It was 10 years ago when I ended up starting to play ice hockey. I had tried playing baseball again but ended up hurting my shoulder so I opted for trying something new.
For 2 years after college I tried getting back into playing baseball. I played for an adult league in Philly for 2 seasons and had some fun. In the process I ended up hurting my shoulder which led me to physical therapy.
I had been getting into watching and following hockey more at that point, and had considered trying it, but nothing ever came of it. My physical therapist had different ideas. He mentioned a local rink had an instructional league where they have 6 weeks of instruction followed by 10 weeks of games (playing once a week every Monday). He happened to mention it the Monday before the next season started. I thought about it and decided I was in.
I filled out the form, wrote a check and asked my fiancé (now wife) to drop the form and check off at the rink since she worked nearby. Then Thursday after work I went over to TotalHockey and bought all the gear, and Monday I was on the ice for the very first time having never played hockey or even really skated before.
10 years later, I’m playing on 3 teams, playing every position, getting some exercise in, and having a lot of fun. I captain a team in one men’s league, play on another, and am still in the instructional league, though now as a goalie rather than a skater.
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying playing and if I hadn’t had the physical therapist I had, who knows if I would have ever started playing.
There are so many hockey players who have been playing since they could barely walk and there I was, lacing up my skates for the first time approaching my 29th birthday. It just goes to show that it’s never too late to start or learn something new!

10 Years of Playing Hockey

Over the course of the last month, I’ve been reading a three book series written by Ian W. Toll on the history of World War II in the Pacific. I’m currently on the second book and I can’t recommend it enough.
I heard about this series on a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cE5-Ze6EcU">Hardcore History Addendum Episode</a> and it dawned on me that while I knew quite a bit about the war in Europe against Nazi Germany, I didn’t know a great deal about the war in the Pacific Ocean against Japan. The interview was interesting and it inspired me to buy the three books and add them to my reading list.
<PostImage
 src="/images/posts/2023-05-21-ian-w-tolls-pacific-war-trilogy/ian_toll_trilogy.jpg"
 alt="The three massive books in Ian W. Toll's Pacific War Trilogy"
 width={1200}
 height={978}
 centered
 shadowed
/>
If you’re interested in history, they’ve been a great read so far. Toll does a great job talking and explaining what happened and who the characters involved were. He does it in such a way that is not dull, but informative and interesting. Some books on history can be dull and sometimes dry, these books are not one of them.
Here are the links to buy the books on bookshop.org.
<ul>
<li>Book 1: <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/pacific-crucible-war-at-sea-in-the-pacific-1941-1942-ian-w-toll/8754662?ean=9780393343410">Pacific Crucible</a></li>
<li>Book 2: <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-conquering-tide-war-in-the-pacific-islands-1942-1944-ian-w-toll/8758811?ean=9780393353204">The Conquering Tide</a></li>
<li>Book 3: <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/twilight-of-the-gods-war-in-the-western-pacific-1944-1945-ian-w-toll/13150893?ean=9780393868302">Twilight of the Gods</a></li>
</ul>

Ian W. Toll's Pacific War Trilogy

I enjoy playing hockey and will often play as much as 3 nights a week. Being an adult, I’m stuck with the late ice times so the kiddos can be home and in bed. This means that I’m often not starting games until 10:00 to 10:30pm some nights. This means that I’m not home until midnight some nights. Add in the rush of adrenaline from playing and it’s not a fun combo. I’ve started to settle into a good habit though.
Getting home at midnight after a beer league hockey game on a work night is no fun. What makes it worse is that you’re still amped up, so even if you get into bed, you’re still too “awake” to sleep.
A little before the new year, I tried a new strategy of coming home and reading for 30 minutes to an hour before crawling into bed. It’s a quiet activity that helps calm me down and lower the adrenaline. I’ll sometimes read with one last beer too (which may or may not be for the best, but oh well).
It’s nice to be able to be “productive” and to get something out of the post-game buzz rather than twisting and turning in bed possibly keeping my wife awake. It’s become somewhat of a ritual and in a weird way I kind of look forward to getting comfortable on the couch in a quiet house with my cat and a good book.

Calming Down After Hockey

April wasn’t a bad month. I was productive and was able to finish the month with a well deserved long weekend vacation.
<h2 id="reworking-my-site">Reworking My Site</h2>
Early on in the month I decided to put Astro on hold and instead focus on cleaning up what I already had for my site with Next.js. I took some of the designing I was doing with Astro and applied it to my current platform. The work was fun and in the end my site is now running the latest version of Next.js (for now) and looks a tad bit better. The downside is that I had to remove my photography section and photo blog temporarily while I find a CDN to store the images.
<h2 id="a-nice-long-weekend">A Nice Long Weekend</h2>
At the end of the month, my wife and I went to Cape May, New Jersey to celebrate her birthday. The weather was gorgeous and we were able to check out the local wineries and just sit out on our hotel’s veranda with a drink and read. It wasn’t a full week, but the long weekend was the perfect way to unwind.
<h2 id="hey-were-league-champions">Hey, We’re League Champions!</h2>
The latest I-League season at my rink ended this month and my team was able to win the upper bracket championship. We started the season out rough at 0 - 3, but finished with 7 straight wins to capture the trophy. I managed to get a 1 - 0 shutout to seal the win.
<PostImage
 src="/images/posts/2023-05-02-april-check-in/greenchamps.jpg"
 alt="The Green Team wins the Trophy!"
 width={1920}
 height={1440}
 centered
/>
<h2 id="monthly-round-up">Monthly Round-Up</h2>
🏃🏼‍♂️ Running &amp; Biking
<ul>
<li>Running: I only ended up running 22.9 miles this month.</li>
<li>Biking: Nope</li>
</ul>
🏋🏼‍♂️ Lifting
<ul>
<li>After hitting the 1,000 lbs. mark, I’ve deloaded and am working my way back up. It’s going well, might not be doing the same weight, but am doing more volume.</li>
</ul>
📚 Reading
Finished
<ul>
<li><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/anansi-boys-neil-gaiman/6438691?ean=9780063070738">Anansi Boys</a> by Neil Gaiman</li>
<li><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/heart-is-a-lonely-hunter-carson-mccullers/266374">The Heart is a Lonely Hunter</a> by Carson McCullers</li>
<li><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/pacific-crucible-war-at-sea-in-the-pacific-1941-1942-ian-w-toll/8754662?ean=9780393343410">Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942</a> by Ian W. Toll</li>
</ul>
Started
<ul>
<li><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-conquering-tide-war-in-the-pacific-islands-1942-1944-ian-w-toll/8758811?ean=9780393353204">The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944</a> by Ian W. Toll</li>
</ul>
✍🏻 Writing
<ul>
<li>Continued my reading logs<ul>
<li><a href="https://kpwags.com/reading-log/25">April 7 (#25)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://kpwags.com/reading-log/26">April 14 (#26)</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Continued my Blazor Series with <a href="https://kpwags.com/posts/2023/04/04/digging-into-blazor-entity-framework">Integrating with Entity Framework</a></li>
<li>Wrote about <a href="https://kpwags.com/posts/2023/04/18/libby-and-libraries">Libby &amp; Libraries</a></li>
<li>Wrote about <a href="https://kpwags.com/posts/2023/04/28/some-site-and-design-updates">My Site Updates</a></li>
</ul>
🎮 Gaming
<ul>
<li>Not much of any gaming</li>
</ul>
📺 Watched
<ul>
<li>Finished <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8806524/">Star Trek Picard</a></li>
<li>Continuing <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112178/">Star Trek Voyager</a></li>
<li>Started re-watching <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191671/">Elementary</a></li>
<li>2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs</li>
</ul>
🎬 Movies
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343092/">The Great Gatsby</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/">The Shawshank Redemption</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1649418/">The Gray Man</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454848/">Inside Man</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>
Update 5.2.2023 : Fixed Duplicate Header

April Check-In

Over the course of the last month or so, I’ve been tweaking the design of my site. You might have noticed the changes to the look and the feel.
Playing around with Astro I realized that I wanted to give my site a bit of a refresh. And given that I’ve put Astro on hold for the time being, I figured I’d take a break and apply some of the refreshes I was developing with Astro to my Next.js implementation.
Some of the changes that I made:
<ul>
<li>Removed the font options. I know it kind of feels like removing functionality, but I thought more about it and it will be easier for me to handle typography. I chose the monospaced font because I like the way it looks and feels.</li>
<li>Better handled my <a href="https://kpwags.com/bookshelf">bookshelf</a>, <a href="https://kpwags.com/tv">TV</a>, <a href="https://kpwags.com/movies">movies</a>, &amp; <a href="https://kpwags.com/video-games">video game</a> pages. I didn’t like the way I was handling the wider widths so I laid out the HTML elements better to allow for a wider width for the pages.</li>
<li>Changed the look and feel of blog headers both on the entry page and on the listing pages.</li>
<li>Improved the header to allow for search and theme picking from mobile.</li>
<li>Added a proper 404 page.</li>
<li>Cleaned up all the front matter in my blog posts since they were all over the place depending on when I wrote the post.</li>
<li>Added <a href="https://sandpack.codesandbox.io/">Sandpack</a> support for future posts where I want to include a code sandbox.</li>
<li>Switched from Prism to <a href="https://codehike.org/">Code Hike</a> for my code blocks.</li>
<li>Upgraded Next.js to v13.</li>
</ul>
The one downside that I came across was upgrading to Next.js 13 caused some issues with deploying my site to Netlify. I’ve had to remove my photography pages until I can move the images into a CDN. I had been including them in the project (probably foolishly) and with the upgrade to Next.js and Netlify’s Next.js plugin, it made my deploy way too large. I’ll probably look into S3 or something similar so I can re-add the photographs back. So a bummer, but hopefully only temporary.
I might be making some tweaks here and there, but if you notice anything weird, please let me know.

Some Site & Design Updates

As a kid, I loved it when my parents took me to the library. I read often and loved checking out books to read. As an adult it’s no different.
One of the apps on my iPhone is <a href="https://libbyapp.com/interview/welcome#doYouHaveACard">Libby</a> which allows me to borrow eBooks from my local library. I discovered it during the pandemic and it gives me access to books on my Kindle with the press of a button.
Like physical books, libraries only have so many digital copies available to lend as well. The nice part is that if they have the book you want to read but it’s checked out, you can easily add yourself to the waiting list to get it as soon as it becomes available. Another nice (or maybe not so nice thing from some points of view) is that because it’s digital, once the two weeks the reader has are up, it gets “returned” to the library for the next person. You don’t have to worry about the person before you losing it or returning it a month late.
They haven’t had every book on my reading list, but it’s a nice way to take advantage of what my local library offers.
I’d highly recommend seeing what your local libraries offer digitally, and any other of their services. The Wall Street Journal had a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-money-saving-power-of-your-library-card-8f490455">good article</a> about it a week or so ago.

Libby and Libraries

Wow, 30 issues now of my reading log in its current format! This week I read about Instagram joining the fediverse, Google’s AMP disaster, the importance of core functionality working without JavaScript, and more.
<h2 id="in-depth">In Depth</h2>
&lt;InDepthNotes
 source=&quot;Jay Peters&quot;
 title=&quot;This is Instagram’s new Twitter competitor&quot;
 url=&quot;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/19/23730070/instagram-twitter-app-competitor-leak&quot;">https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/19/23730070/instagram-twitter-app-competitor-leak&quot;</a>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre><code>I deleted my Facebook &amp; Instagram accounts years ago and have never looked back. I’ve also promised to never create an account on a platform Facebook, now Meta owns. I don’t intend to change that. With that said, I like that they seem to be planning on some form of decentralization and tying it into Mastodon/ActivityPub.
</code></pre>
</InDepthNotes>

&lt;InDepthNotes
 source=&quot;Gergely Orosz&quot;
 title=&quot;Is Critical Thinking the Most Important Skill for Software Engineers?&quot;
 url=&quot;<a href="https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/critical-thinking/&quot;">https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/critical-thinking/&quot;</a>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre><code>This struck home for me.

&gt; I can answer why I felt uneasy about asking what a term like idempotency means: it&#39;s because I was admitting that I don&#39;t understand a part of tech jargon. And, to be fair, such admission implies that my professional experience or skills are below the person who knows what this jargon means, and knows how to use it.

In work, it can be hard to admit you don’t know certain terminology, but good teams will not look down on people for asking for clarifications and foster an open environment for everyone to feel comfortable asking questions.

Gergely also had a good point about the thought leaders that have popped up in the industry.

&gt; These people - like myself - share opinions, observations, and views. Many less experienced engineers take these views at face value, assuming as many other people are paying attention to this person, this &quot;famous&quot; person must be right.

It reminds me a lot of the trope “I read it on the internet, so it must be true!”. Some thought leaders are where they’re at because they have studied and used their language and tooling for a long time and know their stuff. Others might not be as experienced. But there’s always a lot of nuance with what they might be pushing. Is it right for you? Despite popular opinion, the true response often comes down to two simple words: “It depends”.

The best advice really comes down to digging in and asking questions about why people are recommending what they’re recommending.
</code></pre>
</InDepthNotes>

&lt;InDepthNotes
 source=&quot;Jeremy Keith&quot;
 title=&quot;Read-only web apps&quot;
 url=&quot;<a href="https://adactio.com/journal/20113&quot;">https://adactio.com/journal/20113&quot;</a>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre><code>I completely agree with Jeremy here.

&gt; The most cartoonish misrepresentation of progressive enhancement is that it means making everything work without JavaScript.
&gt; No. Progressive enhancement means making sure your core functionality works without JavaScript.

My old site on Jekyll worked well with Javascript disabled. There wasn’t much that JS was needed for and most of it was “niceties” rather than key functionality. You could still read all my blog posts and navigate around. I feel like that’s important. I’ve tried to do the same thing on my current blog with Next.js.

I’ve gone back and forth between having JavaScript disabled and not disabled in the browser and while I certainly wouldn’t expect fancier web apps to work without JavaScript, I SHOULD expect that I should be able to read blog posts on a blog.
</code></pre>
</InDepthNotes>

&lt;InDepthNotes
 source=&quot;David Pierce&quot;
 title=&quot;Speed Trap&quot;
 url=&quot;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/23711172/google-amp-accelerated-mobile-pages-search-publishers-lawsuit&quot;">https://www.theverge.com/23711172/google-amp-accelerated-mobile-pages-search-publishers-lawsuit&quot;</a>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre><code>I’ll be completely honest and admit that I didn’t know all that much background on the history of AMP and why it was bad as it was. Reading this was enlightening and there were some quotes that stuck out to me.

&gt; “If Google said, ‘you must have your homepage colored bright pink on Tuesdays to be the result in Google,’ everybody would do it, because that’s what they need to do to survive,” says Terence Eden, a web standards expert and a former member of the Google AMP Advisory Committee.

This only highlights the power Google has. Media outlets are so dependent on Google that whether they like it or not, they have to play by Google’s rules, no matter how crazy they are, or how often they change them.

&gt; As long as anyone played the game, everybody had to. “Google’s strategy is always to create prisoner’s dilemmas that it controls — to create a system such that if only one person defects, then they win,” a former media executive says. As long as anyone was willing to use AMP and get into that carousel, everyone else had to do the same or risk being left out.

This goes back to [Chokepoint Capitalism](https://kpwags.com/posts/2022/12/07/chokepoint-capitalism-a-review), they have them wrapped up so tightly that they’re stuck.

&gt; “You meet with a Facebook person and you see in their eyes they’re psychotic,” says one media executive who’s dealt with all the major platforms. “The Apple person kind of listens but then does what it wants to do. The Google person honestly thinks what they’re doing is the best thing.”

I laughed out loud a little bit there.

The one thing I do remember is Google touting AMP for is for speed. And given how bad the mobile experience on sites can be, I can’t say I don’t understand. I still hold that a well designed site can run beautifully and smoothly on mobile, you just need to design and build it the right way which might not be quite as “profitable”. It seems I’m not the only one with that thought.

&gt; AMP, it turned out, wasn’t even that fast. Multiple publishers ran internal tests and found they were able to make pages that loaded more quickly than AMP pages, so long as they were able to rein in the ad load and extra trackers.

At the end of the day, it’s a good thing that we seem to be moving away from AMP.
</code></pre>
</InDepthNotes>

<h2 id="link-blast">Link Blast</h2>
<h3 id="👨🏼💻-software-development--design">👨🏼‍💻 Software Development &amp; Design</h3>
<a href="https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/announcing-typescript-5-1-rc/">Announcing TypeScript 5.1 RC</a> - Daniel Rosenwasser
<a href="https://webkit.org/blog/14154/webkit-features-in-safari-16-5/">WebKit Features in Safari 16.5</a> - Jen Simmons
<a href="https://davidwalsh.name/array-group">JavaScript Array Group</a> - David Walsh
<a href="https://michaelscodingspot.com/developer-tools/">My 2023 C# Software Developer Tool List</a> - Michael Shplit
<a href="https://www.claudiobernasconi.ch/2023/05/20/asp-net-core-dotnet-8-preview/">The Future of ASP.NET Core: .NET 8 Feature Preview</a> - Claudio Bernasconi
<a href="https://raygun.com/blog/c-sharp-logging-best-practices/">C# logging: Best practices in 2023 with examples and tools</a> - Shane Duggan
<a href="https://jonhilton.net/good-blazor-components/">Good (Blazor) Components are... ?</a> - Jon Hilton
<a href="https://www.phoronix.com/news/Podman-Desktop-1.0">Podman Desktop 1.0 Released As An Alternative To Docker Desktop</a> - Michael Larabel
<a href="https://changelog.com/posts/still-no-silver-bullet">There&#39;s still no silver bullet</a> - Jerod Santo
<a href="https://daverupert.com/2023/05/markdown-images-anti-pattern/">Markdown images are an anti-pattern</a> - Dave Rupert
<a href="https://timdeschryver.dev/blog/refactor-your-net-http-clients-to-typed-http-clients">Refactor your .NET HTTP Clients to Typed HTTP Clients</a> - Tim Deschryver
<a href="https://web.dev/6-css-snippets-every-front-end-developer-should-know-in-2023/">6 CSS snippets every front-end developer should know in 2023</a> - Adam Argyle
<h3 id="🖥-technology--the-internet">🖥 Technology &amp; the Internet</h3>
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/23/meta-sells-giphy-to-shutterstock-for-53m-after-uk-divestment-order/">Following UK antitrust order, Meta sells Giphy to Shutterstock for $53M after buying it for $400M</a> - Paul Sawers
<a href="https://chriscoyier.net/2023/04/21/the-secret-list-of-websites/">“The Secret List of Websites”</a> - Chris Coyier
<h3 id="📈-business--finance">📈 Business &amp; Finance</h3>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/19/23729711/microsoft-cmo-staff-stock-price-pay">Microsoft exec tells employees to improve its stock performance in lieu of raises</a> - Emma Roth
<h3 id="🔬-science">🔬 Science</h3>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/20/1177056829/titanic-scan">A remarkable new view of the Titanic shipwreck is here, thanks to deep-sea mappers</a> - Rachel Treisman
<h3 id="🎧-podcasts">🎧 Podcasts</h3>
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowing-when-to-quit-with-world-poker-champion-annie-duke/id1346314086?i=1000591027157">WorkLife with Adam Grant: Knowing When to Quit with World Poker Champion Annie Duke</a>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/23/1177772441/is-ai-a-job-killer-or-an-up-skiller">The Indicator: Is AI a job-killer or an up-skiller?</a>
<a href="https://www.marketplace.org/shows/make-me-smart/the-pandemics-panic-neglect-cycle-isnt-over/">Make Me Smart #930: The pandemic’s panic-neglect cycle isn’t over</a>
<a href="https://unhandledexceptionpodcast.com/posts/0048-isaaclevin/">The Unhandled Exception #48: Coffee and Code - with Isaac Levin</a>
<a href="https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace/whats-really-at-the-heart-of-the-debt-limit-debate/">Marketplace: What’s really at the heart of the debt limit debate?</a>
<h3 id="🎵-a-song-to-leave-you-with">🎵 A Song to Leave You With</h3>
<h4 id="dave-hause---pedal-down">Dave Hause - Pedal Down</h4>
<YouTubeEmbed id="bH5-6dQcgmM" title="Dave Hause - Pedal Down" />

Wow, 30 issues now of my reading log in its current format! This week I read about Instagram joining the fediverse, Google’s AMP disaster, the importance of core functionality working without JavaScript, and more.

Reading Log - May 26 (#30)

I’ve finally started going through all my RSS feeds, so there’s a lot to this week’s log. The topics are all over the place from the IRS doing what it should have done from the beginning, to a boneheaded decision to add some new top level domains, to the US Supreme Court saving Section 230.
<h2 id="in-depth">In Depth</h2>
&lt;InDepthNotes
 source=&quot;Scott Horsley&quot;
 title=&quot;The IRS is building its own online tax filing system. Tax-prep companies aren&#39;t happy&quot;
 url=&quot;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1176417594/irs-taxes-filing-turbotax-intuit-tax-prep&quot;">https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1176417594/irs-taxes-filing-turbotax-intuit-tax-prep&quot;</a>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre><code>The IRS should have done this from the beginning but the tax prep companies lobbied hard against it. Their greed in hiding the free options is who they have to blame for this. Here’s hoping they follow through for the 2023 tax season.
</code></pre>
</InDepthNotes>

<h2 id="link-blast">Link Blast</h2>
<h3 id="👨🏼💻-software-development--design">👨🏼‍💻 Software Development &amp; Design</h3>
<a href="https://www.infoq.com/news/2023/04/csharp-12-preview/">C# 12: Preview of Three New Features Coming</a> - Almir Vuk
<a href="https://nodogmablog.bryanhogan.net/2023/05/sending-mediatr-notifications-immediately-after-saving-an-entity-with-entity-framework-core/">Sending MediatR Notifications Immediately After Saving an Entity with Entity Framework Core</a> - Bryan Hogan
<a href="https://csharp.christiannagel.com/2023/05/03/minimal-api-growing-with-net-7/">Minimal API growing with .NET 7</a> - Christian Nagel
<a href="https://harshmatharu.com/blog/solid-principles-in-csharp">Solid Principles in C#</a> - Harsh Matharu
<a href="https://eisenbergeffect.medium.com/web-components-2023-spring-update-60c7873adf98">Web Components 2023 Spring Update</a> - Rob Eisenberg
<a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/05/safest-way-hide-api-keys-react/">The Safest Way To Hide Your API Keys When Using React</a> - Jessica Joseph
<a href="https://github.blog/2023-05-09-push-protection-is-generally-available-and-free-for-all-public-repositories/">Push protection is generally available, and free for all public repositories</a> - Zain Malik &amp; Mariam Sulakian
<a href="https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-ui-refresh/">Visual Studio UI Refresh</a> - Kaitlin Brooks, Cherry Wang, &amp; Dante Gagne
<a href="https://www.viget.com/articles/what-even-are-react-server-components/">What Even Are React Server Components</a> - Nick Teslan
<a href="https://rauno.me/craft/nextjs">Crafting the Next.js Website</a> - Rauno Freiberg
<a href="https://keithjgrant.com/posts/2023/04/scoped-css-is-back/">Scoped CSS is Back</a> - Keith J. Grant
<a href="https://christianheilmann.com/2023/05/09/the-ongoing-defence-of-frontend-as-a-full-time-job/">The ongoing defence of frontend as a full-time job</a> - Christian Heilmann
<a href="https://fly.io/blog/js-ecosystem-delightfully-wierd/">The JavaScript Ecosystem Is Delightfully Weird</a> - Sam Ruby
<a href="https://anthonysimmon.com/dotnet-minimal-workers/">Modern minimal workers in .NET</a> - Anthony Simmon
<a href="https://deno.com/blog/kv">Announcing Deno KV</a> - Andy Jiang &amp; Ryan Dahl
<a href="https://ericwbailey.website/published/dont-use-custom-css-scrollbars/">Don’t use custom CSS scrollbars</a> - Eric Bailey
<a href="https://goauthentik.io/blog/2023-05-04-i-gambled-against-react-and-lost">I gambled against React and lost (and I don’t regret a thing)</a> - Jens Langhammer
<a href="https://tobiasahlin.com/blog/previous-sibling-css-has/">Selecting previous siblings with CSS :has()</a> - Tobias Ahlin
<a href="https://tobiasahlin.com/blog/hiding-an-element-if-its-empty/">Hiding Empty Elements with CSS :empty and :has</a> - Tobias Ahlin
<a href="https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2023/05/09/dotnet-background-services/">How to start using .NET Background Services</a> - Khalid Abuhakmeh
<a href="https://www.telerik.com/blogs/big-changes-coming-blazor-dotnet-8">Big Changes Coming for Blazor in .NET 8</a> - Jon Hilton
<a href="https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-dotnet-8-preview-4/">Announcing .NET 8 Preview 4</a> - Jon Douglas
<a href="https://blog.visionarycto.com/p/my-20-year-career-is-technical-debt">My 20 Year Career is Technical Debt or Deprecated</a> - Matt Watson
<a href="https://jamiemagee.co.uk/blog/your-jest-tests-might-be-wrong/">Your Jest tests might be wrong</a> - Jamie Magee
<a href="https://bartwullems.blogspot.com/2023/05/an-alternative-approach-to-structuring.html">An alternative approach to structuring your tests in XUnit</a> - Bart Wullems
<a href="https://gradient.style/">CSS HD Gradients</a>
<a href="https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/accessibility-resources-tools-articles-books-for-designer">Accessibility for designer: where do I start?</a> - Stephanie Walter
<a href="https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/asp-net-core-updates-in-dotnet-8-preview-4/">ASP.NET Core updates in .NET 8 Preview 4</a> - Daniel Roth
<h3 id="🖥-technology--the-internet">🖥 Technology &amp; the Internet</h3>
<a href="https://doctorow.medium.com/two-principles-to-protect-internet-users-from-decaying-platforms-b03327183b9a">Two principles to protect internet users from decaying platforms</a> - Cory Doctorow
<a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/05/twitter-users-fear-new-ceo-will-end-musks-commitment-to-free-speech-on-platform/">Right-wing Twitter worried Musk’s CEO pick could return Twitter to its roots</a> - Ashley Belanger
<a href="https://blog.chromium.org/2023/05/an-update-on-lock-icon.html">An Update on the Lock Icon</a> - _ David Adrian, Serena Chen, Joe DeBlasio, Emily Stark, &amp; Emanuel von Zezschwitz_
<a href="https://financialstatement.zip">The .zip TLD sucks and it needs to be immediately revoked</a> - Swift on Security
<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/15/once-again-free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-caves-to-authoritarian-censorial-bullies/">Once Again, ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Caves To Authoritarian Censorial Bullies</a> - Mike Masnick
<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/18/supreme-court-leaves-230-alone-for-now-but-justice-thomas-gives-a-pretty-good-explanation-for-why-it-exists-in-the-first-place/">Supreme Court Leaves 230 Alone For Now, But Justice Thomas Gives A Pretty Good Explanation For Why It Exists In The First Place</a> - Mike Masnick
<a href="https://9to5google.com/2023/05/16/pixel-dashcam-personal-safety-update/">Google will soon let Pixel phones double as dashcams</a> - Kyle Bradshaw
<h3 id="📈-business--finance">📈 Business &amp; Finance</h3>
<a href="https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2023/05/missing-mortgage-contract-innovation.html">Missing mortgage contract innovation</a> - John Cochrane
<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2023/05/16/1176189034/the-case-for-financial-literacy-education">The case for financial literacy education</a> - Paddy Hirsch
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/espn-lays-plans-to-stream-flagship-channel-eyeing-cable-tvs-demise-ad0fb727">ESPN Plans to Stream Flagship Channel, Eying Cable TV’s Demise</a> - Jessica Toonkel &amp; Sarah Krouse
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1174938708/commercial-real-estate-property-offices-work-from-home-remote-work">A lot of offices are still empty — and it&#39;s becoming a major risk for the economy</a> - Arezou Rezvani
<a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/05/07/what-americas-tiny-banks-do-that-big-ones-dont">What America’s tiny banks do that big ones don’t</a> - The Economist
<h3 id="🔬-science">🔬 Science</h3>
<a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/otc-birth-control-pill-gets-unanimous-vote-in-favor-from-fda-advisers/">FDA advisers vote unanimously in favor of OTC birth control pills</a> - Beth Mole
<a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/more-evidence-emerges-that-saturns-rings-are-much-younger-than-the-planet/">More evidence emerges that Saturn’s rings are much younger than the planet</a> - Jennifer Ouellette
<a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/the-complicated-history-of-how-the-earths-atmosphere-became-breathable/">The complicated history of how the Earth’s atmosphere became breathable</a> - Howard Lee
<a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/a-private-company-has-an-audacious-plan-to-rescue-nasas-last-great-observatory/">A private company has an audacious plan to rescue NASA’s last “Great Observatory”</a> - Eric Berger
<h3 id="🎧-podcasts">🎧 Podcasts</h3>
<a href="https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/04/25/why-social-psychologist-jonathan-haidt-says-americas-institutions-are-in-trouble">On Point: Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt on democracy, social media and how to fix America&#39;s &#39;ailing&#39; institutions</a>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/17/1176781995/the-man-who-busted-the-inflation-employment-myth">The Indicator: The Man Who Busted the Inflation Myth</a>
<a href="https://www.codingblocks.net/podcast/job-hopping-favorite-dev-books/">Coding Blocks #199 - Job Hopping and Favorite Dev Books</a>
<a href="https://pitchforkeconomics.com/episode/america-isnt-lost-its-adrift-with-scott-galloway/">Pitchfork Economics - America isn’t Lost, it’s Adrift (with Scott Galloway)</a>
<a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/11857765-beanie-babies-with-jamie-loftus">You’re Wrong About: Beanie Babies with Jamie Loftus</a>
<h3 id="🎒-everything-else">🎒 Everything Else</h3>
<a href="https://www.inc.com/nick-hobson/kias-logo-redesign-was-a-total-flop-company-did-what-no-brand-should-ever-do.html">Kia’s Logo Redesign was a Total Flop</a> - Nick Hobson
<a href="https://markmanson.net/how-to-make-friends">How to Make Friends as an Adult</a> - Mark Manson
<a href="https://arie.ls/2023/leading-successful-product-teams/">Leading Successful Product Teams</a> - Ariel Salminen
<a href="https://anildash.com/2023/03/14/what-was-selling-out/">What Was Selling Out</a> - Anil Dash
<a href="police-fentanyl-overdose-misinformation%20%20-%20https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1175726650/cops-say-theyre-being-poisoned-by-fentanyl-experts-say-the-risk-is-extremely-low">Cops say they&#39;re being poisoned by fentanyl. Experts say the risk is &quot;extremely low&quot;</a> - Brian Mann
<a href="https://doctorow.medium.com/the-memex-method-238c71f2fb46">The Memex Method</a> - Cory Doctorow
<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/13/us-suburbs-boom-housing-retail">America&#39;s surprise revival: The suburbs</a> - Erica Pandey
<a href="https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2023/site-search-in-arc-browser/">Site Search in Arc Browser — For Your Own Site</a> - Jim Nielsen
<h3 id="🎵-a-song-to-leave-you-with">🎵 A Song to Leave You With</h3>
<h4 id="the-wonder-years---goddamnitall">The Wonder Years - Goddamnitall</h4>
<YouTubeEmbed id="X_hWCZ-sZps" title="The Wonder Years - Goddamnitall" />

I’ve finally started going through all my RSS feeds, so there’s a lot to this week’s log. The topics are all over the place from the IRS doing what it should have done from the beginning, to a boneheaded decision to add some new top level domains, to the US Supreme Court saving Section 230.

Reading Log - May 19 (#29)

This week I look at a new game that helps illuminate what the content moderators of sites like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit have to deal with. I’ve also read about writing better CSS, Bookshop.org’s rise, return to office shenanigans and more.
<h2 id="in-depth">In Depth</h2>
&lt;InDepthNotes
 source=&quot;Mike Masnick&quot;
 title=&quot;Moderator Mayhem: A Mobile Game To See How Well YOU Can Handle Content Moderation&quot;
 url=&quot;<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/11/moderator-mayhem-a-mobile-game-to-see-how-well-you-can-handle-content-moderation/&quot;">https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/11/moderator-mayhem-a-mobile-game-to-see-how-well-you-can-handle-content-moderation/&quot;</a>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre><code>Everyone tends to think that they can do content moderation better than Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and all the other social media sites. The truth of the matter is that it’s not easy. Sure some posts should be pretty obvious they need to be removed, but there’s also a lot more nuance behind it.

&gt; A friend of mine in the trust &amp; safety world once suggested that these conversations would be a lot more useful if everyone had to spend a few days moderating an actual community, and could learn how content moderation is not about “suppressing viewpoints,” but almost always about understanding really complex scenarios in which you have to make decisions in a very limited period of time, with limited information, and where there may not be any “right” answer.

Nails it right on the head. The moderators are having to deal with countless reports in a very short timeframe and are often dealing with content that can be absolutely awful and soul sucking.

This little game helps show some of the pressures and things the moderators have to deal with. I’d highly recommend giving it a go.
</code></pre>
</InDepthNotes>

<h2 id="link-blast">Link Blast</h2>
<h3 id="👨🏼💻-software-development--design">👨🏼‍💻 Software Development &amp; Design</h3>
<a href="https://www.telerik.com/blogs/10-awesome-csharp-refactoring-tips">10 Awesome C# Refactoring Tips</a> - Assis Zang
<a href="https://www.webscope.io/blog/server-components-vs-ssr">Server Components vs. SSR in Next.js</a> - Jan Koriťák
<a href="https://developer.chrome.com/blog/reading-order/">Solving the CSS layout and source order disconnect</a> - Rachel Andrew
<a href="https://matthiasott.com/notes/custom-properties-beyond-the-root">CSS Custom Properties Beyond the :root</a> - Matthias Ott
<a href="https://stackify.com/opentelemetry-dotnet/">A Guide to OpenTelemetry for .NET Engineers</a> - Stackify
<a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/04/write-better-css-borrow-ideas-javascript-functions/">Write Better CSS By Borrowing Ideas From JavaScript Functions</a> - Yaphi Berhanu
<a href="https://lucasfcosta.com/2022/10/02/scrum-versus-kanban.html">You don&#39;t need Scrum. You just need to do Kanban right.</a> - Lucas F. Costa
<a href="https://ishadeed.com/article/rebuild-featured-news-modern-css/">Rebuilding a featured news section with modern CSS: Vox news</a> - Ahmad Shadeed
<h3 id="🖥-technology--the-internet">🖥 Technology &amp; the Internet</h3>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/25/23697532/microsoft-edge-browser-url-leak-bing-privacy">Microsoft Edge is leaking the sites you visit to Bing</a> - Tom Warren
<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/03/01/taamneh-case-gave-us-a-glimpse-of-the-horror-websites-would-face-in-a-post-section-230-world/">Taamneh Case Gave Us A Glimpse Of The Horror Websites Would Face In A Post-Section 230 World</a> - Mike Masnick
<a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/steve-wozniak-ai-killing-people-tesla">Steve Wozniak: If you want to learn about AI killing people, “Get a Tesla”</a> - Victor Tangermann
<a href="https://anderegg.ca/2023/05/09/bluesky-frustrations">Bluesky Frustrations</a> - Gavid Anderegg
<a href="https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2023/04/05/adding-capacity-to-the-electricity-grid-is-not-a-simple-task">Adding capacity to the electricity grid is not a simple task</a> - The Economist
<a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/youtube-tests-blocking-videos-unless-you-disable-ad-blockers/">YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers</a> - Sergiu Gatlan
<h3 id="📈-business--finance">📈 Business &amp; Finance</h3>
<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/books-bookshop-org-thrives-amazon-world/">How Bookshop.org Survives—and Thrives—in Amazon’s World</a> - Kate Knibbs
<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-brian-chesky-ceos-mandating-return-to-office-going-hamptons-2023-5">Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who lets employees work from anywhere, says many CEOs calling workers back to the office are &#39;going away to the Hamptons for the summer’</a> - Sarah Jackson
<h3 id="🔬-science">🔬 Science</h3>
<a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9365/engineers-keep-an-eye-on-fuel-supply-of-nasas-oldest-mars-orbiter/">Engineers Keep an Eye on Fuel Supply of NASA&#39;s Oldest Mars Orbiter</a> - NASA
<h3 id="⚾-sports">⚾ Sports</h3>
<a href="https://defector.com/enough-with-the-blowouts">Enough With The Blowouts!</a> - Lauren Theisen
<h3 id="🎧-podcasts">🎧 Podcasts</h3>
<a href="https://www.econtalk.org/annie-duke-on-the-power-of-quitting/">EconTalk: Annie Duke on the Power of Quitting</a>
<a href="https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/e-suvs-may-be-popular-but-are-they-sustainable/">Marketplace Tech: E-SUVs may be popular, but are they sustainable?</a>
<a href="https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2023/05/04/is-the-business-of-podcasting-sustainable">Money Talks: Is the Business of Podcasting Sustainable</a>
<a href="https://dotnetcore.show/episode-110-jet-brains-and-remote-development-with-maarten-balliauw/">The .NET Core Podcast #110: JetBrains and Remote Development with Maarten Balliauw</a>
<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/freedom-house-ambulance-service/">99% Invisible #405: Freedom House Ambulance Service</a>
<h3 id="🎒-everything-else">🎒 Everything Else</h3>
<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/170242/betrayal-adam-smith">The Betrayal of Adam Smith</a> - Mark Harris
<h3 id="🎵-a-song-to-leave-you-with">🎵 A Song to Leave You With</h3>
<h4 id="the-gaslight-anthem---positive-charge">The Gaslight Anthem - Positive Charge</h4>
<YouTubeEmbed id="Rymbk5I_WlA" title="The Gaslight Anthem - Positive Charge" />

This week I look at a new game that helps illuminate what the content moderators of sites like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit have to deal with. I’ve also read about writing better CSS, Bookshop.org’s rise, return to office shenanigans and more.

RSS Feeds

All Posts

Blog Posts

Reading Logs

Choose Color

Latest Posts

10 Years of Playing Hockey

Ian W. Toll's Pacific War Trilogy

Calming Down After Hockey

April Check-In

Some Site & Design Updates

Libby and Libraries

Latest Reading Logs

May 26 (#30)

May 19 (#29)

May 12 (#28)