Musings about web and front-end dev, tech and life.

All of my long-form thoughts, collected in chronological order.

Reflecting on a year of living in different times.

It goes without saying just how much these past 12 months have been difficult and different. One giant wake up call. Proving just how fragile we all are and how much we really need each other, now more than ever before. To shift aside what's important and what isn't. To not take things for granted and appreciate what we have. Close to this time last year, no-one could have predicted, face masks, hand sanitisers and social distancing would be seen and heard everywhere. Truly alarming.

Turning 40. Leaving the office behind.

Last weekend I turned 40 and it feels like a really big deal. Sharing some similar feelings of when I became 18 except obviously, this is the half way stage. Whether it's purely just an internal thing or what, it seems like the first part of my book is complete and it's time to embark on the next. So I'm starting a new chapter by leaving the office behind.

The evolving web and traditionalism.

There's a bit of a divide between those that use JS Frameworks and those that don't. The latter I feel, largely comes down to a misunderstanding and / or lack of theory into 'modern development'. The key fundamental tools exist and exist for a reason, however, using the fundamentals in the way they've been used and intended, isn't necessarily how we should continue to build sites for our audiences. As a fairly recent convert to JS frameworks, here's some of my thoughts.

Life on lockdown

10th April, 2020. I'm sat putting this together in advance of my 1 form of daily government sanctioned outdoor exercise, due to the nation being on a lockdown as the world copes with a virus pandemic. Step back a few months, who is anyone to suggest, that soon, they would be living in an era where being in close proximity to a fellow being could prove fatal? Being instructed when and how to clean our hands (?!) and that driving to the shops would seem novelty? The feeling is unimaginable. This is our new norm.

Remote work life, my journey so far. Part 1.

Since mid 2019, I've been meaning to document my journey so far into the remote work life, when I started working from home, part-time, some 6 months prior. With the rise of remote working evidently catching on and with the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more employees are being asked to work from home, now feels like a relative time to share my insight into how the journey so far has been. Note: this is not another guide.

Some of the things I love about Sanity.io

Way back late last year when I was deciding on which headless cms to choose for my newly re-built site (in React & GatsbyJS), I eventually filtered the list of available CMSs down to 3. Contentful, NetlifyCMS and new kid to the block, Sanity.io. Contentful seems to be a popular choice among many, and NetlifyCMS seemed logical as I use Netlifys hosting system. However, I wanted something that had different features than the rest.