Category Archives: Food

Progress with My “Places to Eat” Web Application

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Over five years ago, I blogged about starting my “Places to Eat” web application. Then about the “Places to Eat” application’s progress. I still work on it now and again, mostly adding new restaurants or city/states. You can find my list of restaurants at Gotta Eat Here.

Since then, I have been playing around with the accessibility and usability of the application. I did this to make sure the restaurant information worked for everyone.

Leftover cheeses, cured meats, and even a few veggies on a cutting board in my living room.

The above photo was an excellent snack that I had while starting the research of iOS applications related to finding a place to eat, drink, attend an event, etc.

I still haven’t completed all the research on other applications that you can store places to eat. I need to do the research again and see how the applications have changed when I start over two years ago on this post.

But I have asked people I know or meet at conferences if and how they keep track of where they want to eat when traveling. I have used their feedback in my process to build something easy to use. Along with getting them the restaurant information quickly and easily.

10k Apart Contest

Years ago, An Event Apart and Microsoft put on a contest to build a web-based application in under 10 Kb. It was called 10K Apart. The contest was an easy way to code a light-weight mini-application to display all the places I liked. I have gotten other recommendations from people I know in a given city, or from blog posts/articles, or TV shows.

The plan was to build the main HTML and CSS template in three to four kilobytes. So I had six or seven kilobytes for the content. I used PHP to read in JSON files for each city that contained all the restaurant’s information.

I spent about eight or ten hours building the responsive template. The beautiful thing is there was no primary navigation, so I didn’t have to worry about that. I simply created a drop-down list of cities and states that you could choose. Then people could find out where I recommend they eat n those locations.

10K Apart Entry

The 10K Apart version was only ten restaurants per city, so when the page rendered, it was under 10 kilobytes. I wasn’t sure if the 10K Apart contest would count each page towards the total kilobyte count.

So I built the PHP code to refresh the page with the content back to itself with a full-page reload. At first, I used POST for the form, which hid the location information from the URL. Later on, I changed it to a GET. So I could send people a link that had a city parameter ( slct ) in it to save them having to look things up themselves.

After the 10K Apart Contest

I used the 10K Apart contest entry as my starting point for a much larger version. I built a more comprehensive individual city and state JSON files of places I ate or wanted to eat. I started it to have an easily accessible list for myself, or if people wanted recommendations, I could send them a link.

Since the contest ended, I have added more restaurants, cities, states, etc., that I forgot about previously. Or new places I have tried and would recommend to others since then.

Over time I have even removed a few restaurants because the last few times I went, the food was not as good as it used to be. I have also removed places that have closed. I have removed more spots during the pandemic than at any other time.

With over 75 cities/states and close to 1,000 restaurants. It’s not an easy task to check broken/redirected links. So every few months, I check each city or state using the W3c’s Link Checker. Short blog post to come on how I do that.

This reminds me that during the pandemic, I should do it more often.

Future Plans

Long term, the plan is to start posting every two weeks or so. A handful of places I recommend you should eat at in a given location or for a type of cuisine. I think a newsletter would be a reliable way to do it too. But first, I need to look into newsletters, etc. I did create a MailChimp one that I haven’t used yet that I need to find again.

I’m doing this, so I will have a shortlist for a location to share with people in the future. When they ask for recommendations for a city or places I have already been. Along with maybe a bonus place I’m looking forward to going to when it’s safe to travel.

Future Posts

Over time I plan on writing multiple posts for some of the following locations and other locations:

  • Annapolis, MD
  • Austin, TX
  • Baltimore, MD
  • Buffalo, NY
  • Cleveland, PA
  • Las Vegas, NV
  • Memphis, TN
  • Nashville, TN
  • New Orleans, LA
  • New York, NY
  • Northern California
  • Northern Virginia
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Portland, OR
  • Rochester, NY
  • San Diego, CA
  • Seattle, WA
  • Southern California
  • Syracuse, NY
  • Washington, DC
  • and many more

Conclusion

Please leave any restaurant suggestions in the comments. Along with any cities you are traveling to and want recommendations. If I have any knowledge about the locations, I will work on adding them to my list of over 75 cities or write a post about them if I already have information on them.

It would be helpful if you could please include the restaurant’s name, address (city and state), phone number, link, etc. Doing so will be helpful I’m when looking into them more.

If you want to find out more about places to eat, please register to receive an e-mail/newsletter when they are available.

It’s Been a Year Since My Last Drink

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As of yesterday (February 11, 2021), it’s been over a year since I last had a drink.

The reason for that is I have never been one to drink at home by myself. So during the pandemic with being home by myself and not visiting with friends, I haven’t had a reason for a drink.

I’m a wine person 95% of the time anyway and don’t open a bottle to drink it myself. I would prefer to open a nice bottle and share it with friends than drink it by myself. In my mind, wine is to be shared with friends with a meal or whatever.

Last Drink

So on February 11, 2020, I went to the DC wine and cheese group event. Where two good friends were putting on a tasting at the group, we all used to belong too.

There we had, I think it was four red wines and a dessert wine, two kinds of cheese, and crusty bread, all for $25 or was it $30.

It was nice to attend the event and see other’s I hadn’t seen in years.

Other Times Prior

Before that, the last few times I had a wine/drink was Christmas Eve dinner at a friend’s in 2019. Then at Thanksgiving at their place the month before.

Before that, it was, I think, the last week of September 2019, right before my car died at my buddy Tony’s house. Typically on Tuesday evenings, we would get together to hang out. Have some wine, cheese, and sometimes a meal if someone was in the mode to cook.

Possible Next Time

So at this point, I think I’m going to wait until I can safely get together with my wine friends.

Yes, I have wine friends.

Here’s to Celebrating a Good Friend

Where we celebrate the life of my buddy, Tony, who was one of those two friends giving the class. He passed away the week of Christmas 2020.

So here’s to all of us making it through the pandemic and then having a drink with friends when it’s safe for all of us to do so.

Check Your Draft Blog Posts First

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Today when looking at my drafts to see if there was an old post, I could edit, update, etc., and then post. Because like others, I have old posts I got most of the way there and then never posted them or forgot about them.

When I got near the end of the list of drafts, I found a post about “Progress About ‘Places to Eat’ Web Application” (future posts). I already had old content about the 10K Apart contest and places to eat that I recommend. Along with starting a newsletter, etc., that I ended up writing called “Looking to Start a Newsletter of Places to Eat.” The old one had much more detail.

The old one needed a bit of finishing/updating and was almost 1,300 words. So I broke it into two posts for now that I can use later. Since I recently talked about these subjects. It will be better to post them after doing some research on starting a newsletter platform to use. Or at least which one to use when first starting.

Look at Your Old Posts First

So please look at all your drafts before starting a new blog post. You might even want to read some of them to see if the content is similar to what you wanted to talk about that day.

Here’s to finishing up old blog posts and getting them out in the world or deleting ones you don’t want anymore.

Looking to Start a Newsletter of Places to Eat

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I’m thinking of starting a newsletter about places to eat when people travel. That is when it’s safe to d so again. But I can give you an idea of restaurants to go to that I recommend.

I think it was over two years ago I set up a MailChimp newsletter related to places to eat when traveling. So I need to look for that information again and see if that is still valid. In the meantime, I need to start working on a few drafts of places to eat.

At some point, I need to check that the places I love to go to are still open after the pandemic.

I think I would send the newsletter out once every two weeks to start. They would have five or six places to eat in one city or state.

Ideas for Newsletters

Each newsletter would include a place to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They would also include somewhere to go in for a coffee, tea, etc., to get work done or relax. Along with a place for an afternoon snack or a beverage, and then a place for a late-night meal.

Some of the newsletters might have more of one type of place or another if I cannot decide which place to add.

For the larger cities, there might be many newsletters because I have found so many places to go in that city.

It won’t all be larger cities. There will be ones on places like Buffalo, Rochester, or Syracuse, NY, or Joshua Tree, CA, Akron or Columbus, OH, or Jackson, MS, Annapolis or Frederick or Grasonville, MD., etc.

Multiple Newsletters for Larger Cities

Some of those cities would be New York City, Washington, DC, Portland, OR, Seattle, Los Angles, San Diego, etc. I have so many places in those cities to suggest that I would recommend.

So for those cities, I would showcase places in a particular neighborhood. So that way you can walk to all the restaurants if you want and spend a day getting to know an area of that city.

Newsletter about a Given Food Type

Other newsletters might be on a specific topic. Such as places for Ramen, pizza, hamburgers, ice cream, Chinese food. Or maybe whole in the wall places, BBQ, vegetarian/vegan, etc.

Are You Interested?

Please leave a comment if you’re interested in signing up for an e-mail related to places I recommend. If so, I will notify you once you can sign up for the newsletter.

Or ones that might be in your home town that you suggest I go to at some point.

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.