Always Be Shipping

There’s one constant in making code.

Always Be Shipping.

It’s really that simple, and yet it’s the hardest part about making good code.

Rolling Around at the Speed of Light

Hugo is “The world’s fastest framework for building websites," and by that I think they mean that it’s quick to compile, and it’s true. Hugo is quick as heck - I’ve never seen a faster system.

So what?

The build time is not the bottleneck, right? I mean, I spend at least 10 times the time writing code, so what does it matter if my build times are a little long?

The reality is a fast build time is invaluable.

CSS-in-JS; the Future Present of Style

I work on websites all the time, literally it’s my job and my hobby. I’m focused on and constantly trying to improve my craft and I’m always looking for new tools that help to make my experience quicker and more consistent. CSS-in-JS is one of the most successful tools I’ve added to my toolbox; collocating your styles with the components they modify is a great method to organize large projects. In addition to the improved organization and the added programmability that comes with JavaScript, you’re creating a bundle of transpiled, vendor-prefixed CSS with cache-busting fingerprinting.

Gatsby; that Other Static Site Generator

I make a bunch of websites. Like, a lot of websites. When you’re that, it’s good to rely on a standard set of tools, and more and more I’m leaning on Gatsby for the heavy lifting. It’s got a core group of features that are supplemented by an even richer plugin library.

For most of my projects I’ve needed some more hands-on customization and I don’t see a whole lot of Gatsby blogs talking about exactly how things are set up. So it’s up to this Hugo blog to do it!

Warlocks and War Crimes

This article is going to deal with International law in our world applied to the fantastic and magical world of Dungeons & Dragons, because it’s absurd and mixes the whimsical with the macabre.

New Year, new Stack?

It’s the ever-present question of our age, “What technology do I need to learn to keep up with the state-of-the-art?” I’m not going to address all of that in one post, but I’ll cover what I’ve learned and experienced about the internet’s favorites specification system. It’s built-in to your browser, it’s been getting love and care since it was created sometime in the dark past, and it’s loved as much as JavaScript.

It’s Cold Outside

I’ve had my holidays, and I’ve watched the stop motion tapes. It’s been relaxing, and perplexing. The 1970 Stop Motion special Santa Claus is Coming to Town is equal parts nostalgic and truly strange; and I’m going to use my website to do a deep dive on a few details of the movie, because that’s the reason for the season.

A Fascinating Intro

I was reading Scott Hanselman’s blog, in which he talked about implicit usings in C#. Riveting way to start a post, I know. But a little quip from him caught itself in my mind… and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it for a little bit.

NOTE: Did you know that Visual Basic has had this very feature forever?

Uh, no Scott, I wouldn’t have expected anyone to know that!

It’s Not Easy

Even the biggest of giants can’t do it. I always love to make fun of the bigger tech companies. Ever since this site went up I feel like I’ve been bashing Google’s documentation (rightly so). But a while ago (May-17 2021) I found something that really made me realize just how many mistakes are out there.