** 📸 Photo **

A photograph looking up at the night sky. Sheets of aurora are visible across the sky in bands of green and purple.

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** 📸 Photo **

A male yellow rumped warbler showing off its dashing blue plumage and big old blue rump.

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** books, the end of winter, video games and javascript **
Since my last update I’ve read a handful of books. Some standout reads include Tales from Earthsea, The Other Wind and The Left Hand of Darkness, all by Ursula K. Le Guin. I’d read them all before, accepted for The Other Wind. I thought I’d read The Other Wind, but hadn’t! Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick was also a fun read. I liked it for the rabbit holes it invited me down; I’ve been thinking a lot … ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

Photograph of an eclipse during totality. The image is all black, with a black disc obscure the hallow of the sun.

Solar eclipse from Kingsfield, Maine. ⌘ Read more

** In reply to: Scaling accessibility beyond compliance at VA.gov through community and culture - Ad Hoc **
In reply to: Scaling accessibility beyond compliance at VA.gov through community and culture - Ad Hoc

If“accessibility as compliance” is a staircase where outcomes are restricted to the normative limitations of the law, Accessibility Beyond Compliance is an exponential curve. It isn’t limited to fulfilling legal constraints, and we can use it to explore, understand, and b … ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

A fuzzy silver and black cat lazily lounges on a yellow couch. Its grinch paw draped over its face.

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** 📸 Photo **

A black and white dog sleeps tightly curled in a small patch of sun dappling down through a window on to a yellow couch. Behind the couch a bunch of drawings made by kids are adhered to the wall.

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** Valentines, patron saint of bees, plague, and sushi **
Hot on the heals of recently being interviewed by Manu, I was interviewed by Kristen Foster-Marks from the Developer Success Lab. It was a lot of fun! We had a wide ranging conversation, but often came back around to the importance of“learning … ⌘ Read more

** Two good stories **
I just finished reading The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. I loved it. When I finished A Memory Called Empire I assumed it’d be my most favorite book of the year — it has already been unseated!? I mean, if I kept track of favorites. As I finished The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi I immediately wanted more, so looked to see if there is a sequel (alas, no (or not yet, I hope!?)). I’ve got a gigantic l … ⌘ Read more

** Arkady Martine and Virginia Woolf **
As an undergrad and a grad student I was obsessed with Virginia Woolf. Woolf’s writings appeared in my citations pretty much regardless of the class or subject area I was writing on.

I have recently finished reading an engaging and lovely novel by Arkady Martine,“A Memory Called Empire.” Of course, I was excited to pick up the sequel, but, also, I had this feeling, this Woolf’s scent — I’ve always felt that Woolf’s nonfiction was more lucid and p … ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

The sun struck yellow rain boots of a kid, haphazardly left in the hall by a bright yellow wall. The floor is made of brick.

It’s been very damp. It was, however, recently sunny for a bit. Here is the proof of the sun’s continued existence. ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

A majestic, magnificent, teeny tiny White-throated Sparrow perched on an even teeny tinier branch. It is winter. It is grey. It is cold. The bird is royalty. A sovereign among fathered beasts. None know more regent a beast — Gloriana, but a dinosaur-footed, be-feathered friend.

Break thrones; build tables. ⌘ Read more

** A scrappy fiddle **

A screen recording of a teeny tiny browser window. The window starts by displaying a grey surface with a subtle white grid on top of it. A computer cursor moves around, occasionally it clicks to open a context menu that lists 3 choices, “circle, square, triangle.” When the cursor selects a shape that shape is inscribed within that grid cell.

I’ve had fun playing at implementing a very basic visual programming system over the last few days. I like the direction I’ve s … ⌘ Read more

** New year **
The last weeks of 2023 have been very enjoyable. Other than having to deal with a cascade of car issues, there’s been a lot of time to hang out with the partner and kids, wander around outside, and poke at fun personal projects…and I mean, work, too, but…you know.

The other evening I pulled together a fun Markov chain toy. It isn’t anything fancy, but I wanted the ability to feed a madlib style script to the program and have it use that as a template to fill in. The resulting program is beak and … ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

A photograph showing two children in light winter kit walking down to the ocean. It is very foggy out, making the ocean hard to see.

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** 📸 Photo **

A photograph taken from the center of a pedestrian bridge over a tidal river outlet looking out to sea. It is very foggy so that you can’t see all the way to the ocean which is about a quarter of a mile in the distance.

Foggy Christmas adventuring ⌘ Read more

** Accessibility-first **
Whereas mobile-first design and development invited folks to think more expansively about the physical reality of the devices people use, accessibility-first design and development invites folks to think more expansively about the lived experiences, and physical reality of actual people. ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

Photograph shows a young child in a purple winter coat, a beanie and fuzzy mittens holding a dog’s leash walking in a cemetery. It’s pretty foggy. The child and the dog both face away from the camera so that we see both of their backs.

Soggy winter ambling. ⌘ Read more

** an approximately programmer-shaped person **
I was recently interviewed by Manu for his People and Blogs series! It was a great honor to be suggested by Piper for that, and I had a blast responding to all of Manu’s questions.

The December Adventure is in full swing. There are so many fun adventure logs this year. I’ve been mostly focusing on building toys with [Decker](https://beyondloom.com/ … ⌘ Read more

** 📸 Photo **

A tree in a cemetery. It is autumn, and the ground is littered in damp leaves. The tree is covered in red-orange leaves.

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Political speech is something I shy away from. But, of course, that is political.

Sometimes there are things that you can’t ignore. There are, perhaps, many such things…right now there is one that I’m particularly close to, close enough that I am made to look because I am in some way directly implicated in it.

I am Jewish. I was raised so, and live so today.

Being raised a Jew I was constantly taught to“never forget.”

There seems to have been a forgetting.

A genocide is being perpetrated against Palestinians. I r … ⌘ Read more

** 📸 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.

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** 📸 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.

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** 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

** Thoughts on accessibility in smol computing **
What follows is my attempt to spark a conversation in a few converging, but separate communities I lurk in.

I’ve already had a bunch of amazing conversations around this topic with a lot of people. Those conversations helped to shape what follows. Thanks to everyone who was willing to think this stuff through with me.

Before I get into it I want to say at the top this isn’t meant as an accusation against anyone in these communities, nor the goals of t … ⌘ Read more

A large orange cat basks in the sunlight next to a red door.

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** December adventure **
Over the past couple years I’ve done the advent of code to varying degrees. I thought I was going to do it again this year but decided to try something different. I’ve been calling what came together a“ December Adventure.”

It isn’t anything fancy; throughout December I aim to write a little bit of code everyday. So far I’ve written a bit of apl, bash, elisp, explored a bunch of flavors of scheme, and star … ⌘ Read more

Image shows a large wooden troll standing in the woods illuminated by twinkle lights. A parent and kid stand at the feet of the troll.

We visited a troll in the woods this evening. ⌘ Read more

In reply to: chreke’s blog - Little Languages Are The Future Of Programming

The idea is that as you start to find patterns in your application, you can encode them in a little language—this language would then allow you to express these patterns in a more compact manner than would be possible by other means of abstraction. Not only could this buck the trend of ever-growing applications, it would … ⌘ Read more

In reply to: Oatmeal - My programming language odyssey

A while ago someone asked what I liked about the programming languages I like — forth and lisp specifically.

I’ve noodled on it for a bit now, and I think the reason I like forth and scheme and other languages with something like a repl is because when I start a new project I’m dropped right into the entire language and t … ⌘ Read more

Brothers hugging. Littlest one is holding a toy wooden camera.

Happy birthday hugs ⌘ Read more

** Occasional notes **
If they aren’t weekly, I guess they’re occasional?

3rd repair procedure to fix brain bleed was a success. I have a few more scans and follow ups, but, knock wood I think I’m through at this point.

I’ve spent about a week laying low and taking it easy navigating some wild pain, but that is subsiding now. I watched a bunch of stuff. It was a nice change of pace. I don’t typically watch much television or many movies. Stand outs (all things I revisited) include:

• Michael Clayton
  
• Point Break, the o … ⌘ Read more