Okay, so we’re moving the ol’ site from Eleventy to Astro. I think what finally convinced me to make the switch was, of all things, gulp. gulp is an important tool to automate stuff like image optimization, JavaScript minification, and Sass processing. But lately I’ve found myself increasingly frustrated by having...

So I don’t know bash. But why do I need to learn it to, say, grab all the files in a folder and prepend some text to the beginning? Why if I want to do anything with files or text or manipulate any file into another kind of file I always have to download some other third party app or find some weird script...

The most important thing about any website is the measure. Okay, so that’s a lie. It’s not the most important thing but it most certainly is a thing. The measure is the fancy typesetting word for the width of a paragraph. Ah!—that reminds me—years ago I wrote a piece called Six tips for better web typography where I...

Because of, you know—the omens—I’ve started working on a new design again. I’m not entirely sure what version I’m up to at this point but it doesn’t really matter. With each iteration of this website I feel like I’m getting closer to what it ought to be. But! I want to do things differently this time: I’m updating...

It starts with the jaw; wires taught, grinding teeth, clenched muscles running up and down each cheek. I catch myself biting my lower lip and pulling funny faces in an effort to release the tension. But where is all this stress coming from? For me, there’s no apocalypse. Nothing bad is looming on the horizon and yet...

I just finished reading Marcia Bjornerud’s Timefulness this morning. Marcia writes about Deep Time of the past— mountain formation and the Cambrian explosion—and Deep Time of the future—the disappearance of the Atlantic ocean and the rush of America into Europe and the creation of a single mega continent a few...

Sloan explains why his newsletter is just a link to a post on his website: My enthusiasm for the approach is related to my enthusiasm for the potential of the web page circa 2021. Typography, layout, inline interaction… a bunch of things have finally clicked into place, and it’s honestly a joy these days to make a...

For the newsletter last week I jotted down some quick thoughts about Astro—it’s a static site generator that lets you build with React/Vue/Svelte components but then it produces plain ol’ HTML and CSS: I guess that’s what’s so exciting to me: the philosophy behind Astro, more so than just what it is today. It’s a...

I need a new project; something enormous and scary, something to sweep my evenings up and away. Because now, looking back on everything I’ve made over the last decade, I realize just how much these side projects have helped me during tough situations: Adventures helped put a shape to weekends that would otherwise...

Robinson Meyer on what folks get wrong about technology: Zoom out a bit, and you can see a deeper problem with how Americans think about technology. We tend, perhaps counterintuitively, to overintellectualize it. Here’s an example: You have probably lived with a leaky faucet in your home at some point, a sink or...

You know those documentaries where you see a tiny octopus on a reef and they’re getting completely annihilated by the crushing waves above and all around? They’ll clutch onto that tiny rock with all their tiny might and won’t ever let go, no matter how much their world rocks from side to side. Well, that’s how it...

Okay, so I finally got around to watching Invincible—a new show on Amazon Prime based on a comic book I’d never heard of—and holy shit did it wreck an evening for me the other day. If you like great shows, go watch it. But if you like great shows that dive into the subject matter of abusive parents and extreme dad...