Pete Lambert ~ Journal

Back to blogging?

2025-01-26T14:44:56Z

Every couple of years or so for the last twenty years, I’ve remembered that this website is here and how much I miss writing something; sharing something. Every time I come back to to it with a great intention to start writing again, to share my art on a platform that I control and to take back some ownership of my own online identity, I face the quandary of whether I should address the fact that I’ve been an absent parent to my personal website. Should I write a think piece about how modern social media has eroded my desire to share anything meaningful? Should I talk of the cycle of trust and distrust that we experience with these platforms? Should I even write about what I’ve been up to for the last 24 months since the last post?

Well, I think what I’m going to do is tell you, dear reader, some things that I’m proud of achieving in the last couple of years.

Since I last checked in I’ve recorded and released my debut album “I Told You A Story”, a ten track collection of mostly introspective numbers loosely in the Americana genre, and more strongly in the sad songs genre.

The album was received very well critically, attracting high scores and glowing reviews in outlets such as Ready to Rock, Fatea, Liverpool Sound and Vision, and a fantastic four star review and a feature on the cover mounted CD in the prestigious R&R Magazine.

I played a sold out album launch show and I opened for my teenage heroes, The Bluetones. I‘ve also since opened for Robbie Cavanagh, Bella Gaffney, The Weeping Willows and bona-fide 80s pop stars, Big Country. I’m very proud of these achievements and I’m excited to take this adventure further.

Speaking of adventures, I got into wild camping, taking myself out on hikes and camping in isolated spots in the hills. I accidentally did the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge one Saturday when I went to hike up Ingleborough but got carried away.

In the past two years I’ve visited Florida, Chicago, Oregon, Amsterdam, Austria, Skiathos, Fuerta Ventura, Maldives and Leeds. I’ve got around a bit.

I’ve taken a lot of photos. In fact I’ve really got back into photography. I’ve specifically discovered a love for street photography - documenting the world from the pavement. I’m really enjoying the storytelling aspect of it.

This coming year I intend to take my photography further. I’ve already started taking on some commercial shoots, I intend to travel more for street photography and my big creative plan for the year is a book - but I’ll hopefully write more on that in another post.

Anything else? Oh yeah, I got fit again. After my weight loss and all the cycling in my early to mid thirties I kind of discovered country music, got sad and got unhealthy again. For the last year I’ve been in the gym very consistently, taking it seriously and really enjoying building strength that I’ve never had before. I’m specifically into powerlifting and as I write this post, my big-three lift total is 1,008lbs (and no, I don’t use the imperial lb weight measurement for anything other than for this total - it’s just that the ‘1000lb Club’ is sort of a thing in weightlifting). But I’m fit and strong again and mostly happier for it.

So that’s where we’re at. I want to start writing here again. Ideally, I’d like to be using this site to add prose to my photography. I’m making no promises. We know what I’m like. It’s just as likely that I’ll be posting something similar to this in two years time.

Goals not Resolutions

2023-01-03T00:00:00Z

It’s that time of year when we roll out the resolutions. A list of ways to improve ourselves - to turn over a new leaf as we start another lap of the sun. It’s something that I’ve done for most of my life; sometimes formally with a pen and paper, sometimes out loud and sometimes just in my head, marking a list of reminders of what I should be doing throughout my year. My own resolutions have always taken the same format and many carry over year-to-year. Some have been successful in guiding me through the months and establishing new habits, most have been forgotten or ignored by the end of January.

Historically, my resolutions would generally take this form:

Get fitter/exercise more
Drink less
Read more
Get more sleep
Spend more time on music

And whilst some of those are entirely valid resolutions, they lack something important. As they are, they don’t really mean much, they can be interpreted strictly or loosely, and they don’t really get to the core of why setting resolutions in the first place.

‘I resolve to get fitter this year’ is a wishy-washy phrase. What is fitter? How fit am I now? How fit do I want to be? Why? How will I know when I’ve achieved this? What happens if I do achieve this?

Goals Not Resolutions

I know I should be working more on my physical health, but having a resolution like this in place isn’t going to take a pound off me on the scales. My brain doesn’t work like that. You might operate differently but I need to see something happen and at least have a story to tell afterwards. I need to be working towards something specific, something achievable and something enjoyable. If getting fitter, drinking less, reading more or getting more sleep is what I need to do to get there, well that’s a bonus, but for me the goal is the thing. Those other things are just part of the journey.

So for the last few years I haven’t made resolutions. I haven’t told myself to ‘do this less’ or ‘do more of that’. I’ve set myself goals and milestones and even stretch-goals for the occasions where I might overachieve.

The ‘Why’

In business, in product design and development, I’m frequently reminded to ‘start with the why’. I could easily convert those woolly resolutions I listed above into ‘goals’, but would that really improve my ability or desire to meet them?

Run 3 times a week
Drink less than 10 units per week
Read a book a month
Sleep 8hrs per night
Play guitar for 45 minutes every day

Achievable, tick-off-able goals. Sleep 8 hours every night for 365 days? Check. But why did I do that? What has it changed in my life? Why did I write it down in the first place. What happens for the rest of the year if I succeed or fail?

When I look at me achievements from this year will they be things like ‘I ran three times a week for a year’? Or maybe ‘I read a book a month for a year but missed a couple of months in the middle because I was really busy with work’?

Do I want to read twelve books this year or do I want to become an expert in something? Do I want to play guitar for 45 minutes a day or do I want to be able to play a song I love, or write a song, or perform live, or record an album, or be on Top of the Pops (probably not realistic)?

For me (and again, you might work differently), running three times a week is work. It’s the effort that I’m only going to actually put in if I know I’ll have something to show for it. It’s the journey towards being fit enough to run a 10K.

Note: I’m not planning on running a 10K.

Goals Are Destinations

The goal is the destination. Along the way there are wins and losses, trials and obstacles. You might not even get there, but you’ll at least know that you haven’t.

Goals should be achievable. If they’re not achievable within the year, I need to scale them down or break them up into smaller goals. Milestones on the journey. If I reach one milestone, I can always continue to the next.

A destination is somewhere you’re headed. It’s somewhere you have a desire to be. Arrival is something you will strive to achieve. There’s no point in setting off on a journey if you don’t know what direction you’re at least pointing.

Choose Your Own Adventure

For me, it’s got to be something I want. Something I want to achieve. Something I want to have done. For reference, my goals for the last year were all music related:

Record music
Stretch goal: Release music
Perform at my favourite local music venue
Play a support slot for a well known act

I achieved all those things, squeaking in that stretch goal in December when I released The Things I Think. I performed a support slot at the supercool FortyFive Vinyl Cafe in York back in Spring. In the Summer I supported Mark Morriss from The Bluetones (a band I’ve followed and loved since the 1990s) and then Dan Webster Band at The Crescent, York’s biggest non-theatre music venue.

Every goal was achievable but if I didn’t put in the work through the year I could have easily missed out on any of them. If I didn’t put the effort in to hone my craft, write the songs, show up to other people’s gigs and get my name out there to promoters, other musicians and the media. The journey was not easy, but knowing that I was working towards something made it worthwhile and fun. If I’d have made wooly resolutions, I might have still achieved some of those things, or I might have eased off after a month or so of playing pop covers to disinterested drunks in an out-of-town pub.

What happens next

I’m not going to write my goals for 2023 here, at least not until the year is through. Nobody needs that kind of pressure. But they could be a continuation of last year’s goals, they could be an advancement of those goals (the next step up), or they could be something completely different. And when I’ve selected a destination, the journey I take will be so much sweeter.

Where did two years go?

2023-01-01T00:00:00Z

It’s been a while. The last post on this site was literally two years ago and was a rundown of my 2020. It’s been a bit weird since, hasn’t it? I mean, the world got weirder. Stuff keeps happening. Such is time.

Work

At the end of 2020 I moved out of the engineering team at Logikcull and took my first management role, running the small but effective design team. Through my whole career I’ve operated in a hybrid development/design position - at first because that’s just what we did, and then later as a bridge in the gap between ‘full stack’ engineers and pure designers. Switching fully into design, having the knowledge and skills of an engineer was definitely an advantage. It meant I was able to drive the team effectively. I found the management side of the role difficult. Being a small team, I wanted to focus my efforts more on the creating side and less on the management/admin side, and it always felt like I was running uphill, looking after the interests of those above and below in the organisation and it was hard.

It was a stressful two years in that regard but the experience I gained will prove to be invaluable. Ultimately though I missed the doing. I missed creating and more importantly for me, I missed creating in code. I’ve always considered what I do at the front-end of the front-end to be ‘design in code’. Art not science. Design engineering. So I started bringing more of that back into my work stream and a change in the organisation has meant I’ve been able to go back to doing that full time. All of a sudden I’m building again and solving problems fast and with near immediate results. I’m much happier.

Travel

I love to get about and over the last two years as the world has been opening back up, I’ve had the opportunity to do that more. I’m no great explorer — I’m not backpacking along the Silk Road or anything. For me, any new place will do. It’s all about the experience and making your own adventures. We’ve had a few proper holidays and short breaks in the UK and into Europe as a family or as a couple (my son is 17 now so sometimes stays home - it’s nice to get breaks on our own). I’ve been snowboarding in Austria with some friends, and work has afforded me the opportunity to visit the US more - most recently North Carolina and Denver, and shortly I’ll be heading to Miami.

It’s the act of travel that gets me though. Even on a small scale - just leaving home to visit a different city for a night or two; camping in a farmer’s field to see a gig in a town hall in rural Lincolnshire; getting the train to Manchester to see some friends perform. There’s opportunity for adventure at every turn.

It’s easier when I travel solo because it’s easier to see that adventure. If a flight is delayed or a last train is missed - that means a new adventure has begun. That’s not so easy to sell when you’re having to consider more than just your own playful mind.

Music

Lots to talk about here from the last two years. It’s been pretty brilliant. Since the beginning of the first COVID lockdown I’ve been running a regular (weekly and latterly fortnightly) online open mic night, bringing in musicians and performers as well as audience members from across the globe. This little club that spontaneously formed has been a port in stormy waters for me and its members through some trying times. Performers from Lockdown Open Mic have gone on to release numerous singles and achieved great things in their subsequent music careers, and will continue to. I’m very proud of what we achieved there and proud of what every single member achieved. (Check out Alex Victoria, Chelle Millar & David Turley, Rob Modus)

As I type this, Lockdown Open Mic approaches its third anniversary and we’re finally going to draw a line under it. It’s served it’s purpose and the time has come. It’s a bittersweet moment.

My own musical life has been bonkers. When things started opening up again, I started frequenting real-life open mic nights. I started gigging in pubs on Friday and Saturday nights, performing Sweet Caroline to drunken singalongs. I wrote a whole bunch of songs, met a producer and started recording my album.

The first single from that album, The Things I Think was released in December 2022. It’s an Americana sad song about heartbreak and longing. If I can leave you crying, I’ll leave you happy.

The reception to that first single has been amazing. It’s had numerous radio spins, including being named Single of the Week on BBC Introducing (York and North Yorkshire). It’s not a Grammy, but for a self-published debut single, I’m very proud of what it’s achieving. There’s more singles ready to release in the new year and the album will be out in the Summer.

Life

A mixed bag really. Tremendous highs and personal achievements, but some lows too. My mental health took a battering for a number of reasons, as I’m sure did so many other people’s, and my physical fitness has taken a bash as a result, which is kind of a viscious cycle. I feel like I’m getting on top of at least one of those things though, having had a bit of therapy. I’ve got the tools in my belt now to keep my keel more even.

Oh, and I was diagnosed with a degenerative spinal condition and had two surgeries for that that didn’t really work. I always forget about that. It’s just something that’s there now and I deal with it. It’s uncomfortable to painful but doesn’t deter my desire for adventure, so I can deal.

What’s next?

Back to Design Engineering in my career, learning new tech and being more useful. Releasing and performing more music. Travelling and adventuring more. Taking every opportunity.

And blogging I suppose. Let’s start using personal sites more. Even if it’s just for cathartic self reflection like this. I’ve updated this site and it’s a work in progress. Maybe I’ll write about that soon.

Twenty Twenty

2020-12-31T00:00:00Z

This year started with some darkness for me. Then I had the snip, which brought with it it’s own darkness and a couple of pretty uncomfortable months leading up to March. March.

We all know what happened in March but for me it was the start of something good. An idea led to a website knocked up in a couple of hours and a bit of social media marketing. In the first week of the national restrictions I held the first Lockdown Open Mic; a virtual alternative to the now closed pubs and clubs. In the forty-some weeks that have passed since, we’ve built a wonderful community of musicians and more importantly, friends. It’s been a tough time outside of those Tuesday night Zoom calls, but for the people who join, it’s an island in the week’s stormy sea.

I did a thirty mile walk and got blisters that prevented me from walking at all for a few weeks after.

We’ve had performers from across the UK, all over the US and Mainland Europe. The appeal of musical expression is real.

It’s brought on musicians early in their practice and transformed them into artists and songwriters. The creativity that flows from this collection astounds me.

We’ve helped and supported each other, celebrated and commiserated each other. There has been joy and their have been tears, and a group of strangers who, in the large part, have never met, have found a kinship that they will likely never forget.

I’ve not been untouched by the general air of negativity in the world. It’s been turbulent. So much dark cloud wherever we look is going to bring anyone down. But the silver linings make the clouds worthwhile. I leave 2020 in celebration, and with positive memories of wonderful times with new friends.

And I wrote a bunch of songs about love, sadness, alcohol, bins and a Christmas record about pebbles.

Eating - Michael Neave's Kitchen and Whisky Bar

2019-09-22T00:00:00Z

This week I’m visiting Edinburgh for Finch Conf, a wonderful-looking web development conference. This means a couple of nights in a strange city and at least for this first night, I’m dining alone.

I set out from my New Town hotel in the rain in search of food and with no plans. I’d seen a few places on Foursquare but was feeling indecisive. I started on a drizzly wander towards the old town to explore.

Taking a shortcut up a steep alleyway to get out of the rain, I spotted a name I recognised from my research, Michael Neave Kitchen and Whisky bar. I ducked inside and asked if there was a table for one.

The young waiter on the door seemed hesitant to take in this damp, solo diner and checked with the slightly snooty, older man behind the bar who gave a stern nod. I was led downstairs to the dining room, a spacious, modern affair with tables well spaced and music on the trip-hip side of jazz. Despite the layout, I was surprised to be able to detect that every one of my fellow diners that evening were middle-aged travelling Americans.

“So, Paris, Barcelona, Edinburgh. What’s been your favourite place so far?”

“Are you going to keep the place in Tahoe for the Summers?”

I ordered a glass of wine from a waiter somehow more snooty than the man from the bar and at the same time made my dinner choices. King scallops with black pudding and pea purée to start, followed by a venison saddle main.

The scallops were delicious. Perfectly cooked and resting on a plate rich in their cooking liquor. The black pudding was moist but with a delightful crisp to its edges. The pea purée was also there. It added moisture to the plate but not much flavour.

By this time, care of my table was being shared between the the original waiter and another, rather less snooty woman who seemed happy that I was enjoying my meal.

The main course was venison saddle; beautifully pink and wrapped in smokey bacon. I’m not generally fan of things wrapped in bacon or pancetta. I can make an exception here. The salty, smokey flavour of the bacon was the perfect foil for its tender, meaty contents. It was served with confit potatoes, kale, turned baby carrots, a butternut purée and the richest jus.

I had scanned the dessert menu when I was seated and whilst the Bowmore baba looked very tempting at £6.50, I opted to call it a day on two courses and go to a pub for a whisky or two before getting my head down.

Michael Neave’s restaurant is a must-visit if you’re in Edinburgh. If you’re not, it’s a reason to go there.

Reading List - 19th July 2019

2019-07-19T07:06:00Z

a11y-css-reset - A small set of global rules to make things accessible and reset default styling.
The accessibility of placeholder links | scottohara.me
Accessible CSS Generated Content | Eric Eggert - This is an interesting look at the accessibility implications of using ::before and ::after pseudo elements with readable content.
An Intro To Screen Reader Testing for Sighted Developers - A great beginners guide to using a screenreader.
Back to the :roots - A nice piece on using the cascade in CSS for more consistent and resilient styles.
Multi-Line Truncation with Pure CSS | CSS-Tricks - This is a very neat technique.
CSS Lists, Markers, And Counters — Smashing Magazine - ::marker is a wonderful new feature. That’s going to be so useful.
Managing Multiple Backgrounds with Custom Properties | CSS-Tricks
Add Cool Effects with CSS Blend Mode - Some real opportunities for creativity using CSS Blend Modes.
CSS Custom Properties In The Cascade — Smashing Magazine - Balancing specificity and inheritance with CSS Custom Properties.
Initial thoughts on standardizing form controls | Greg Whitworth - If form controls were generally more style-able and capable, we wouldn’t see half of the inaccessible faux-inputs that developers create.
The Accessibility of Styled Form Controls | a11y_styled_form_controls - A library of accessible styled form controls from Scott O’Hara.
Micro Frontends | CSS-Tricks
I don’t care about cookies 3.0.2 - This is brilliant. A browser extension that catches and dismisses EU GDPR popups with your preferred response (Essential cookies only or no cookies at all).

Weeknotes - w/c 15 July 2019

2019-07-19T00:00:00Z

Me and my friends rocked the Vicar’s garden

On Saturday afternoon me, Dave and Jon, played our first gig together in over twelve years. Through Becki, one of the organisers of the open mic night we’ve been frequenting since the start of the year, we’d been invited to perform at the St Andrew’s Church Bishopthorpe Summer Garden Party.

We got together the night before and somehow put together a set of eight songs. We spent about 90 minutes practicing, working out harmonies and cues, etc. before parting ways and hoping for the best. We would reconvene at the gates of the vicarage the next day.

None of us really knew what to expect. I mean, we assumed it would be different from playing a city-centre dive bar and we assumed, given the implied nature of the audience, that everyone would be very polite to us as long as we didn’t blaspheme too much. Those assumptions played out accurately. The atmosphere was very relaxed as people milled around the large garden drinking Prosecco, buying raffle tickets, winning wine on the tombola and nibbling cream teas. There were people of all ages present, although the demographic skewed pretty heavily into the 60-90 age group.

Everything was just very free and loose. We played a few, Becki played a few, I sang backing for Becki on a few and we all played some individually before getting back on stage as a band to close out the event.

As a trio, we play songs that we all like, in a style that we all like. None of us have any aspirations of pop stardom, we’re just doing it for us. Serendipitously then, our songs went down really well with that crowd. Our mixture of folk-y ballads, 70s folk rock and vocal harmonies seemed to strike a chord. The comments we received afterwards were heartwarming. We’ve been asked back for next Summer.

Onto the next one - I’m playing an open mic next Thursday and then a charity gig in early August. I’m really enjoying myself.

I bought a banjo

More on the music front - a lot of the music I’ve been listening to over the last year or so has been in the bluegrass and indie-folk genres. It’s made me a much better guitarist, listening to and playing those songs having previously been stuck in a Britpop time warp for 25 years. I’ve had a hankering to learn a new instrument though - especially now that we’re getting the band back together and we’re basically three guitarists. To augment that sound, it was either going to be double bass or 5-string bluegrass banjo. I live in a small house, so banjo it was.

I’m excited to learn something new. I’ve never really focussed on finger-picking the guitar (preferring instead to play a sort of finger-style with a plectrum, to decent effect), but now with the banjo, I’m going to knuckle down and get good at it. I’d really like to get really good, really quickly - just like everybody who ever tried to learn an instrument. Let’s see how that goes.

I wrote about my stupid headphones

Midweek, I started typing out a tweet bemoaning some of the usability issues I’d encountered with my Sennheiser wireless earbuds. It turned out way too long a list for a tweet and would have made a cumbersome thread, so I wrote it up in a journal entry: Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless - A real-world review.

Reading List

a11y-css-reset - A small set of global rules to make things accessible and reset default styling.
The accessibility of placeholder links | scottohara.me
Accessible CSS Generated Content | Eric Eggert - This is an interesting look at the accessibility implications of using ::before and ::after pseudo elements with readable content.
An Intro To Screen Reader Testing for Sighted Developers - A great beginners guide to using a screenreader.
Back to the :roots - A nice piece on using the cascade in CSS for more consistent and resilient styles.
Multi-Line Truncation with Pure CSS | CSS-Tricks - This is a very neat technique.
CSS Lists, Markers, And Counters — Smashing Magazine - ::marker is a wonderful new feature. That’s going to be so useful.
Managing Multiple Backgrounds with Custom Properties | CSS-Tricks
Add Cool Effects with CSS Blend Mode - Some real opportunities for creativity using CSS Blend Modes.
CSS Custom Properties In The Cascade — Smashing Magazine - Balancing specificity and inheritance with CSS Custom Properties.
Initial thoughts on standardizing form controls | Greg Whitworth - If form controls were generally more style-able and capable, we wouldn’t see half of the inaccessible faux-inputs that developers create.
The Accessibility of Styled Form Controls | a11y_styled_form_controls - A library of accessible styled form controls from Scott O’Hara.
Micro Frontends | CSS-Tricks
I don’t care about cookies 3.0.2 - This is brilliant. A browser extension that catches and dismisses EU GDPR popups with your preferred response (Essential cookies only or no cookies at all).

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless - A real-world review

2019-07-17T00:00:00Z

I do like buying headphones and it’s something I don’t mind spending a bit of money on. I listen to a lot of music and a lot of podcasts and I value the isolation and immersiveness that a good set of headphones or earbuds can give. I also value the freedom that being wire-free offers. I use wireless headphones far more than wired because they're neater, tidier and often more comfortable.

Last year I bought some Sennheiser MOMENTUM Free on a trip to the US. They were fantastic. I’m no deep audiophile but I thought they sounded wonderful. They're small and lightweight and comfortable too. Unfortunately they went through the washing machine and now they’re in the bin. So I decided to replace them with their new true-wireless (no neck-cord) sibling, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless. They were quite expensive and a bit of an extravagant purchase, but I felt like treating myself.

Over the last couple of months I’ve had a few little issues with them that I’d brushed off at the time, but this morning when I came to jot a few of them down in a tweet, I realised there were too many for Twitter. This needed a proper Pros and Cons list.

Pros

Comfortable - they’re light and sit nicely in the ear.
Secure - they don’t fall out, even during physical activity.
Great sounding - with the active noise cancellation, they really do separate you from the outside world, but not in that way that makes you feel a bit weird and dizzy. Music sounds fantastic through them.

Cons

The case is a bit bulky. Not really comfortable in the pocket.
The earbuds themselves are quite large, but they are comfortable and light and if that bulk is because they house whatever fantastic equipment is making them sound great, I’ll let it slide.
They were very expensive, especially when you consider the list below.
Connection’s not great. I’m quite tall, but with the phone in my left front pocket, I lose connection when I turn my head to the right. I must have a dense collar bone.
Touch controls mean you can’t put them in or out without either invoking Siri or hitting play.
Double tapping touch controls taps the thing into your inner ear. If you have the digital dexterity to get two swift taps in the right place to carry out your intended action, it hurts your ear.
You can listen with only one ear in, but only if it’s the right ear. Otherwise there’s no way of turning them on.
If you do choose to listen with only one ear (the right one), you have no means of controlling playback from the headphones. Playback controls are enacted by taps on the left ear.
Volume control is handled by long presses on either ear. Right ear for volume up, left for volume down. And if you’re only listening with one ear…
I don’t know how to turn them off. Most of the time they auto connect and turn on when you remove them from the case and put them in your ears. Occasionally, for some reason, they don’t. On those occasions, they can be turned on with a long press on the right ear. How to switch them off though? No idea. Another long press will turn the volume to max. A long press on the other ear turns the volume down.
Removing one ear (sometimes) pauses playback. It was only after about a month of use that I realised that works on proximity between the earbuds. If the earbuds are more than a head’s width apart, music will pause. Sometimes.
If you remove both headphones at once and return them to their charging case without having separated them by more than the width of a large head, playback may not stop. On those occasions, connection and playback will continue inside the charging case - something you only become aware of the next time you take them out and both the earbuds and charging case are dead. So, placing the earbuds in their charging case will occasionally have the exact opposite effect to your intention. It will actively discharge all the things. This happened to me today and I had to walk to work in silence. SILENCE! I ended up just singing to myself.

Summary

I spent a lot of money on these things. I treated myself and I don’t feel bad about it. I read some reviews first and they were mixed, but I’d had good experiences with Sennheiser products before and took a gamble.

However, every single time I use these headphones, at least one of the cons listed above annoys me. It does not make for a great experience. In fact, I’d say that the great audio is massively outweighed by the absolutely horrible UX. My gamble did not pay off and now I’m either stuck using these and not being happy with them, or I’m going to have to start the search again and buy something that brings me joy.

Basically, I wouldn’t recommend buying the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless.

Reading List - 12th July 2019

2019-07-12T07:06:00Z

Don’t disable buttons while submitting forms with ajax - A handy accessibility tip when building forms that submit asynchronously.
The Anatomy of Accessible Forms: Best Practices | Deque - This is simple and vital Accessibility information. I love building forms and I know that the best way to build them is not to be too clever. Use these best practices to ensure everyone can interact with your forms.
Semantics to Screen Readers – A List Apart - How semantic HTML gets read and understood by assistive technologies.
Screen read - practice using a screen reader - Matt Bee has made this great site to help us learn how to use a screenreader.
UX Improvements For Keyboard Accessibility — Smashing Magazine - Some great information here on optimising our websites UX with keyboard accessibility.
output: HTML’s native live region element | scottohara.me. -An interesting look at HTML’s output element and its possible uses. This is a new one on me but I’m already seeing places where I wish I’d implemented it.
Managing Flow and Rhythm with CSS Custom Properties - I like this technique demonstrated by Andy Bell to use CSS Custom Properties to dynamically control vertical rhythm in a page. Custom Properties are so useful.
Bringing new CSS techniques to production - Si digital - With @supports, grid, flex and CSS Custom Properties, we’re in a better place than ever before to deliver powerful and resilient websites that work for everybody.
The Magic of Feature Queries, Part 1 – 5/7 Resilient CSS - YouTube - CSS @supports is a wonderful way to build with new and partially supported CSS whilst still making our websites resilient.
How to Build a Filtering Component in Pure CSS - One of the things I love about CSS is how powerful it can be once you get into negation selectors, sibling selectors and attribute selectors.
The 80/20 Guide to JavaScript Arrays - I’ve been getting more involved in the JS side of things at work recently and I’m taking myself back to school a bit to try and learn the fundamentals properly. This is a good piece on Arrays, something I’ve historically struggled to get my head around.
Why Did I Have Difficulty Learning React? - Snook.ca - Jonathan Snook describes the troubles he’s been having in learning React.
Chromium and the browser monoculture problem - Chromium is dominating, and whilst I’ll admit that it’s better than the old days of the browser wars where IE came out as the dominant player, I don’t like where it’s going.
WyeWorks | Why we have engineers run interviews instead of HR - This is something we’ve been doing for a while at Logikcull - engineers run the engineering interviews and make the decisions as to who we hire and who we don’t. I think it works really well.
Into the Personal-Website-Verse · Matthias Ott - Getting back to a world of personal websites and owning your own content.
Going Indie. Step 1: Securing Privacy · Matthias Ott - More from Matthias Ott, this time on protecting and securing your data and privacy in a world that wants to take it from you.
It’s high time to rewrite the hiring script - Signal v. Noise - A thoughtful piece on how we hire by DHH.
Netlify Analytics | Netlify - Netlify, the amazingly simple serverless platform on which this site is deployed, launched an analytics service this week. Using only the logs, there’s no need for javascript tracking of users, cookies, etc. Analytics with zero impact on the user.

Weeknotes - w/c 8th July 2019

2019-07-12T00:00:00Z

A week in the sun

I’m just back from a week away with my Wife. We’ve both been working really hard recently and were a little bit strung out. I’d got myself into a decent amount of sleep debt and needed a recharge. We booked a fairly last-minute trip to Majorca in a nice hotel and just had a really relaxing week.

I’d planned on renting a bike whilst we were and had taken my pedals, shoes and kit, but it was just too hot. It was ~35ºC most days, up to 40ºC at times. It never got below 30ºC at night, so even if I’d gone out first thing in the morning it would have been too hot for me. So, I didn’t. I spent the week relaxing and reading and eating and drinking. I went to the gym a few times, in the hope that the air conditioning in there would make it bearable (it did, just), and I did a lot of reading (see this week’s reading list, below).

I feel so much more refreshed having had a week away, not worrying about anything other than the SPF of my sun cream or where the next cocktail was coming from.

Voiceover by the pool

On a couple of days I challenged myself to spend some time learning to use Voiceover on iOS, using only gestures and swipes and a pair of earphones to navigate my iPad and iPhone and trying to do as much as possible without looking at my phone.

As a regularly sighted user, this feels like a steep learning curve. I soon picked up the gestures, but I was becoming very frustrated when I would hit brick walls in whatever interface I was using. A lot of that was navigating iOS itself, which made me think that I might be missing a part of the puzzle.

One of the things I noticed was that most of my current workflows, for reading and dealing with emails, managing my reading list and task list, etc. were just too difficult. Those workflows would either have to change, or I’d need to be a much more accomplished screen reader user to get that stuff done the way I currently do.

Reading the web itself was surprisingly decent, but I suppose the articles and pages I was reading were largely textual content written by people who care about building the web properly and were in the large part pretty accessible by dint of using correct HTML.

It was an interesting experience and it’s something I’m going to continue to pursue. Using a screen reader regularly will make me a better, more considerate web developer.

Big gig this weekend

I’ve got a gig! Those who’ve been following along will know that since the beginning of the year I’ve been playing at open mic nights, just me and my guitar, playing indie-folk covers. This has obviously gone down well because me and a couple of friends have been asked to play a solo set each and a short set together (we used to be in a band together, a long time ago).

I’ll admit, it’s not the O2 Arena. It’s hardly rock and roll, but I’m sure St Andrews Church Summer Garden Party’s visitors will appreciate my guitar ballads and folk stylings whilst they sup their Prosecco and nibble their cream teas.

I’ll let you know how it went in next week’s update.

Reading List

Don’t disable buttons while submitting forms with ajax - A handy accessibility tip when building forms that submit asynchronously.
The Anatomy of Accessible Forms: Best Practices | Deque - This is simple and vital Accessibility information. I love building forms and I know that the best way to build them is not to be too clever. Use these best practices to ensure everyone can interact with your forms.
Semantics to Screen Readers – A List Apart - How semantic HTML gets read and understood by assistive technologies.
Screen read - practice using a screen reader - Matt Bee has made this great site to help us learn how to use a screenreader.
UX Improvements For Keyboard Accessibility — Smashing Magazine - Some great information here on optimising our websites UX with keyboard accessibility.
output: HTML’s native live region element | scottohara.me. -An interesting look at HTML’s output element and its possible uses. This is a new one on me but I’m already seeing places where I wish I’d implemented it.
Managing Flow and Rhythm with CSS Custom Properties - I like this technique demonstrated by Andy Bell to use CSS Custom Properties to dynamically control vertical rhythm in a page. Custom Properties are so useful.
Bringing new CSS techniques to production - Si digital - With @supports, grid, flex and CSS Custom Properties, we’re in a better place than ever before to deliver powerful and resilient websites that work for everybody.
The Magic of Feature Queries, Part 1 – 5/7 Resilient CSS - YouTube - CSS @supports is a wonderful way to build with new and partially supported CSS whilst still making our websites resilient.
How to Build a Filtering Component in Pure CSS - One of the things I love about CSS is how powerful it can be once you get into negation selectors, sibling selectors and attribute selectors.
The 80/20 Guide to JavaScript Arrays - I’ve been getting more involved in the JS side of things at work recently and I’m taking myself back to school a bit to try and learn the fundamentals properly. This is a good piece on Arrays, something I’ve historically struggled to get my head around.
Why Did I Have Difficulty Learning React? - Snook.ca - Jonathan Snook describes the troubles he’s been having in learning React.
Chromium and the browser monoculture problem - Chromium is dominating, and whilst I’ll admit that it’s better than the old days of the browser wars where IE came out as the dominant player, I don’t like where it’s going.
WyeWorks | Why we have engineers run interviews instead of HR - This is something we’ve been doing for a while at Logikcull - engineers run the engineering interviews and make the decisions as to who we hire and who we don’t. I think it works really well.
Into the Personal-Website-Verse · Matthias Ott - Getting back to a world of personal websites and owning your own content.
Going Indie. Step 1: Securing Privacy · Matthias Ott - More from Matthias Ott, this time on protecting and securing your data and privacy in a world that wants to take it from you.
It’s high time to rewrite the hiring script - Signal v. Noise - A thoughtful piece on how we hire by DHH.
Netlify Analytics | Netlify - Netlify, the amazingly simple serverless platform on which this site is deployed, launched an analytics service this week. Using only the logs, there’s no need for javascript tracking of users, cookies, etc. Analytics with zero impact on the user.

Reading List - 5th July 2019

2019-07-05T10:54:08Z

Where Do You Learn HTML & CSS in 2019? | CSS-Tricks - A question that’s been asked of me a few times over the last couple of weeks.
Bruce Lawson's personal site : A short note on HTML5 article, section and hgroup - This is a little golden nugget of sectioning info.
The Lean Web | Go Make Things - Chris Ferdinandi talks about fixing the web by pushing for simple.
Short note on what CSS display properties do to table semantics | TPG – Digital Accessibility Solutions - Changing the display in table elements is my favourite way to achieve responsive tables, but this has shown me that I need to be a little more thoughtful in order to maintain accessibility.
Tables, CSS Display Properties, and ARIA | Adrian Roselli - More on responsive, accessible tables with ARIA
HTML can do that? - This is great. I’m always a proponent of using the least powerful tool to do the job. Why use JavaScript to do something that HTML can do on its own? Some of this stuff is still lacking wide support but it can be used now and progressively enhanced.
Limitations of HTML Email Templates in MailChimp - Designmodo - I’ve had call to work on some HTML email templates recently and whilst it’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be, it’s still a pain in the arse.
Elika J. Etemad (fantasai) | CSS Line Layout and Vertical Rhythm | CSS Day 2019 - YouTube - This is something I’ve been working on with our designers at Logikcull recently so this video couldn’t have dropped at a better time. An in depth look into how type is displayed in the browser.
CSS Grid Generator - A super-handy GUI for creating CSS Grid layouts, and for learning how Grid can be used.
Optimizing Google Fonts Performance -- Smashing Magazine
CSS Named Colours - All the names colours we can use in CSS, presented as handy swatches.
How accessibility trees inform assistive tech - Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog - An interesting piece on The Accessibility Tree.
Internet Explorer 3, an adventure in cross-browser compatibility -
What To Expect When You're Expecting To Drop IE11 - Oh man, I cant wait to fully drop IE11 (from a building). So much power is just out of my grasp at the moment.
Accessibility Support - This is great. It’s like CanIUse for Accessibility.
The Vanilla JS Toolkit - Just some handy JS resources and helpers from Chris Ferdinandi.
Vanilla JS Guides - Pocket Guides for vanilla JS from Chris Ferdinandi.
Instability API - A move to stop the page jumping around as content loads in.
Superhuman is Spying on You » Mike Industries - I’m a bit flighty with email clients. I like to try out new ones often, but I’m always wary of anything that channels my emails through it’s own servers. This makes things like Superhuman off limits to me and it looks like I’m making the right choice. In some companies, it seems ethics in software design is in the bin.

Weeknotes - w/c 1st July 2019

2019-07-05T00:00:00Z

Remote Family

We spent last weekend in London, visiting my brother and his family one last time before they up sticks and move to Singapore. My nephew, had an early birthday party - a sports party on a leisure centre playing field - which also acted as a leaving party for them and their school friends (kids and parents alike). Kids are amazing. Boundless energy. Thirty kids running round an open field in 33°C for three hours, only stopping for pizza and pop and to blow out the candles on a cake.

After the party we moved on to quality family time. Making the most of us all being together (my folks were there too). They’re going to have an amazing adventure on the other side of the world, and honestly we’ll probably speak to them just as much, if not more than we do at the moment, whilst they’re ‘within-reach’ in London.

I’m going to miss them, but we live in the future and that means that they’re not actually going away. They’re just in a different room when we video chat.

Taking a Short Break

I’m away on holiday at the moment. Just some time in the sun with my amazing wife. We’ve both had a bit of stress this year, so it’s great to get away from it all for a week, turn off Slack notifications (which is less stressful when the rest of my US-based company is also offline for the long Independence Day weekend), lay back on a sun lounger by the pool and catch up on some reading and some sleep.

This is going to be a real recharge holiday for me. I’ve been tracking my sleep for a few months and found that I’m struggling to get out of sleep debt. It’s a tricky cycle to break so hopefully this will help. Just completely switching off.

Well, almost completely. I’m still going to be reading a bunch of web dev books and articles and watching presentations that I’ve had queued up for a while. Just because It’s what I do for a living doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it.

Logikcull Interview

The company where I’ve been working for nearly nine years, Logikcull read my article about the importance of HTML as a core skill in Web Development and asked if they could interview me about it for their InHouse blog. I really enjoyed answering their questions and delving a bit deeper into why I’d written the article in the first place, torturing a few more analogies in the process.

We also talked about remote working and how I’ve found being a remote worker for Logikcull for so long, on a now entirely distributed Engineering team.

You can read the full interview here.

Reading List

Where Do You Learn HTML & CSS in 2019? | CSS-Tricks - A question that’s been asked of me a few times over the last couple of weeks.
Bruce Lawson's personal site : A short note on HTML5 article, section and hgroup - This is a little golden nugget of sectioning info.
The Lean Web | Go Make Things - Chris Ferdinandi talks about fixing the web by pushing for simple.
Short note on what CSS display properties do to table semantics | TPG – Digital Accessibility Solutions - Changing the display in table elements is my favourite way to achieve responsive tables, but this has shown me that I need to be a little more thoughtful in order to maintain accessibility.
Tables, CSS Display Properties, and ARIA | Adrian Roselli - More on responsive, accessible tables with ARIA
HTML can do that? - This is great. I’m always a proponent of using the least powerful tool to do the job. Why use JavaScript to do something that HTML can do on its own? Some of this stuff is still lacking wide support but it can be used now and progressively enhanced.
Limitations of HTML Email Templates in MailChimp - Designmodo - I’ve had call to work on some HTML email templates recently and whilst it’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be, it’s still a pain in the arse.
Elika J. Etemad (fantasai) | CSS Line Layout and Vertical Rhythm | CSS Day 2019 - YouTube - This is something I’ve been working on with our designers at Logikcull recently so this video couldn’t have dropped at a better time. An in depth look into how type is displayed in the browser.
CSS Grid Generator - A super-handy GUI for creating CSS Grid layouts, and for learning how Grid can be used.
Optimizing Google Fonts Performance -- Smashing Magazine
CSS Named Colours - All the names colours we can use in CSS, presented as handy swatches.
How accessibility trees inform assistive tech - Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog - An interesting piece on The Accessibility Tree.
Internet Explorer 3, an adventure in cross-browser compatibility -
What To Expect When You're Expecting To Drop IE11 - Oh man, I cant wait to fully drop IE11 (from a building). So much power is just out of my grasp at the moment.
Accessibility Support - This is great. It’s like CanIUse for Accessibility.
The Vanilla JS Toolkit - Just some handy JS resources and helpers from Chris Ferdinandi.
Vanilla JS Guides - Pocket Guides for vanilla JS from Chris Ferdinandi.
Instability API - A move to stop the page jumping around as content loads in.
Superhuman is Spying on You » Mike Industries - I’m a bit flighty with email clients. I like to try out new ones often, but I’m always wary of anything that channels my emails through it’s own servers. This makes things like Superhuman off limits to me and it looks like I’m making the right choice. In some companies, it seems ethics in software design is in the bin.

Reading List - 30th June 2019

2019-06-30T10:54:08Z

Progressive Tooling - A list of community-built, third-party tools that can be used to improve page performance.
A11Y Style Guide - A super useful resource featuring easy ways to make your websites more accessible.
Apps For All: Coding Accessible Web Applications – Smashing Shop - I’m going on holiday next week and I think this book by Heydon Pickering will be going with me.
Practical ARIA Examples - This page hosts all the examples of practical ARIA usage from the book.
5 Keys to Accessible Web Typography | Better Web Type - Typography is a really important part of accessibility and also general user experience. Well thought out typographical styling (along with the appropriate use of HTML) simply makes things easier for everyone.
Why we prefer CSS Custom Properties to SASS variables | CodyHouse - This is the best article I’ve read so far on CSS Custom Properties.
Separate Form Submit Buttons That Go To Different URLs | CSS-Tricks - This was completely new to me but this is an amazing HTML tip.
How accessibility trees inform assistive tech - Mozilla Hacks - I’ve been finding Firefox’s accessibility tree inspector really useful for quick A11y checks.
5 Rules for Choosing the Right Words on Button Labels - This kind of microcopy focus can have real effects on UX and accessibility.
CSS :focus-within - Not something I’d used before but I’l definitely be using it in future. When you add functionality on :hover, it’s only right to also make that usable by keyboard and assistive tech users.
Three Predictions From the State of CSS 2019 Survey | CSS-Tricks
Making Tables Responsive With Minimal CSS · Bradley Taunt - This is always a challenge I really relish. I’ve used the Flexbox with labels technique in the past and I’ve played around with using Grid with display: contents on the tr.
Style your default global links using the :not CSS selector - Alex Carpenter - Every so often you see a little tip like this that just makes you say out loud "That’s a good idea". It almost always happens when you’re in public and talking to yourself is greeted with sideways looks.
Delight Comes Last: Matthew Ström - Focus on the important stuff first. The glitter comes later.
Static Indieweb pt2: Using Webmentions: Max Böck - Enabling WebMention support in static site generators. This blog is run on 11ty, so I found this useful.
How a Pro Photographer Edits iPhone Photos - I’ve always been into photography. More recently, whether I’m carrying my ‘good’ camera or just using my phone, I do all my editing either on the iPhone or iPad.

Weeknotes - w/c 24 June 2019

2019-06-28T00:00:00Z

The Hacker News Effect

As I mentioned in last week’s notes, the immediate reaction to my HTML is the Web article was fantastic. My phone hasn’t stopped buzzing with Twitter notifications and emails from well-wishers and those asking advice. It’s been a lovely experience.

Earlier this week though, that steady stream of incoming chatter exploded as my article hit the front page of Hacker News. Not only did it hit the front page, but it went to the #1 spot, and stayed in the top three for pretty much the entire day, only dropping off the front page 24hrs later (I was keeping an eye on it, dumbfounded). In the two days it’s now been on there, it’s attracted 548 points and 314 comments).

I don’t have analytics on this blog, but my DNS provider, Cloudflare does provide some stats. The day before I posted the article, this site got 130 unique visitors. Every day since the article has been about 1300 uniques. In the day that I was near the top of Hacker News, 45,000 unique visitors came to my website.

This in turn, has led to some great conversations and comment threads. I’ve tried not to get involved on the main HN thread itself, because I know what that forum can be like and I didn’t have time to get embroiled in flame wars, but I have to say that the vast majority of feedback I’ve had has been positive, encouraging and empathetic. It seems it struck a real chord in the industry and I’m honoured to have been able to do that. I really hope the momentum continues and that it encourages others to speak up and hopefully help to make the web a better place for everyone, user and developer alike.

"The author is right, but this comes off very much as ‘old man yells at cloud’ to me. Sorry."

My favourite comment on the Hacker News thread for my article.

Bikepacking

Saturday was a fine day. It was overcast in the morning but the forecast was good for the evening. It was the day after the Summer solstice, so the night was going to be about as short as it could be and the conditions were right. I packed up my bike.

I’ve had all this kit for two years now. I’d been inspired by tales of Microadventures - a five to nine expedition under ones own steam - but despite really having enjoyed buying and gathering all the equipment I would need and honing my setup, I’d never actually got off my backside and taken the leap.

Saturday was the day though. I strapped my bar bag and seat pack to my bike stuffed with a sleeping bag, bivvy bag, mat, and a small stove and brew kit, and I set off in the sun at 5pm. I had a route in mind, and even a rough idea of where I would stop for the night, having been mentally picking out locations on daytime rides for the last couple of years.

The bike was heavy. When you’re used to riding light-weight bikes, loading one up with all this kit makes a real difference. The going was steady as would grind up the climbs in the Howardian Hills in the direction of Helmsley. I stopped for fish and chips which I ate at the foot of monument in the town square, surrounded by leather-clad bikers and their Harley Davidsons (there was a biker festival on at nearby Duncombe Park). I picked up a couple of beers from the shop and added them to my load before carrying on up the hill.

I dropped down into Rievaulx, hoping to see ruined Cistercian abbey lit up in the late sun, but unfortunately it was too low by that point and whilst still magnificent, it wasn’t the glorious vision of which I’d dreamed.

I continued back up the ridge to Sutton Bank, past some dog walkers and a young couple snogging on the bench near the viewpoint over Gormire Lake. I rode along the Cleveland Way until I found the spot: A patch of flat(ish) grass, off the trail by the edge of the cliff. The sun was setting so I downed the bike, took out a beer and just watched. As it lowered, so did the temperature, so I made camp.

And of course, as it was the shortest night of the year, I woke up at 4am with the sun and was home in time for breakfast with my family.

Open Mic

On Thursday I made my monthly trip to Bishopthorpe for the Open Mic night. It’s been a busy four weeks for me since the last one and I haven’t really had time to practice. I had a good idea of what I’d play though and was confident with my selection. The potential spanner in the works though, was that I’d agreed to play a few songs with my good friends and erstwhile band mates, Jon and Dave. We hadn’t actually played together for about 12 years and couldn’t arrange time in our busy lives to get together beforehand to rehearse, so the only practice we had before stepping onto the stage was 20 minutes in Jon’s garden an hour before we were due to play.

Fortunately, it went well. I mean, it was rough - we were doing vocal harmonies that we’d never practiced and songs that I barely knew how to play, but it was fun and that’s what counts.

I stayed on stage afterwards to do a few myself - all covers, because who’s got time to write these days. I opened with a song that I’ve been playing in my bedroom for 25 years but I’ve never been able to muster the courage to perform in public. It was "Round Here" by Counting Crows, but after 25 years of noodling, it sounds nothing like the original. It’s a challenging vocal and a long song (about six minutes). It’s also quite emotional for me to play. I shouldn’t have started with it, in retrospect. I was absolutely shaking afterwards from the adrenaline.

It’s difficult to tell what the reception is like on these gigs. Everybody is so nice and supportive that you can’t tell if they’ve genuinely enjoyed the show. I hope they did because I enjoyed playing it.

Reading List

Progressive Tooling - A list of community-built, third-party tools that can be used to improve page performance.
A11Y Style Guide - A super useful resource featuring easy ways to make your websites more accessible.
Apps For All: Coding Accessible Web Applications – Smashing Shop - I’m going on holiday next week and I think this book by Heydon Pickering will be going with me.
Practical ARIA Examples - This page hosts all the examples of practical ARIA usage from the book.
5 Keys to Accessible Web Typography | Better Web Type - Typography is a really important part of accessibility and also general user experience. Well thought out typographical styling (along with the appropriate use of HTML) simply makes things easier for everyone.
Why we prefer CSS Custom Properties to SASS variables | CodyHouse - This is the best article I’ve read so far on CSS Custom Properties.
Separate Form Submit Buttons That Go To Different URLs | CSS-Tricks - This was completely new to me but this is an amazing HTML tip.
How accessibility trees inform assistive tech - Mozilla Hacks - I’ve been finding Firefox’s accessibility tree inspector really useful for quick A11y checks.
5 Rules for Choosing the Right Words on Button Labels - This kind of microcopy focus can have real effects on UX and accessibility.
CSS :focus-within - Not something I’d used before but I’l definitely be using it in future. When you add functionality on :hover, it’s only right to also make that usable by keyboard and assistive tech users.
Three Predictions From the State of CSS 2019 Survey | CSS-Tricks
Making Tables Responsive With Minimal CSS · Bradley Taunt - This is always a challenge I really relish. I’ve used the Flexbox with labels technique in the past and I’ve played around with using Grid with display: contents on the tr.
Style your default global links using the :not CSS selector - Alex Carpenter - Every so often you see a little tip like this that just makes you say out loud "That’s a good idea". It almost always happens when you’re in public and talking to yourself is greeted with sideways looks.
Delight Comes Last: Matthew Ström - Focus on the important stuff first. The glitter comes later.
Static Indieweb pt2: Using Webmentions: Max Böck - Enabling WebMention support in static site generators. This blog is run on 11ty, so I found this useful.
How a Pro Photographer Edits iPhone Photos - I’ve always been into photography. More recently, whether I’m carrying my ‘good’ camera or just using my phone, I do all my editing either on the iPhone or iPad.

Reading List - 21st June 2019

2019-06-21T10:54:08Z

Relearn CSS layout: Every Layout
Bruce Lawson : The practical value of semantic HTML
Write HTML Like It’s 1999 · Bradley Taunt
How to Section Your HTML | CSS-Tricks - This is a fascinating piece on Document Sectioning and the Outline Algorithm.
An Introduction to Accessible Labeling | a11y with Lindsey
Practical CSS Scroll Snapping | CSS-Tricks - I played a little with scroll-snapping back in its early days. The experience was unpredictable and a bit janky, but it seems like it might be worth another look for some projects.
3 Simple Tips to Improve Keyboard Accessibility | a11y with Lindsey
CodePen - CSS Grid: Coupons! - I’ve been trying to do this kind of thing more often - seeing layouts in real life and recreating then in HTML and CSS. Grid and Flexbox are so powerful for doing this.
An Introduction to ARIA States | a11y with Lindsey

Pete Lambert ~ Journal

Back to blogging?

Goals not Resolutions

Goals Not Resolutions #

The ‘Why’ #

Goals Are Destinations #

Choose Your Own Adventure #

What happens next #

Where did two years go?

Work #

Travel #

Music #

Life #

What’s next? #

Twenty Twenty

Eating - Michael Neave's Kitchen and Whisky Bar

Reading List - 19th July 2019

Weeknotes - w/c 15 July 2019

Me and my friends rocked the Vicar’s garden #

I bought a banjo #

I wrote about my stupid headphones #

Reading List #

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless - A real-world review

Pros #

Cons #

Summary #

Reading List - 12th July 2019

Weeknotes - w/c 8th July 2019

A week in the sun #

Voiceover by the pool #

Big gig this weekend #

Reading List #

Reading List - 5th July 2019

Weeknotes - w/c 1st July 2019

Remote Family #

Taking a Short Break #

Logikcull Interview #

Reading List #

Reading List - 30th June 2019

Weeknotes - w/c 24 June 2019

The Hacker News Effect #

Bikepacking #

Open Mic #

Reading List #

Reading List - 21st June 2019

Goals Not Resolutions

The ‘Why’

Goals Are Destinations

Choose Your Own Adventure

What happens next

Work

Travel

Music

Life

What’s next?

Me and my friends rocked the Vicar’s garden

I bought a banjo

I wrote about my stupid headphones

Reading List

Pros

Cons

Summary

A week in the sun

Voiceover by the pool

Big gig this weekend

Reading List

Remote Family

Taking a Short Break

Logikcull Interview

Reading List

The Hacker News Effect

Bikepacking

Open Mic

Reading List