Category Archives: Code

My Plans for Three Days Off

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I have the next three days off, with today being the MLK (Martin Luther King Jr.) holiday. Then Wednesday being the Inauguration, I decided to take Tuesday off too to have a five day weekend.

So I plan to use the three days like a workday and spending eight hours doing things for my projects and learning. It might be broken up more than a workday, but that’s fine.

Video Learning

Each of the days, I plan to spend an hour or two watching my Wes Bos “Beginner JavaScript” video tutorials. During that time, I  will be taking notes and attempting the code examples to get used to coding the syntax.

I plan to spend an hour or two watching and taking notes of Penn and Teller’s Masterclass “Penn & Teller Teach the Art of Magic”.

I’m not necessarily watching Penn and Teller to learn magic, but to learn about storytelling and presentation. If I learn a magic trick or two in the process, all the better.

In the evening, there will be some watching of YouTube videos.  The subjects I want to learn more about are cooking/baking, farming/gardening, tiny houses, etc.

Book Reading

I will finish reading Heydon Pickering’s “Inclusive Components – Accessible Web Interfaces, Piece by Piece”. I need to go back to his other book and Adam Silver’s book to work through the examples a bit more. Below are the other two other books I’m referring to.

Form Design Patterns – A Practical Guide to Designing and Coding simple and Inclusive Forms for the Web by Adam Silver

Inclusive Design Patterns – Coding Accessibility Into Web Design by Heydon Pickering

My next book to start reading is “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything” by BJ Fogg.

Blog Posts

I need to start outlining a few more blog posts and maybe even start the first draft.

My more significant issue is figuring out the best way to link to all the books I read last year. I don’t want to link to Amazon. But I know money is tight for some, so the lower prices and free shipping with having Amazon Prime will help. If I would I need to figure out a code for an organization/charity, I would like the earned money would help them. So need to figure that out before posting that post.

More research is needed. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Odds and Ends

Other things that need to get done over the three days are:

  • Sending out some bills
  • Daily walks
  • Laundry
  • Cleaning the house, especially the kitchen, to make room for new spices and other utensils
  • Etc.

I might even start some sorting or items that I no longer use to donate them or get rid of them. I know where I want to donate all the clothes and the like, to Martha’s Table in DC.

Someone from the DC Code and Coffee group mentioned they are willing to come to Northern Virginia to pick things up with their car. Since they live near Martha’s Table, it wouldn’t be hard to drop them off for me.

Lots to Do But Not Enough Time

That’s a lot to get done while also relaxing some, but at least I have a game plan. If I don’t start on things, I won’t get any of it started or any of it done. Here’s to slow and steady work at the list above.

Any suggestions to help with any of this, please leave a comment.

Adding More Places to Eat to My List

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Over the last nine or ten months of the pandemic, I have been gathering places to eat at Gotta Eat Here. So with not going out to eat or even having the means to do so. Such as a car or using the bus or metro (commuter train) that I do not want to use either right now.

New Food Resources

I have found many food-related shows. Been reading articles or found new people on Twitter with great food recommendations. The list of places they all are suggesting is adding up.

Adding My Backlog or Making Updates to the Application

So I have been adding them to my backlog in GitHub of places to add to my web-based application when I have time. The application lists all the places I have been or want to go to when I travel or even go to in the DC area.

Each day I make an effort to either add at least one place to the JSON files that power the application. Or add a new restaurant to the backlog.

I have found many new places to make it worth adding a new location (city or state) to the application. So that’s work that needs to be done too.

New Features

A feature I need to add to the website is the ability to link to a page with a dynamic map of places near the person. Or at least put the restaurants for that location all on one page. A more useful option is the ability to store the page contents with service workers. It’s for when there is no internet in some big cities or out in the middle of nowhere. So you can at least show the pages you brought up before.

Finding the Time

So here’s to making more time to work on these items.

I’m thinking a good time will be over the upcoming five-day long weekend. I figured since I already have MLK day off and the Inauguration off, I would take Tuesday the 19th off.

P.S. You can find my list of places to eat the website “Gotta Eat Here“.

Working at Making Better Use of My Time

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I need to start making better use of my time, which means not scheduling every minute. But when I’m out on a lunchtime walk, by starting to outline a blog post. Then on an evening walk working on what I want to say for the blog post. So when I get to writing the post, a lot of the work is done, and it will go faster.

By outlining or writing parts of my blog posts while walking or doing other things, I can get them done quicker. Or maybe even a few ahead when I have time. To make it easier for those times when I don’t make as much time and want to get something out there.

What to Use My Time Doing

I need to figure out what my next thing to learn is and spend time doing that. Be that cooking, farming, raising animals, tiny houses, new coding languages, etc. Or even how to relax or read more.

I have been watching many YouTube and other classes on how to raise my own food, be that plants or animals. Along with watching cooking videos for inspiration and different ways and things to cook.

My reading lately has been from beekeeping to comic books, creativity, to work/business-related. I’m attempting to get more diversified with my reading. Even read a few fiction books this last year or so, which I tend not to do much of before.

What I Have Noticed Taking Classes or Reading

I have noticed when taking training classes or reading an article. Taking handwritten notes has been great. Which tends to make it twice as long to watch or read something. A ten-minute video depending on the content could take 15 or 20 minutes to watch. With stopping and replaying parts to take notes from. I think I’m getting more out of them that way, but I wish it would go faster, is all.

Conclusion

My guess is this will be a work in progress as much of life is to make better use of my time with more to come over the year.

More Blogging this Year

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Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking I need to blog more to get things out of my head. While keeping track of things that happened in 2020. Along with things that will happen this year.

I used to write long blog posts that were way too long and needed code examples. But not too many posts at all in recent years. So it would take a day or even a week or a month to get it all done or sit in my drafts forever. Some are still there now.

To make it easier, I’m looking to write shorter pieces. About life, food, health, weight loss, walking, accessibility, learning, etc. And at the same time, attempting to keep them between five hundred and a thousand words.

I might even post a quick photo from my walking the neighborhood. Or what I’m eating or reading, etc., with a few words about what it is or why I’m posting it.

There might even be some posts with some of my drawings, but most likely not.

Or I could finish and post old drafts that I have lying around that need to get out into the world.

So look for more writing from me this year. I am looking to keep it going more often than once or twice a year.

So this post came in at 238 words, so it’s a good start to writing shorter posts.