• The conference site, Mujer Verdadera ’26, launched on Wednesday while I was on the road. There were a few hiccups but my team was able to cover it while I was traveling back home from Kentucky.
• I refactored a few templates and stylesheet to make a more generic styled page for our courses on Revive Our Hearts. Our first course had very specific branding. We added enough to the templates that would allow me to apply specific branding in the future but has a default that we could quickly get up and running.
• I worked on some navigation changes splitting a donate button (that revealed a submenu on hover) into two separate buttons (one going to online donation and the other triggers the submenu reveal). On Friday, I worked on a solution to add it to our Portuguese and Spanish sites. As part of the solution, I also moved the donation button from some navigation items in the center of the desktop screen to the right (along with some other global navigation and hamburger menu).
• I updated a HTML email template on Thursday and Friday. I am so glad that it uses MJML. I had fun crafting it on Friday as I had to apply some different variations of background images.
• I started work on building out a landing page for potential new students for the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I enjoyed seeing that site come together and I have learned some new skills with custom audio and video players using the native HTML elements.

Best in Show

I traveled up to Murray, Kentucky on Tuesday so I could attend a reception for the OMAS (Organization of Murray Art Students) spring art show. This is my son’s third time participating (he missed one because he was studying abroad for a semester in Barcelona). One of his pieces won best in show. It was a piece that he created in the fall for his solo show at the Murray Art Guild, which he won last year at the OMAS show. He also won a graphic design award for a zine that he created called Always Working: A contemplation of the 9–5.

It was so much fun to be there and be able to celebrate with him. I enjoyed seeing his friends and meeting some of his fellow art students. I also got to meet his advisor that he has worked closely with over the past four years for his honor’s thesis that he will finish soon. I enjoyed getting to go out to dinner with my son and his fiancé after the reception. I had wanted to attend this show in the past and decided over last weekend to take the last minute trip. I won’t have many opportunities like this in the future so I wanted to take advantage of it while I can.

Writing

I wrote a couple of articles this week:

• Still here – was inspired by Geoff Graham’s post in January about his changing roles to reflect and celebrate the fact that I am “still here.” I am grateful that I found a place where my skills and experience are valued and needed.
• Back in Murray – A follow-up to an article I wrote last month about visiting Murray, Kentucky.

Articles I read

• My Favorite Cosplay (Joe Crawford)
• What Will Quiet Your Restless Heart? (Tim Challies)
• Good Monarchs (Joe Crawford)
• Grief Can Pull Spouses Apart (but God Can Hold Them Together) (Tim Challies)
• Progressive enhancement as a benefit of CSS Nesting (Kilian Valkhof)
• You Know What? Just Don’t Split Words into Letters (Adrian Roselli)
• A Designer’s Thoughts About This Moment in AI (Brad Frost)
• The Index: Issue #171 (Piccalilli)
• Lost in the Met (Nick Simson)
• Crafty fix for wetsuit that wants to Magic Mike (Joe Crawford)
• Forgotten, and That’s Good (Darryl Dash)
• When The Path That I Fear Is the Way He Has Set (Tim Challies)
• Being a Luddite Is Cool and All, but Have You Seen the Hilarious Tapestries These New Looms Are Making? (Kate Tyndall, McSweeney’s) (Satire piece)
• Accessibility people are a superpower (Jared Cunha)
• Canada’s Soaring Assisted Suicide Rates (Stephen McAlpine)
• Studio Notes #75 (Dan Cederholm)

What I watched

• Is SaaS actually dead? (…no) (Cassidy Williams)
• The West Wing (Netflix)
• Formula 1: Drive to Survive Season 8 (Netflix)

What I listened to

• Shop Talk Show 705: CodePen Public Beta, Anchor Positioning, and Build Awesome
• 19: One Footer Unfinished Troika: Music crossover special (One Footer in the Grave podcast)

How God’s Love for Women is Displayed in the Old Testament, with Dr. Katie McCoy

• God’s Love for Abused, Exploited, and Vulnerable Women (Revive Our Hearts Podcast)
• Let’s Talk about “Period Laws”
• Looking at the Law through Cultural Lenses

Books I am reading

• Enjoying God (Tim Chester)
• Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age (Tony Reinke)
• Saints and Scoundrels in the Story of Jesus (Nancy Guthrie)

Walking – 13 miles

• Sunday – 3.56 miles in 1 hour 5 minutes
• Monday – 3.07 miles in 57 minutes
• Thursday – 2.54 miles in 49 minutes
• Friday – 3.84 miles in 1 hour 8 minutes

What I played

MLB The Show 23 (Orioles) – I went 2-2 this week. I started the week with a 3 game losing streak and turned it around over the weekend, winning two against the Tigers. The bottom of my order provided most of my offense on Friday with two bench players having outstanding games.

The post Weeknotes 26:11 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

In the post, I mentioned that trip was probably one of the last I would make here. At the time, I mentioned we had two more trips planned: one in April for my son’s senior art show and one in May for his graduation.

I made an unexpected trip up here today for a student art show that he is part of. And he is receiving two different awards for a few of his entries. There are not many opportunities like this left for him so I wanted to be apart of it. I have actually wanted to come to this art show in the past but it had not worked out.

I am so glad I decided to make the trip so I can be part of his special night. You need to grab these opportunities when you can. Kids grow up too fast and then they are off on their own. Soon he will graduate from college and make his way in the world. Our youngest will be off to a four year school after graduating with her associates degree from Chattanooga State in May.

Carpe diem. Seize the day.

The post Back in Murray appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

Museum memories

This month the topic for the IndieWeb Blog Carnival is “Museum Memories.” The topic was chosen by James at James’ Coffee Blog. I took a cue from Joe Crawford and decided to share two museum memories that came to mind while I was reading Joe’s entry. I shared about visiting the Design Musuem of Barcelona with my son in May 2024. And my second memory was the Salvador Dalí Musuem in St. Petersburg, Florida that I visited after the Front-End Design Conference in 2011. At the end of the post, I listed out all the museums that remembered to have visited along with some that I would like to visit in the future, including several here in Chattanooga.

• Read Two museum memories
• Find out more about this month’s IndieWeb Blog Carnival topic and make your own entry

Adventures in subgrid

I wrote another post this week about my recent adventures in using subgrid to solve layout problems in my work. It is a great solution to lining up content on the same grid over two or more columns in a parent grid. I included several examples from recent work on Revive Our Hearts.

I referenced Josh Comeau’s recent article, Brand New Layouts with CSS Subgrid. I also reference several videos by Kevin Powell and along with some other resources.

Read Adventures in subgrid

Enjoying The Show

I have had a lot of fun over the past few weeks playing MLB The Show ’23 with the Baltimore Orioles. I had finished a season with the 2020 Twins earlier last month and decided to jump into the 2023 edition, which was the last one I bought. The Orioles had a pretty good year in 2023 and I wanted to play with their young team.

I have gotten off to a good start. Gunnar Henderson looks like a shoe in for the Rookie of the Year. His defense at third has been superb and he getting a lot of key hits including homers to propel my team. I was very happy over the last week that Anthony Santander got hot. He had a slow start and I was considering promoting someone from the farm system or looking for a trade. But after sitting him for a couple of games, he went on a tear getting multiple hits per game and several homers. He raised his average from near .200 to the mid .300s.

I have had a lot of fun playing with this team and finding ways to win in the late innings. My bullpen has been lights out with Felix Bautista anchoring the effort. I have had many blow out games recently so Bautista has not had as many save opportunities to lead the league. Things are starting to click with several of the players who got a slow start. Austin Hays has hit safely in 22 games out of the 23 I have played through Saturday. I had a 9 game win streak snapped on Saturday by the Red Sox.

Article I read

I read several articles this week about AI/LLM including three by Nolan Lawson. I appreciated that Nolan acknowledged our need to grieve and mourn our craft. But I also appreciated his challenge not to lose our sense of wonder and to take a moment to be amazed. He also captured a lot of what I have been thinking and feeling about the past few months in You had a story. I appreciated his honesty and willingness to see things from a different perspective.

On AI/LLM

• You had a story (Nolan Lawson)
• We mourn our craft (Nolan Lawson)
• Days of miracle and wonder (Nolan Lawson)
• I am in an abusive relationship with the technology industry (Salma Alam-Naylor) – I agree with some many of her thoughts and observations.
• Propellant. (Ethan Marcotte) – How long, O Lord?
• Why I Don’t Vibe Code (Jacob Harris) – It struck me after reading this one that as one being near the end of my working career, I can make a lot of choices that I probably would not make if I were younger and had to depend on this industry to provide my family.

Museum memories – other entries for this month’s Indie Web Blog Carnival

• Two Museum Memories (Joe Crawford)
• Museum memories (James’ Coffee Blog)
• Museum memories (Beto)

Other articles

• Winged Migration (Club de cinéma IndieWeb) (Joe Crawford)
• The Deepest Thirst of All (Tim Challies)
• The state of State Of The Browser (Jeremy Keith) – I hope they post videos of the conference talks in the future. I believe they have in the past. I heard really good things from both Jeremy and others on Bluesky.
• Why God Delays Christ’s Return: Patience and Salvation (Tim Challies)
• w0rdz aRe 1mpoRtAnt (Jim Nielsen)
• Me Trying To Take a Selfie in 2001 (Chris Coyier) – Oh, Chris. Glad you got a good one out of the batch. Reminds me of taking pictures with a film camera.
• Jeffrey Zeldman Presents – Advice for job seekers (Jeffrey Zeldman) – Great advice from the godfather of the Web. Learn to tell stories.
• Untitled Post (Chris Coyier) – “For me, it has me thinking: in what ways am I still useful? Like, if the code I write isn’t particularly useful, which is quite the blow as I thought that was kinda my main thing, then what is?”
• 15 years of blogging (Nolan Lawson)
• The Index: Issue #170 (Piccalilli) – Links from Piccalilli
• Just passing through at PB #CaliforniaSeaLion (Joe Crawford)
• The Big Gotcha of Anchor Positioning (Chris Coyier, Frontend Masters Blog)
• Weekly Links 02.23–03.01 (Nate Dillon)
• Pages within pages (Steve McKinney) – Is this a new pattern?
• Studio Notes #74 (Dan Cederholm)
• A Meaning Crisis and Atheists (O. Alan Noble)
• View Transitions can swoop? (Adam Argyle)
• New Man (Joe Crawford)

Iranian church and current events

• Voices from Inside Iran (Prisoners of Hope from Help The Persecuted)
• Emergency: War in Iran (Prisoners of Hope from Help The Persecuted)
• Iranian Christians Need Your Prayers More Than Ever (Afshin Ziafat, YouTube)
• What Will War Bring to Iran? Praying for a Country in Crisis (David Mathis, Desiring God)
• The State of the Church in Iran (byFaith)

What I watched

• The West Wing (Netflix)
• Formula 1: Drive to Survive Season 8 (Netflix)
• KU-K-State basketball game (CBS)
• Give Them Jesus: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth Calls Christian Media Leaders to Proclaim Christ at NRB

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. Finished it this week.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• Enjoying God (Tim Chester)
• Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age (Tony Reinke)
• Saints and Scoundrels in the Story of Jesus (Nancy Guthrie) – I started this one this week. I am enjoying these stories/reflections on people in the story of Jesus.

What I listened to?

• Too many tools (General Musings with Kevin Powell)
• Voices from Inside Iran (Prisoners of Hope from Help The Persecuted)
• Emergency: War in Iran (Prisoners of Hope from Help The Persecuted)

Walking – 13.24 miles

It has been two years since I started walking to get in shape for my trip to Europe with my son in April 2024. Little did I know that walking (and praying) would become so important to surviving a year of unemployment that started a few weeks later.

Two years later, I am still walking regularly. Not as much as I would like, but I keep showing up. This was a good week, and I got out 4 times. I am shooting for around 5 and around 16 miles a week. So I didn’t hit my goal this week, but it was progress.

• Sunday – 3.26 miles in 1 hour
• Monday – 3.04 miles in 57 minutes
• Tuesday – 3.23 in 59 minutes
• Saturday – 3.71 miles in 1 hour 8 minutes

What I played

MLB The Show 23 (Orioles) – I went 6-1 this week with Boston breaking my 9 game winning streak on Saturday. The highlight was a walk off homer by Adley Rutschman. I also had two 9-4 blowouts against the Tigers where I hit lots of homers.

The post Weeknotes 26:10 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

As I read Geoff’s article, it gave me a moment to pause. I am still here. I am still a front-end developer (even though my title is UX Developer). I am still here. And I don’t say that like a grump older person who has been in the role for a long time with a sense that I am stuck or that I am not thrilled about it.

No, when I say “I am still here” it is very much an enthusiastic and very grateful tone. I feel incredibly blessed that “I am still here.” Why?

Two years ago, I lost my job unexpected. And I spent the next twelve months looking for a new job. There were a lot of days during that unemployment that I thought my time building and crafting websites were over. There were days that I had to fight hard against discouragement to keep going. It took me quite a while just to start getting some interviews. And then I would get my hopes up only to be disappointed. Even a year ago today, I had some possibilities but still had this fear that my time in the Web industry might be over. Fighting for hope was a daily battle.

I had no idea what I would do instead. I had invested twenty five years in this field. And I still enjoyed working on every project that came my way. I love crafting with code. And that was the hardest part of being unemployed. I was not motivated to do side projects because in a lot of ways, it was too painful. I missed the energy that doing creative work each day had given to me while I was employed.

I entertained the idea of pivoting to something else or trying to retool. I bought Josh Comeau‘s Joy of React course and started learning React. But I didn’t necessarily see a way forward in that lane as all the job postings that I saw were looking for someone with years of experience. And I struggled to think about being a React developer because of some fundamental philosophical/professional disagreements with frameworks as an approach to building the web. It seemed to go against the grain of the Web not using the most up-to-date HMTL elements like dialog. I also had accessibility and progressive enhancement concerns.

But I am still here. The timing of things came together and Revive Our Hearts ministry needed someone with my skills. It was the right fit at the right time. It brought me back full circle. I got my start in web development while working for Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru). Once again, I was going to be able to invest my skills in something I was very passionate about.

There have been so many days, especially over the last six months, that I am just so grateful and appreciative of the fact that I still am here–that I still get to do the thing that I love doing and have built up so many skills and knowledge about. I am humbled when I see how many people are losing their jobs in the industry and still looking for new opportunities. I don’t take it for granted that I still get to do what I do. It is a privilege and a blessing.

I don’t know how much longer it will last but I want to enjoy every minute of it. I thought about several scenes from the movie, Toy Story 2. Woody, a vintage toy cowboy, considers going to a museum as he begins to feel that his days as Andy’s beloved toy are numbered. But then later in the movie he comes to his senses.

“I can’t prevent Andy from growing up but I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

After Buzz Lightyear, Woody’s space toy friend, asks Woody if he was still worried about Andy growing up. “Nah, it will be fun while it lasts.”

I don’t know what is ahead for our industry. I know there is a lot of concern about how AI will change our jobs or whether there will be less jobs in the future because of AI. I still have my doubts about the “inevitability” of AI. But I am still not sure how to hedge my bets.

But for now, “I am still here.” And I am grateful and trying to enjoy it as long as it lasts. And trusting God with what is next if it comes to that.

• Day 366 – I accepted my current role almost a year ago on Day 366 of my unemployment
• Lessons from a yearlong job search
• Two powerful investments to make in your career
• Get to know me: Revive Our Hearts Edition – I put this together so that my new teammates could get to know me a bit better. I share a bit more about my journey into this new role.
• Six months – Reflections about my first six months in my role with Revive Our Hearts
• 2025 by the numbers – My year-end review
• A Decade of Development: 2010 to 2019
• The making of a webcraftsman, part 1 – I need to write more chapters in this series. This covers 1999–2003.

The post Still here appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

But it took longer to get broad support of subgrid across browsers (it looks like it is part of Baseline 2023) and I sort of lost interest. There were plenty of other fun toys to play with like container queries. Subgrid fell off my radar and I took very little notice of when it was finally available in the four major evergreen browsers. But that changed recently.

A problem that subgrid solves

I think Josh Comeau put it very well in his recent article about subgrid:

“One of the hardest problems in CSS is when siblings need to be aware of each other inside nested / complex layouts. Subgrid offers a solution to these sorts of problems.”

Using a grid layout (without subgrid), all the items on the grid have to be siblings. And the children elements within the grid layout don’t have a way of being aware of the grid layout that their parents are a part of. Some developers have used display: contents as a work around but that solution has some negative accessibility impacts. Subgrid is the solution that we have needed and it doesn’t negatively affect accessibility.

So one of the main problems that I have solved with subgrid is being able to line up content across multiple columns. That is the problem I was solving with the very first Codepen that I played around with.

A typical layout for sites that I was building in 2019 were cards with a heading, description and a link or button. There was really no way to line those elements up over multiple columns when the headings could be one line or multiple lines and descriptions had a different number of lines. And I was asked many times during the QA process (especially by designers) to find solutions to line up these elements across the columns.

Most of the time, I would opt to line up the “Read more” links or buttons by using a flex layout inside the card, with a flex-direction of column and a margin: auto on the top of the link or button. This would force those elements to the bottom of the card and they would line up across a grid row. This would provide a little bit nicer solution than if I didn’t use it. But I still was not able to achieve that alignment the heading, description/teaser, and read more button.

Recent solutions with subgrid

In several recents projects, I used subgrid to solve the very problem I have described above of having sibling content being aware of other sibling content so that they line up and share the same grid cell.

The Wonder App

I used subgrid as a solution in several places on a page promoting our Wonder App for Teen Girls. In the first example, I used subgrid to line up the descriptions below headings that varied from two lines to three lines. The four boxes use a parent grid on the container (an ordered list) and then each list item uses the subgrid to line up the content. The ordered list sits inside another grid layout for the whole section. I also used a grid to create some spacing around the secondary content list in the top right. I turned on the grid lines in devtools so you can see the different grids in action.

One of the gotchas of using subgrid is that you have to reserve space for multiple rows in your parent grid so that you can have the multiple grid rows on the subgrid. I learned this the hard way on one of the first solutions I tried with subgrid on the Revive Our Hearts site. If you don’t reserve the space for the rows, the content in each row will stack on top of each other in 1 row.

I ended up defining the number of rows in my CSS code.

.wonder-contents {
        grid-column: 1/-1;
}

.wonder-contents ol {    
    --rows: 2;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr;
    column-gap: 36px;
    row-gap: 36px;
    list-style-type: '';
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;


    @media (min-width: calc((768 / 16) * 1em)) {
        grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr);
    }

    @media (min-width: calc((1300 / 16) * 1em)) {
        grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr);
    }
}

.wonder-contents li {
    background-color: var(--teal);
    border-radius: 24px;
    color: white;
    display: grid;
    grid-template-rows: subgrid;
    grid-row: span var(--rows);
    padding: 1em;
}

But what if you have a dynamic number of rows. Josh shared a more flexible solution in his article for when you have a dynamic number of rows.

.wonder-contents li {
    grid-row: span 99;
}

You want to make your row span one that will exceed the actual number of rows you’ll. We’ll wind up with a 99-row grid, and all of the unused rows will stack up together at the bottom.

The one caveat with this solution is that you cannot use gap for the rows because then you would have 98 gaps in your subgrid because it will add the space even in your empty rows. But you could easily use a margin-block-start for all your first row to account for that.

Two columns of comparison

Another place that I used subgrid on the Wonder App page was further down the page where I had a comparison chart across two columns.

<div class="wonder-comparison">
    <ul class="listing-with-dividers left-column">
        <h2>Without Daily time in God&rsquo;s word</h2>
        <li>She stays discipled by culture instead of Christ.</li>
        <li>Lies grow louder than truth.</li>
        <li>Identity becomes fragile.</li>
        <li>Her relationship with God stays shallow or stagnant.</li>
    </ul>

    <ul class="listing-with-dividers right-column js-animate" data-root-margin="-0px 0px -45% 0px">
        <h2><span class="highlight"><svg>...</svg>With</span><span class="other-text">Daily time in God&rsquo;s word</span>.</h2>
        <li>She encounters Jesus daily.</li>
        <li>She learns her identity is secure in Christ.</li>
        <li>She builds deep-rooted faith habits.</li>
        <li>She joins a global sisterhood anchored in God&rsquo;s Word.</li>
    </ul>
</div>

This one is very similar to the first example, just more rows.

.wonder-comparison {
    border-bottom: 24px solid;
    border-image: var(--wonder-border-color) 1;
    color: var(--teal);
    display: grid;
    container-type: inline-size;
    grid-template-columns: 1fr;
    

    @media (min-width: calc((768 / 16) * 1em)) {
        --rows: 5;
        grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr);

    }
}

.wonder-comparison .left-column {
    background-color: var(--teal);
}

.wonder-comparison .right-column {
    background-image: url(../../images/wonder-app/gradient-background.jpg);
    background-size: cover;
    background-position: center;
}


.wonder-comparison h2 {
    background-color: var(--cream);
    font-family: var(----source-sans-pro);
    font-size: 36px;
    font-weight: 700;
    text-transform: uppercase;
    margin: 0;
    padding-block-start: 5cqb;
    padding-inline: 4cqi;
    text-align: center;

    @media (min-width: calc((768 / 16) * 1em)) and (max-width: calc((1199 / 16) * 1em)) {
        padding-inline: 2cqi;
    }
} 

.wonder-comparison ul {
    display: grid;
    grid-template-rows: subgrid;
    grid-row: span var(--rows);
    padding: 10cqb 10cqi;
    
    @media (min-width: calc((768 / 16) * 1em)) and (max-width: calc((1199 / 16) * 1em)) {
        padding: 5cqb 5cqi;
    }
}

.wonder-comparison li {
    background-color: var(--cream);
    border: 0;
    align-content: center;
    padding-inline: 4cqi;
    position: relative;
    text-align: center;
    text-wrap: balance;
    text-wrap: pretty;
    text-transform: none;

    @media (min-width: calc((768 / 16) * 1em)) and (max-width: calc((1199 / 16) * 1em)) {
        padding-inline: 2cqi;
    }
}

.wonder-comparison li:not(:last-child) {
    &::after {
        background-color: var(--teal);
        bottom: -1px;
        content: '';
        height: 2px;
        position: absolute;
        left: 4cqi;
        right: 4cqi;
        z-index: 1;
    }
}

.wonder-comparison li:last-child {
    padding-block-end: 5cqb;
}

I didn’t use gap in this example because I wanted to add borders between the list elements. I decided to use a combination of padding and generated content (::after) to add in the borders. There is not currently a way to add borders with grid layout but the CSS Gap Decorations Module Level 1 will add that ability in the future. (See CSS Gap Decorations playground to see it in action.)

I also used container query units for padding and positioning of the borders. I like being able to set up proportional properties based on the containers that will change the value of the padding based on the container size.

Another example of lining up content across columns

Another place that I used subgrid to line up content across columns was on a year-end donation page. The headings had a different numbers of lines and the paragraphs were different sizes. Once again, subgrid was able to help me make the content look better because the content was able to share a common grid.

Going on from here

I am excited to explore more ways that I could utilize subgrid in the future. I liked a couple of examples from Josh’s article. The first one was of a layout with a a grid cell of a heading and a couple of paragraphs. The other cells were images of the portfolio that he introduced with the first cell of text content. He could have just the content cell and then six images but it made more sense to make the images into an unordered list. Subgrid then allows him to place the list items on the parent grid.

Later in the article, he has a grid of cards that contain an image and then text content. Without subgrid, he would not have been able to line up the images and make them the same size because he was using the fr unit. But without a relationship to the other siblings, the image size would be different in each card.

He also mentioned a couple of other gotchas to using subgrid besides reserving space for the rows which I mentioned above.

• nested grid numbers
• incompatibility with fluid grids

I am excited to find more solutions that subgrid unlocks. If you would like to learn more about subgrid, I would encourage you to read Josh’s article, Brand New Layouts with CSS Subgrid. He also mentioned that Kevin Powell has several helpful resources which I will list below.

Additional resources

• “Easy and more consistent layouts using subgrid” (Kevin Powell)
• “You can’t do this without subgrid” (Kevin Powell)
• “The dichotomy of grid” (Kevin Powell)
• I would also suggest one of Kevin’s recent videos, Why CSS Grid feels complex, and how to keep it simple that gives some good perspective about using CSS Grid for smaller solutions and not feel like you have to create the entire page layout with grid and a bunch of nested grids.
• Subgrid on MDN
• Grid by Example – Some excellent resources from Rachel Andrew to help you learn CSS Grid (does not cover subgrid)

The post Adventures in subgrid appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

• I updated a Kindness Challenge, reordering some of the content and making a few content updates to freshen up this challenge that we are promoting.
• I continued working on some small tasks as we move the site for our South Africa ministry from WordPress to Django.
• I fixed a layout issue in our daily Read Through the Bible email. The Bible chapter titles were too long on smaller screens so I adjusted the font size. I also tested it with the longest one word title to make sure it does not break in the future.
• I came up with a UX solution where users can go directly to a page to donate online or choose a dropdown of options related to donations. The solution should be implemented later this week.

Articles I read

• Training your replacement (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Do You Board First or Last? (Tim Challies)
• Rebelling against efficiency (Declan Chidlow)
• Studio Notes #72 (Dan Cederholm)
• The Most Quotable Quote (Tim Challies)
• “To the greater glory of god” (Joe Crawford)
• Smaller and dumber (Dave Rupert)
• Priority of idle hands (Dave Rupert)
• WOCA: My second time showing (Joe Crawford)
• A 2026 Piccalilli homepage redesign (Piccalilli)
• Watching my daughter work so hard inspires me to work that much harder (Geoff Graham)
• Is the gospel an ideal? (Michael Jensen)
• Pens, sleeves, and whiteboards (James)
• Sam Altman Fumes That It Takes Longer to Train a Human Than an AI, Plus They Eat All That Wasteful Food (Futurism)
• You Get Good At What You Do (Or Do You?) (Chris Coyier)
• Sober-Minded in an Age of Outrage (David Prince) – I reread this article that I had come across mid-January. After having conversations with my son and oldest daughter last weekend, I needed to revisit this article on Monday morning.
• Playing God, Becoming Nothing (Carl R. Trueman)
• The Canal (Jonathan Snook)
• Breakpoints (Matthias Zöchling) – It always helps to get a new perspective on things.
• Breaking points (Matthias Zöchling)
• Why light-weight websites may one day save your life (Marijke Luttekes) – I skimmed this one.
• Poisoning AI Training Data (Bruce Schneier)
• A nice day (Jeremy Keith)
• I made sho!io. Share what you’re working on without the social noise (Andy Clarke)
• What 18F means to me (Angélique Weger) – I just came across Angélique’s site this week and read this one from a year ago.
• We’ll Be Learning More about God for All Eternity (Randy Alcorn)
• Human-AI interactions stimulate coordination between co-workers and improve team performance, study finds (KU News) – I am not sure I am sold on this. I have not observed this in my work.
• Random Thoughts and Tips on Prayer (Tim Challies)
• Is Claude My Friend? (Brad Littlejohn)
• How Is AI Shaping You? Three Principles for Wise Use (Samuel James, Desiring God)
• Studio Notes #73 (Dan Cederholm)
• Save the Fox, Kill the Fetus (Carl R. Trueman)
• The Silent Killer: Comfort (Dustin Burdin, For The Church)
• Intersecting Interests  (Joe Crawford)

What I watched

• Unwinding & heading home – Making a Frontend Masters workshop – Day 4 (General Musings with Kevin Powell)
• cqi to the rescue (Kevin Powell)
• We’ve been separating concerns wrong (and CSS is fixing it) (General Musings with Kevin Powell) – This topic of this video tied into some things I have been wondering about with CSS animations.
• The West Wing (Netflix)
• 2026 Winter Olympics (NBC and Peacock) – We watched the closing ceremonies on Sunday night.
• All Creatures Great & Small S6:E7 (PBS app)
• Miracle (Disney+)
• Picard S3:E8 (Paramount+)
• Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined (IMAX)

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I have five more to go.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• Enjoying God (Tim Chester)

Walking

• Saturday – 3.85 miles in 1 hour 9 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 23 (Orioles) – I went 4-1 in games I played this week. The last game I played, I came back from an early 6-0 deficit. I tied it with 3 runs in the 8th and then hit a homer to win it in the 11th. I am having a lot of fun playing with this team.

The post Weeknotes 26:09 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

Design Museum of Barcelona

I visited the Design Museum of Barcelona almost two years ago when I traveled in Europe with my son. I believe this is the last museum that I visited so it is probably the freshest on my mind.

My son and I visited the museum late in the day on our last day of our trip. We were able to take advantage of free admission because it was the first Saturday of the month. My son was excited because he had wanted to visit this museum during his semester of study abroad in Barcelona (Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering) but never gotten over to it.

We started with the product design exhibition. I enjoyed observing my son get excited to see products that had been discussed in his furniture design class. He would see one, get excited, take a picture, and tell me a bit about it. And then the process kept repeating as we made our way around the exhibit. It gave me such joy to witness his excitement to see the real objects that he had only seen in slides in the classroom.

I took a lot of pictures of a lot of different chairs. There were several objects from the 1992 Olympics that Barcelona hosted including one of the torches from the relay. The last part of the exhibit focused on creative solutions to use recycled materials and solutions to make the world more inclusive including adding texture to sidewalks to signal to blind people that a street crossing was ahead. I thought the sink that recycled water to use in a toilet was a very clever idea. I thought about reading the book, User Friendly, and learning about making products more useful to people.

We moved on to another floor and another exhibit about graphic design in Catalonia. The exhibit included a lot of different artifacts–posters, magazines, packaging, album covers, and other physical objects. There was even a section on digital. We enjoyed making our way through this floor through our shared interest in graphic design.

We also enjoyed an exhibit about how fashion “shapes” a body. They had examples of different approaches that exaggerate the body shape, lengthen the body shape, articulate the body shape, and others that I cannot remember. I think my youngest would have enjoyed the exhibit.

This visit stands out because of the shared experience with my son. The museum was focused on design, which we are both involved in. I have designed and built websites for over 25 years. He has been practicing graphic design for about 7 years and is about to get an art degree and has three years of working with agencies in the summer and freelancing during school.

So the exhibits touched something deep inside of who we are as designers/creatives. I am so glad that I got to be with him when he visited this museum. As I already mentioned, most of my enjoyment came from watching his reactions to seeing pieces that he had studied earlier in the year. And he was able to give me some good perspective on a lot of the things we were seeing because of what he had learned during his time in Barcelona. It was a great way to end our time in Europe.

Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida

The second museum visit that came to mind this morning was my visit to the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. I went with a friend. We had just attended the Front End Design Conference the day before. We toured the museum in the morning and then I took him to the airport before making my way back to home in Orlando.

I cannot say that I am big fan of Dalí or the style of art that he is known for. I also did not know that the art of his early career was more realistic or more in line of what I think of when I think of art. I really enjoyed seeing the entire collection. Some of his earlier paintings were very large and covered most of all of a wall in the museum.

I remember that the thing I enjoyed the most was being up close to the art and seeing all the brush strokes. Some of his work was heavy with paint and I enjoyed the texture of seeing that up close. I cannot say I came away a bigger fan of Dalí’s work but I did have a better appreciation of him as I worked my way through his life and gained a better understanding of how he developed as an artist.

The visit was also memorable because of the company. I had met Jason online. Actually, our relationship started when he commented on one of my blog posts. That led to us following each other and interacting on Twitter. He found out about the conference through a tweet I had made about going.

We split the cost of a hotel room and had a blast hanging out and getting to know each beyond throughout the weekend. We found out that both of our wives had asked us about staying with a “stranger” because we only knew each other through the Internet. It worked out great and we did it again the next year (the conference) and visited the Museum of Fine Arts.

I also enjoyed the architecture of the museum itself. The spiral stairs capped off by the glass ceiling was beautiful and let in a lot of nice Florida sunshine.

It is difficult to limit this post to just two experiences. So many others come to mind, many from the trip two years ago where I visited Barcelona and Budapest. But those are stories for another time. Or you can visit my daily articles from the trip to explore on your own.

Museums I have visited (not an exhaustive list)

• Design Museum of Barcelona
• Museum of Montserrat (Montserrat, Spain)
• Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) – We enjoyed the Suburbia Exhibit
• Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest, Hungary)
• Hungarian National Museum (history) (Budapest, Hungary)
• The House of Terror (Budapest, Hungary)
• Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
• Chattanooga Pinball Museum (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
• Orlando Museum of Art (Orlando, Florida)
• The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (Winter Park, Florida)
• Museum of Fine Arts (St. Peterburg, Florida)
• Salvador Dalí Museum (St. Peterburg, Florida)
• Orlando Science Center (Orlando, Florida)
• Balaton Museum (Keszthely, Hungary)
• Doll Museum (Keszthely, Hungary)
• Déri Museum (Debrecen, Hungary)
• History Colorado Center (Denver, Colorado)
• Kennedy Space Center (Merritt Island, Florida)
• Treasures of the Czars (traveling exhibit in Topeka, Kansas)
• KU Natural History Museum (Lawrence, Kansas)
• Schatzkammer (crown jewels and ecclesiastical museum)(Vienna, Austria)
• Jewish Museum Vienna (Vienna, Austria)
• Schönbrunn Palace (Vienna, Austria) – not necessarily a museum but had a lot of historical artifacts.
• Auschwitz-Birkenau (outside Krakow, Poland) – the most sobering experience
• The Habsburg Imperial Crypt (Vienna, Austria)
• Vatican Museums (Rome, Italy) – We saw different exhibits as we made our way to the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican.
• Bible Museum (Tulsa, Oklahoma) – I remember visiting this museum that had a collection of older Bibles including a Gutenberg Bible. They also had an exhibit about modern day martyrs. I can’t remember how I came across it and it looks like it more of a traveling exhibit now.
• Naval Air Museum (Pensacola, Florida) – This was a special one because my dad did his initial flight training in Pensacola.
• Pima Air and Space Museum (Tucson, Arizona)
• Museum of Discovery (Little Rock, Arkansas)
• Mid-America Science Museum (Hot Springs, Arkansas)

Museums I would like to visit

• International Towing Museum (Chattanooga, Tennesssee)
• Coker Museum (vintage vehicles) (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
• Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
• Negro Leagues Museum (Kansas City, Missouri)
• National WWI Museum and Memorial (Kansas City, Missouri)
• National Baseball Hall of Fame (Cooperstown, New York)
• National Air and Space Museum (Washington D.C.)
• United States National Holocaust Museum (Washington D.C.)
• The Uffizi (Florence, Italy)
• U.S. Space & Rocket Center (Huntsville, Alabama)

The post Two museum memories appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I continued working on the revision of the Wonder of the Word page (which launched today). I also started a new project. I am building a conference website for our Spanish ministry, Aviva Nuestros Corazones. Mujer Verdadera ’26 will take place in Miami in November. I was given a style guide from the ANC design team along with some design assets and access to photos from their last conference in 2023. It was fun to design layouts, take cues from the True Woman ’25 and Mujer Verdadera ’23 sites, and experiment with some different ideas. By the end of the week, the landing page was almost fully formed.

Adventures with clip-paths

Several places on the Revive Our Hearts site, there are curves that transition between sections so there is not a hard edge. I like look of that design element and how it adds a softness to the design. I used it heavily in the Annual Praise Report which had the theme of “The River Flows.” The curves lent itself well to the theme and the design elements created by our design team for the print report. I reused some SVGs that the previous develop had created.

But there were times I would have liked to have created my own. I wanted to learn how to use Bezier curves with the pen tool in Affinity Designer. But I knew it would take some practice and I didn’t have the luxury of the time to learn while working on the praise report.

But recently, I have watched a couple of videos and practiced a bit creating those curves in Affinity Designer. Last week, I wanted to create a clip-path shape for the new Wonder of the Word page. I used the curves from a design mockup to “trace” and place my pen points. My little bit of practice paid off and I was able to create the shape I needed to use as clip-path mask. But I ran into some trouble exporting my SVG. I finally was able to trace the problem to my export settings. My shape was not exporting the full dimensions of what I had created. Finally after a couple of hours of wrestling with it, I had a working clip-path.

.hero-image {
    background-image: url(/static/images/wow/landing/hero-desktop.webp?ec0d9c26cd5f&9dbb2f080e8e);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: center top;
    background-size: cover;
    clip-path: url(#wow-hero-clip);
    left: 0;
    overflow: clip;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    z-index: 2;
}

The SVG for the clip path is added to the HTML code to reference in the CSS

<svg width="0" height="0" viewBox="0 0 1800 1080" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" role="presentation">
    <defs>
        <clipPath id="wow-hero-clip" clipPathUnits="objectBoundingBox">
            <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M0.999,0 L1,0.987 C0.988,0.985,0.978,0.99,0.96,0.996 C0.915,1,0.891,0.982,0.851,0.973 C0.819,0.965,0.788,0.981,0.757,0.981 C0.719,0.981,0.678,0.954,0.641,0.942 C0.586,0.925,0.561,0.938,0.5,0.949 C0.462,0.956,0.423,0.942,0.385,0.93 C0.315,0.907,0.3,0.928,0.237,0.932 C0.192,0.935,0.184,0.935,0.102,0.909 C0.063,0.896,0.062,0.874,0.011,0.905 C0.008,0.907,0,0.91,0,0.91 L0,0 L0.999,0" fill="black"></path>
        </clipPath>
    </defs>
</svg>

Originally, it we were just going to clip the photo and go into the next section. But Emily, the communication director, and myself felt like it needed a ribbon of color as a transition. Originally, it was going to follow the same clip-path shape. But that seemed boring. So I ended up making the generated element a percentage larger and it gave me a dynamic feel that added to the flow of the design. I love those happy accidents.

I also used curves in the Mujer Verdadera ’26. I had come across a wave generator tool at the end of last year.

You can change all sorts of settings to get the curve you want. I had a lot lower amplitude than the default one shown above. I changed the frequency to 2 or 1.5 to get some gentle ups and down and you can change the phase to move along the x-axis. Then you can copy the code and use that as a clip-path in your CSS. I created a couple of different curves and then created a few for mobile and tablet. I was really excited to what the clip-paths added to my design and allow me to clip sections with background images and clip sections with decorations that looked so much better than a straight edge.

Road Trip

I took a road trip at the end of the week. I traveled up to Murray, Kentucky to visit my son and go to a Murray State basketball game with him on Saturday. I stopped in Nashville on Friday afternoon and had lunch with my daughter. It was nice to spend time with her and her guinea pigs. I got to Murray just before sunset and had dinner with my son and his fiancé at Rudy’s on the Square.

On Saturday, I met my son on campus and we had lunch together. After lunch, he took me over to his studio space to show me several of the things he has been working on for his senior art show. I enjoyed hanging out in the print studios and then we hung out at the student union before heading over to the game.

The first half of the game was very scrappy and Murray State fell behind the worst team in the conference, Evansville, by 11 points. But the Racers kept in there and were able to take a slim one-point lead before halftime. The Racers looked better in the second half. Then went on several short runs but the Purple Aces kept threatening to come back. Finally, the Racers had a good run and the Aces were getting tired. The Racers won 88-75.

I am really glad that I got to go to one last basketball game with my son before he graduates. I had gone to a game with him his freshmen year about the same time of year. This visit reminded me a lot of that one because he took my to the art and design building and showed me some 3D prints he was working on. It was fun to see Ryan and take in the game. We walked but to his dorm after the game and talked a bit before parting. He has a review for his art show at the end of the week so he was working hard through the weekend to get ready.

On Saturday, I took some time to write some thoughts about Murray, Kentucky and my 15 visits there over the past four years.

While I was in Murray, my wife and youngest were making a campus visit to East Tennessee State University. It is the school she is most excited about. And the visit confirmed that this is the place she would like to go after she graduates from Chattanooga State Community College in May.

Fake Spring

I enjoyed the warmer weather at the end of the week. I took a walk on Friday morning in shorts and new walking shoes. But “fake” spring faked me out and I forgot to pack my jacket. And the temperature fell as I traveled north and was in the twenties on Saturday morning with a very brisk wind out of the north. I was able to double layer with long sleeve shirts but would have been much more comfortable in my jacket. I survived and of course I brought the cold weather home with me.

Articles I read

• For Our Good, Not For Our Bondage (Tim Challies)
• The Good & Not Good (Chris Coyier)
• Redemption and Transcendence in Dark Days (Stephen McAlpine)
• Valentines 2026 (Joe Crawford)
• The Besnard Lakes at the Hare and Hounds (Jon Hicks)
• Week 388: Future people (Alice Bartlett)
• Magic (Jeremy Keith) – I have thoughts on this article that I would like to make in a post. But I have struggled to write more lately so I fear those thoughts may never surface.
• jQuery Reunion (Jonathan Snook)
• Magic & Mistrust (Joe Crawford)
• People need people (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Take the High Places Down (John Beeson)
• Build the web you want to see (James) – I reread James’ article. I was a bit distracted when I read it last week and wanted to make sure I didn’t something. It was good to read again.
• 15+ years later, Microsoft morged my diagram (Vincent Driessen) – The sad state of affairs when others don’t attribute your work and AI makes it worse.
• Shining Idols: What They Demand (John Beeson)
• What Comes After Expressive Individualism? (Trevin Wax, The Gospel Coalition)
• Scotland’s brightness levels (James) – James and Joe Crawford traded blog titles.
• A memory from a San Diego sunrise (Joe Crawford)
• WordPress Developers Defend Outdated Coding Methods (Johanne Courtright) – I find myself agreeing with Johanne even though I have not completely embraced WordPress’ new ways of building a site. I did embrace block-based development but did not dive into theme.json, patterns, and the such. If I had stayed in that world, I would have moved in that direction. It is hard to give up all the knowledge I had accumulated over the years of building “classic” themes. But I was beginning to see the value of trying to work with the system (even though I was not as big a fan).
• Miscalibrated (Chris Coyier) – I appreciate Chris’ honesty and vulnerability in sharing his struggles. I hope you figure it out Chris.
• Why is Andrew “Not above the law”? (Stephen McAlpine)
• Death to Scroll Fade!  (Chris Coyier)
• 25 years of ArtLung Blog (Joe Crawford) – Congratulations, Joe, on twenty five years. You stuck with it and kept going. Look forward to continuing to read what you write.
• The Bright Sadness of Ben Sasse (Jake Meador, Mere Orthodoxy)
• Generative AI has broken the subject matter expert/editor relationship (Rachel Andrew)
• Brace Yourself for the AI Tsunami (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal) – I was able to read this somehow even though it is behind their paywall. I also saved it as a PDF so I could access it later. I am getting tired of hearing the inevitable message and where it leads. I am not convinced.

What I watched

• CSS properties that solve annoying problems (Kevin Powell, YouTube) – I had thought about writing an article to cover some of these properties that I use quite often but not sure are as widely used.
• Making a Frontend Masters workshop – Day 2: Workshop time! (Kevin Powell, YouTube)
• Making a Frontend Masters workshop – Day 3: The workshop continues (Kevin Powell, YouTube) – I was upset that Kevin ended on a cliff hanger.

Jeff Bridgforth

@jeffbridgforth.com

@kevinpowell.co Nooo!! Cliffhanger. You are so cruel. 🙂

I have enjoyed this peek into your world.

• The West Wing (Netflix)
• 2026 Winter Olympics (NBC and Peacock)
• The Story of the 2023 Baltimore Orioles (YouTube) – I remembered seeing this years ago. Now that I am playing MLB The Show 23 with this team, I was interested in watching this documentary about their season.
• 2023 Regular Season Highlights | Baltimore Orioles (YouTube)
• The Wedding Singer – I watched the end of this movie at the hotel over the weekend in Murray.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I have five more to go.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• Enjoying God (Tim Chester)
• Not Old, Not Young, Not Done (Christopher Ash) – I finished my second read this week.

Walking

• Thursday – 3.39 miles in 1 hour 3 minutes
• Friday – 1.53 miles in 27 minutes – I took a short walk on Friday morning before packing and hitting the road for my trip to Kentucky. I enjoyed wearing my shorts and my new walking shoes that I bought Thursday night.

What I played

• NBA2K25 (Nuggets) – I played my first game of the playoffs. I guess I did not save when I simulated the play-in tournament because I was suppose to play the Lakers but ended up playing the Spurs. It was a tight game but I pulled away in the second half and won by 20 points (I believe that is correct).
• MLB The Show 23 (Orioles) – I went 5-3 this week. I lost a series to the Rangers. I swept the Yankees in my first home series. And I split the first two games of a series with the A’s.

The post Weeknotes 26:08 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I made my first visit to Murray almost four years ago. My son and I traveled up for his in-person interview for the presidential fellows scholarship. It was also our first time to visit the campus. We had planned to visit earlier in the year but winter weather cancelled a weekend trip and they ended up doing several things online, including a group interview for the scholarship my son was pursuing.

We were woken up early in the morning but a tornado siren. It is hard to get your wits about you and make sure you grab anything that is real important like car keys when you are jolted from a deep sleep by that terrifying sound. Just weeks earlier, a tornado had hit a town nearby and done a lot of damage so I took this very seriously. We crammed into the breakfast area of the Holiday Inn Express we were staying at and waited anxiously. About forty minutes later, we received the all clear. I felt sorry for my son knowing that he was not going to have the full night’s sleep he had hoped for before the interview.

His interview was early in the morning so we got up and drove over to campus. We were welcomed by the staff in the honor school office and chatted with some other students and parents that were also interviewing that morning. My son’s interview went really well and for the first time in the process, he felt pretty confident that he was going to get the scholarship. They awarded up to 16 so we knew he had about a 50% chance at this point. (He did end up getting the scholarship).

It was cold and gray that first visit. We got an individualized campus tour and got to tour the honor’s college dormitory. My son felt like this was the right place for him. I bought him his first Murray State sway, a yellow sweatshirt. We saw Batman at the small movie theater and then hung out at the hotel the rest of the evening.

I did not know at the time how many visits I would make to Murray over the next four years or how I would come to like this small town in Kentucky. My son has had great opportunities here and I am very grateful. I have enjoyed spending time here with him. Being a visual person, it helps me to not feel like he is so far away because I have been able to spend time in his world and can visually picture places in my mind when I am talking to him and hearing stories about his experiences.

My lasting memories of this place will be the times that I have helped him move in and move out each year. I usually spend a few days with him in Murray when those times occur. Usually I spend more time during the move out because I will help him pack up in between him finishing up his finals.

I also have some fun memories of time by myself. I have written several articles on this site while in Murray. My second trip to Murray was to bring my son for a retreat with other presidential fellows the weekend before moving in. I ended up staying in Murray for a few days by myself while he was on the retreat. It was a nice little retreat of my own. Another time, I came up for a few days to help him move out in December. He spent the spring studying abroad in Barcelona. I was writing a post a day so I wrote several in my down time when I was not helping him to pack up.

This is my fifteenth trip to Murray. I may only have two more trips. One for his senior art show and then the final one for his graduation (and to help him move out). There is a chance that he might be here again next year. His fiancé is considering different graduate school options and Murray State is one of them. There is even a chance that my youngest could transfer here next year after she graduates from community college.

I felt a little bit nostalgic on this trip knowing that it was one of the last ones that I will be making. It will be my last one by myself. And this one is more relaxed then the next two will be. I am exciting about attending the basketball game this afternoon and cheering on the Racers with my son. I am grateful for all the great memories I have built here and we still have a few more to build in the future.

Murray is where I discovered Culver’s, which is my favorite place to get a burger. I love their mushroom and swiss butter burger. I a couple of those beauties on my first trip here. They built a Culver’s in Chattanooga that opened up in September and I have been a regular customer. I am not sure if I will visit Culver’s on this trip or not. It is still my favorite of all the Culver’s I have been to.

I had the idea for this post as I was driving into Murray last night on Highway 80. The setting sun was behind some blue clouds and I was just thinking how much I enjoy visiting this small Kentucky town that was not even on my radar five years ago.

The post Murray, Kentucky appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

One thing I realized this week is that I need to commit my work to Git more often. I am not sure if it was my year hiatus or just not thinking about it and being intentional, but I have gotten in the habit of not committing my work at important junctures when working on bigger projects.

For example, this week, I wanted to try to add a carousel within a carousel. I should have committed my work to that point. I had a good working solution that I was trying to push farther. As I pursued the solution, I came to the realization that it was not possible to do the carousel inside another carousel. The bullet navigation kept affecting the parent carousel and not the child. I tried several different things but it seems like the event kept propagated on the parent regardless of what I tried (even using stopPropagation() in my script). I came to the point where I decided I needed to abandon this idea.

If I had committed my earlier code, I could have easily just reset my code. But instead, I had to figured out what I had added and delete it from the codebase (because I had not committed changes before pursuing this enhanced solution). Fortunately my changes were evident and it was easy to undo. But what if it had been more complex? It would be a good point of practice to commit my changes to the repo before trying new solutions. It is something I was better at doing in the past. Just need to get back in the practice of creating those benchmarks. I think my future self will be much happier if I do.

Kill your darlings

One of the hardest things to do as a creative is to “kill your darlings.” It means to abandon an idea or work that you done that you really like but realize that it just does not work. Either it is not a good fit for the client or the solution does not work out for some reason.

I had this come up this week. I was creating a timeline for the new version of the Wonder of the Word page on Revive Our Hearts. I have already created two versions of the timeline in the past year. A few weeks into the job at Revive Our Hearts, I created a tabbed content solution after considering several different approaches.

At the end of the year, I created a scroll-driven animation timeline with a fallback to horizontal scroll for our annual report. That solution was closer to what I originally had wanted to do on the Wonder of the Word page. Our communication director liked it so much that she had me implement that solution on the Wonder of the Word page.

Last week, I met with my team leader and Emily. She wanted to update the Wonder of the Word page to reflect how the initiative has evolved over the last year. One of the changes she asked for was to rethink the scroll-driven timeline. She felt like readers might visit the page frequently to see updates and didn’t want them to have to scroll through the timeline each time. I agreed that it was time to rethink it.

I ended up deciding on a direction that was a hybrid of a carousel and things I liked about the original tab solution. Using Glide JS, I created two sliders/carousels that were synched. The first carousel was for each year and the second carousel showed what we were doing in each of those years. The idea was inspired by a solution I had created for a freelance project several years ago. This synchronized timeline was the project I was trying to enhance with a carousel within a carousel.

As much as I liked how this solution turned out, it just didn’t work well on mobile. And most of our traffic comes from mobile. I decided it was best to go with a straight carousel.

I am glad I attempted the timeline solution. I don’t see it as a fruitless exercise and it is part of the creative process of coming up with the best solution. In this case, the timeline was not the best solution. You have to be willing to kill your darlings and let go of ideas and solutions that are not the best or don’t work out the best for the project.

Articles I read

• 15 seconds. (Joe Crawford) – I love this reflection by Joe. I remember once having a similar scare while body surfing on Mission Beach.
• In the Way of Temptation (Tim Challies)
• Webspace Invaders (Matthias Ott) – I noticed a lot of the traffic to my site is bots. I filtered them out in StatCounter so I could see the real people who are coming and what they are interested in. One more reason to not like the business practices of AI companies that steal from others and profit from it themselves.
• Magic Words (Dave Rupert)
• We are in a web renaissance now (Joe Crawford)
• “Mildly Dynamic Website” — (hey that’s how I work) (Joe Crawford)
• Places on the Bluesky map (Joe Crawford)
• Build the web you want to see (James) – I enjoyed this piece by James, who I have interacted with a couple of time in Front End Study Hall. I did not realize it was his article until I finished the article Instapaper and went to the Good Internet Website.
• Stop generating, start thinking (localghost)
• Buy a blog post from Shae Erisson (Joe Crawford)
• Glowing Gradient `hr` (Chris Coyier, Frontend Masters Blog)
• Well My Feeble Frame He Knows (Stephen McAlpine)
• Rachel Shenton on Motherhood and Making All Creatures Great and Small (PBS)
• About that viral AI article (Samuel James) – I appreciated Samuel’s thoughts on AI. I have very similar thoughts and concerns.
• Studio Notes #71 (Dan Cederholm) – I enjoyed following these links. One of my favorite parts of Friday is reading and linking to the things Dan highlights each week.
• AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It (Harvard Business Review) Duh. I probably shouldn’t be as flippant but most technology solutions have not delivered on their promises to allow us to have more time to enjoy our lives.
• Wishcessibility (Nic Chan) – Some really good thoughts on accessibility.
• A bookmarks post that closes all the tabs (Ana Rodrigues)

Caught my eye

Nic Chan’s personal site

I came across Nic’s site when I read the Wishcessibility article. I love the transitions that makes this feel like a desktop. I enjoyed clicking around on the different desktop icons. The mobile version works pretty well also.

Sticky Header – Pure CSS (Codepen)

See the Pen Sticky Header – Pure CSS by Adir (@Adir-SL) on CodePen.

What I watched

• Never* use git pull (YouTube) – My team leader sent this to me and it seems like a good practice.
• Making a Frontend Masters workshop – Day 1: Travel & Tech Check (Kevin Powell, YouTube) – I enjoyed watching Kevin’s adventure.
• The West Wing (Netflix)
• Miracle: The Boys of ’80 (Netflix) – I enjoyed this documentary, commentary, and reunion of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team that stunned the Soviets and revitalized this spirits of the nation.
• 2026 Winter Olympics (NBC and Peacock)
• Super Bowl 60 (NBC) – I had the game on but it was not very exciting until the fourth quarter. Neither team scored a touchdown till the 4th quarter. I think the Chiefs Super Bowls over the past 6 years were much more exciting than this one (even the two that they lost).

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I have five more to go.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• Enjoying God (Tim Chester)
• Not Old, Not Young, Not Done (Christopher Ash)
• Stop Loving the World (William Greenhill) – I had read the introduction last week but did not pick it up this week.

What I listened to

• Shop Talk Show #701 Digital Archives, OpenClaw Security Concerns, and @Property Declarations
• Interop 2026 is here! (General Musings with Kevin Powell)

Walking

• Thursday – 3.12 miles in 1 hour 3 minutes
• Saturday – 3.78 miles in 1 hour 10 minutes

What I played

• NBA2K25 (Nuggets) – I finished the regular season with a win and kept my winning streak in tact. I finished with the best record in the league. I will play the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.
• MLB The Show 23 (Orioles) – After finishing my season with the 2020 Twins, I decided to play with the 2023 Orioles. The real team had a great season with 101 wins. I liked Adley Rutschman and wanted to play with this team. I played 3 games to start the season on Saturday and swept the Red Sox in Boston.

The post Weeknotes 26:07 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I took some time on Monday to fix a bug that I keep noticing but have not taken time to investigate. It seemed like a quirky bug that I thought only I experienced (because no one else had mentioned it).

The issue was with a Glide bullet (Glide.js). If I clicked on a bullet to change the active slide in the Glide carousel, the circle was not changing color. As I tried to identify the problem, I noticed that the bullet would not change color when I clicked it but it I clicked onto another part of the page, the bullet would take on the active color. I finally was able to determine that a focus style was the culprit.

When I add focus styles to links, I declare a style to remove the outline if the focus is put on the link by the mouse, not tabbing. It is the third declaration below:

&:focus-visible {
    outline: white dotted 2px;
    outline-offset: 8px;
}

&:focus {
    outline: white dotted 2px;
    outline-offset: 8px;
}

&:focus:not(:focus-visible) {
    outline:none;
}

To fix my issue, I had to declare another rule with the .glide__bullet--active class just after the third rule to put the correct background color:

.glide__bullet:focus:not(:focus-visible) {
    background: var(--glide-gray);
    outline: 0;
}

.glide__bullet--active.glide__bullet:focus:not(:focus-visible) {
    background-color: var(--glide-accent-color);
}

Improved component

I also took some time to improve a component I created for our annual report and then also implemented on The Wonder of the Word page. I created a timeline component that uses scroll-driven animations for browsers that support them. The section felt too sparse and like it was missing something. It finally hit me this week what it needed. A background image. I added the background image and updated a few things (I had to get rid of some color gradients on the side that made it look like the timeline faded on the edges). I also updated the font on the year numbers as I did not like the look of the serif numbers.

New UI for Essentials Course

I mentioned last week that I worked on an improved UI for our Women’s Ministry Essentials course page. It is a much more compact page and I believe it makes it easier for a quick glance to view the homework, the teaching video, linking to the community chat, and bonus resources. The changes were implemented on the production site this week. I used the <details> disclosure element for the hide/show functionality.

New version of The Wonder of the Word page

I met with a couple of teammates to discuss a new version of The Wonder of the Word. Our communication director, Emily, made a paper napkin “sketch” of several of her ideas in Photoshop. To her credit, it looked more like a mockup that I have gotten from other designers in the past. Having that visual was very helpful to understand the direction that she wanted to take with the changes to the page.

I started building a new template on Friday and look forward to putting my own fingerprints on the design. Emily has given me the freedom to take the ideas from her sketch and to improve on them as I think best.

The Fundamentals of CSS Layout

Polypane has an excellent article on the fundamentals of CSS layout. The tutorial walks through the multiple layout algorithms of CSS starting with normal flow and building upon it with positioning, flexbox and grid. The article spends a lot of time discussing different aspects of normal flow and this sets the basis for understanding many of the differences in how the other algorithms work differently.

The article is very upfront that there are things they left out–content sizing, container-queries, aspect-ratio, subgrid, and a deeper dive into flexbox and grid. They tease that that they might cover these topics in the future.

This is a great introduction to CSS layout and I would recommend it to anyone doing front-end development. I even learned some new things.

Jeff Bridgforth

@jeffbridgforth.com

TIL: I learned about box-decoration-break. I wish I had learned about this sooner as I know some problems I tried to solve in the past would have benefitted from it.

https://polypane.app/blog/understanding-the-fundamentals-of-css-layout/

Playing around

I have seen several people talk about redesigning their sites. I have been considering doing some small changes to my site. I played around with some new color schemes in Dev Tools and considered a new font. I would also like to revisit the navigation and the top banner. I am still in the sandbox phase so stay tuned.

Caught my eye

img:hover { scale: 1.2; clip-path: inset( 10% 10% 10% 10% round 20px ); } nice, n' simple codepen.io/argyleink/pe…

[image or embed]

— Adam Argyle (@nerdy.dev) February 6, 2026 at 1:05 AM

Articles I read

• How To Make the Devil Shout for Joy (Tim Challies)
• Four Glorious Reasons Not to Skip Leviticus (Lori Hatcher, Revive Our Hearts)
• Vanilla CSS is all you need (Rob Zolkos)
• Don’t run (Paul Levy)
• Fun with the web (Patrick Brosset)
• You Can Just Say No to the Data (Jim Nielsen)
• Brick by brick: Help us build CSS Masonry (Patrick Brosset and Alison Maher, Chrome for Developers)
• I WONDER | Why’d they move out of Ahearn? (Ned Seaton, Manhattan Mercury) – I enjoyed reading the story of why K-State moved out of Ahearn and built a new arena in Bramlage. I used to walk by Ahearn each day from the parking lot coming and going from campus when my wife and I worked there.
• a low boil (Joe Crawford) – I have enjoyed reading Joe’s recent stories and reflections on life.
• The Browser’s Little White Lies (Jim Nielsen)
• The Too Early Breakpoint (Ahmad Shadeed) – I always struggle deciding when a layout is ready for multi-column layouts.
• Tiptoeing to the Edge of Cliffs (Tim Challies)
• Jelly Roll, Billie Eilish, and Jesus. (Stephen McAlpine)
• I’m calling it. Time of Death: 8:00 AM, 2 February 2026. My career is officially dead after over three decades working with software as a designer (Todd Thompson) – This was a sad one to read. I often wondered if my time as a front-end developer was over in the year I was unemployed. I am grateful every day that I have found a place that needs and values my skills and that I can keep doing this as a career.
• Introduction to the new HTML element <geolocation> (Manuel Matuzovic)
• Understanding the fundamentals of CSS Layout (Polypane)
• Making interesting borders with CSS corner-shape (Cassidy Williams) – I want to learn more about corner-shape. I played around with it the previous week but want to better understand it. Border-shape is another one that I want to understand better. Una posted a demo of it this week (need to view in Chrome Canary).

What I watched

• How to use Pen Tool in Affinity Designer (Kru Mark Tutorials, YouTube) – I want to better understand how to draw curves so that I can make SVGs and custom clip-paths.
• The West Wing (Netflix)
• Picard: Season 3 (Paramount Plus) – I heard a lot of good things about this season. I have enjoyed the first 3 episodes I watched this week.
• All Creatures Great & Small (PBS App) – We have watched ahead with Passport and PBS App
• Stray Kids Dominate Experience (Theater) – My wife and I enjoyed going to this with our daughter. Gave us a peek into the K Pop fandom. I enjoy their music and it was pretty impressive to see the production that was put into their concert. Our daughter attended the concert tour this past summer in Atlanta.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I have five more to go.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• Enjoying God (Tim Chester)
• Not Old, Not Young, Not Done (Christopher Ash)
• Stop Loving the World (William Greenhill)

Walking

I was glad to get back out walking on Saturday. I also spent 20 minutes on the Gazelle on Tuesday.

• Saturday – 3.12 miles in 57 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I won Game 4, 7-3, and swept the Cubs in the World Series on Sunday. I enjoyed playing with this team and already miss playing with them.
• NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I survived a late rally by the Pacers to keep my winning streak alive.

The post Weeknotes 26:06 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

“A masonry layout is a grid-like layout that has a set column system with a flexible, content-driven row system. What this setup does is allow content to be displayed in a brick wall-like layout — hence the name, masonry. Content is packed into space, rather than adhering to a strict, set row system.”

A simple masonry-like composable layout

• I played around with corner-shape (hit play to play around with the demo)
• I started building some prototypes for a freelance project that will go into development in February
• I worked on refactoring the UI for our Women’s Ministry Essentials course. We are cleaning it up to be more of a dashboard and to help bring some consistency to each of the lessons.
• We launched some improvements to the Read Through the Bible daily reading page. We added an icon for the section of the Bible that the reading comes from. We added a pager at the top. And we added a link to the archive of daily readings at the bottom of the page.
• I worked through several lessons in JavaScript for Everyone

It was one of those weeks where I felt tired everyday and it was a battle to get going and stay with things. I was easily distracted. Life just feels like a challenge and every decision harder to make. But I pushed through. I was grateful to have some tasks that I had enough direction that I could just dive in and get things done. I think the very cold weather contributed to my malaise. I missed my walks, though I am not sure I had the energy to get myself up and out if the weather had been a bit warmer.

Articles I read

• Why We’ve Tried to Replace Developers Every Decade Since 1969 (Stephan Schwab, Caimito Agile Life) – I appreciated the perspective of this article in the current developer landscape. One of the better articles I have read.
• Waiting for the power to go out (Dave Rupert)
• Neither Idle nor Idolatrous (Tim Challies)
• Will There Still Be a Separate Heaven When God Creates the New Earth? (Randy Alcorn)
• I’m swearing off APIs entirely (Dave Rupert)
• That’s Your Uncle Nick (Tim Challies)
• Died: Christian Publishing Executive Robert Wolgemuth (Christianity Today)
• AI Policy and The Inevitable (David Bushell)
• What We Owe Minnesota (Soleil Ho, Coyote Media)
• Faith in the Middle of the Mess (Portia Collins, Revive Our Hearts blog)
• Fear of Responsibility (O. Alan Noble)
• The Logbook method of designer performance management (Stuart Frisby, Design Leadership Memos)
• Human Worth in the Attention Economy (O. Alan Noble, Christianity Today)
• Virginia Hats (Joe Crawford)
• 2025: my year in review (Blake Watson)
• The Painful Parts of Prayer (Kirsten Black) – This addressed some hesitancies I have felt in praying for healing for friends with cancer and other medical situations.
• I’m back to building my own digital music collection (Hidde de Vries)
• How to Block ICE In Your City (Labor Politics)
• The Don’t “Contact Us” Page (Jim Nielsen)
• Studio Notes #69 (Dan Cederholm) – A short note expressing solidarity with the people of Minnesota.
• It’s been, like, 5 years since I really updated my site’s design, but I’ve been inspired by the recent surge in personal sites and finally shipped something new. (Geoff Graham) – That is the extent of the post. But go visit his site to see something new.
• Jacque Vaughn’s homecoming (Chris Lazzarino, Crimson & Blue KU Alumni) – Jacque is one of my favorite basketball alumni. Glad to see him back with the program.
• Poorest pupils to be given AI tutors (The Telegraph) – Ms. Phillipson told the Bett UK technology conference last week: “We all know that mobile phones have no place in our schools, but AI learning tools are different.” It pains me to see the failure to connect why both have no place in the schools.
• How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills (Anthropic)
• I Want to Finish Well for God’s Glory (Matt Collier, Rooted Thinking)

Josh Collinsworth

@collinsworth.dev

It’s always struck me how little empirical evidence there is that AI actually saves time, given how widely accepted the idea seems to be. No company has more motivation to prove it than Anthropic—yet their own study confirms the speed gain is not only insignificant, but carries *steep* penalties.

How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills (Anthropic)

What I watched

Allstate Commercial Check First: Graduation – I love this KU themed commercial. My dad asked me if I had seen it and I looked it up.

• Top 10 deleted Lord of the Rings scenes you’ve NEVER seen (YouTube) – I was aware of most of these.
• A couple of great anchor positioning use cases (Kevin Powell, YouTube)
• The West Wing (Netflix)
• Picard: Season 3 (Paramount Plus) – I heard a lot of good things about this season. I have enjoyed the first 3 episodes I watched this week.
• No Taste Like Home: Florence Pugh (Disney+) – We rewatched this with our daughter.
• All Creatures Great & Small (PBS App) – We watched episode 3 on Sunday night. And we rewatched 1-3 with our daughter and watched ahead with episode 4 on Saturday night. I made a donation to PBS so we now have Passport access.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I have five more to go.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper) – Finished this one.
• Enjoying God (Tim Chester) – I am enjoying this one.
• Not Old, Not Young, Not Done (Christopher Ash) – I started rereading it this week. I wanted to go back and capture action points and prayer points.

Walking

It was cold. And I am a weanie so no walks this week. I should have made time to spend time on the Gazelle. Maybe this next week. It is also suppose to warm up so I might get back on the road this week.

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I won games 2 and 3 of the World Series. Game three was a close 5-4 score. Just need one more win to secure the championship.

The post Weeknotes 26:05 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I played around with grid lanes in my memory keeper personal project. At that point the only browser that I could see the different layout in was Safari Technology Preview. I was surprised on Wednesday when I updated Brave. I saw the grid lanes layout when viewing my personal project. I had thought that Brave had implemented the support for grid lanes for everyone. It wasn’t until I was viewing it on my personal computer, that I realized I must have enabled something behind a flag on my work computer. I had CSS Masonry Layout is enabled in Experiments in Brave. So not everyone can see it but it was cool to find out that another browser has it available to play around with. I have the same setting enabled in Chrome but they had not implemented grid lanes behind the flag as of Sunday.

Remembering Robert

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Robert Wolgemuth, the husband of the founder for Revive Our Hearts Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, died a few weeks ago after a brief but intense battle with complications from pneumonia. His memorial service was on Friday and Revive Our Hearts streamed the service. I spent time last week make some changes to Robert’s page on the site, updating tributes, removing some content, and adding new content in preparation for the livestream.

I got to spend a brief amount of time with Robert at their house last April. I met him before Nancy did a recording session for The Wonder of the Word. Afterwards, he gave us a brief tour of their house before we left to go back to the office. I enjoyed his presence on Zoom calls and hearing from him once in our chapel service. I spent the last two weeks getting to know him better through his book, Gun Lap. The more I read from Robert and read and hear other people share about Robert, the more impressed I am with how he lived his life. His memorial service was a strong testimony and challenge to live one’s life well for Christ.

I wish I had gotten the chance to know Robert more. But I am grateful for the brief interactions and for the books of his that I have read that have allowed me to know him better (I recently read, You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, which he co-authored with Nancy).

I read a couple of tributes from Christian authors I have a lot of respect for:

• Robert Wolgemuth Goes to Be with Jesus, and My Interview with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth about Grieving with Real Hope (Randy Alcorn)
• Robert Wolgemuth Was a Kind Man (Tim Challies)

Work notes

• I worked on a lot of maintenance and improvement tasks. I made some updates to the Read Through the Bible pages and email template. They are waiting on some other tasks to be implemented on the site.
• I built a simple page for Psalms from the Heart where Nancy reads select Psalms underscored by soft piano music.
• As I mentioned, I made several edits to Robert’s page. I also made changes in the CMS on Friday during the memorial service to post the livestream embed and then enable another livestream embed for the second part of the service of hymns and tributes. I watched the services on my Samsung TV through its web browser.

Articles I read

• Courage and the Loneliness Crisis (Alan Noble, Mere Orthodoxy)
• Business Meetings at the Urinal (Brad Littlejohn)
• Low tide fiery sunset (Joe Crawford) – I love the texture of the water in this photo. Makes me feel like I am there.
• Robert Wolgemuth Goes to Be with Jesus, and My Interview with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth about Grieving with Real Hope (Randy Alcorn)
• A Snapped Tendon: My Soul Clings to Dust (Stephen McAlpine)
• The Value in Learning to Struggle (Melissa Edgington)
• Do not give up your brain (Cassidy Williams) – I agree.
• Claudette Colvin (Chris Ferdinandi) – I appreciated the history lesson.
• How I turn static designs into rich experiences (Cyd Stumpel) – I enjoyed reading her process. Mine is very similiar. Sometimes, the design will suggest the animation direction and invite animation. Those are the most fun to work with.
• Of Software Designers & Broken Combs (Brittany Hunter) – This was a link from an article I read last week.
• The only winning move is not to play (Gregg Bernstein) – This was also referenced in that article from Jason Beaird.
• J. I. Packer, God’s Sovereignty, and the Importance of Knowing God (Randy Alcorn)
• Robert Wolgemuth Was a Kind Man (Tim Challies) – I enjoyed this tribute.
• Untitled post (Chris Coyier)
• New Year, New Website (Jim Nielsen)
• 2025 in review (Elliot Jay Stocks)
• Declaring Systems Bankruptcy (Brad Frost)
• How To Do Morning Pages (Fully Explained) (Your Creative DNA)
• Manic technology (Robin Sloan)
• So Many Websites (Robin Rendle)
• I find them on the street & shadow. (Ethan Marcotte)
• Two Liners (Chris Coyier, Codepen Blog) – Some modern CSS solutions.
• AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns (Irish Times)
• What Actually Makes You Senior (Terrible Software) via Chris Coyier
• It’s hard to give a shit (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Forfeiting What Could Have Been (Randy Alcorn)
• The Keyboard I Never Wanted (Tyler Sticka) – I have never been too particular about keyboards. I like my Apple keyboard that I got this year that is more weighted than my older version.
• Studio Notes #68 (Dan Cederholm) – I liked the throwback USB handset and the cassette iPhone enclosure.
• When will CSS Grid Lanes arrive? How long until we can use it? (Jen Simmons, WebKit Blog)

What I watched

• Easy and more consistent layouts using subgrid (Kevin Powell, YouTube)
• You can’t do this without subgrid (Kevin Powell, YouTube)
• INDIANA JONES saves HAN SOLO (YouTube)
• Cru’s Shocking Failure to Launch: The Hidden Story Behind 75 Years of Explosive Success (Brad Bright)
• All Creatures Great & Small (PBS)
• Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)
• The Great British Baking Show (Netflix)
• Percy Jacksons and the Olympians, Season 2 (Disney+)
• The West Wing (Netflix)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Disney+)

Caught my eye

Layout toggle with Web Component Cards on Codepen – Toggle between Multi-column, Flexbox, CSS Grid, Masonry (Grid Lanes) layout

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I have five more to go.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• How to Tell The Truth (Preston Perry)
• Gun Lap (Robert Wolgemuth) – I finished this one on Friday. Great advice from a man whose life was well lived for Jesus.
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper) – I am almost done with this one that I started over the summer.
• Daily Doctrine (Kevin DeYoung)
• Enjoying God (Tim Chester) – I started this one on Saturday.

Walking

Dipping temperatures and winter weather at the end of the week kept me from getting out as much as I would have liked. I would like to walk 3-4 times a week to get in 9-12 miles a week.

• Monday – 2.97 miles in 54 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I won three games against the Rays to win the ALCS 4 games to 1. Game 4 was close and I came from behind to snatch the victory. The game was reminding me of Game 2 that I lost but I kept my composure better and took advantage of some key opportunities. I won the first game of the World Series against the Cubs, 7-1. Jose Berrios gave me 7 innings, only giving up homer after I had quite a lead.
• NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I won both the games I played this week. I am currently on a 15 game winning streak with just 3 games left in the regular season. Right now, I have the top spot in the Western Conference.

The post Weeknotes 26:04 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

• It was a bit slower week than the previous two. Not that I am complaining. I struggled to use some of the spaces in my week to work on professional development as I was dragging a lot of days. I believe I was sleeping better at night but still getting use to a regular schedule and getting up earlier.
• My work focused on updating pages about Robert Wolgemuth and updating or creating new content for our Women’s Ministry Essentials course that starts next week. We decided to move off a course platform and use our content management software (Django CMS) instead.
• I downloaded a trial of Polypane at the end of the week. I believe I had used it for a short period of time in the past. I have been building a lot more page layouts from scratch and thought Polypane would be a good tool to allow me to see a lot of different screen sizes at once. It was helpful to me on Friday as I was evaluating a current site feature for different screens. It was nice to be able to view them all at once and think about how I might change some things.
• During our team prayer time on Tuesday, we took time to share things we learned or stories of meaningful encounters with Robert Wolgemuth. This is the first time we had met together as a team since Robert went to be with the Lord the previous weekend. I was quite encouraged to hear from different people. I have also been reading one of his books, Gun Lap, over the past two weeks. It was good to spend that time together last week to grieve together and laugh together as we remembered this dear man.
• I wrote an article about the apps that I currently use. I had written one in 2023 and 2024. I had seen others write these updated posts and it seemed like a good idea. I also updated my “uses” page.
• Because I had worked the previous weekend to publish pages about Robert, my team leader told me to take a half-day on the day of my choosing. I decided to take it on Friday and I went to see The Fellowship of the Ring at the movie theater with my wife and youngest. The trilogy was re-released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first movie’s release. I enjoyed getting to revisit Middle Earth on the big screen. I had seen The Two Towers a couple of years ago with my kids. We plan to see The Return of the King next weekend.

Articles I read

• Reject the Religion of Efficiency (Samuel James) – I really like these thoughts about the “inefficiency” of a lot of the work we do. And why AI could keep us from putting in the effort to make things better. There is so much about creative work that looks inefficient but is making a valuable contribution to the process. We need to have the freedom to struggle because it is in the midst of the struggle that our best ideas or solutions come about.
• A Front Door and a Family Meal (Tim Challies)
• Magnifying Glass (Chris Coyier)
• Sober-Minded in an Age of Outrage (David Prince)
• The Courage in Encouragement (Trevin Wax)
• Moral Failings of Christian Leaders Should Make Us Examine Ourselves Closely (Randy Alcorn)
• The Case for Blogging in the Ruins (JA Westenberg)
• 3 + 4 (Jeremy Keith)
• The Good News About Bad Work Days (Elizabeth Stice)
• Simulating Crop Marks (Chris Coyier, Frontend Masters Blog)
• Jensen Huang Is Begging You to Stop Being So Negative About AI (AJ Dellinger, Gizmodo) – The nerve. Really?
• Mutual aid and asking people what they need (Chris Ferdinandi)
• 19 WordPress Alternatives: From Simple Builders To Enterprise CMS (Search Engine Journal) – I was just curious what they came up with.
• The easiest way to work with the WordPress Quote block (Geoff Graham) – I ran into this same issue working with the quote block. Just something I always have to keep in mind when I use it.
• It’s Possible to Find Happiness in Jesus Every Day through His Word (Randy Alcorn)
• It Doesn’t Matter What You Remember (Tim Challies)
• Use of AI to harm women has only just begun, experts warn (Helena Horton, The Guardian)
• National Design Studio offers a rebrand of government services (Elizabeth Goodspeed, The Architect’s Newspaper) – No thank you.
• Switch (Jeremy Keith)
• Stay Curious, Friends (Jason Beaird) – I appreciate differing viewpoints on how to use AI today. I tend to be more negative but appreciate hearing different viewpoints.
• I redesigned my website (again) (Salma Alam-Naylor)
• Fruitful to the End (Beth Ferguson on Gospel-Centered Discipleship)
• Who stole your cookie? (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Something Is Rotten in the State of America (David French, New York Times)
• When the tech leopard eats your face (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Why Agencies Are Switching from WordPress to Craft CMS (Appfoster)
• The 2026 World Watch List Reminds Us to Pray for Our Persecuted Brothers and Sisters (Randy Alcorn)
• Truths That Take on the World (Tim Challies) – A book review of The Gospel Way Catechism.
• What’s !important #3: Popover Context Menus, @scope, New Web Platform Features, and More (Daniel Schwarz, CSS Tricks) – It is always good to at least skim articles like this to see what new features are available and worth more research.
• Learning to Love the Church More Than Me (Dave Harvey)
• HTTP Archive 2025 Web Almanac (Geoff Graham, CSS Tricks)
• Studio Notes #67 (Dan Cederholm)
• Rebellion (Kyle Borg, Gentle Reformation)
• Better Than Feeling Seen (Casey McCall)
• App Defaults 2026 (David Bushell)
• My Too-Weak Tribute to Jerry Bridges (Tim Challies) – I am not sure if I read this several years ago when Jerry Bridges passed away. I had wished that I had written a tribute to Jerry all those years ago because several of his books have left their mark on my life and be used God to transform my character.
• The AI Security Shakedown (Jim Nielsen)
• 4 CSS Features Every Front-End Developer Should Know In 2026 (Adam Argyle) – Once again, it is good to read articles like this to become familiar with new features. And Adam is someone worth listening to.
• Accessibility is personal (Matthias Zöchling)
• Reflections on 2025 (Sarah Drasner)
• Senior Yearbook Photo (Joe Crawford) – I enjoyed this post by Joe. Interesting life reflection.

Caught my eye

Text frame border animation rotation (Codepen)

See the Pen Text frame border animation rotation that [CSS & SVG] V 2 by Fernando Cohen (@designfenix) on CodePen.

Cyd Stumpel’s new site

I have been seeing previews of this site for weeks on Bluesky. I was excited to see the launched products which use a lot of scroll-driven animations and view transitions. I love it!

What I watched

• Star Trek and Faith with Mark Hansard (YouTube) – My friend Mark was on a podcast to talk about his book, Star Trek and Faith, which I read at the end of the year.
• If Phillip Yancey Could Fall, What Makes You Think You Won’t? (Brad Bright, YouTube) – I appreciated Brad sharing these lessons from his father’s life.
• All Creatures Great & Small (PBS) – I am so excited for a new season of my favorite show.
• Starting Five (Netflix) – I finished watching season 2 this week.
• Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix)
• Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)
• The Great British Baking Show (Netflix)
• Percy Jacksons and the Olympians, Season 2 (Disney+)
• The West Wing (Netflix) – I started rewatching a familiar favorite.
• The Fellowship of the Ring, 25th Anniversary (Theater) – I enjoyed seeing this movie in the theater again. Planning to see Return of the King next week.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I had planned to finish it in 2025 but fell behind so still working on it.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• How to Tell The Truth (Preston Perry)
• Gun Lap (Robert Wolgemuth)
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper)
• Daily Doctrine (Kevin DeYoung)

Walking – 10.25 miles

• Monday – 3.25 miles in 1 hour
• Tuesday – 3.43 miles in 1 hour 2 minutes
• Saturday – 3.58 miles in 1 hour 7 minutes

What I listened to

• Show Talk Show #697: Web Install API, Resizing Text, Active View Transition Type
• Chrome just pushed a breaking CSS change! (General Musings, Kevin Powell)

The post Weeknotes 26:03 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

Desktop

• Operating System: macOS Sequoia 15 (work) and macOS Sonoma 14 (personal) – I didn’t want to update my OS last year when I was unemployed in case I had an issue. And now I only use my personal computer at times of the day when I don’t want to take the time to update to Sequoia.
• Email: GMail
• Calendar: Google Calendar
• Code editor: VS Code
• Browser: Chrome (Work), Brave (Personal) – I switched my personal default from Firefox as I was concerned about changes that Mozilla was making. I decided to switch to Chrome for work since we are using Google ecosystem.
• CMS: WordPress, Django CMS (Work) – I have been learning to use Django CMS over the last nine months.
• Git: GitHub Desktop, through VS Code for work
• Design Mockups: PhotoShop, Illustrator, and InDesign
• Code Snippets Library: SnippetsLab
• Notes: Obsidian
• Photo editor: Affinity Photo, PhotoShop (I started reusing it this year with my job)
• Messaging: Slack and Google Chat
• Meetings/Video calls: Zoom or Google Meet
• Project Management: Asana
• Time tracking: Toggl Track
• Password management: Bitwarden, Keeper (Work)
• Music: Spotify
• Local Web development: Local, customized environment for Django CMS
• Inspiration library: Eagle
• FTP Client: Transmit (personal)
• SVG creation/editor: Affinity Designer
• RSS: feedly
• Read it later: Instapaper – I switched back to Instapaper after Pocket declined.
• Bookmarks: Raindrop
• Image optimization: Squoosh
• SVG optimization: SVGOMG
• Social: Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
• Track book reading: Goodreads
• Contacts: Google Contacts
• Word processing: Google Docs
• Screenshots and Videos: CleanShot X, droplr (Work)
• Accessibility testing: Lighthouse and axe DevTools browser extension
• Backup: Time Machine (personal)

Mobile (different than desktop)

• Phone: Samsung A23
• Exercise tracker: Strava
• Messenging: What’s App
• Budgeting: Every Dollar
• To Dos: Todist
• Read it later: Instapaper
• Food: McDonald’s – My new default is to always use the app to order the food and then go through drive-thru. I have used the Culver’s app a few times recently.

Tablet (different from desktop or phone)

• Reading: Kindle app, Hoopla Digital
• RSS: feedly
• Read it later: Instapaper

Related articles or pages

• Uses
• Apps I use 2024
• Apps I use 2023

The post Apps I use 2026 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

Robert Wolgemuth, the husband of the founder for Revive Our Hearts Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, died on Saturday after a brief but intense battle with complications from pneumonia. By the middle of the week, it became clear that he was not going to recover and transitioned into comfort care. It brought back memories from this past summer when my wife and I had to make a similar decision with my mother-in-law.

I spent the end of the week creating new content for the Revive Our Hearts website to prepare for his death. Friday was an intense day as we had to create content knowing that at any minutes we might receive words of his passing. I had trouble sleeping the night before so it was a challenge to think and focus on coming up with solutions, especially for a hero image that needed to respond to different viewport sizes. But I hung with it, came up with solutions, and set us up in a good spot once that word came.

We received the news early Saturday morning that Robert had gone to be with the Lord. I spent about half the day working to get the content live and then make some edits and changes along the way.

I had the privilege of meeting Robert last April when I onboarded with Revive Our Hearts in Michigan. I am grateful for the memories I have of a few personal interactions and then other times interacting with him on a Zoom call with a lot of other staff. Robert earned my respect quickly with the way that he treated and honored his wife, Nancy, and how he interacted with other staff. I wish I could have had more personal conversations with him. I am enjoying reading one of his books and getting to know him through it.

I will probably write more later about Robert and my thoughts on his life and observations from the brief time I knew him.

Read more about Robert on Revive Our Hearts site

Robert’s death comes on the heels of other deaths of people I knew or family of friends. I walked with my friend through the last 4 months of his father’s life which ended earlier in the week. My friend had walked with me through my grief last year when my mother-in-law died. A couple of weeks ago, I found out that a friend of mine lost his 40-day battle with brain cancer. And this month marks the third year since I lost my mother. I have been dealing with a lot of grief lately, either directly or from caring for friends who have been touched by it. It weighed on me quite a bit this week as we waited to hear about Robert’s home-going.

As a Christian, I have a very different perspective on death. But that does not change the reality of the loss or the grief. But in the midst of the grief, there is hope and joy that surpasses all understanding and I am incredibly grateful for that.

2025 Review

I finally finished my first post about 2025. There are many different ways that I could tell the story of my year. One way is through numbers. It doesn’t tell the whole story, but it gives a good sense of my year and a starting point for sharing some of the experiences that shaped my year.

Read 2025 by the numbers

Other notes from the week:

• I moved my office back into my office. I had temporarily relocated to our master bedroom, which we have yet to relocate to after my mother-in-law’s death over the summer. I relocated for three weeks while my kids were home for Christmas. My daughter and my son’s fiancé left on the previous Saturday so I spent Sunday relocated back to my space.
• I felt a bit under the weather. It felt like allergies and I had mild headaches through the day. It slowed me down a little bit and had some trouble sleeping at night. As I mentioned, I really felt the effects on Friday after not sleeping well the night before.
• I took down our Christmas tree on Saturday afternoon. It always feels sad to do that. I miss the lighted tree as I come down the stairs from my office.

Articles I read

2025 Year Review posts

I enjoy reading about how other people experienced the year.

• 2025 in review (Rachel Andrew) – I enjoy reading people’s year review posts.
• Our frail thoughts. (Ethan Marcotte)
• 2025 (Jeremy Keith)
• 2025 in Review (Una Kravets)
• 2025 was the year of no sleep and pushing through (Ana Rodrigues) – Another reminder that we don’t always know what someone is going through or dealing with in their personal life. I am amazed that Ana was able to speak at events or contribute to the Web community with all that was going on for her at home.
• Twenty Twenty-Five (Dave Rupert)

All other articles

• It Pictures Something and It Accomplishes Something (Tim Challies) – An article about baptism.
• New Year; New Site; New Finger (Joe Crawford)
• Default Apps Early 2026 (Chris Coyier) – I might need to consider a similar post as many of my defaults changed in 2025.
• Christians Can Grieve Death with Both Realism and Solid Hope (Randy Alcorn)
• A Website To End All Websites (Henry Desroche)
• A Letter of Feedback To Anyone Who Makes Software I Use (Jim Nielsen)
• Changing Roles (Geoff Graham) – One of my favorites of the week. I am grateful for the web educator Geoff has become.
• Studio Notes #66 (Dan Cederholm) – Go look at the MTV Rewind.
• If Jesus Wasn’t Enough for Philip Yancey, Is He Enough for Me? (O. Alan Noble) – I appreciated this response from Alan.
• Death to Scroll Fade! (David Bushell)
• Untitled (Chris Coyier) – Chris shares Netflix titles he watched on recent air trip.

What I watched

• Why CSS Grid feels complex, and how to keep it simple (Kevin Powell) – I have tended to use this type of smaller, simplier Grid solution than to use Grid for the entire layout of my page. I have even used Grid with one row layouts because I like the fr units and because it is a bit more rigid than Flexbox.

• Men’s Daily Bible: The beautiful story behind the Men’s Daily Bible (Robert Wolgemuth) – I received a copy of this Bible when I joined Revive Our Hearts last April. I enjoyed hearing this story from Robert.
• How I overcame the fear of death (Robert Wolgemuth) – Robert went to be with the Lord last week. I appreciated this perspective that he had on death.
• Bride Wars (Netflix) – This was entertaining. A bit over the top but I guess that is what you expect.
• Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix)
• Starting Five (Netflix)
• Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)
• The Great British Baking Show (Netflix) – We started rewatching the most recent season.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Disney+)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Disney+)
• Timberwolves-Heat (NBC)
• End of Wisconsin-Michigan basketball game (FOX)
• Percy Jacksons and the Olympians, Season 2 (Disney+)

Books

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I had planned to finish it in 2025 but fell behind so still working on it.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• How to Tell The Truth (Preston Perry)
• Gun Lap (Robert Wolgemuth)

Walking

I didn’t get out and walk this week. It was a busy week and I was feeling a bit under the weather. There were a few days I could have gotten out and just chose not to. But there were other days I worked a bit longer.

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I was bummed to lose the second game of the ALCS to the Rays. I made several mistakes that cost me the game.
• NBA2K25 (Nuggets) – I won the only game I played this week against the Timberwolves. I came back from an early 11 point deficit and won a close one.

The post Weeknotes 26:02 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

20 years

This site turned 20 years old in October. Read Celebrating 20 years

Work

New job (after a year of unemployment)

I started a new job with Revive Our Hearts on April 9. My first few days of onboarding were spent at the headquarters in Niles, Michigan. I enjoyed getting to work in person with my team for a few days and get to know other staff that I collaborate with.

• 98 days unemployed in 2025, 385 days total starting on March 20, 2024
• 30 job applied for in 2025, 245 total in a year
• 4 interviews
• 1 freelance job – monthly maintenance contract
• 1 job accepted

• 3 days working on-site at Revive Our Hearts headquarters
• 4 days working in-person with other Revive Our Hearts staff at True Woman ’25 conference
• 3 conferences – CSS Day (online), Beer City Code, True Woman ’25
• 12 flights over 3 different work-related trips (Michigan and Indianapolis)
• 2,065 miles flying

Read more about my experiences with Revive Our Hearts this year:

• Get to know me: Revive Our Hearts Edition
• Six months

Coding

• 212 GitHub contributions – 183 work, 29 personal projects. The work number seems low but after reading how GitHun counts contributions, I realized that most of my work is done in forks so they don’t count as a contribution.
• 57 Codepens
• 17 major projects
• 2 personal projects (Memory Keeper, WordPress-to-Craft)

Favorite work project – 2025 Annual Praise Report

I enjoyed getting to translate a print report into a digital experience. I used CSS scroll-driven animations (with a fallback for browsers that don’t yet support it) for a timeline component.  I used an inline preview video solution that I have been continuing to refine throughout the Fall. And I played with some different layouts to create a unique digital experience that captures the spirit of the print report.

New tools or techniques

• Used LLM to assist in writing code
• DevKinsta
• View transitions
• Django CMS
• Scroll-driven animations with CSS
• Anchor positioning
• Balancing text (text-wrap: balance)
• Linking to text fragments
• RTL styling and logical properties
• CSS Grid lanes (played around with it at end of the year)
• Chart.js – I learned this in a workshop at Beer City Code
• Single-colour gradients (Kevin Powell, HTML & CSS Tip of the Week) – I have used this trick/tip many times this fall. Great solution for when you have text over an image and don’t want to add shading on the image in Photoshop.
• Mixing colors with CSS (Chris Ferdinandi) – This is one of my favorite new tricks. Replaces Sass color function.

Courses

• The Joy of React – finished 3 modules (rebooted at beginning of the year)
• JavaScript for Everyone – I started dabbling in the course – 9/53 lessons
• Anchor Positioning email course from Oddbird
• DevTools for Beginners (Kevin Powell) – I have worked through a handful of lessons for this course.
• Unleash the Power of Scroll-Driven Animations (Bramus) – I worked through 7 of the 10 lessons. It helped me to build my own scroll-driven animation on a work project.

Personal

We had 2 deaths in our household this year. My mother-in-law, who had lived with us for the past 6 years, passed away in June after suffering a stroke. And then in September, our beloved guinea pig Teddy left us. I will share more about the impact of these losses in the article retrospective.

• 1 engagement – my son proposed to his fiancé on December 15 on a trip to Indianapolis
• 6 days knocked out with COVID
• 1 college dorm move-in
• 1 college dorm partial move-out – I went up to Murray to get some boxes but was not there for the full move out.
• 1 new home for our oldest – She moved from an apartment to a townhome in September.
• 8 road trips – Murray (3), Nashville (4), Louisiana (1) (we also stopped in Nashville on a couple of those trips to Murray)
• 9 states – Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Michigan, Indiana
• 3 kids in college – All three of my kids are taking college classes as my oldest started a Master’s program in October. My son will graduate from Murray State in the spring. And my youngest will graduate from community college in the spring and then move on to another school to finish her undergraduate degree.
• 2 visits to Infinity Flux, a local comic books store

Culver’s in Hixson

Culver’s is one of my favorite restaurants. But we did not have one in Chattanooga until recently. I have only eaten at Culver’s on road trips, mostly in Murray, Kentucky (visits to my son at Murray State) at the first Culver’s I visited. Culver’s opened a store about 10 minutes away from my house at the end of September.

• 8 visits to Culver’s in October, November, and December, including a visit on December 16 to get a free scoop of Turtle custard for my birthday
• 2 visits to Culver’s in Murray, Kentucky in August and in May

Walking

• 101 activities
• 348.2 miles

January – 51.6 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

February – 62 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

March – 46 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

April – 16 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

May – 20 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

June – 22 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

July – 8 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

August – 16 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

September – 17 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

October – 19 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

November – 36 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

December – 32 mi

1. S
2. M
3. T
4. W
5. T
6. F
7. S

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

Writing/Creating

• 20 years at jeffbridgforth.com – This site turned 20 years old in October.
• 364 Bluesky posts
• 75 Mastodon posts
• 42 LinkedIn posts
• 319 Daily logs
• 52 Weeknotes
• 95 posts (94 public, 1 private)
• 46 notes
• 186 Instagram posts
• 97 journal entries
• 1 article (first) written for CSS Tricks – Is It Time to Un-Sass?

Favorite articles that I wrote on my site

• Looking elsewhere, a reflection – a commentary on Robb Owen’s Looking Elsewhere article, one of my favorite articles of the year
• Having figure match width of contained image – I asked several CSS wizards on Bluesky how they would solve a certain problem and it set off a chain of responses beyond the original group I asked. Kevin Powell did a video about my article and the problem I was trying to solve and Chris Coyier wrote some of his thoughts, The Figcaption Problem.
• WordPress-to-Craft CMS
• Day 366
• Two powerful investments to make in your career
• Lessons from a yearlong job search

Reading

• 6th time reading through entire Bible
• 23 books finished (1 that started in 2024) – My goal was 28 so I have decided to shoot for 24 as a goal for 2026.
• 5,090 pages read (not including the Bible)
• 29 books started
• 5 currently reading
• 18 ebooks purchased
• 5 physical books purchased
• 2 rereads (both abandoned)
• 7 borrowed from library, friends, or Hoopla
• Shortest book – 119 pages
• Longest book – 488 pages
• Average book length – 221 pages

Favorite reads

• The Steadfast Love of the Lord (Sam Storms) – It expanded my view of God and spoke to my heart. It hit me in a very similar way that reading Gentle and Lowly did when I first read it several years ago.
• Not Old, Not Young, Not Done (Christopher Ash) – Great pastoral advice for the chapter of life that I am in.
• The Lord of Psalm 23 (David Gibson) – I appreciated some fresh insights from this very familiar psalm.

Favorite online articles

• Looking Elsewhere (Robb Owen)- This article was a breath of fresh air for my craftsman soul. My heart resonated with so much of what Robb wrote. I wrote an article, Looking elsewhere, a reflection, that quotes his text and adds my own thoughts and commentary.
• If it works, it’s right (Andy Bell) – I appreciate this perspective from Andy. I try to have this approach as well. So much of the work we do does not have one right way to do it.
• The Post-Developer Era (Josh Comeau) – The most memorable article I read this week. Some good thoughts about AI, the current job landscape, and some job search tips. It addressed a topic I have been thinking about and plan to write about in the near future. I also enjoyed Kevin Powell’s video, Are we Entering the Post-Developer Era? where he reads through Josh’s article and adds his own thoughts.
• Toolmen (Mandy Brown) – I think Mandy hit the nail on the head of “AI” being an ideology and not a technology. One of the most thought provoking articles about the subject that I have read.
• Is “ethical AI” an oxymoron? (Hidde de Vries) – This is a great article that has informed my thinking on the subject. I summarized a lot of different bits that I have been thinking and reading about.
• De-caring (Mandy Brown) – Another AI related article from Mandy. My biggest gripe with AI is that it is dehumanizing.
• You’re not a front-end developer until you’ve… (Nic Chan) – I loved this list/quiz of things Nic has observed in his ten year career. I laughed and head nodded strongly with “Refreshed prod while working on local and wondered why your changes weren’t showing.” I have done that way too many times and gotten frustrated before figuring it out.
• You are not your job search. (Brillant Crank) – It was painful to read this and remember how hard my yearlong job search was that ended 3 months ago. Still feels fresh.
• Better CSS layouts: Time.com Hero Section (Ahmad Shadeed) – I enjoyed having Ahmad break down a layout and share some modern CSS techniques to improve the experience across viewports.
• Let Me Google that For You (Brad Littlejohn) – I enjoyed this article. It addressed some dissonance that I have experienced. When I am asking a teammate a question, it is not all about getting an answer to the question but relationship.
• When The Path That I Fear Is the Way He Has Set (Tim Challies) – This was a timely article that addressed some anxiety in my heart about the future.
• “Why would anybody start a website?” (Dave Rupert)
• You Don’t Need Animations (Emil Kowalski) – Some good advice adding some purposeful animations to improve the user interface.
• The Lifeblood of the Web (Matthias Ott) – I enjoyed this article by Matthias about the value of in-person conferences. I am inspired to write my own article about my in-person conference experiences.
• Two approaches to fallback CSS scroll driven animations (Cyd Stumpel) – I like this example of graceful degradation. I think it is a good example of a use case where it is big win.
• Understanding what “I am not ‘anti-AI’… I am pro-craft.” means to me (Guy LeCharles Gonzalez) – I like this idea of “pro-craft” because I think it captures an essential idea of why I am more concerned than excited about AI.
• Why we teach our students progressive enhancement (Cyd Stumpel) – Amen.
• It’s been a very hard year (Andy Bell) – I appreciated Andy’s vulnerability in this post. I wish I had done more to promote his courses during his Black Friday sale. I bought JavaScript for Everyone earlier this year and highly recommend Piccalilli’s courses. I would love to work at the sort of agency that Andy has built with Set Studio.
• Why Can’t I Throw Away this Stick? (Kraig Keck) – A good reflection on nostalgia and idolatry. I relate to the author in that I am very sentimental and attach a lot of emotional meaning to physical objects or memories.
• Challenge (Matthias Ott) – I enjoyed this perspective about being willing to challenge your own assumption by listening to and taking feedback.
• The Dehumanizing Force of Administrative Sludge (Alan Noble) – I encounter this weekly.

Favorite Andy Clarke articles

I have long admired Andy Clarke and been inspired by his work, his articles, his talks, and his books. One thing I have always appreciated about Andy is that he looks for ways to push the tools and the medium to the limits to come up with “expressive” experiences, through both design and interaction. He wrote several articles this year that tapped into a familiar feeling of creative inspiration that I remember having from reading Transcending CSS and Hardboiled Web Design (both editions).

• Revisiting Image Maps (Andy Clarke) – I liked it so much I wrote my own article about Andy’s article.
• Smashing Animations Part 1: How Classic Cartoons Inspire Modern CSS (Andy Clarke) – Andy has been on a roll the past recently. I had enjoyed reading his CSS Tricks article a couple of weeks ago and now this one on Smashing Magazine. I have loved working with SVGs and animations with CSS or JavaScript (GreenSock). I always enjoy being inspired by Andy.
• Smashing Animations Part 2: How CSS Masking Can Add An Extra Dimension (Andy Clarke)
• Getting Creative With Small Screens (Andy Clarke on CSS Tricks) – I love how Andy challenges designers to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions that they wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. It gave me some food for thought for a project I am working on.
• Say hello to my Magnificent 7 (Andy Clarke) – I like Andy’s use of “ambient animations.” I also liked that he gave me a term to describe a lot of the animations I have done and like.
• Can you catch ’em all? (Andy Clarke) – I went and played this easter egg game on Andy’s site. And I caught them all. I love how Andy has added delight to his site.

Podcasts

I use to listen to podcasts regularly when I commuted into an office. That changed when I started working from home in remote roles. I would listen to podcasts in roadtrips. But this year, I started listening to a couple of podcasts regularly on my walks.

• 10 episodes of Shop Talk Show
• 17 episodes of General Musings with Kevin Powell
• 2 episodes of One Footer in the Grave (only ones they put out this year)
• 5 episodes of Revive Our Hearts podcast, Brokeness: The Heart God Revives. This 5-part series played excerpts from a message Nancy gave to the staff of Cru in July 1995 in which I was in attendance. The episodes also included interviews and reflections from those who were there.

New Finds

• SimpleBits^® Studio Notes (started in November 2024) – I enjoy these links each week.
• Front End Study Hall

Entertainment

• 3 movies seen in theater (Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, Revenge of the Sith: 20th Anniversary)
• 1 NCAA basketball game – UTC vs. Tennessee Wesleyan University
• 2 shows at Chatt State that my youngest was in (Anastasia and Charlotte’s Web) – went to each twice. Anastasia was especially meaningful for her, as it allowed her to combine two of her greatest passions—theater and dance. As a Pas de Quatre dancer (ballet), she brought elegance to the stage while also taking on multiple ensemble roles. Having trained with the Chattanooga Ballet for 12 years, it was an absolute joy to see her dance again after a two-year hiatus.
• 1 art show – My son put on an art show in September. On Methods and Madness was his first solo show. He was the recipient of the “MAGpie Award” at the Murray State University OMAS group’s Annual Student Art exhibition in the spring. This award consists of a cash prize, a pie, and the opportunity to exhibit at the MAG (Murray Art Guild). My wife and I traveled up to Murray for the opening.

Favorite things I watched

• Andor Season 2 (Disney+)
• All Creatures Great & Small (PBS)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)
• Man on the Inside, Season 1 (Netflix)
• The Nonnas (Netflix)
• Matlock (CBS, Paramount+)
• Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix)
• The Penguin Lessons (Netflix)
• Join or Die (Netflix)
• Wild Robot (Netflix)

Gaming

• 14 MLB The Show 23 games
• 166 MLB The Show 20 games
• NBA 2K25 6 games outside of season, 74 season games, 3 NBA Cup games

Other similar reflections

• Twenty twenty-four
• 2024 in Review (my by the numbers post from last year)
• 2024 in Pictures
• 2023 by the numbers
• 2022 Year in Review (I share a lot of numbers in this one)
• A Decade of Development: 2010 to 2019
• Sketchnote of 2013 – I used a new skill to tell my story of 2013

The post 2025 by the numbers appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I was back to work on Monday after taking the previous week off. It was a short 3-day week with the New Year holiday. It was a lot busier than I thought it would be. I built templates for Read through the Bible in 2026 for the 6 other languages by extending the template I had already built before Christmas. I liked having stuff to do as I thought I was gonig to have to look for things to do as the rest of my team took the week off. I enjoy these quieter days of work that are typical of the end of the year.

Front End Study Hall

I attended Front End Study Hall #43 on Wednesday. I mostly listened in on this one. I was in and out and there were different things going on at my house.

Playing around with grid lanes

I mentioned that I read Introducing CSS Grid Lanes by the Webkit team at the end of the week. At the beginning of this week, I decided to play around with it. I ended up using it in a personal project that I have been building this year–a personal memory keeper (think Facebook memories). Currently, I have the memories feed as a single column but decided to apply grid-lanes to it. It was very simple and I like that it takes advantage of existing grid code to define columns. You can play around and be inspired by demos at https://webkit.org/demos/grid3/.

• I found out a friend of mine lost his battle to brain cancer just after Christmas. Dave led our summer project team to Hungary when I went as a student. And we crossed paths many times the year that my wife and I lived in Eastern Hungary. We stayed with his neighbor our last night and ate dinner with Dave and his family and watched the Bulls win another championship over the Jazz. I also crossed paths with Dave several times when his family moved to Orlando while we were living there. Dave was ten years older than me. He was just such a nice guy and I enjoyed every conversation I had with him. My heart goes out to his family in their time of grief.
• I spent each morning praying for Robert Wolgemuth. He went into the hospital on Christmas Eve with pneumonia. He has been critically and is currently sedated on a ventilator. His condition has improved but he still has a long recovery ahead of him. I met Robert when I visited Michigan in April when I joined Revive Our Hearts.
• I wanted to write a post about 2025 and another post of numbers (similar to this post from last year) and links but did not get to either of those before the end of the year. I am still reviewing my weeknotes from last year to compile my favorite links remember things that I learned, etc. I hope to write at least one of those this coming week.
• My son got engaged on December 15. His fiancé came down to visit for the week. We all went out to dinner on Thursday night at Attack of the Katsu.
• I tagged along with my son and road tripped down to Atlanta on Saturday. He was picking up some new parts for the PC he built. He wanted to strike now before the prices go up as one of the three memory companies is pulling out of the consumer market this year. Our trip included a visit to Buc-ee’s and some brisket sandwiches. I also bought a couple of glazed almonds to enjoy later.

Articles I read

• My Only Plea at New Year’s (Tim Challies)
• Success (Jonathan Snook)
• I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person (Emily Bressler) – This is a humor piece. Read Top 25 of ’25: Emily Bressler’s “I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person” for the background of the piece. (via Chris Coyier)
• Easing into the New Year (Jonathan Snook)
• My 2025 in numbers (Patrick Brosset)
• Programming principles for self taught front-end developers (Killian Volkolf on Piccalilli)

What I watched

• Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix)
• Blue Bloods (Paramount+)
• Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)
• Percy Jacksons and the Olympians, Season 2 (Disney+)
• High School Musical (Disney+)
• Dick Clark’s Rockin New Year’s Eve (ABC) – We just flipped over for the ball drop.
• Fantastic Four: First Steps (Disney+)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney+)

Speaking of the ball drop, I felt like the 2026 on the ball was a typography fail. I think it would have looked better with another column or two or lights to round out the 6 at the bottom. It just didn’t look right and almost looked like a 4 from a greater distance.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week. I had planned to finish it in 2025 but fell behind so still working on it.
• Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – I finished this book and reading through the Bible on Wednesday.
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper)
• When Children Walk Away from Jesus (Paul Mallard) – I finished this one early in the week.
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger)
• How to Tell The Truth (Preston Perry)

Walking – 14.88 miles

My goal going into the new year is the walk 9-12 miles a week. I would like to crack 500 miles this year.

• Sunday – 3.05 miles in 58 minutes
• Monday – 3.58 miles in 1 hour 5 minutes
• Thursday – 3.79 miles in 1 hour 9 minutes
• Friday – 4.46 miles in 1 hour 24 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I won all three games I played this week. The first two games wrapped up the ALDS against the White Sox. And then I came back with 3 runs in the eighth to win the first game of the ALCS against the Rays, 5-4.
• NBA2K25 (Nuggets) – I won both games I played this week. I am having a lot of fun playing basketball.

The post Weeknotes 26:01 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I am not sure what is next. I think I will continue going with weeknotes for now. I might end up splitting out the links to articles I read into a separate post. I have thought about doing more of a vibe check (Dave Rupert) instead of doing something every week. But for now, I like the discipline and it helps me to find things that I read or take time to document something I learned or figured out. It has been a great practice to get me writing and I can say I feel more confident in my writing and it is easier for me to start writing since I started this discipline six years ago.

Took the week off

I combined 3 PTO days with the two days I got for Christmas to take the week off. It was nice to take a break. I didn’t completely disconnect from the craft as I read several articles this week related to Web development. I enjoy what I do and it did not feel like a burden or feel like I needed to completely step away from it. I enjoyed some relaxed times of not necessarily having an agenda for the day. I enjoyed playing video games, spending time with my family, reading, taking walks, and getting some things done like changing the oil in our van or visiting the chiropractor. We watched movies together almost every night and I watched a couple of NBA games last week with my son.

I enjoyed celebrating Christmas. We attended our church’s Christmas Eve service, Lessons & Carols. It was a mixture of Scripture readings and singing songs. It seemed like we stood up and sat down more than normal. But I really enjoyed it and felt more engaged this year than in recent years (more my own fault than the programs). I enjoyed having our whole family at church and it was a great way to focus our celebration.

On Christmas:

• we ate baked oatmeal
• looked in our stockings
• opened presents (we each drew a name of another family member)
• did different things together in the same room
• enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by my wife
• started a new tradition of decorating cookies together
• caught for dinner
• watched Klaus together
• watched Somebody Feed Phil in Scotland with my wife and oldest
• watched the Nuggets and Timberwolves battle into overtime with my son

Articles I read

• A Pastoral Prayer (Tim Challies)
• Our Sorrows Keep Getting More Sorrowful and Joys Keep Getting More Joyful (Christopher Ash)
• The Joy of Making Discoveries in God’s Animal Kingdom, and the Discoveries Yet to Come (Randy Alcorn)
• The Clock (Marcin Wichary)
• You Can’t Opt-Out of Accessibility (Declan Chidlow) – I agree wholeheartedly. I wish accessibility was valued more in our industry.
• Why Can’t I Throw Away this Stick? (Kraig Keck) – A good reflection on nostalgia and idolatry. I relate to the author in that I am very sentimental and attach a lot of emotional meaning to physical objects or memories.
• Coming up with blog topics (Cassidy Williams) – Some good prompts to help you think of topics to write about.
• You Can’t Make Something Accessible to Everyone (Adrian Roselli)
• Thank You (2025 Edition) (Geoff Graham on CSS Tricks) – Geoff reflects on things he is thankful for in regards to CSS Tricks. I am glad that I could be part of it by writing my first article for them in September. I hope I can add many more in 2026.
• Leading Global Research and Advisory Firm Recommends Against Using AI Browsers (Jim Nielsen)
• No stars (Jeremy Keith) – Jeremy has decided to no longer using star ratings for his listing of books he reads yearly.
• Isaiah’s Beautiful Job Description (Paul David Tripp)
• The Quiet Christmas Revival (Stephen McAlpine)
• 2025: Year in Review (Ashlee at Semantic Fish Creative Group) – This post gets personal about my experiences this year with grief, loss, health emergencies, and being disabled & working in accessibility in the US.
• Confronting the Unspeakable Truth (Aaron M. Renn) and The Lost Generation (Jacob Savage on Compact) – Not sure what I think about these. It seems like things have overcompensated. I know there are no easy answers in all of this.
• The LinkedIn sweet spot: 5 areas to focus on in 2026 (Adobe) – I did not realize carousels made with multi-page PDFs were popular on LinkedIn
• Introducing CSS Grid Lanes (Jen Simmons, Brandon Stewart, and Elika Etemad on Webkit blog) – I am exciting that Safari Technology Preview has a working implementation to play around with. Looking forward to playing around with it this coming week on my work computer (I would need to update my personal computer to download it and not ready to).
• How the West Became Pagan—Again (Derek Rishmawy on The Gospel Coalition)
• Let an Unpolluted Heav’n and Nature Sing (Dónal)
• The Rising Tide of Islam (Alan Shlemon on Stand to Reason)
• Feckless and Useless and Totalitarian and Liars (Joe Crawford)
• Studio Notes #64 (Dan Cedarholm)
• How to Create a Body-Integrated Sabbath (or Christmas Break) (Nicholas McDonald)
• Magnifying Glass (Kevine Nzapdi on CSS Tricks) – I like this reflection on what Kevine learned from his five-year old niece about HTML and CSS.
• A Call to Pray for the Church in Rwanda (Philip Hunt)
• Thank the Lord for the Hard Stuff (Melissa Edgington)

What I watched

Stop using the legacy color syntax (Kevin Powell) – I admit that I am still using the legacy syntax and still using rgb color space. I would like to read Kevin’s articles on Piccalilli (part one and part two).

What if you suddenly couldn’t type anymore? (Kevin Powell with Salma Alam-Naylor) – I think we need more content like this to help understand why accessibility should be important to everyone.

• Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Peacock)
• The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (the animated one with Boris Karloff) (Peacock)
• Somebody Feed Phil (Netflix) – We watched Tblisi, Scotland, and Kyoto this week.
• Die Hard (Hulu)
• Nuggets-Mavericks (NBC)
• The Muppet Christmas Carol (Disney+)
• Klaus (Netflix) – I had forgotten how good this was.
• Nuggets-Timberwolves (ABC) – Stayed up late to watch this one go into overtime.
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Disney+)

What I listened to

• When Passion Becomes a Grind (Kevin Powell, General Musings)
• Navigating Accessibility Challenges in Web Development (Kevin Powell, General Musings)
• Some recent insights on what CSS features people are using (Kevin Powell, General Musings)
• The Unplanned Path: Finding Passion in Teaching and CSS (Kevin Powell, General Musings)
• Teaching Front-End, making sense CSS, and more with Josh Comeau (Kevin Powell, General Musings)

Caught my eye

Kide Wood Program by Aalto University

I love wood structures and I love this timber outdoor event space in Finland. This space came up in my Instagram feed recently. I like the inspirations ice crystals and forests.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week.
• Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – Reading through the Bible this year with this devotional.
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper)
• When Children Walk Away from Jesus (Paul Mallard)
• The Basketball 100 (David Aldridge & John Hollinger) – I picked this one back up this week.

Walking

• Monday – 3.29 miles in 1 hour
• Tuesday – 2.62 miles in 48 minutes
• Friday – 3.48 miles 1 hour 4 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I went 3-3 this week as I closed out the season and split the first two games of the divisional series against the White Sox.
• NBA2K25 (Nuggets) – I went 5-0 this week and I am in the midst of a 9 game winning streak as I wind down the regular season.

The post Weeknotes 25:52 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I took advantage of the slow down in work load to take advantage of some learning opportunities.

• Web Components Demystified – I wanted to explore doing a web component for a reusable piece of code that I wanted to replicate on several different sites for the Read Through the Bible initiative in 2026. I didn’t get far into the course but also decided to look for other solutions based on timing (I didn’t think I had enough time to learn how to build a web component as a solution). Plus after working through the introduction of the course, I am not sure that a web component was the best solution.
• JavaScript For Everyone – I had not spent time in the course over the last few weeks so I decided to go back and reread several of the lessons in the first section.
• Brand New Layouts with CSS Subgrid – I have used subgrids several times in recent projects and was interested to read what Josh had to share. I encountered the same “gotcha” in that you have to have enough rows defined in the parent for the child to use those rows in the subgrid. My solution was a little bit different. I hope to write about it in the next few weeks.

Assumptions

I spent a little bit longer solving an issue this week because I had started with a wrong assumption. A client’s site was no longer displaying ads that were served through a plugin. The report came on the heels of me updating the WordPress software. So my assumption is that the problem was tied to that. It was a project that I was not familiar with. As I started investigating, I noticed that the plugin was out of date (several years). My first recommendation was to update the plugin. I had assumed that the WordPress update was the culprit.

I was then asked to explore a solution that would not involve having to buy a new license in order to update the plugin (and the person didn’t think the plugin being out of date was the problem). But I was still holding onto my assumption that the cause was the WordPress update. After chasing my tail for a bit, it came to mind something that there were several “ad groups” and that the client was actively using groups with an “X” in front of their names. Sure enough, the root of the problem was that the client had renamed the ad groups and the code in the templates was specifying the ad group name. Once I changed the name in the code, the ads displayed again.

It was not clear that the naming was the root of the problem. But because of my wrong assumption as to the root of the problem, I didn’t put that together until I had hit a bunch of walls trying to solve other “problems.”

There are two lessons that I draw from this experience. First, web development is hard and the path to the solutions is not always linear. Sometimes you have to go the long way about to come up with a solution. But it is also important to understand the assumptions you are making so at some point you question those assumptions, especially when it seems clear you are not heading in the right direction.

Recent projects

2025 Annual Praise Report

I enjoyed getting to translate a print report into a digital experience. I used an inline preview video solution that I have been continuing to refine throughout the Fall. I used CSS scroll-driven animations (with a fallback for browsers that don’t yet support it) for a timeline component. And I played with some different layouts to create a unique digital experience that captures the spirit of the digital report.

Read through the Bible

This is version 2 of the page. This is the hub for our Read through the Bible initiative for 2026. The template will be translated into other languages and allow each one to share common elements and have the flexibility to add specific elements for that language.

Wonder App

A landing page to promote our new app for teenage girls to get them into God’s Word each day. “Through short, engaging, video-based daily devotionals, Wonder leads girls straight into the Bible—helping them open Scripture for themselves, understand it, apply it, and love it.”

I built this using a Photoshop mockup provided by the company that developed the app. As I mentioned last week, this is the first time I had built a site from a Photoshop mockup in at least ten years. This is one of the projects that I used subgrid in several places to keep things aligned across multiple columns.

Articles I read

• The Wonderful World of Web Feeds (Maureen Holland on HTMHell)
• A Moving Picture of the Gospel (Tim Challies)
• Media Diet (Chris Coyier)
• Notability spam of the day (Joe Crawford)
• Accessibility is a human right, cruelty a human wrong. (Jeffrey Zeldman)
• Why you should hire me (Eric Rocha)
• Being Ourselves in Heaven (Randy Alcorn)
• It’s Uncomfortable To Sit With “I Don’t Know” (Jim Nielsen)
• That time Steve Silberman wrote me a nice email… (Tyler Sticka)
• Happy Hannukah (Stephen McAlpine)
• Blood soaks into the sands of Bondi Beach (Murray Campbell)
• Why we teach our students progressive enhancement (Cyd Stumpel)
• Pausing a CSS animation with getAnimations() (Cassidy Williams)
• Spaceships, atoms, and cybernetics (Jeremy Keith) – He mentioned Maureen’s article and talks about podcasts.
• Toon Title Text Generator (Geoff Graham on CSS Tricks) – An overview of Andy Clarke’s new tool.
• Forced Colors Mode (Chris Ferdinandi)
• The Scopes Trial at 100: Fact, Fiction, and the Christian Historian (Nathan A. Finn on The Gospel Coalition)
• Stop using JavaScript to solve CSS problems (Chizaram Ken on LogRocket Blog)
• Wrapping up 2025 (Andy Bell on Piccalilli)
• My HTML Web Component boilerplate for 2026 (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Wrapping up 2025 (sort of) (Andy Bell) – A more personal wrap-up different from his business one on Piccalilli.
• A new kind of scam spam: let me use your US Upwork account and take a cut (Joe Crawford)
• You Might Also Like: My Notes Blog (Jim Nielsen)
• ADHD restlessness (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Studio Notes #63 (Dan Cedarholm)
• Brand New Layouts with CSS Subgrid (Josh W. Comeau)
• My 2025 review (Hidde de Vries)
• Should Everyone Write? (Peter Biles)

Caught my eye

PostHog – This site is similar to the WDC: The Web Creative Conference that I mentioned in July. They both use the metaphor of desktop computer (Mac) where you can open different windows. You can move the windows around and the windows scroll. Interesting concept.

What I watched

• Hawkeye (Disney+) – We finished this on Sunday night.
• Last hour of Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Everybody Loves Raymond (MeTV)
• The Voice (NBC) – We watched both finale nights. We were pulling for Dek of Hearts (they were students at Trevecca Nazarene University where my daughter went to school and now works) and Max Chambers.
• Percy Jacksons and the Olympians, Season 2 (Disney+)
• Watson (Paramount+)
• Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)
• The Grinch That Stole Christmas (Peacock)
• Somebody Feed Phil – Mississippi Delta (Netflix)
• Arthur Christmas (Digital)
• Champagne Problems (Netflix) – Not a bad rom-com. Better than expected.

Books

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week.
• Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – Reading through the Bible this year with this devotional.
• Telling a Better Story (Joshua Chatraw) – I finished this one on Friday.
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper)
• When Children Walk Away from Jesus (Paul Mallard)

Walking

I ended up not walking this past week. It bums me out because I want to walk regularly but am finding it a challenge to be consistent. To be fair, we went out to eat more this week, either out of necessity or a planned celebration (my birthday on Wednesday). I also had several things I had to address with a freelance relationship that I can only address at night. Put this week past me and try again next week.

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I played three games this week and am closing in on the end of the season.
• NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I played one game this week and won.

The post Weeknotes 25:51 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

Front End Study Hall

I took some time out of my day on Thursday to participate in Front End Study Hall. We talked a lot about CSS focused topics. We helped one of the participants think through a solution for hiding a navigation and then showing it again on hover. I showed off the scroll-driven animation that I created for a recent project (view in Chrome, Safari, or Edge). Joe mentioned Kevin Powell’s interview with Adam Argyle in which Adam shared about the challenges of his job search this past year. We also talked about clip-paths, typography, and a book of symbols from Penguin that had no graphics.

Read the notes from Front End Study Hall #42 and find out more about future study halls. The next one is coming up on December 30.

Articles I read

• Pitch Perfect and Tone Deaf (Tim Challies)
• Why Audiobooks Are a Great Way to Read More, Plus Recent Ones I’ve Been Enjoying (Randy Alcorn)
•  “That guy still owes me money.” (Joe Crawford)
• Icons in Menus Everywhere — Send Help (Jim Nielsen)
• The Rise of AI Book Slop (Tim Challies)
• The Hidden Danger of Online Sermons (Deborah Jaynene Smith on The Gospel Coalition) – I have never really gotten into listening to online sermons from other churches or “famous” preachers. I feel like I get enough good content at my own church and need to spend more time chewing over it than listening to more. I like her suggestion of re-listening to the sermon you heard on Sunday to absorb more of it.
• Giving Thanks Should Be Our Daily Mindset (Randy Alcorn)
• A Trip to Southern Africa (Tim Challies)
• Some Blog Posts I’d Like to Read (Frontend Masters Staff on Frontend Masters Blog) – This is a list of post that Chris would like to read. I didn’t see any on the list that I could address. But might be worth you looking to see if you could.
• My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2025 (Colin Hansen on The Gospel Coalition)
• Skip intro (Jeremy Keith)
• The Full Text of Marco Rubio’s Directive on State Department Typography, Re-Establishing Times New Roman (John Gruber) – John points out that the news outlets are not telling the whole story. I think it is always a good idea to go to the source. Unfortunately, not enough readers (including myself) go that far.
• McDonald’s pulls AI-generated Christmas advert following backlash (BBC)
• When God’s Plans Leave Us Distressed (Kirsten Black)
• My Top Ten Books from 2025 (+ a Bonus) (Tim Challies) – Tim’s number one, Not Old, Not Young, Not Done, is also my number one book of the year for the same reason–it provides just the right guidance for the chapter of life I find myself in. Lots of other good titles as well.
• US could ask tourists for five-year social media history before entry (BBC)
• Studio Notes #63 (Dan Cederholm)

Caught my eye

Rubber AI – This one made me laugh. The best AI is still the rubber duck.

Size of Life – A beautiful experience of motion, sound, and custom illustrations (no AI). It compares the size of living things.

What I watched

• The Voice (NBC)
• Watson (CBS)
• A Man on the Inside, Season 2 (Netflix) – We finished season 2 this week. We didn’t feel like it was quite as good as season 1 but still entertaining.
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) – I am into season 3 now.
• Matlock (Paramount+)
• Boston Blue (Paramount+)
• Percy Jacksons and the Olympians, Season 2 (Disney+)
• Hawkeye (Disney+) – We decided to revisit this series because it takes place over the Christmas holiday.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week.
• Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – Reading through the Bible this year with this devotional.
• Telling a Better Story (Joshua Chatraw)
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper)
• Star Trek and Faith: Volume 1 (Mark Hansard) – I finished this one. It was written by a friend of mine and I enjoyed reading it.

What I listened to

• Modern CSS Quicks hits (General Musings, Kevin Powell) – I linked to it on YouTube but listened to it with an audio podcast service.
• ShopTalk Show 694: Invoicing with Studioworks with Jessica and Chris

Walking

• Monday – 3.35 miles in 1 hour 4 minutes
• Tuesday – 2.95 miles in 56 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I tied the MLB record for wins in a season by a team with 116.
• NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I came back and won in both of the games I played.

The post Weeknotes 25:50 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

“Advent” Calendars

With the start of December, I thought about the dev “advent” calendars that I have followed in the past. I miss 24 Ways (2005-2019). I liked that I was introduced to a lot of newer features through their articles down through years. Always a good blend of inspiration and practical code.

More recently, I have enjoyed Stephanie Eckels, 12 Days of Web (2021–24). I appreciated that these articles were very forward looking, diving into new features and some features that were coming soon. I remember her Intersection Observer article in 2021 helped me to understand and begin to implement observers in my project work. I also remember working through a tutorial on creating custom elements for the Audio API, which I may be using in an upcoming project. (I realized there is a treasure of articles on features that are just coming to the platform that I need to go back and peruse.) Stephanie is not doing 12 Days of Web this year but she did contribute to the HTMHell Advent Calendar on popovers and dialogs.

I also think about the two different advent calendars I built for SAVEUR Magazine. These cookie advent calendars revealed a different cookie recipe each day. You can see a recreation of the 2011 Cookie Advent Calendar (fixed width) on Codepen and an article on Codepen I wrote about the project and recreating it with CSS Grid. I have been working on a responsive version. I also created a 2012 version which you can see the polished prototype. Both of these projects were created before we embraced responsive design.

Work styles

I enjoyed listening to the One Footer in the Grave podcast on my Monday walk. They had an interesting discussion about work styles. Jon Hicks started the discussion. He had worked from a studio space for years but will start working from home after his last studio mate decided to no longer rent. Jon asked the other three how they don’t go crazy from working at home. Each of the guys shared their thoughts. But one thing was clear. They all had different styles. Some liked working from home better. Others preferred getting out to coffee shops. Paul at one point worked from different locations while his family traveled across America in a motor home.

Working from home has worked out pretty well for me. I like the space that I work in and I am pretty self-motivated. It helps that I really enjoy the work that I do. But I also found that I could work in an office. People around me didn’t bother me too much because I would get so focused while I was coding and building different projects.

I did pause to think about the fact that I do feel a bit lonelier the past six months as my mother-in-law passed away and we only have one kid living at home but is out most of the day. And I no longer have our guinea pig, who I would often go in and talk to or hold as I took breaks during the day. A lot more days I am home by myself and I had not really thought about that change until I was listening to this discussion.

I have more thoughts on the subject and it will probably turn into a longer article later on.

Slug Bug

Articles I read

• Two Wedding Aisles To Walk Down (Stephen McAlpine)
• A Sparkle Of December Magic, 2025 Wallpapers Edition (Smashing Magazine) – I enjoy going through these each month and adding some to my collection.
• A Love Letter To The People Who Believe In People (Tina Roth-Eisenberg) – This is great article and a great idea to recognize those who are your biggest fans.
• What’s the point of learning this stuff? (Josh W. Comeau) – Some great perspective for young developers.
• Building empathy (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Are Young Men Being Drawn to Christ or Christian Culture? (Benjamin Vincent on The Gospel Coalition)
• Not for Granted: Giving Thanks May Be the Humblest Thing You Do (Abigail Wallace)
• Amazon Data Center Linked to Cluster of Rare Cancers (Joe Wilkins on Futurism)
• IW329303 4 ME AT 60 (Andy Clarke)
• Christmas Tree / Create Day / Chatbots (Joe Crawford)
• Today’s Right (Joe Crawford)
• Misunderstanding Porn (Matthew Loftus on Mere Orthodoxy)
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, and the Most Inspired Dialogue I’ve Ever Had (Randy Alcorn)
• The Jeopardy Phenomenon (Chris Coyier)
• Studio Notes #62 (Dan Cederholm) – A lot of good finds in this one.
• Web Design / Dev Advent Calendars for 2025 (Adrian Roselli)
• Tension: Reflections from Leading Design conference 2022 (Amy Hupe)
• Out of Season (Darryl Dash) – Good advice for any of us.

What I watched

‘Forks Out’: A Benoit Blanc Sesame Street Mystery (YouTube)

Daniel Craig’s reaction to Sesame Street’s Beignet Blanc (YouTube)

Patrick Mahomes the Second (Instagram) KC area school Christmas concert

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SNF on NBC (@snfonnbc)

• Prep and Landing, Prep and Landing: Naughty vs. Nice, Prep and Landing: Snowball Protocol (ABC)
• A Man on the Inside, Season 2 (Netflix)
• The Voice (NBC)
• Watson (CBS)
• Project Runway (Netflix)
• Ocean’s 8 (Netflix)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) – I just started season 3
• Matlock (Paramount+)
• The Great British Baking Show Holidays – We enjoyed the Scottish “all-stars” celebrating Hogmanay

Caught My Eye

Scroll animations with CSS on Codepen – A great demo of different scroll-driven animations with CSS.

In Common Lighting – I love the detail on this page with light and dark toggle. (via Piccililli)

Ellen Lupton’s “Oh no” Typography videos (Instagram) – I love these videos. I love how she incorporated her cooking with these. (via SimpleBits)

Dimensions (via SimpleBits) – A great database of measured drawings.

What I listened to

• Modern CSS quick hits: range syntax, grid-lanes, random() and more (General Musings with Kevin Powell)
• Shop Talk Show #693: Hobbies, Puzzle Game Circuit, and Web Monetization News
• Episode 18: The dot of shame (One Footer in the Grave) – I enjoyed the discussion about different working styles and locations.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week.
• Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – Reading through the Bible this year with this devotional.
• Telling a Better Story (Joshua Chatraw)
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper)
• Keep Going (Austin Kleon) – Finished this one.
• Star Trek and Faith: Volume 1 (Mark Hansard)

Walking – 13. 5 miles

I got back out again after work on most of the days this week. I have a small group on Wednesday night and we had a plumber over on Friday fixing a leak in our water main. I would like to be able to get in at least 12 miles a week. It is also a great time to listen to podcasts.

• Monday – 3.23 miles in 58 minutes
• Tuesday – 3.47 miles in 1 hour 2 minutes
• Thursday – 3.12 miles in 58 minutes
• Saturday – 3.67 miles in 1 hour 8 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I went 4-0 this week. I am close to setting the MLB record for most wins in a season.
• NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I beat the Thunder twice in OKC.

The post Weeknotes 25:49 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I appreciated Thanksgiving Day more this year after spending last year isolated from my family with a stomach virus. It was so good to be back with my family and celebrating our normal traditions.

Here is what Thanksgiving looks like for us:

• My youngest makes muffins on Wednesday so that we can eat muffins for breakfast on Thursday morning
• We start the day by watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. My wife and daughters really enjoy the musicals and the Rockettes.
• Next, we watch the National Dog Show. I remember watching the first one when my oldest was just a year old.
• The dog show ends around 2 p.m. We usually eat our Thanksgiving meal within an hour of the dog show being over. We enjoyed our feast of turkey, stuffing (Stove Top), cornbread dressing (what my wife grew up with), mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, pasta salad, corn, yeast rolls, and Hawaiian rolls.
• After the meal, I help clean up. After that, everyone usually scatters for a couple of hours.
• Depending on how long people scatter for, we will either start putting up our Christmas tree or eat dinner or switch the order if it is later in the day. This year we did a catch what you can dinner (I had a turkey sandwich with stuffing and potatoes. After dinner, we put up the tree.
• After the tree went up, we usually watch a movie together. We use to have a tradition of watching Miracle on 34th Street (1994). This year, we watched Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical.

On Friday, we ended up splitting up. My son and I went to a college basketball game at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. That has become a tradition for us these past four years he has been in college. My daughters and wife went to see Wicked for Good. We came back together and ordered Cava and then watched Robin Hood, the animated Disney movie. It was one of my favorites as a kid and I had been wanting to watch it again recently.

Articles I read

• Studio Notes #59 (Dan Cederholm)
• Blue Beanie Day (Awareness Days)
• Evangelism Tips from Romans 1-2 (Darryl Dash)
• Essentials (Chris Ferdinandi)
• The line and the stream. (Ethan Marcotte)
• Trimmed and Set on Fire (Tim Challies)
• In Prayer, Structure Serves Spontaneity (Trevin Wax on The Gospel Coalition)
• The New Lab Rats For Gender Drug Tests (Stephen McAlpine)
• The Danger of Defensive Sanctification (Tim Challies)
• Knowing Jesus Should Make Us Better Stewards of Creation (Sam Allberry on The Gospel Coalition)
• A garden in bloom (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Leavings (Doc Searls)
• Background Image Opacity in CSS (Jim Nielsen)
• Keyframe Offsets (Adam Argyle)
• The Global Church Needs More than American Worship Songs (Trevin Wax on The Gospel Coalition)
• The Secular Liturgy of ‘Goodnight Moon’ (Dan Olson on The Gospel Coalition) – On a separate note, I found out that the Boston Sheraton Hotel has a Goodnight Moon Suite.
• Infinite Marquee Animation using Modern CSS (Temani Afif on Frontend Masters Blog) – I wish support for these features was more widely available. I built this type of component several months ago and I had to repeat the content three times–two for the marquee animation to run smoothly and a third for a pause functionality that the client wanted.
• Using @starting-style and transition-behavior for enter and exit stage effects (Adam Argyle) – I played around a bit with this using a dialog Codepen I forked from Kevin Powell (back when dialogs became widely supported). Still trying to figure out how to animate the dialog on close when clicking the backdrop. The positioning is off. And had trouble animating the backdrop when closing the dialog closes. (same link)
• Why use React? (Jeremy Keith)
• Are You Still Gospel-Centered? (Jared Wilson on Desiring God)
• Writing, Context, Cleverness  (Joe Crawford) – An interesting article sparking thoughts of how much context should we give in our writing to be more inclusive to newer readers. I also enjoyed exploring Joe’s site (I read his articles with RSS) and thinking about incorporating some more pages on my site like Now or Colophon.
• Treat People like Adults (T. M. Suffield)
• It’s been a very hard year (Andy Bell) – I appreciated Andy’s vulnerability in this post. I wish I had done more to promote his courses during his Black Friday sale. I bought JavaScript for Everyone earlier this year and highly recommend Piccalilli’s courses. I would love to work at the sort of agency that Andy has built with Set Studio.
• Internet Handle (Dan Abramov)
• Telling a Better Story (Todd Pruitt)
• light-dark() isn’t always the same as prefers-color-scheme (Stefan Judis) – Good to know. I would like to switch over to using light-dark() on this site.
• Everything Is Television (Derek Thompson)
• Television is the Worst (Jonathan Snook)
• Is Artificial Intelligence Demonic? (Stephen Steele)
• You Are Not Paid to Write Code (Tyler Treat)
• Installing web apps (Jeremy Keith)
• Studio Notes #60 (Dan Cederholm)
• One thing churches do well (Dave Rupert)
• Getting Creative With HTML Dialog (Andy Clarke on CSS Tricks)
• Move Modal in on a… shape() (Chris Coyier on Frontend Masters Blog) – I like this interaction.
• When to Use Modal vs Dialog Components (Team A11Y Collective)
• Use overscroll-behavior: contain to prevent a page from scrolling while a <dialog> is open (Bramus) – I am excited about this. At some point in the near future, we are not going to need any JavaScript to use the dialog element.
• Open Source Pledge – I like the idea behind this initiative. “Open Source Pledge is a group of companies with a shared commitment to paying the maintainers of the Open Source software we all consume. Our goal is to establish a new social norm in the tech industry of companies paying Open Source maintainers, so that burnout and related security issues such as those in XZ and Apache Log4j can become a thing of the past.”
• Snotmotion’s squidgy stop-motion shorts reenact the slapstick qualities of sport (Sudi Jama on It’s Nice That) – Another golden find from Dan Cederholm. Watch their shorts on their YouTube channel.

Inspiration

Dan Cederholm shared several links in his Studio Notes this week that I enjoyed.

• Modern Illustration Archive – An archive of illustration from c.1950-1975, shining a spotlight on pioneering illustrators and their work. I shared the link with my son (a graphic design student) and he was really excited about it. He may use it for inspiration for several projects for his senior show that he is working on.
• Flowers of Fire: Illustrations from Japanese Fireworks Catalogues (ca. 1880s) – This is pretty cool to look at how they illustrated what the fireworks would look like when exploded.
• All Aboard! (Vedad Siljak) – A collection of TYCO catalogue illustrations. I had a TYCO race track when I was younger. I also like the one of the “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.”

What I watched

Forevergreen (YouTube)

How to use Web Components, and why you’d want to (Kevin Powell on YouTube) – Watching this got me excited about Web components. I plan to start Scott Jehl’s course in the new year. Already have an idea of making something I built recently into a Web component.

• You didn’t lose your attention span. It was stolen. (Jared Henderson, YouTube)
• Snortmotion Short ? 3 (YouTube) – I relate to the last one as my club went flying into a water hazard on my first hole the first time I played golf.
• Everybody Loves Raymond 30th Anniversary Reunion (CBS) – My wife and I watched most of the episodes of this show. It was also fun to see Phil Rosenthal in his element.
• Watson (CBS)
• Dancing with the Stars finale (ABC) – I was more engaged with reading articles on Instapaper but I did stop and watch some of the dances. My oldest was the most excited about it as she has been watching this season.
• The Muppets (2011) (Disney+)
• Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC) – This is a family tradition. I appreciated it more this year after being sick last year and being isolated from my family on Thanksgiving day.
• The National Dog Show (NBC) – Another family tradition. I watched the first one the year my oldest was just a little over a year old.
• Frozen: The Musical (Disney+) – I enjoyed the Broadway show adaptation.
• Robin Hood (Disney+) – This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I have been wanting to watch it again recently.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week.
• Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – Reading through the Bible this year with this devotional.
• Telling a Better Story (Joshua Chatraw)
• Not Old, Not Young, Not Done. (Christopher Ash) – I finished this one on Wednesday. One of the favorite books I have read this year.
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper)
• Keep Going (Austin Kleon) – I picked this one back up on Saturday.
• Star Trek and Faith: Volume 1 (Mark Hansard) – Mark is one of my good friends. I am excited to read this as I was along for the journey over the last several years as it transformed from idea to published work. I also helped out in a couple of ways.

Walking

I was hoping to build on the momentum from last week. And with taking time off, I thought I would get out more often. Less structure meant I did not get them in. It rained on Tuesday. And I didn’t make time the rest of the week. I did get out Monday and my youngest went with me.

• Sunday – 4 miles in 1 hour 14 minutes
• Monday – 3.75 miles (estimate) in 1 hour

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I went 4-1 this week.
• NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I went 2-1 including a comeback win against the Celtics. My loss was a 3 point loss to the Suns. I had tied it but was unable to keep them from scoring despite tough defense.

The post Weeknotes 25:48 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

Happy Blue Beanie Day. I think it is important to recognize this day because Web standards and accessibility still matter. And I think it matters more than ever to highlight the need to follow Web standards and to champion accessible content.

I wrote an article back in 2009 about why I use Web standards and the list still holds true today.

The Web platform is getting better and better. We have dialogs that will soon need no JavaScript to open or close or to prevent scrolling on the page underneath it. We have scroll-driven animations in most browsers. We have the detail element that allows for native accordion functionality. CSS just keeps getting better and better.

Happy Blue Beanie Day. Long live Web Standards, the Indie Web, accessible content, and the Open Web.

The post Blue Beanie Day 2025 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.

I created my first scroll-driven animation using the CSS animation API this week! And it was so easy to create. Bramus’ Unleash the power of Scroll Animations course was incredibly helpful. The lesson on Animate Elements in Different Directions was just what I needed to create a scroll-driven timeline for a project I have been working on. The solution uses progressive enhancement to support browsers that do not yet support view-timeline.

I pulled the content I started here and created a separate post, I created my first scroll-driven animation in CSS. I share some code and videos of both solutions.

Early in the week, I felt like Scrat as I was optimizing the annual project report for smaller screens. As I have mentioned in the past, I write mobile-first CSS but my process is to start with the desktop and then go back and refactor my code for smaller screen layouts.

As I was working on this phase of the project on Tuesday, I felt like holes kept springing up. I would fix one thing but find another problem. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. But I did not give up and by Wednesday, I had most things resolved and things were going a lot smoother. I was aiming to have the project at a good place to be reviewed by other teams while I took vacation time during Thanksgiving week. And then I will address that feedback and finish up the project to launch early in December.

At the fair, at the fair, at the fair

I enjoyed seeing my youngest perform in Charlotte’s Web at Chattanooga State Community College over the weekend. This is the third production she has performed in at Chatt State. She was an assistant stage manager for a show earlier in the Fall.

She played one of the narrators for the story. They interact with the play and assume some ensemble roles along the way. One of their memorable lines that they say all together is, “At the fair, at the fair, at the fair.” She did a great job. The role was perfect for her as she is so expressive.

Articles I read

• Alchemy (Josh Collinsworth)
• Providers (Jeremy Keith)
• Why Euthanasia Feels Intuitive (Tim Challies)
• Sir Dave Coulier (Joe Crawford)
• The Man Who Plays Pastor (Tim Challies)
• An Update On My Involvement In Standards (Adam Argyle)
• On Being a Playful Father (O. Alan Noble)
• Is A Big Fat Audacious Hairy Revival On Its Way? (Stephen McAlpine)
• It’s Here: Gen-Z Revival Hits Campuses This Fall (Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra on The Gospel Coalition)
• Tahoe’s Terrible Icons: The B-Sides (Jim Nielsen)
• Why Non-Christians Oppose Transgender Ideology (Alan Shlemon)
• Difficult Does Not Mean Cryptic and Mysteries Aren’t Meant To Mystify (Tim Challies)
• Site Updates (Joe Crawford)
• Grace upon Grace: What Happened When John Piper Missed Our Conference (Carl Jan Christian Roth on The Gospel Coalition)

What I watched

Why You Should Move To Hungary (YouTube) – I enjoyed hearing this Dane share why he likes living in Hungary. I have had several life-changing experiences in Hungary and it was fun to hear from someone else who has fallen in love with this country and its people.

• The Voice (NBC)
• Boston Blue (CBS)
• Watson (Paramount Plus)
• Matlock (CBS)
• Strange New Worlds (Paramount Plus)
• Hidden Strike (Netflix)
• The Adam Project (Netflix) – I enjoyed revisiting this movie and sharing it with my wife.
• A Man On The Inside – Season 2 (Netflix) – We watched the first episode on Saturday night.

What I listened to

• Subgrid is kind of complicated (General Musings with Kevin Powell) – Like Kevin, I have used Grid more for smaller page solutions than creating a grid structure for the whole page. I used a lot of different grids for layout in different sections of the page or in the hero. So I have never found it very complicated. But I have also not used subgrid that often. I have used it a couple of times recently but those were pretty simple layouts.
• Steve Ruiz and tldraw (ShopTalk Show Episode 690) – I am interested to check out tldraw after hearing this episode.

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week.
• Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – Reading through the Bible this year with this devotional.
• Telling a Better Story (Joshua Chatraw)
• Not Old, Not Young, Not Done. (Christopher Ash)
• All That Jesus Commanded (John Piper)
• Keep Going (Austin Kleon) – I picked this one back up on Saturday.

Walking

I decided to be more intentional in walking this week and got out at the end of the workday. It was a nice way to transition from work each day and to detach myself. I have been quite focused on the project I have been working on so it was nice to get out and enjoy being outside and being good to my body. I am excited to build on this momentum and hopefully develop it into a habit again.

• Sunday – 2.6 miles in 49 minutes
• Monday – 3.56 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes
• Tuesday – 2.74 miles in 53 minutes
• Thursday – 2.54 miles in 46 minutes
• Friday – 3.05 miles in 58 minutes

What I played

• MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I went 4-1 this week and clinched the A.L. Central Division title. I have a shot at the single season record for games won (116). I currently have 107 wins with 19 games left to play.
• NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – With the new NBA season starting last month, I was motivated to pick up where I left off. I came away with a win and did not feel too rusty after a long stretch of not playing this game.

The post Weeknotes 25:47 appeared first on Jeff Bridgforth.