An exploration of website design and all things website-y
Where an element today is gone tomorrow
Or elments spontaneously appear, perhaps in pairs, only to mutually self-destruct
Physics humour (and Canadian spelling)
And perhaps amongst all that, some things might stay. Who knows?
I've run through countless templates and they've all been discarded. Not because they are unworthy, but
because ultimately, I want to build this log cabin of a site by hand. The point isn't to achieve
a goal of completeness, but instead to take a journey of 1,000 steps. And meander along the way. And
take time to smell the flowers. Perhaps dream a bit too...
If you couldn't tell by now, I certainly have no clue what it's going to look like at this point.
So with all that said...
Let's get on with the show...
To follow along with the show, or at least the changes to the show, I'll make notes on my
blog. Or what I started calling "my blog", but is really more like developer notes. Whatever you
or I choose to call it, the notes I make on making changes and things here are here
What follows below is broken down into some basics:
About the Process!
Exploration. This is what it's all about.
I started this journey wanting to add automations to spreadsheets and to business practices -
the more I can do with less, the better. Those desires brought me to codeless solutions with
web platforms (Kajabi, ActiveCampaign, Zapier) and then to Google Apps Script.
I quickly started seeing references to JavaScript. Or perhaps I should call it JS
- it makes it sound like I know what I'm doing.
For those who don't know, JS is what is used to have actions occur on a webpage.
Those references brought me to HTML and
CSS.
And so I'm currently learning HTML.
I've earned the HTML certificate on W3 but am also working through an amazing book -
Learning Web Design by Jennifer Niederest Robbins (published by O'Reilly).
And also HTML&CSS, design and build websites by Jon Duckett (published by Wiley).
Right now I'm getting my head around semantic formatting - the art of
taking writing and identifying what the individual pieces are. Sort of like how I used to
graph out sentences by identifying the different parts of speech, like nouns, verbs, etc.
It seems to me, at least at this point, that there are three basic steps in this process:
Figure out what you want to say
Figure out how you want to say it (HTML)
Figure out how you want to present it (CSS, JS)
Simple, right? Oh... if only my poor brain took to it like a fish to water. But it's
more like an egg to a hot pan.
Anyway, this bit I've written (and now edited a bit) is yet another step of a 1,000 mile kilometre
journey.
But who is it that's making the journey? That, and more, is just another small scroll down...
About the Person!
...behind the Process
Me taking a selfie but not looking myself in the eye.And check out the attenae sticking out of my head!
I'm a mumble mumble mumble year old who is now on his mumble mumble mumble iteration of
himself - this one seeming to include a fascination with coding and the cool things you can do
with current technology. (Or maybe those aren't plant stems behind my head and they're
actually the attenae the people of my planet grow when they reach maturity.)
Rather than list out a bunch of dates and accomplishments (this isn't intended to be a CV) or
a list of personal details (also not intended to be a social media profile), I'm just going to direct
your attention a bit further down the page to...
About the Particulars!
...behind the Person!...
...behind the Process!
There are so many things I've done, am interesed in, or otherwise want to write about here.
So I'm going to start adding items in, popping in links and things, and making it all make sense.
I hope.
So with that said, let's start dropping in some stuff! I think maybe some categories and bits and pieces
for each one is a good place to start.
The Particulars!
Wherein I actually lay out some particulars!
Writing
There was a space of around 2-3 years that I wrote a 100-word story every day. It was something
I enjoyed doing - until one day I didn't. And so I stopped. But on the way I created such characters
as the Household Item Wrangerler, Psychic Goddess Cassidy, and many more. They all ended up on
Blogger and some of them on Medium (a paid site I don't recommend visiting unless you're
already a paying member). I even started a YouTube channel and recorded some of them there. So let
me provide a few links:
Another writing project that is technically still in the works (but I haven't touched it
for years and may never again... who knows in this crazy world) is a book. It's a book
about love, friendship, sacrifice, loyalty, and the results of an arguably insane
computer scientist saving the world from itself.
