Makeovers No One Will Notice
Working in IT, I noticed that often the best makeovers are the ones users almost don't notice. When using computers, in general, big changes many times lead to big issues.
The same is valid for my websites: since I'm not very good with JavaScript or newer technologies (dang, I feel old), I tend to use just HTML and CSS. In the past, I successfully implemented scroll indicators and frames that appear depending on the User Agent of the browser… Maybe it's not much for skilled web developers, but for me it could take hours and hours — much more time than I'd like to spend. 🥲
Long story short: last week, I discovered an awesome handcrafted font by Tom Chalky and I immediately thought: "This could fit perfectly on Crooked Ink!". After some considerations, I finally got it1 and replaced the good old Sentient, which had already replaced the beautiful Crimson Text.
It is awesome because of its imperfections: when zooming, I love noticing the little swirls, the asymmetries,… its crooked look. Look for yourself:
Finally, after four years, I might have found the right font for that blog.
Since I was there, I reworked the menu and footer with the Sans Serif version of the Volume font, included in the package. I also spent a few minutes to find the right amount of characters per line in the short stories, for both desktop and mobile, by setting different font sizes. Then, I tried (without success) to add a bit of "padding" to the scroll indicator, and I fixed the width of the bar itself. I also changed a bit a few pages, but… not the actual content, the stories themselves.
Then, after two hours or so, finally I pushed the commits and I asked myself: who were these edits for? For the readers, or for me? Will anyone ever notice some little details? Should I have better spent these hours by editing some stories?
And, overall: did I spend way too much time to customize that blog? (This is the only question I can positively answer, with no doubts)
Easter Egg Hunt
For the curious, I hid an Easter egg somewhere on the website. The first sentence from Something Wicked This Way Comes. Are you nerd enough to find it? 🥚
🎮 Trying the Doom Eternal campaign – nice 😈
🎧 Today is UPCDOWNC day
📖 I started Armada by E. Cline, the author of Ready Player One… we'll see!
To be honest, this morning at 6AM, laying in bed, I figured out that I could just "steal" it from the website where I had found it, using the browser's developer tools. But I am an honest person. Am I? 👀↩