It feels like to-do lists peaked about a decade and a half ago. (Perhaps like so many things, but I digress.) It was the heyday of Getting Things Done and Inbox Zero and all the apps you can imagine to manage your items to do, like OmniFocus and—my personal favourite—Things. I appreciated Things for its design. It was clean and uncluttered and simple. It didn’t overcomplicate things. It’s been my go-to to-do organizer since 2008. Long gone, for me, are the days of managing a full time job, running an online store, putting on conference talks and workshops, and raising two kids. As such, my…
When I was learning CSS’s grid feature (oh gosh, nearly ten years ago), I posted a few short videos talking about my understanding of the feature and how it worked. I was surprised to get scolded for sharing inaccurate information, “especially as a teacher”. Wait, what?! Who, me?! I get things wrong all the time. That’s part of learning. But it was the teacher remark that threw me because I’ve never considered myself a teacher. Yes, I’ve spoken at conferences and put on workshops but the label of teacher isn’t one that I feel comfortable with. Perhaps I associate the word with all-knowing…
I started up a little project to go to most of the taco joints in town. I say most because I’m not going to every place that has tacos on the menu, like chain restaurants. I’m targeting taquerias and places that feel close to qualify as one. Ottawa is more known for shawarmas than tacos but I figured this would be a fun little quest. I’ve created a section of the site dedicated to the taco reviews. It even has its own RSS feed, if you feel like following along. I don’t think I’ll be posting more about it here until I’m done the project. I separated it off into its own thing because most of…
I went out to dinner and a show with a friend the other day, enjoying some pizza and then wandering over to watch a mediocre blues/country/folk band. This friend was my first roommate from when I first moved out at 19. He lamented that being in his fifties, it was harder to develop new friendships. Around those formative years of my early teens, I moved around quite a bit, from Calgary, to Toronto, to Ottawa. In under two years, I went to four different schools, needing to make new friends each time. It’s not easy being an awkward 13 year old, trying to fit in. Perhaps trying to make friends…
When the pandemic hit and nobody could travel anywhere, I, like many others, found connections through Zoom calls. I had multiple scheduled calls with different groups: a daily morning call, a weekly Friday call, two board game groups, a poker night, a Call of Duty group, and semi-regular calls with various individuals. I am very grateful for the friends I have made over the years and that those friends were there over the pandemic helped avoid the feelings of isolation many felt. Now that most people have moved back into old (or perhaps new) routines, the regular online calls have mostly…
Hey, it’s the inaugural post for the RSS Club on Snook.ca! I was working away on my site, adding content that I thought might be relevant to some, like an AI statement and a privacy policy. Most people probably don’t care but for those that do, it’s there and it shows that I care about those things, too. I never really had a name for these types of one-off pages but I came across slash pages and with this redesign, I’ve been considering what felt relevant to include or not include on my own site. Why Now? Some of the items like /now seem like they should be actual blog posts. Like this one.…
I've seen Dave Rupert do posts that only appear in the RSS feed. He called it the RSS Club. In his words, It’s like a newsletter delivered to your feed reader to celebrate the medium of RSS and breakaway from social media. I like that ethos and am choosing to do the same. What posts will qualify as part of the RSS Club remains to be seen. Maybe they'll be more personal. Maybe they'll cover topics that don't need to be directly linked from home pages and index pages. Maybe I'll get bored of the idea and we never hear of this again. And it's not like they'll be sooper-dooper secret because…
We’re into the thick of summer and the days have been long and hot—just the way I like it. Pushing the One and Only Edge Back in March, I mentioned having some ideas but wanting at least one edge to push. Turns out, the only edge I pushed was using scroll-based animations. Dullest edge pushing ever. I did the bare minimum and what do you know, I’m happy with it. I’m happy to have the new design, the new tech, and being able to write more regularly and feeling less constrained—especially tech-wise. I’ve continued to tweak things since the launch. Still on the to-do list is to update the…
I am a cocktail and four wines in as we step out into the cool autumn night after a hefty dinner. My sweater and the alcohol and her hand will keep me warm on the walk back. “The directions say to turn right here,” she says, as we stand in front of a church that caps the street. I recognize the church from earlier in the day. “Yes, but we can go left,” I redirect. She follows along, her hand still in mine. She gives occasional glances to her phone, perhaps hesitant in my ability to direct us back in my inebriated state. She suggests crossing the street. “I think we need to go under the…
A decade ago, when I was still speaking at conferences and heavily marketing myself, I’d often think of personal branding ideas. We’ve seen the trends. The business cards. The t-shirts. The stickers. The buttons. The socks! Can’t forget the socks. My logo is branded across not only my sites but my computers and my slide decks, too. I also liked using colour to reinforce my brand. I’ve continued that tradition with green threading throughout the latest redesign. I even considering wearing green for all my conference talks. Thankfully, that ended up being a short-lived idea. At one point in my…
In 1985, at the age of eleven, I bought my first comic book: The Transformers #9. From there, I went on to collect nearly a thousand comics over my teenage years, mostly in the Marvel universe like Spider-Man and X-men. Lots of Groo the Wanderer (which my mom always enjoyed) and then into stuff like Watchmen and The Sandman. Bill Sienkiewicz was one of my favourite artists with his work on The New Mutants, Stray Toasters, The Shadow, and Dazzler. About a decade ago, I got into whisky. What started with a few bottles of Balvenie slowly grew into a 200+ bottle collection. Then over the…
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