How I’m Using GitHub

Posted on January 28, 2021 by John F Croston III

I have had a GitHub account since March 6, 2013, but I never used it until much later in 2016.

I started working on a list of places to eat when I traveled and using GitHub to backup/store my code.

First GitHub Use

My first use of GitHub was on September 30, 2016, when I created my first repro for the place to eat project. At some point, I purchased the domain name GottaEatHere.com to put the information on. I bought a bunch more domains because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to call the application.

Reason for Using GitHub

The reason I started the project was for the An Event Apart and Microsoft 10K Apart contest. Besides, people had been asking me for recommendations of where to eat. So I figured I build a small web-based application to kills two birds with one stone. The contest was where people had to build an application in less than 10 kilobytes (KB) of code.

I spent some time upfront figuring out how best to do that. I wanted to learn PHP or at least get better at it, so that’s where I started.

Planning the Application

My first thoughts were I would need two or three Kb for CSS. Then another three Kb for my HTML template, and the remaining Kb for logic to render the pages content.

I decided to use JSON files because I wasn’t sure if a database would count against the total of 10 Kb. Which allowed me to learn something else new too.

I worked to get my PHP application to render a list of five or six cities, and I think five restaurants I loved going to. Each city had its know JSON file, and they were half Kb in size or something like that.

The 10 Kb or less version of the application had a lot less information per city and restaurant. I think it had a name, address, phone number, URL, and a short description. Now it has a bunch o other information.

A person chooses a city was from a drop-down list. Then the PHP would read the JSON file for the city that a person picked. Then render the restaurants for that city. Nothing fancy, but it got the job done. I didn’t expect to win anything, and I didn’t.

Of course, the whole time, I was making sure it was as accessible as possible.

Using GitHub Daily

On November 18, 2016, I started making more commits to add more places to eat along with more cities, along with information.

November 18th was the day I started making at least one commit or added an issue to GitHub every day. It might have been for new fields, cities, states, etc., to GitHub every day.

Over the last four and a half or so years, I have only missed doing something on GitHub about a dozen times. So that works out to three or four times a year. I’m okay with that and don’t lose sleep over it if I do. Some of the updates and issues were related to my slides, and others were for code examples for the slides.

My use of GitHub is still through their desktop application. It lets me create new repro’s, create issues for new features, cites, restaurants, etc.

With only me working on the projects, I have not had to worry about creating branches, merging others’ code, etc. At some point, I need to learn how to do that through the application or the command line.

Need to Learn More Git

So here’s to learning more Git. Be it through the GitHub application or, more importantly, through the command line.

Posted in 2016, 2021, An Event Apart, Code, GitHub, Gotta Eat Here, Microsoft | Leave a comment

Looking to Start a Newsletter of Places to Eat

Posted on January 27, 2021 by John F Croston III

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.

Posted in 2021, Akron, OH, Annapolis, MD, BBQ, Buffalo, NY, Cleveland, OH, Coffee Shops, Columbus, OH, Food, Frederick, MD, Jackson, MS, Los Angles, CA, New York, NY, Places to Eat, Portland, OR, Ramen, Restaurants, Rochester, NY, San Diego, CA, Seattle, WA, Syracuse, NY, Travel, Washington, DC | 1 Comment

Extra Learning

Posted on January 26, 2021 by John F Croston III

With having or, more importantly, making time during the pandemic, I decided to use my time to take some classes and learn more. It helped getting rid of my cable TV in the fall of 2019.

Many Different Classes

I attended a few Creative Mornings Field Trips. They were about drawing and art, along with two different ones on making tortillas (corn and wheat). Another one had to do with creative writing.

Other classes were Marcy’s Sutton’s “Front-End Accessibility Masterclass.” It was a great class on how to make accessible HTML and CSS along with improving it with JavaScript when building websites and applications.

Food Related Classes and Books

Another event about the food I enjoyed in 2020 was the 2020 Fall Southern Foodways Symposium: Future of the South. That ran on Saturdays in October (3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th) from 9:00 SM to noon central.

I have been learning about growing my own food, small scale farming, etc. I even purchased a fermenting class from a YouTube homesteaders channel I watch. It was a great class, and I’m looking forward to making more of my own ferments. I did a few ferments before I took the classes, but they didn’t turn out as well as I expected.

I’m looking forward to all the fresh veggies from the farmer’s market in the spring and during the summer too.

I read two books on fermenting too.

  • 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
  • Do Preserve – Make Your own Jams, Chutneys, Pickles, and Cordials by Anja Dunk, Jen Goss, and Mimi Beaven

I even spent time learning about food, more specifically beans.

  • The Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Guide by Steve Sando and Julia Newberry
  • Cool Beans – The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World’s Most Versatile Plant-based Protein with 125 Recipes by Joe Yonan

Reading Creative and Comic Related Books

I have been reading many creative books, with many of them being graphic novels on making comics. Here are a few of those books.

  • Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? – The Art f Making Zines and Mini-comics by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson
  • Elements of Fire – A Comic Anthology of Color! edited by Taneka Stotts
  • Cartooning – Philosophy, and Practice by Ivan Brunetti
  • Glenn Ganges in The River at Night by Kevin Huizenga
  • Drawing Book of Faces by Ed Emberley

One Odd Book

I even read a book on bee-keeping, which will help me when I get my own plot of land to grow food.

  • Do Bee-keeping – The Secret to Happy Honeybees by Orren Fox

Here’s to More Diverse Learning

So as you can see, since the beginning of 2020 and into 2021, I have been all over the place attempting to learn new things.

Posted in 2021, Beans, Books, Comics, Cooking, Fermenting, Writing | Leave a comment

Drawing Faces

Posted on January 25, 2021 by John F Croston III

After a friend’s child saw me doing a digital drawing on my iPad we started drawing faces. Since they showed interest in drawing, I purchased them a copy of Ed Emberley’s “Drawing Book of Faces”. So we could both draw all the faces in the book over time.

I had purchased “Drawing Book of Faces” book and a few others of Mr. Emberley’s after Austin Kleon mentioned using them. He suggested they were great to get children or adults drawing. I thought it would be a great way to do something creative. Along with learning how to draw faces better, even if most of them were more cartoonish.

Sent Book to Friends Child

I sent the book to my friend’s child. We started by drawing only one face a day, which worked well since there are six to a row on each page. That way, if we missed a day, we could still get them done in a week.

We checked in the first week and shared a few of our drawings.

Drawing on Phone with My Finger

I found drawing faces on my phone with my finger was challenging to do. They were having issues too. So I suggested we move to paper instead. They agreed that would be better.

I kept at it on my phone and still have even after finishing the 295+ faces in the book. In some of my pages, I put more than one related face. So there are probably, closer to 325 or more paces in the book.

At some point, my friend’s child got tired of drawing and stopped. Recently, I heard they got an iPad and have been using another digital drawing application to draw instead of their phone. Here’s hoping using the iPad will keep them drawing and improving in the process.

Moved on to Next Drawing Book

Once done with the faces book, I moved on to Mr. Emberley’s “Drawing book Make a World.” This book has planes, trains, cars, buildings, ships, animals, etc., to draw.

More Creativity in My Day

I find it’s a subtle way to do some creative drawing in about 10 or 15 minutes. It can be done while watching or listening to something on my computer in the evening to unwind. You don’t need a lot of skill as I have proven to be able to do these drawings,

So here’s to more drawing/creativity in my day and yours.

Posted in 2021, Books, Creativity, Drawing | Leave a comment

Enjoying the Extra Writing

Posted on January 24, 2021 by John F Croston III

Since I started blogging again this year, I have noticed I’m enjoying the writing part. Keeping a daily schedule has been good and bad.

My Process

I have spent time first coming up with blog post ideas and then outlining them. Once I have done an outline or two, I start putting in a bit of the content as the first draft. Then on my walk’s I tend to work through ideas and figure out what I want to say. It’s been helpful getting the thoughts down in my head before typing them in blog posts.

Keeping the posts between a couple of hundred words and maybe 500 or 600 words has been helpful. My old style was to write long posts of a thousand to fifteen hundred words with code examples, etc. Doing these took many hours, a few days, or even weeks.

I still need to finish a few of the longer blog posts I started a year or more ago and get them out at some point. But right now, I’m working on writing every day and putting something new out.

Posting Every Day so Far this Year

It’s been interesting attempting to make sure to post everyday. The issue is more what else do I have or need to say at a given time.

Posting every day so far in January, it’s been nice to talk about what was happening on a given day. Or to recap what happened on a given day. Like the weekend lazy Saturday post a while ago or on Thursdays about Wednesday’s Inauguration.

So here’s to seeing how long I can keep writing/posting every day.

Might Slow Up on Posts

I’m not sure if I want to keep it up because of the time it has been taking. I think I could use the time to learn more modern CSS and JavaScript to help look for a front-end coding job.

Between outlining posts, thinking what I want to say, and writing the first draft of posts. Then coming back to posts to edit/finish them and then one last check before posting takes time. Even these shorter style posts are taking anywhere from an hour to three hours.

Or it might be a mix of code learning and blog posts, with some of them being about what I have learned.

Other Activities

I also need to keep time for my 100 Day Project wine bottle shape drawings or adding restaurants to Gotta Eat Here. Doing so helps for when it’s safe to travel. I want to have plenty of places to eat when I’m away.

I want to add some features like a map of all the places for a given location on a separate page. Doing it this way as not to slow up the downloading of the main list of restaurants. The maps feature needs more research for the best way to add them without cost to me.

I would like to make the website a progressive web application, too, at some point.

Doing All the Things

So here’s to making time to both write, learn to code, etc., while still getting time to relax too.

Posted in 2021, Blog, Code, Places to Eat, Words, Writing | Leave a comment