Weeknotes No. 1
Blogging is hard so to assuage my guilt about the time gaps between posts, I thought I would try this format. Essentially the “weeknotes” format is a breakdown of what I’ve consumed or interacted with that was meaningful to me.
Engineering 👩💻
These are the more industry / web tech things I’ve been spending time with:
- Static Analysis in JavaScript: A Technical Introduction: I finally sat down and read Josh’s REALLY LONG explanation of static analysis in JavaScript and its history and its place in your workflow. It’s a very excellent primer to ASTs, listing and everything it includes.
- Introducing GitHub Package Registry: Like many engineers I’m interested to see the potential of having package registration co-existing with your source code. Between the registry, Github Actions and acquiring Dependabot, I honestly think they’re giving npm, Inc. a run for the money. That’s not to mention all the new VS Code integrations and all the interesting new features from Paper Cuts.
- MobX: Been using MobX a lot at work and honestly, I hated it at first, and I started playing with mobx-react-lite (it’s essentially a hooks version of mobx-react) and then I started to really enjoy it. The more time I spend with this little library, the more I understand about classes in JavaScript, observables and all the niceties that come with using MobX with TypeScript.
- Demo - Accessible Toggle Switch: You’ve seen custom switches, iOS styled toggles with the checkbox hack and every derivation of that. But what I wanted to know, was how you could do this accessibly. So I ran across
role="switch"(docs) and made a little demo of using those attributes with React Hooks.
Read 📖
Other points of interest in things that I’m reading:
Articles, Posts & Misc. 📝
- How Microsoft learned from the past to redesign its future from the Verge: This is a fun 10,000 foot view of some of the work I’m involved in at Microsoft.
- Oh, bi the way #1 by Heron Greenesmith: My pal Heron started a column about bisexuality and I’m mostly just looking forward to seeing her slay this space. Heron is always a thoughtful and considered writer and twitter-screamer about sexual identity, bisexuality and LGBTQ+ topics. 💖💜💙
- 17 Books by Queer Asian American Writers from Electriic Literature: One of my favorite books The Incendiaries from R.O. Kwon was featured on this list and a lot of the recommendations immediately went on to my Amazon wishlist (which is essentially just a bookmarking tool at this point).
Books 📚
- Atomic Habits by James Clear: Not sure how I feel about this book, but I’m giving it some attention. The idea is that making small shifts in perspective, adopting micro behaviors can have macro impacts on your real goals. Like most self-help books and books about motivation and goals there are a swarm of baseball metaphors that I don’t understand. ⚾️
- Meet Me in Atlantis by Mark Adams: I’ve had this on my shelf for a couple of years, I tried to make it my train book, but when I was commuting it was too early to read. This book is essentially the author, collection, contextualizing and presenting the assorted theories around the location of Atlantis and the disparity between these theories. It’s interesting enough, but it’s been sitting beside my bed where I try and get through a chapter every night. It’s a very different genre than I’m used to and that’s a good challenge 😉.
- Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe: This is the audiobook I listen to when I’m at work or I’m coding. Howe goes through the whole history of Marvel comics, its formation, infighting, conception of popular characters and different eras of their publication history. The audiobook is pretty easy to drown out and the paperback is WAY better.💥
- Nova: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 by Abnett & Lanning: With the rumors about a Nova feature film in Phase 4 of the MCU, I thought it be interesting to actually read about his origins. I’m personally hoping Nova, Richard Rider, is the first “promised” openly queer 🏳️🌈 Marvel superhero but this gives me no indication of that. It’s just false hope 💔. Anyway the story is interesting, it moves along well, keeps you engaged in what happens next and begins with the aftermath of the destruction of Xandar. So it’s predicated on the “Oh shit, what do we do know?” plot device.
- Doctor Strange Vol. 2: Remittance by Mark Waid: Speaking of comics, I’m super into Doctor Strange. I seriously bought at least 4 collector’s editions of Doctor Strange. 👨⚕️🌀
Watch 📺
- Every Way to Cook an Egg (59 Methods) | Bon Appétit: I seriously watched this 4 or 5 times and tried MANY, MANY of the methods described here. 🍳🍳🍳🥚🥚🥚🥚
- Match Chain Reaction VOLCANO ERUPTION Amazing Fire Domino 2: GREEN FIRE 🔥🔥🔥🔥
- Play Date from Panic Inc.: I just want one. Is that so wrong?
- Google Stadia wants to be the Netflix of gaming from the Verge: I really want Google Stadia to exist and to be affordable. I’ve been obsessed with the idea and just waiting for the details to drop.
That’s all I got, maybe I’ll do this again!