Monthly Archives: January 2021

Yesterday’s Inauguration

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January 20th, 2021, was an interesting and enjoyable day.

As a government contractor, I had the day because the government was closed in the DC area for the inauguration.

The bonus was I took an extra day off on Tuesday to give myself a long five day weekend. Doing so gave me a much-needed break from work and allowed me to get things done but still relax too.

My Midday Walk

So I slept in a bit and laid in bed and read some.

Then I realized I need to get going for a walk since I typically take a 20 or 25-minute walk around lunchtime. Today I wanted to be home around noon to watch the inauguration ceremony.

So I got dressed and gathered my things. I then went for an hour and eight-minute walk that covered 3.1 miles in the process.

Late Breakfast

Once back home, I toasted up a piece of baguette that I sliced in half lengthwise. When it was done, I added some cream cheese and strawberry jam to hold me over to closer to noon.

I started eating my breakfast and looking at Twitter to see what everyone was saying about the day’s events.

After a bit more reading, I started some blog post editing. I need to keep ahead of things by a day or more. So all I have to do is edit them the night before posting and maybe a final check the day they go live.

Lunch

For the Inauguration, I wanted a bit of a different meal for the event.

So I made a large bowl of popcorn that fit in my blue plastic bowl that is about 12 inches wide and three inches deep and was filled past the rim.

The main meal items were two types of cheeses, an aged white cheddar, and a stinky Smythe cheese. Two types of cured meats from The Fermented Pig.

Some plain crackers and a super sharp pairing knife I got at the flea market were on my cutting board. I needed a sharp knife to cut the meat and cheese.

The cutting board was from Martha’s Vineyard that I purchased 30+ years ago on a trip there.

NOTE – I need to get back to Martha’s Vineyard again after it’s safe to do so.

Inauguration Ceremony Viewing

I watch the inauguration ceremony on CNN.com since I got rid of my cable TV in the early fall of 2019.

I started watching somewhere about 11:30 AM or so. I was able to see Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez both sing.

I then witnessed history with the swearing-in of Vice President Kamala Harris. She is the first-ever Black, South Asian, and woman Vice President in the United States.

Following that, I watched President Joe Biden get sworn in. He gave an excellent speech on the country needing to unite and work things out together even if people have differences. That’s my summary if you want all the details to watch his speech again on the internet.

Then the star of the show was listening to Amanda Gorman’s poem. She is an American poet and activist from Los Angeles, California.

Today’s “The Hill We Kill” poem during the ceremony was very moving. I even went back and listened to it again later Tuesday evening.

I’m looking for great things from her in the future.

Post Ceremony

Once the ceremony was over, I listened to a bit more of the CNN commentators. At the same time, I was looking to see what friends on Twitter were saying. After some more listening and reading for about an additional 30 minutes, I stopped. I then took a nap on my sofa to unwind a bit.

After the ceremony, I cleaned up my desk of the food, of course.

Once refreshed from about an hour nap, I watched a few videos on YouTube and then for another walk.

Once back from my second walk of the day, I edited a few future blog posts and wrote most of this post.

Later tonight, I plan to do a bit of rereading and editing of this post, so it’s ready for posting on Thursday.

The Future

As for myself and many others, I follow on Twitter. We are all looking for a much quieter four years with Joe Biden as President. Some even said boring would be good for a change, and I agree.

Meaning I expect him to work towards his promises. We need to make sure the House and Senate both work to the benefit of the people of the country they serve and not their parties.

Mostly they need to work towards repairing the divide that has happened in the last four years and ones before it too.

So here is to less drama and more nation-building. While making things safe for all citizens in the United States and abroad.

Read More Books

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The year started out well reading-wise. I was reading a book about every five days or so on average; then, when the pandemic hit, and it slowed up a lot.

Total Books Read

I finished the year strong in December and managed to read 23 books.

Oops, I forgot about a few digital JavaScript books I read with a remote JavaScript book club.

So I ended up with 26 books. There might be others I missed too.

My Plan

I had hoped to read a book a week as my plan, but other things happened, and I didn’t. No, worries since it’s the most books I read in a read ever besides comic books as a kid.

Book Length in Pages

Some books were longer than others and others not so much. A bunch were between 120 and 150 pages others were over 450+ pages.

More YouTube Learning

I started watching more YouTube to learn about different ways to cook, start a small farm, ideas for a tiny house, etc. More on that in another post.

Below is the list of books I read. I had planned to put them in the order I read them, but I managed to knock over the two piles. So they got all mixed up.

List of Books

  • The Tiny MBA – 100 Very Short Lessons about the Long Game of Business by Alex Hillman.
  • Do Agile – Future Proof Your Mindset. Stay Grounded by Tim Drake.
  • How to Listen to Jazz by Ted Gioia
  • Twenty Bits I Learned about Design, Business, and Community by Dan Cedarholm
  • Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? – The Art f Making Zines and Mini-comics by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson
  • The Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Guide by Steve Sando and Julia Newberry
  • Elements of Fire – A Comic Anthology of Color! edited by Taneka Stotts
  • Do Bee-keeping – The Secret to Happy Honeybees by Orren Fox
  • Do Disrupt – Change the Status Quo. Or Become it. by Mark Shayler
  • Cool Beans – The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World’s Most Versatile Plant-based Protein with 125 Recipes by Joe Yonan
  • Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison with Reny Mia Saly
  • Do Preserve  – Make Your own Jams, Chutneys, Pickles, and Cordials by Anja Dunk, Jen Goss, and Mimi Beaven
  • Cartooning – Philosophy, and Practice by Ivan Brunetti
  • Do Listen – Understand What’s Really Being said. Find a New Way Forward. by Bobette Buster
  • Oishinbo – A la Carte – Ramen and Gyoza story by Tetsu Kariya and Art by Akira Hanasaki
  • Do Story – How to Tell Your Story, so the World Listens. by Bobette Buster
  • Form Design Patterns – A Practical Guide to Designing and Coding simple and Inclusive Forms for the Web by Adam Silver
  • Inclusive Design Patterns – Coding Accessibility Into Web Design by Heydon Pickering
  • The Fermented Man – A year on the Front Lines of a Food Revolution by Derek Dellinger
  • The Noma Guide to Fermentation: Including Koji, Kombuchas, Shoyus, Misos, Vinegars, Garums, Lacto-ferments, and Black Fruits and Vegetables by Rene Redzepi and David Zilber
  • Glenn Ganges in The River at Night by Kevin Huizenga
  • The Public Library – A Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson
  • Drawing Book of Faces by Ed Emberley
  • The “You Don’t Know JavaScript Yet” series books by Kyle Simpson
    • Get Started – 2nd Edition
    • Scope and Closures – 2nd Edition
    • this and Object Prototypes – 1st Edition

I will do a more in-depth write up of the ones I like the best in the future.

More Reading in 2021

Here to as much reading in 2021 as in 2020 and more if possible.

Please leave a comment if you read any of these books and what you thought of them.

Attended More Conferences

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I managed to get to many more events this year because of the pandemic and them being remote/online. Which meant not having to take extra time off to travel to them and have all the expenses of travel, hotel, food, etc.

It worked out for me, deciding not to attend CSUN this year. It’s an accessibility conference in Los Angles. As it was scheduled at the beginning of everything, closing up related to the pandemic.

Luckily many conferences had time to switch to remote events. I used my vacation to attend more of them.

Used Vacation to Attend Some Events

A good part of my vacation had been saved by not traveling to any of these events.

In 2020 I attended many remote events. From four or five conferences, a few workshops, a few couple hour-long food classes/demos, some meetups, remote field trips, etc.

I even attended an accessibility camp in Australia because it started at the end of my workday. Which allowed me to participate for a few hours at least before heading to bed.

Events I Attended

Below is the list of events I was able to attend in 2020, with dates listed if possible. I might have missed one or two, but these are most of them.

Here’s to More Remote Events

So here is to these events having remote components in the future when the pandemic is over. Which will allow me and many others to attend that normally couldn’t.

My Plans for Three Days Off

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I have the next three days off, with today being the MLK (Martin Luther King Jr.) holiday. Then Wednesday being the Inauguration, I decided to take Tuesday off too to have a five day weekend.

So I plan to use the three days like a workday and spending eight hours doing things for my projects and learning. It might be broken up more than a workday, but that’s fine.

Video Learning

Each of the days, I plan to spend an hour or two watching my Wes Bos “Beginner JavaScript” video tutorials. During that time, I  will be taking notes and attempting the code examples to get used to coding the syntax.

I plan to spend an hour or two watching and taking notes of Penn and Teller’s Masterclass “Penn & Teller Teach the Art of Magic”.

I’m not necessarily watching Penn and Teller to learn magic, but to learn about storytelling and presentation. If I learn a magic trick or two in the process, all the better.

In the evening, there will be some watching of YouTube videos.  The subjects I want to learn more about are cooking/baking, farming/gardening, tiny houses, etc.

Book Reading

I will finish reading Heydon Pickering’s “Inclusive Components – Accessible Web Interfaces, Piece by Piece”. I need to go back to his other book and Adam Silver’s book to work through the examples a bit more. Below are the other two other books I’m referring to.

Form Design Patterns – A Practical Guide to Designing and Coding simple and Inclusive Forms for the Web by Adam Silver

Inclusive Design Patterns – Coding Accessibility Into Web Design by Heydon Pickering

My next book to start reading is “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything” by BJ Fogg.

Blog Posts

I need to start outlining a few more blog posts and maybe even start the first draft.

My more significant issue is figuring out the best way to link to all the books I read last year. I don’t want to link to Amazon. But I know money is tight for some, so the lower prices and free shipping with having Amazon Prime will help. If I would I need to figure out a code for an organization/charity, I would like the earned money would help them. So need to figure that out before posting that post.

More research is needed. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Odds and Ends

Other things that need to get done over the three days are:

  • Sending out some bills
  • Daily walks
  • Laundry
  • Cleaning the house, especially the kitchen, to make room for new spices and other utensils
  • Etc.

I might even start some sorting or items that I no longer use to donate them or get rid of them. I know where I want to donate all the clothes and the like, to Martha’s Table in DC.

Someone from the DC Code and Coffee group mentioned they are willing to come to Northern Virginia to pick things up with their car. Since they live near Martha’s Table, it wouldn’t be hard to drop them off for me.

Lots to Do But Not Enough Time

That’s a lot to get done while also relaxing some, but at least I have a game plan. If I don’t start on things, I won’t get any of it started or any of it done. Here’s to slow and steady work at the list above.

Any suggestions to help with any of this, please leave a comment.

Accessibility Chat Yesterday

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Yesterday I had I think it’s the third monthly accessibility chat on a Saturday afternoon with those that could make it.

Over the last three months, I have taken some time on a Saturday to chat with people I know and don’t know. It’s been fun seeing people I know that I haven’t seen in months and most likely over a year because of the pandemic.

Meet New People

It’s also been fun to introduce different people I know to each other for the first time. I even had one friend ask if they could get others to come along from social media. I said fine as long as they had people DM them for the link.

I didn’t want to broadcast the link on social media to get people wanting to cause trouble. By doing that, I got to meet a few new people interested in accessibility.

No Topic for Chats

There has been no theme, topic, talk plans, etc. But more to hang out and talk accessibility or whatever comes up. It’s more about building a broader community/connections with people interested in accessibility.

Are others Interested

So I’m looking to see if others are interested in doing more of this and, if so, when. Meaning should we schedule it for the second or third Saturday every month, or is it better to do it every four weeks.

I figure early afternoon on the east coast of the United States could work best. Since it allows those across the pond in Europe or in Africa to attend. It might be a little early for those on the west coast of the country but hoping most will be up by then for the most part.

Please leave a comment on what you would like. Otherwise, I will go with what I have been doing.