books, mugs, and shirts with different comics.

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.