Weekly Recap: Sept 11 - 17
Published on 18 Sep 2023I took two days off from work to visit Kyoto with my partner’s family because they found a great deal on a huge, newly renovated kyomachiya accommodation. It was pretty spectacular with exposed wood beams, recessed lighting, an outdoor garden, rotemburo (outdoor bath), and a sunken living room with a velvet couch that created such a lovely central hub to the home. However, Kyoto’s weather was horrifying with extreme heat, creating a real feel of 42C/107.6F in the sun. We were only there for two nights and one full day, so I brought along a parasol for some very sweaty cafe hopping. It was my third or fourth time in Kyoto, so there was no pressure to eat or see specific things. Every time I go there, I feel like there’s really not that much to see outside of the touristy spots during peak sakura or fall leaves, and the subway system is inconveniently limited. I don’t want to go back unless we get a really cool accommodation like this one again.
Despite only working three days, I was surprisingly stressed because I had to present at work for the first time in years. I facilitate large meetings weekly and have no problem speaking in those public settings, but this time was up in front of a podium. Even though my portion of the presentation was blessedly brief and went fine, I still left the office as soon as I could afterwards to decompress for the rest of the afternoon and evening at home. I vaguely recall a presentation I gave to a director at least four years ago, but I’m kind of shocked that I haven’t presented anything since then. My experience seems to back up the consensus of how working at a remote site will stall your career and decrease your visibility, but I can’t imagine working our of the headquarters and being a careerist again. I hate capitalism too much to sell my soul like that now.
In some of my down time this week, I was able to create a light version of my layout and a theme switcher thanks to this extremely easy and straightforward tutorial. The biggest pain was just changing my CSS to use a bunch of variables instead of specifying hex code values in line like I had before. I was surprised that two folks said dark mode was a strain on their eyes and that they thanked me for creating a light mode. I’ve always felt the opposite, but I’m happy that I can provide folks a more comfortable viewing experience now. I really want to create even more versions of my layout now that I have the capability.
In other web-related news, I’m extremely excited about the launch of marigold.town, which is a project run by Alexandra! I’ve already finished coding my submission to the town, and look forward to sharing it with you all soon.