When I was learning CSS’s grid feature (oh gosh, nearly ten years ago), I posted a few short videos talking about my understanding of the feature and how it worked. I was surprised to get scolded for sharing inaccurate information, “especially as a teacher”. Wait, what?! Who, me?! I get things wrong...

I started up a little project to go to most of the taco joints in town. I say most because I’m not going to every place that has tacos on the menu, like chain restaurants. I’m targeting taquerias and places that feel close to qualify as one. Ottawa is more known for shawarmas than tacos but I figure...

I went out to dinner and a show with a friend the other day, enjoying some pizza and then wandering over to watch a mediocre blues/country/folk band. This friend was my first roommate from when I first moved out at 19. He lamented that being in his fifties, it was harder to develop new friendships. ...

When the pandemic hit and nobody could travel anywhere, I, like many others, found connections through Zoom calls. I had multiple scheduled calls with different groups: a daily morning call, a weekly Friday call, two board game groups, a poker night, a Call of Duty group, and semi-regular calls with...

Hey, it’s the inaugural post for the RSS Club on Snook.ca! I was working away on my site, adding content that I thought might be relevant to some, like an AI statement and a privacy policy. Most people probably don’t care but for those that do, it’s there and it shows that I care about those things,...

I've seen Dave Rupert do posts that only appear in the RSS feed. He called it the RSS Club. In his words, It’s like a newsletter delivered to your feed reader to celebrate the medium of RSS and breakaway from social media. I like that ethos and am choosing to do the same. What posts will qualify as ...

We’re into the thick of summer and the days have been long and hot—just the way I like it. Pushing the One and Only Edge Back in March, I mentioned having some ideas but wanting at least one edge to push. Turns out, the only edge I pushed was using scroll-based animations. Dullest edge pushing ever....

I am a cocktail and four wines in as we step out into the cool autumn night after a hefty dinner. My sweater and the alcohol and her hand will keep me warm on the walk back. “The directions say to turn right here,” she says, as we stand in front of a church that caps the street. I recognize the chur...

A decade ago, when I was still speaking at conferences and heavily marketing myself, I’d often think of personal branding ideas. We’ve seen the trends. The business cards. The t-shirts. The stickers. The buttons. The socks! Can’t forget the socks. My logo is branded across not only my sites but my c...

In 1985, at the age of eleven, I bought my first comic book: The Transformers #9. From there, I went on to collect nearly a thousand comics over my teenage years, mostly in the Marvel universe like Spider-Man and X-men. Lots of Groo the Wanderer (which my mom always enjoyed) and then into stuff like...

I came across this fun little comic titled We Didn’t Lose the Plot. It has a straightforward conclusion: more things should come to an end. The “things” referred to here is media like books and movies and television but I’d extend it to many other things as well. Like web projects. So often, things ...

One thing I like about 11ty is that common tasks for development oriented blogs are easily handled and syntax highlighting is no exception. I installed the Syntax Highlighting Plugin just like the documentation asked me to. Then, I had to modify my code blocks in my blog post Markdown files to indic...

When I was building this site, I was keeping it lean but perhaps a bit messy. It’s not a big complex site and I didn’t need to write CSS to maintain a big complex site. As such, I even wondered if I’d stick to any kind of naming convention. Old habits are hard to break and I found anytime I tried to...

A week ago, I had launched this site using QuatroSlab for page titles and Google’s Slabo for body copy. For those that have been around awhile and are familiar with SMACSS, you might recognize QuatroSlab from that site. I like the font and started off with it to see how I’d feel about it on the this...

Welcome to the beginning. The end happened months ago but like many endings, sometimes they take awhile. The End Snook.ca has, for the better part of of the last 25 years, been mostly a professional outlet for me. What started out as “Technical Articles” turned into “a collection of tips, tricks, an...

I’ve been working on transitioning this site over to a static generator and I’ve also been working on a new site design. What I decided to do is sort of a cross between the two: my current site will be converted into a static version of what stands today, design and all. It’ll be an archive of what ...

I mentioned last year about the mixtapes my brother used to make. Well, just the other week, my mom mentioned that she still had a bunch of her tapes and that my brother’s mixtapes might be in amongst them and sure enough, I found the very tape that I remember most. Named aptly, A Whole Bunch of Goo...

One has to appreciate the drama-free life while it’s happening because it can be so short-lived! After I posted about how well things were going, drama unfolded. Looks like I jinxed it and am now researching condo board management. I really didn't want to have to join the board but it is increasingl...

It’s mid-March and the weather has been vacillating between balmy sweater weather and the frozen tundra that need hollowed out tauntauns to stay warm. I’ve chosen to sequester myself indoors until some semblance of summer remains with relative consistency. Estate I’ve been using some of that time to...

I’ve lived in Ottawa since I was a teenager. In all of the time I’ve lived here, there has been a tourist attraction: The Rideau Canal Skateway. Every winter, the National Capital Commission prepares and maintains one of the longest skating rinks in the world at just over 7 kilometres in length. Des...

Last summer, Richard Worth reached out to see if I’d be interested in attending a jQuery Reunion. I’ve only been to one other conference (Beyond Tellerand) in the last five years and a reunion seemed like the best opportunity to reconnect with people I hadn’t seen in a long time. I was trepidatious ...

I was in Japan with my mom and my son. The country had recently opened up again to tourism and I took the opportunity to take my son on a trip we were supposed to take pre-pandemic that was cancelled due to a typhoon. My mom tagging along this time was a bonus. It is nice to be in a place that isn’t...

We’ve reached the perineum of the holidays and I’m enjoying some quiet time before the new year—a perfect time to reflect on the year just spent. Travel This year was a quiet year for air travel, perhaps even quieter than expected. I have been avoiding travel to the States, for the most part. That h...

As a child of the 80s, I have distinct things that I associate with successful people. We’re talking the age of shows like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Dallas, and Dynasty. Sports like tennis, racquetball, golf, and sailing. People in their white short shorts, and polo shirts, with a headband....

It’s gotten to the point where I almost pathologically avoid television shows. Name a popular tv show from the last 20 years and there’s a good chance I haven’t seen it. Game of Thrones? Nope. Succession? Nope. Mr Robot? Nope. Breaking Bad? I saw the first two seasons and gave up. Strangers Things? ...

Yup, the colder weather has arrived. My days of sitting on the balcony, basking in the warm sun, are tucked away for the year. They’ll return next year, for sure. The House After quickly getting the house cleaned out, I put it on the market. Less than two weeks later, I got an offer. I ended up sell...

Life has been a bit hectic as of late. I don’t like the platform I have running my blog, which means I have a mental hill to get over before I can blog. Right now, I’m inside a coffee shop killing time waiting for a truck to show up and haul away a pile of junk I have in the garage. I decided to cra...