Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/cassidoo/blahg

README.md

@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 
 Hello, welcome. This is a blog, or digital garden, or whatever. It's built with Astro!
 
+## See the blahg
+
+[blog.cassidoo.co](https://blog.cassidoo.co)
+
 ## Run it yourself
 
 All commands are run from the root of the project, from a terminal:

package.json

@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@
 		"astro": "astro"
 	},
 	"devDependencies": {
-		"@astrojs/rss": "^2.1.1",
-		"@astrojs/sitemap": "^1.1.0",
-		"astro": "^2.0.15",
+		"@astrojs/rss": "^2.4.3",
+		"@astrojs/sitemap": "^1.3.3",
+		"astro": "^2.6.6",
 		"prettier": "^2.8.4",
 		"prettier-plugin-astro": "^0.8.0"
 	}

src/components/ColorScript.astro

@@ -20,9 +20,5 @@
 	(function () {
 		setRandomLinkColor();
 		setColorHoverListener();
-
-		setInterval(() => {
-			setRandomLinkColor();
-		}, 3000);
 	})();
 </script>

src/posts/crushing-the-impostor-syndrome.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ title: "Crushing the Impostor Syndrome"
 slug: impostor-syndrome
 description: "Sometimes you don't feel like you're good enough, and that you're fooling everyone.  You're not alone."
 added: "Jul 23 2013"
-tags: [advice]
+tags: [advice, musings]
 ---
 
 I originally wrote this post on CycloneLife.com for Iowa State, and it went completely viral on the front page of Reddit, featured on 99u.com, and several other blogs and websites.

src/posts/dear-early-may-cassidy.md

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+---
+layout: "../layouts/BlogPost.astro"
+title: "Dear Cassidy of 2 months ago"
+slug: dear-early-may-cassidy
+description: "A letter to my past self about the roller coaster of emotions I've been through."
+added: "Jul 12 2023"
+tags: [learning, personal]
+---
+
+Hey Cassidy of 2 months ago,
+
+Baby Nadia is 2.5 months old now and is the best. Truly. The hormonal mood swings are lying to you.
+
+You're going to cry a whole lot over the next few weeks. You'll feel anxious, and angry, and sad, and feel like this was a mistake. You'll look at your baby and wonder what you've done. You'll go on walks to try and clear the clouds in your head (and also to try and physically heal), and they'll sometimes work (temporarily). You'll have wonderful people around you to help you out, and as grateful as you are, you'll still feel sad.
+
+That sadness **sucks**. It's irrational. You've got such a good baby who eats well, and sleeps (relatively) well, and loves to kick literally all day long like a little baby Mia Hamm. Even when she cries, she's cute. But the hormones are lying to you and telling you to be sad anyway.
+
+Finally, after a few weeks of trying therapy and a support group, your doctor is going to tell you "enough is enough" and prescribe you some antidepressants to try and get you out of the funk. You're going to be nervous about it, but several of your friends give you stories of their experiences about how helpful they are at regulating your feelings. And then, coincidentally, the day you pick them up from the pharmacy... the clouds will clear. You'll never actually need to take the pills (at least we haven't so far, heh). The sadness just... stops, and you'll suddenly enjoy hanging out with the baby.
+
+It's super weird how it happens. Truly you just suddenly feel like yourself again, 2 days after crying to the doctor at the 6-week checkup. Your shows will be funny again, and you like playing Zelda again, and your appetite comes back, and you actually clean your house (at least a little, you have a baby to take care of). Holding the baby is suddenly a joy, rather than a burden. Instead of thinking about how daunting it is to have this human around forever, now you'll think, "we'll cross tough bridges when we get there," and just enjoy the time now.
+
+Annnnnd then your breastmilk dries up, and you get your first period since the baby, and you'll be sad all over again. You'll go back on your walks, you'll cry the whole time, and you'll wake up each day almost angry that you can't kick these feelings out of your system. But just make it through that for a couple weeks, and you'll be okay again.
+
+We're at the 2.5 month mark now. Nadia slept 10 WHOLE HOURS last night. She's started to laugh when you make silly faces at her, and she's guzzling formula like a tank. She is so cuddly and loves it when you read books to her. She coos a ton and it **almost** sounds like she's saying "I love you" back, and we're just going to pretend that's on purpose.
+
+You can make it through, Cassidy of 2 months ago. A lot of people tell you that parenthood is hard forever, and it is. It's unreal how hard it is. But those hormone swings (and impossible sleep patterns) make it harder than ever. It gets easier, and you get braver. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it.

src/posts/feedback-is-awesome.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ title: "Feedback is awesome"
 slug: feedback-is-awesome
 description: "I love getting feedback from people.  You learn most from it."
 added: "Feb 22 2014"
-tags: [advice]
+tags: [advice, musings]
 ---
 
 Today was a great day full of feedback from people.

src/posts/loving-hating-streak.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ title: "Loving and hating the streak"
 slug: the-streak
 description: "I have a love/hate relationship with my GitHub streak."
 added: "Jan 27 2023"
-tags: [work, personal]
+tags: [work, personal, musings]
 ---
 
 My GitHub streak right now is like, really good. Today marks 1 full month: I haven't missed a day of committing since December 27th! Whew! Watch out world! She's a woman in STEM! She's a girl who codes! Live, laugh, love!

src/posts/memorize-quotes.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ title: "Memorize quotes"
 slug: memorize-quotes
 description: "Memorizing quotes is probably one of my favorite easy 'life hacks'."
 added: "Mar 27 2023"
-tags: [advice, personal]
+tags: [advice, musings]
 ---
 
 When I was young, my parents gave me a poster I put on my wall of a bunch of different inspirational quotes from various people. Every morning as I got dressed, I'd have the quotes up in my face, and slowly but surely I started memorizing them and internalizing them. There were inspirational ones like:

src/posts/my-broken-language-brain.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ title: "My language brain is... broken?"
 slug: broken-language-brain
 description: "I think in one language when I hear another, and... I have no idea why."
 added: "Nov 29 2022"
-tags: [personal, learning]
+tags: [personal, learning, musings]
 ---
 
 I visited my in-laws in South Korea recently, and it was really awesome being able to see them. I don't speak Korean, but I've picked up enough words here and there to be able to somewhat understand the high-level topic of conversation, and nodded suuuper enthusiastically if they smiled at me.

src/posts/open-standards-are-cool.md

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+---
+layout: "../layouts/BlogPost.astro"
+title: "Open standards, trust, and Google"
+slug: open-standards-are-good
+description: "We should build and use software that uses open standards, and be careful about the companies in which we place our trust."
+added: "Jun 21 2023"
+tags: [musings]
+---
+
+Seeing Google [kill off and sell Google Domains](https://9to5google.com/2023/06/15/google-domains-squarespace/) is such a big surprise to me. It shouldn't be, given they've [shut down waaay more than that](https://killedbygoogle.com/). I'm still annoyed at them stopping the [Google Code Jam competitions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Code_Jam) and [Hangouts](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/06/google-hangouts-finally-gets-a-shutdown-date-november-2022/) and [G Suite](https://9to5google.com/2022/01/19/g-suite-legacy-free-edition/) and... way too many other services.
+
+The domains service felt different, for some reason. It was something that it felt like they were investing a lot into (didn't they _just_ come out with the [.zip TLD](https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/05/the-new-zip-tld-is-going-to-cause-some-problems/) amongst others?) and that people were really trusting. And it made so much money! It served millions of domains!
+
+But... it didn't make _enough_ money. [Why have a business that can make millions of dollars when you can make billions on ads](https://youtu.be/Rqnt17APIbc?t=284)? It's disheartening, but the bottom line is: Because Google is Google, the only thing that we as users can trust is that if they can make money with ads, the product is more likely to live, otherwise it's going to die.
+
+Google has sunk its teeth into our daily lives with Gmail and Google Calendar and YouTube and Drive (and more), and they've made these tools (amongst others, Google Domains included) _really_ convenient. They all _just work_ together, and their APIs are solid enough that third party developers can build off of them relatively easily. And because they own the APIs as a centralized system, developers are at the whim of whatever they decide to change. They can monetize it however they want, and control how content is served to an extent.
+
+Now, don't get me wrong, Google is _not_ the only company that does this. Anyone can look at how [Reddit and Twitter](https://mashable.com/article/social-media-paid-api-internet-future) have changed things for their developers in the past few months because of the dependence on their APIs. Content creators are at the mercy of the platforms that service them, and if TikTok, Facebook/Meta, Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, Medium, Twitter, etc. change, creators have to work even harder to reach their audiences and tailor their content to The Algorithm.
+
+All of this brings me to the topic of **open standards**. I listened to [this 2021 podcast episode](https://www.fastmail.com/digitalcitizen/why-open-internet-standards-are-so-important-to-your-future-with-bron-gondwana/) recently about the importance of open internet standards and it's stuck in my brain as these big changes are announced. When you use communication software that is fully proprietary, you're at the mercy of the creators of that software and how (and sometimes what) they want you to communicate. When you use software based on open standards, you're able to more easily transfer how you communicate and work to other platforms if you want to.
+
+Side note: open standards are different from open source, but both are good things, and [here is an article](https://www.ibm.com/blog/open-standards-vs-open-source-explanation/) about the differences between them.
+
+Now, if you're creating software, I'm sure you might be thinking, "why would I want to make it easy for someone to leave?" To that, I'd honestly probably respond snarkily with, "then just build better software," heh. But real talk, it's about building a good internet citizen. Think: [A rising tide lifts all boats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_rising_tide_lifts_all_boats). When something is built with an open standard, that means it can be improved alongside that standard. When you contribute to the standard in addition to your own software, you're benefitting everyone, which is ultimately good for your business.
+
+Podcasting is a great example of this, being built on RSS. Listeners get to choose where they want to listen, creators get to choose where/how they want to host their shows, and developers get to choose how they support + build on top of features. Plus, RSS has gotten some great improvements thanks to the podcast ecosystem! There's so many more examples like this that deserve credit, using HTTP and JMAP and WebRTC and mooore. The stability of the open standard enables innovation!
+
+Anyway, because of all of these services being killed recently, I personally have been looking to switch away from Google and other softwares that I rely on that don't use open standards, so that I can feel a bit safer about my data. I admit it's fairly challenging (Google Calendar is the only thing supported by most of the scheduling apps I like, ugh, and some things don't have an open standard to work with). But, I hope app devs out there see what's happening as a result of closed systems, and move towards building more in the open and helping push standards forward. [Or building new ones](https://xkcd.com/927/)!

src/posts/private-wins.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ title: "The small, private wins"
 slug: private-wins
 description: "Sometimes I can't really share what I work on, and I just gotta deal with that and be happy!"
 added: "Jan 26 2023"
-tags: [personal]
+tags: [personal, musings]
 ---
 
 There's a bunch of random projects and skills that I work on where I'm hyped to make progress on them, but because it's pre-launch or private (or just not useful/understandable for other people to know), I don't really get to talk about how cool it is.

src/posts/todo-tada.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ title: "Turning todos into tadas"
 slug: todo-tada
 description: "Learning to focus on what I did do, rather than what I didn't."
 added: "May 20 2023"
-tags: [advice, personal]
+tags: [advice, personal, musings]
 ---
 
 Having a baby really has changed my brain more than I ever expected it to. I related a ton to Rach Smith's [post about the inevitable mental breakdown you get in early motherhood](https://rachsmith.com/the-inevitable-menty-b/), in that... everyone tells you how magical motherhood is, and how it's the most important job in the world, and they all congratulate you on how exciting it is. And then, and then, and then: the baby gets here, and your life is no longer your own (at least it feels that way), and any semblance of control you _thought_ you had over where things would go are out the window entirely.

src/posts/trailing-underlines.md

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+---
+layout: "../layouts/BlogPost.astro"
+title: "Removing trailing space underlines from groups of anchor tags"
+slug: trailing-underlines
+description: "Sometimes when you have a bunch of anchor tags, the trailing spaces around them are underlined. Here's how to fix that."
+added: "Jun 14 2023"
+tags: [technical]
+---
+
+Recently as I was working on some styles for my blog, I ran into an issue where I had a block of anchor tags rendered in JSX, and they didn't look right.
+
+![A list of tags with trailing spaces that were underlined](/assets/tagsspaces.png)
+
+All of the links had trailing spaces, and those spaces were being underlined!
+
+## How did we get here?
+
+I had an array of tags, and they were being displayed in a `<div>`, like so:
+
+```jsx
+<div>
+	{tags.map((tag) => (
+		<a class="tag" href={`#`}>
+			#{tag}
+		</a>
+	))}
+</div>
+```
+
+I didn't fully understand why the underlined, trailing space was being rendered, and weeped as the gods of JavaScript mocked me.
+
+After getting over it, I tried changing the `word-wrap` and other various CSS styles to fix the links, with no success. I admit it took me way longer than I expected to find a solution, and I wrote this blog to save me from my future self who will inevitably run into this problem again.
+
+## How did we overcome?
+
+Turns out, if you add `display: inline-block`, it removes the underlines in the spaces!
+
+Here's a CodePen to show this lil CSS trick in action!
+
+<p class="codepen" data-height="300" data-theme-id="light" data-default-tab="css,result" data-slug-hash="BaGjpBe" data-user="cassidoo" style="height: 300px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; border: 2px solid; margin: 1em 0; padding: 1em;">
+  <span>See the Pen <a href="https://codepen.io/cassidoo/pen/BaGjpBe">
+  Underlined spaces in blocks of links</a> by Cassidy (<a href="https://codepen.io/cassidoo">@cassidoo</a>)
+  on <a href="https://codepen.io">CodePen</a>.</span>
+</p>
+<script async src="https://cpwebassets.codepen.io/assets/embed/ei.js"></script>
+
+The end, stay safe, nerds.