** 📸 Photo **

A dithered photograph of the grand lobby at the union station hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. There is a very large, arched ceiling, decorated with a mixture of deco and Nuevo modern ornimentation and filigrees.

⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

A photograph of the night sky. 1 star is visible towards the top of the frame. Below the star is a branching bolt of lightening. The lightening shows some trees and a house in silhouette.

We’ve had some very dramatic thunderstorms the last few evenings. ⌘ Read more

** Updates from the end of summer **
Today was the last real day of summer for us. Tomorrow the kids go back to school.

A long-haired child in a brightly colored water shirt kicks an oncoming wave, they’re suspended in mid-air, surrounded by water droplets.

You know those last few weeks before the dark of autumn — the ones that hold the last bursts of summer? Those days where you try to squeeze in as many chill summer vibes as humanly possible?

I’ve bee … ⌘ Read more

** summer’s lease hath all too short a date **
After the excitement of last summer I was hopeful for a chill one this year. So far, so good.

A jumble of bikes lay on the ground in front of 2 overgrown sheds in various states of disrepair.

We visited the island where we used to live and started our family. We saw a few friends, and visited some fa … ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

Close up image shows some budding, bunched flowers in a large meadow.

⌘ Read more

** of vast distances, connection over them, and being made to feel alone; of water catchment, soil, and bits **
Anomie, a word for your consideration.

The dictionary of cyborg anthropology defines anomie, in part, with this anecdote:

In everyday life, the modern vehicle and the daily commute is one of the most isolated moments an urban human can experience. T … ⌘ Read more

** week notes **
Last year I set out to rekindle my reading habit. That went well. This year’s reading has been enjoyable, but I’m not cozy with the ratio of non-fiction to fiction I’ve read this year…non-fiction (especially of the computing persuasion) far out balances the fiction I’ve read. I think this is mostly because I’ve been mired amidst a fiction book that I’ve found to be a slog…but enjoyable, too. I’d have abandoned it and moved on, elsewise. Onward!

Spring is quickly making way to summer h … ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

A dithered image shows a young child with long hair standing on the rocky coast, looking out at the sea.

First afternoon at the beach this year! ⌘ Read more

** of array programming, lightsabers and some thoughts on permacomputing **
A bit of this and that, some kind of mishmosh.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been reading a lot about array programming systems like J, K, Q, APL, and BQN. I’ve been intending to add a page to the wiki about them, but havent gotten to that yet. Consider this a little promise that I’ll do that sometime soon. I’m interested in array programming less because I think it’s particularl … ⌘ Read more

** week notes **
Some things of note, links mostly:

First and foremost, I found a suitable pinboard replacement in link hut! Shout outs to my buddy Bruno for the tip.

Here’s a bookmarklet I wrote to make it a bit more ergonomic for how I like to roll,

 javascript
javascript:(<span class="hljs-function"><span class="hljs-keyword">function</span> (<span class="hljs-params"></span>) </span>{
  <span class="hljs-keyword">const</span> tags = prompt(<span class="hljs-string">'A space separated list of tags.' ... ⌘ [Read more](https://eli.li/2023/03/31/week-notes)

** week notes **
I’ve been experimenting. I’ve been concocting a recipe for vegan kugel, and rediscovering little features and edges of my website I’d forgotten I baked in. Like chocolate chips hidden in an oatmeal raisin cookie.

One chip most recently re-discovered: support for per-page custom styles?! All I gotta do is include an optional bit of meta data, bespoke-css, that points to a style sheet. I may play with this feature more. I do love myself some css. I can tell exactly when in my life I added this feature because th … ⌘ Read more

** Ideas for making accessibility and equity a core part of the software development lifecycle **
In accessibility and the product person I said

we need to make accessibility a core part of our processes

Here, I want to talk about that in more detail. I want to briefly explore what making accessibility a part of core processes looks like, and how that is different from centering access … ⌘ Read more

** Moon maker **
I recently re-read Peter Naur’s“Programming as theory building”. Afterwards I set out to write my own text editor. The paper posits that it’s really hard, if not impossible, to fully communicate about a program and sort of gestures at the futility of documentation…what spun around inside my head as I read was that our primary programming medium — text files — is silly. Like, some folks would totally 100% s … ⌘ Read more

** Accessibility and the product person **
This post is a slightly modified version of a talk I presented to the product practice at my work. It presents a few ways that product designers and managers can help to move accessibility forward. It is a little bit different than what I normally share, here, but, I thought it may be interesting to some folks.

[![Picture of a slide with the title “Why though?” It also includes a quote from Kat Holmes’ book Mismatch. The quote reads: “There are many challeng … ⌘ Read more

** Accessibility updates **
I’m feeling pretty chuffed! Last week I wrote about my intention to make this website more accessible. My motivations were many-fold, but, primarily, mostly shame. I’ve worked as an accessibility specialist in the past, and now spend a bunch of my days at work looking for ways to make public infrastructure online more accessible. It seemed fitting to at least make sure the little bit I contribute to the web here is also accessible.

I thought it was going t … ⌘ Read more

In reply to: Oatmeal - week notes

The worst kind of blogging is blogging about blogging, so, I’ll keep this blogging about blogging short!

I’ve made some minor updates to the design of the website that have improved it’s usability a wee bit, and are a step in the right direction toward upping my accessibility game. The major remaining accessibility issues are around color contrast and some structura … ⌘ Read more

Dithered image of a large cat with tufted ears sitting inside of and partially on top of a wooden play house. The cat is looking directing at the viewer and appears to be angry, angry at you, the universe, and all things in between. The cat is not happy. Behind the cat is a wall covered in Charlie Harper bird decals.

“I am Batman.” ⌘ Read more

** week notes **
It got a wee bit cold here in Maine this weekend. It was thankfully uneventful for us. We hung around inside and watched it get real cold outside. Our home faired pretty well, too. Honestly pleasantly surprised about that!

We picked this weekend to go all in on potty training — pantsless days, treats, rousing bouts of encouragement sung, and a lot of spot cleaning. Fueled by hubris, I thought we had this potty trainin … ⌘ Read more

Dithered image of a large cat with tufted ears sitting in a laundry basket. The basket has colorful play silks woven into it. The cat has a vacant, empty expression on its face. It’s 11 neurons are all firing, desperately trying to keep up with the pace of life.

“I’m on a boat.” ⌘ Read more

A dithered image of a cat sleeping on a window seat. The window is surrounded by fairy lights, and a felt, dinosaur mobile hangs next to the window. It’s snowing outside. The cat appears peaceful, but in reality is an asshole whom I love dearly.

Snorlax leaning into the whole vibe of her namesake. ⌘ Read more

** I read some books in 2022, and have some thoughts about computer science writing **
At the start of this year I set out to revive my long dead reading habit. After having kids it fell by the wayside. I’ve read 41 books so far this year. Mostly a mix of science fiction and nonfiction computer science books. Here’s the complete list of everything I’ve read. I’ve got mixed feelings about keeping track and sharing cou … ⌘ Read more