simon

#100 days of code update

June 13, 2018 by simon Leave a Comment

I have not been keeping track of this as well as I maybe should have, but currently, I am sitting at 44 days of coding, which is very close to the halfway point.

I am not 100% certain of this, as Free Code Camp deleted a bunch of modules off their site during the transition to the new structure or something, but the little calendar of items turned in doesn’t have anything highlighted for the month of May.

100 Days of Code is a neat little hashtag I found on twitter where people doing Free Code Camp, or other online resources share what they have accomplished or achieved, and I decided that I should participate in it a little bit.

I haven’t done anything for this long of a period of time since I decided to quit smoking, so I consider this to be a massive achievement.

I am also excited because today I finished the “Applied Visual Design” module in Free Code Camp. This section focused on some CSS that I was not 100% familiar with and found to be incredibly interesting. For example, I had always known that there were some animation functions in CSS for a while, but I had never used them. Today I used them!

It was awesome.

Especially the heartbeat animation.

But now it is time to start the next module. And get to 50 days of straight coding. This may be a challenge as I will be out of town this weekend. But I will attempt to do at least one module from my phone on Saturday evening so that I will not lose anything.

My journey with WordPress

June 6, 2018 by simon Leave a Comment

I first discovered WordPress late one night in college. This would have been around 2005 or 2006. I had set up a server because after years of using services like Tripod, Geocities and Angelfire I wanted to have a website of my very own to practice on some of the things I was learning in class.

By chance one night while playing around I discovered the Fantastico installer and started playing with different little scripts it could install, no clue that lurking within all those scripts was a little content engine that would rule my life for the past 12/13 years. By chance I installed WordPress.

I had some interest in blogging, having used a little live journal like site an ex-girlfriend had convinced me to sign up for. So I thought WordPress might be an easy way to set up a blog on my simple site and I could play with it.

As soon as I saw the backend of the site, I was hooked. It was so simple, yet with plugins, and the right theme it could be so incredibly powerful.

I started blogging about nerdy things I found on the internet, with no real direction. Just learning how to use WordPress.

When a friend and I decided to launch a podcast in 2008, we used WordPress as the engine for running our little show. When I got my first job out of college, it was at a local paper and the smaller sites we ran were all on WordPress.

I have launched so many quick and easy projects over the years on WordPress, including PDExposures and March of Film.

Hell, at the SEO firm I work for, we use WordPress for all of our client sites.

A project I am currently exceptionally proud of is Trainer Tol. This is a website my boss uses to form raid busses on Pokemon Go and raise money for charity. We used WooComerce to build a custom ticket engine that helps sell the tickets for the bus. It’s incredibly smart and has raised a ton of money for charity in just 6 months.

I write all this because WordPress is celebrating 15 years, its actual 15th anniversary was on May 27th. I am constantly amazed by the changes this content engine has made and I am really excited to see what the future of WP is.

Freecode Camp has upgraded its platform

June 1, 2018 by simon

For the past few months, I have been using the Freecode Camp platform to sharpen my skills with HTML and CSS, and improve a bit of javascript.

While I am frustrated that I did not get to earn the front end certificate, and it looks like you can, but they have added additional certificates to the course with a ton of new projects. It is really interesting to see the breakdown of all the new features.

Interestingly, there are some projects that carried over from the old Freecode Camp, but I will have to redo/rework them because it looks like they do not pass the testing tool. They added this new testing tool which places a javascript overlay over your project on codepen.io.

This is incredibly nice as it allows you to run a test and make certain you are hitting all of the required user stories for a particular project and if you aren’t then what you need to correct that.

This is something that was desperately needed for completing some of the old projects was a little frustrating on whether or not you had completed the project.

To add this new overlay, all you have to do is attach the javascript file as an external resource in codepen.io. It loads up and puts it right on top of your project.

I am excited to really deep dive into the new Free Code Camp, as it would appear they have added a ton of new tutorials and content to the site covering a larger swath of topics, and some topics slightly more in-depth.

Using Todoist to get to Inbox Zero

February 13, 2018 by simon

I am infamous for having too many emails in my inbox. Over the years I would get frustrated and just signup for a new email account. Great. Let the old account pile up with nonsense and the new account can start to filter in.

Unfortunately, this is a disaster of an idea. Old accounts have passwords for services I do not check very often and having to link up which account had which service.

The purge:

The great email purge should begin one email account at a time. Starting with the oldest. Open it up and see whats going there. For me, it was a million and one newsletters and a ton of spam. But sifting through it, I found some fairly important accounts that were still linked to that email, because it was consistent. And 15 years later they were still together.

Purging each individual inbox, and then migrating whatever I still wanted to my current main email account reduces any security nightmares that may crop up, and lets me know that I never have to check that email again.

The daily grind

For me, inbox zero can be achieved by purging all emails at the end of the day by either answering them or adding them to my task management app ToDoist.

ToDoist has a great feature that lets you forward emails to your private ToDoist inbox, or to various projects that are tied to your account. This is handy for the end of the workday, forwarding in those emails to be sorted and assigned clears out my inbox, and clears out my brain.

For Replies:

I attempt to follow the three sentences rule in replying to emails as closely as possible, but often times end up with six sentences in an email response depending on the email.

I migrate any action points from the email into ToDoist and assign it to the correct individual or to myself and then delete the email.

Spending 15 minutes on this at the end of every workday helps tremendously with my ADD and gets my inbox down to the magic number of zero.

My Everyday Carry Essentials

January 19, 2018 by simon

Everyday Carry is something that has become increasingly more important in my life. I tend to work out of coffee shops and in common areas of co-working spaces, so for me finding the essential tools to have peak productivity are important.

I started following sites like Everydaycarry.com to hone in on what was critical and what wasn’t. There is a lot of amazing stuff on there, and it can make you a little crazy. What is essential to life and getting shit done. I have distilled it down to the barebones for me, and I think others.

My Recommended Everyday Carry

Notebook Army:

For years this was the cornerstone of my Every day carry. On Twitter, some photographer friends would call it the notebook army, and we would compare what notebook we were using. For years I have cycled through various notebooks, but by chance, I was visiting with a photographer friend of mine back in September and he turned me on to a notebook system he uses.

After some searching, I found the perfect companion on Amazon. This wallet and
Personalized Leather Refillable Composition Notebook Cover comes custom made from China. It fits most of my items. My major complaint about it is that it does not really hold money/insurance card really all that well. It is the perfect size to hold Moleskine or Field Notes brand notebooks. I will specify that Moleskine notebooks have a tendency to have the covers torn off them from the friction on the leather.

It is the perfect size for quick notes, shopping lists, aperture settings on cameras, etc.

I also have a P01 Pioneer Wallet. It is neat, but you have to use their notebooks with their system because the wallet is much smaller than a standard field notes size.

I am not ready to give up my field notes, but I may switch to the P01 Wallet if only to experience something different and see if it is a better fit for me.

Journal:

I have used a variety of Journals over the years to keep track of appointments and tasks. Currently I am using the Mont Notebook, which is absolutely gorgeous.

I found this notebook on Kickstarter, and I have started to use it for Bullet Journaling. Which has been a huge asset for someone like me with ADHD.

Headphones:

I have for years used the generic earbuds that come with my iPhone, or cheap ones I get as promotional items from various businesses.

They work great.

They are super convenient and fold up into your bad nicely and can block out the sound of the coffee shop or coworking space you may be working in.

I recently picked up some Lucid Sound LS-20‘s. Which are the absolute best thing I have ever placed over my ears! The noise canceling is great, putting my music at a much lower volume.

No more long-term damaging to my ears.

Blink

Mystery Dog Rescue recap of 2017

January 9, 2018 by simon

Mystery Dog Rescue needed a way to recap their 2017 nicely online. I have been looking for other animal rescues looking for ideas to steal. How do they write about their animals available for adoption, how do they find volunteers and fosters?

By chance, I came across a recap video for 2017, from a rescue in Phoenix. It was just a simple slideshow of animals, but it occurred to me that this is the kind of thing Mystery Dog Rescue needed to be doing. It is brilliant really. It shows the impact that the nonprofit has had in an engaging way, and it illustrates what can be done.

It has been a while since I have edited a video. But I loaded up iMovie and downloaded all of the photos from every adoption we had in 2017. There were a lot of them. Honestly, I do not even remember some of these animals till I saw their photo or the photo of the person that adopted them.

Not a bad pass for something whipped up this year. For the 2018 recap, I think some planning will be needed. Short video segments should be recorded at some of our bigger events, and I need to make certain that the photographs are taken horizontally.

In my mind, the perfect recap video for the rescue should have the following elements.

All of the animals adopted
Any community event the rescue takes part in
Any special fundraising efforts
Statistics for the year

The above items are critical to the video because they show activity by the organization to improve the community. For example, Mystery Dog Rescue had a special call for items during hurricane Harvey to funnel needed supplies into other shelters. Unfortunately, I could not find any photos of the items we brought in to include in the video.