I have been thinking about redesigning my website for a while. I wrote a bit about one of the design directions I explored recently. I loved doing the design part of the project, but knew there would be several hours of work to integrate the new style into my website.Today I came back to the metaphorical drawing...

Last week I ran a meetup for writers on the web. During the session, I brought up the topic of distance in writing. [1] We explored the topic in various ways – the distance between writing and publishing, the distance between reader and writer, how distance varies. As I write, I am thinking about the distance of...

I was thinking about a design for a web page yesterday that I wanted to build with a few illustrations. I remembered that there was a site with old-timey illustrations that were available in the public domain. I thought I have no idea how to find this website!Today,, I was both surprised and delighted that the...

Every so often I open developer tools in the web browser and start tinkering with my website. I love experimenting with different design directions, not necessarily in pursuit of a complete design so much as fuelled by a sense of curiosity. What would it look like if I made my web pages wider? What would I do with...

Today the IndieWeb community hosted a Create Day event in which participants were invited to make something on the web. The theme of the event was “Build Don't Buy”, an invitation to make something this Black Friday.While I wasn’t sure what I wanted to make, I knew I wanted to make something. I consulted my list of...

On the cusp of the snowy doorstep, I felt a child-like excitement. I wanted to run outside and embrace the snow — the first proper snow, as we would say here, in at least a year. This is the kind of snow that will lie on the ground., I thought. The snow flakes were thick, leaving a white blanket over the whole...

My copy of Stephen King’s On Writing has been sitting on the shelf for a while. Why I stopped reading the book is one of those things lost to time. But about two weeks ago, I went to my bookshelves and picked out the two books that I had started but not finished yet. I could finish these now, I thought. I remembered...

This evening I hosted an online event about writing and writing on the web. “Writing” is a broad topic, so I wanted a way to help get the discussion going. A few weeks ago, I tried an ice breaker question in an event which went well, so I decided I’d try one again this evening.At first, I wasn’t sure what question I...

A dusting of snow blankets hills in the distance, left over from the snowfall two evenings ago. There are thin light clouds above the hills through which the sky peeks. On the horizon, separating the snowy white hills from the light grey clouds, there is a hint of a pale red, cast from the sun setting at the...

I have been listening to a podcast interview between Ezra Klein and Brian Eno. In it, Eno referenced the concept of the “premature sheen.” I stopped what I was doing, paused the podcast, and started to think about what those words meant.I wanted to learn more about the concept, so I searched for “preamture sheen” on...

Over the last few weeks I have been working on rebuilding my morning routine.I used to be regimented in my morning routine – everything scheduled down to the minute. I then ebbed the opposite way: my routines became unstructured, my mind every morning exerting itself to remember everything I need to do to start the...

The snow looks like drops of moonlight I thought to myself as the cool light from the street lamps illuminated the falling snow. It’s beautiful. I have never seen anything like it.Earlier this week I saw light rain fall that looked almost like it was snow – the light reflected off the falling rain in a way closer to...