Week Notes 1

This week has been a heck of a good week with lots going on. It’s definitely a good week to start writing these week notes.

Monday permalink

I taught lectures on the Web Development module at The University of Gloucestershire where this week, we continued learning basic PHP and how it can be used to make dynamic websites.

Next week, we introduce MySQL into the mix.

Tuesday permalink

I spent most of the day working on a client project which is getting close to the end, now. Today’s focus was implementing some fresh look and feel updates into a pretty much feature-finished Next JS / React web app.

I then travelled up to Nottingham and was lucky enough to hang out with some web pals who were speaking at, or supporting the New Adventures Conference. It was great to finally meet some people I really admire and normally only speak to on Slack or Twitter.

Wednesday permalink

I’m face-deep in this client project, so it was head down all day for me. I got to work in Nottingham’s finest coffee shops which was great. My favourite was definitely 200 degrees.

In the evening, I caught up with more web pals, had a curry and played bowling. Luke then had us sat in his favourite hipster beer garden until about 1am in -2° C 🥶. Really, really good beer and chat, though.

Thursday permalink

New Adventures Conference day! 🎉

I reckon this was my favourite ever conference experience. Colly, Geri and Co. did a fantastic job of creating a perfect experience for everyone.

I saw some fascinating stuff with standout talks from Jeremy Keith, Ashley Baxter, Clare Sutcliffe and Ethan Marcotte. I’m pretty sure Ethan’s mind blowing, inspiring talk will go down as a one of the all time greats.

I always get super tired after conferences, so I thought it’d be a good idea to travel home in the evening, but it was a absolute nightmare with train delays.

Never doing that again.

Friday permalink

I’m getting to the end of the project I’m currently on, so I spent most of the day having review calls and tightening up the look and feel, accessibility and functionality of the front-end of the web app. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share some of the tricks I’ve used once it goes live.

I also did the jobs I hate doing the most: scheduling and processing expenses. They’re a necessary evil, though.

On to next week which features a contract finishing and lots of assignment marking.