Ari Blogs

Understanding CSS Fundamentals With Interactive Playgrounds

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 08:30:00 +0000

CSS (cascading stylesheets) is how we style the web. Anything you see on a webpage that isn’t black Times New Roman left-aligned on a white background has been styled with CSS. It’s so prevalent that everyone from web developers to designers to SEO professionals to bloggers have tried their hand at it.

But, the majority of people, even those who write CSS regularly (and those who get paid to do it), don’t understand the fundamentals behind how CSS works. This leads to hundreds of lines of unneccessary styling, and a general distaste for CSS. </rant>

On the other hand, I really like CSS. I know you’re probably making a funny face at your screen right now, and that’s okay. If you don’t understand CSS, it is totally frustrating and nonsensical. I get it.

The reality? Once you learn how to think in a CSS mindset, you can implement any design efficiently and frustration-free. CSS doesn’t have to be trial-and-error.

After years of listening to CSS-hate, I created a set of interactive playgrounds to visually represent fundamental CSS concepts.

These playgrounds let learners interact with CSS concepts with no coding required. Taking away coding lets the student get immediate visual feedback and focus on understanding the underlying concept without worrying about their own HTML/CSS structure or syntax. Of course, I recommend trying out the concepts yourself during/after to solidify your understanding!

Introducing three basic interactive playgrounds:

Interactive Box Model →

Every element in CSS (well, every block element - more on that below) is a box. Some boxes have borders, some have space inside them, and some have space around them. Understanding how to manipulate that space is critical if you want to create layouts in HTML and CSS.

If you have ever wondered whether you should adjust the margin or padding to get the desired result (or worse, you think those two properties are interchangeable), you could probably use a refresher on the box model.

Interactive CSS Display →

I’m always shocked when people who write CSS don’t understand what implications an element’s display property carries.

Elements like div, p, h1, and form are block elements by default. Elements like span, a, strong, and input, are inline by default. Have you noticed that a new paragraph is always on a new line, whereas a link stays within the same line? Have you not been able to set width, height, or margin on certain elements? CSS Display is the culprit. Understanding display properties can help you choose the right built-in HTML elements and lay out your pages more efficiently.

This interactive model desperately needs some documentation or explanatory text, as a few of the arrangements are confusing if you don’t know what’s going on. I’ll be adding that soon.

Interactive Flexbox →

Flexbox is a hot topic in the CSS world.

Technically, it’s another display property, just like the above, but flex elements have several extra properties that control orientation, spacing, and sizing, giving the property its real power.

I’m most proud of this interactive snippet, and I think it’s the perfect accompaniment to my go-to explainer on Flexbox.

What’s next

Supplementary material

In the coming weeks, I will be developing documentation, explanations, and challenges to go along with the interactive elements. Please contribute if you have ideas for supplementary material!

Improvements

Please tweet at me, open issues, and/or submit pull requests to any of the above repositories to help make these tools more useful. I’ll be making changes in direct response to feedback from the people using these!

Future interactive playgrounds

CSS Position (relative, absolute, fixed)
Background (focusing on background images and their positioning)
Relative sizing (% sizing, vw/vh, pixels)
(Now accepting requests for further concepts)

Find me and my current projects on Github.

Talk to me on Twitter.

Abstracting Out and Open Sourcing

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 08:30:00 +0000

When you code similar things every day, it’s easy to ignore the fact that you’re repeating yourself and digging into old code to copy-paste from “that one time you did something similar”.

In addition, I often find myself referring to old projects as teaching tools, and telling learners to ignore the more complex parts of a project so I can use it to demonstrate a simple concept. Why not just abstract out those concepts and let them learn by building on them?

Introducing two trivial front-end code snippets I reuse too frequently:

Screen size above the breakpoint? Normal header menu. Screen size below the breakpoint? JS-powered hamburger menu.

This is the simplest possible implementation of a responsive menu that doesn’t rely on any libraries, including jQuery. Or Bootstrap. Please, please never use Bootstrap just to get a mobile menu.

Mobile menus are an example I’ll commonly use when explaining CSS media queries or onclick events in JavaScript. Keeping this simple component with one breakpoint and one function helps show exactly how the two concepts work.

Static Site Boilerplate →

This template saves me the extremely boring 5-10 minutes I spend on autopilot at the start of every static website, which happens about once a week. It includes linking CSS and JS, setting title and meta viewport, some basic global styling, and the proper .gitignore configuration for SCSS.

Usually I will make a setup like this from scratch when teaching someone about how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript work together. Having a repository dedicated to the simple structure alone gives them a working model to compare to and work off.

Future developments

I’m pushing aside perfectionism and releasing these as-is for now. Since I’m dogfooding my own code, they’ll be improved upon as I use them and find issues. I’ll document known issues/considerations as I go.

In the meantime, keep me accountable. If you see a component that could be abstracted from one of my publically available projects, open an issue on the project or ping me on Twitter.

What Independence Teaches You About Money, Education, and Happiness

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 16:30:00 +0000

Two years ago today, a 17-year-old me packed up the most important fraction of my belongings into two bags and left alone on a train to Montreal. Three days prior, I’d been wearing a red gown and walking across the stage at my graduation. 17 hours later, I’d be dropped alone in the centre of one of the largest cities in the country.

Being on your own gives you a fresh slate, free of influence and free of bias, but also free of guidance. My experiences over the last two years have molded who I am as a person, and the lessons I’ve learned will continue to influence me as I grow as independent adult.

Money

Being financially independent at 17 is f**king hard. Finding a job without work experience or connections, juggling two jobs and school, balancing debt and credit, and living off less than any person should have to is hard. I was better off than many, but I felt disadvantaged next to my peers. It was something I’d have to deal with in order to survive independently.

I was forced to quickly learn about resourcefulness and to live within my means. I worked a lot and cut out luxuries. I’m able to deal with not getting what I want - I have to earn and value everything.

Sometimes that wasn’t enough. I dove into debt on multiple occasions and had to deal with the consequences of relying on resources I didn’t have.

I also learned a lot about the generosity of people. In my darkest moments, I found help from others without asking. Somehow, subconsciously, kind people are able to identify struggle and provide aid that, while trivial to them, is life-changing for someone else. It’s a lesson I’ll carry with me: as I become more stable, I become more able to help others.

Education

I left home with the intention of attending university for four years on scholarship, getting a degree, and getting a job. I’m still not sure what my full educational path looks like, but let’s just say that’s not the case anymore.

Traditional education isn’t for everyone, but never in my 17 years had I thought it wasn’t for me. I did well in school, enjoyed my classes, and learned effectively by memorization and testing. That all ground to a halt when I was thrown into the whirlwind of jobs and obligations and needs that accompany the university life. In order to keep myself afloat, I had to learn and grow at my own pace and on my own schedule. Throughout the last two years, I’ve done huge amounts of learning through projects, jobs, competitions, and mentorship. I learned that “education”, in the typical sense of the word, does not encompass the broad spectrum of learning.

Mentorship has played a huge role in my alternative education. In every community I’m a part of, I’ve found my best source of knowledge, support, and motivation to be my peers and community leaders. Each mentor brings a new set of experiences that bend and carve my sphere of knowledge. Then, by mentoring others, I’m able to reinforce skills and inspire others. I’m so passionate about mentorship that I wrote a post about it.

Happiness

Before leaving, I wouldn’t have classified myself as a happy person. There were things I enjoyed, and things I despised, but I couldn’t draw a complete picture of “me”.

I think part of becoming an adult means understanding yourself as a whole: what ticks you off, what keeps you up all night, what challenges you, what connects with you emotionally… Learning who this “you” is and learning to love them lets you be happy.

Taking it a step further, after understanding and becoming one with the ever-changing “you”, you can find your fit in the landscape of nodes, networks, niches, and nuances. Drawing foundational connections between your “you” and the rest of the world can fuel your ongoing sense of purpose, belonging, and happiness.

Being independent allowed me to explore interests without bias or restriction. I threw myself into the things I was passionate about and formed a strong sense of self with direction and purpose. My self is always evolving and growing, but my understanding of it makes it a source of happiness. The connections I’ve made as a result of this understanding have opened doors to even more new and exciting passions.

Continuing Independence

The past two years were incredibly rough. However, in reflecting today, the only lasting memories are those of lessons and valuable experiences. 17-year-old me: it’s worth it.

Here’s to two years of lessons, and decades of more to come.

#MentorCulture: Mentoring Beyond Hackathons

Sun, 03 May 2015 14:30:00 +0000

Hackers, book a mentoring session here

In the past year, I’ve become entirely immersed in tech. I went from learning what the heck a modulus was to getting flown to events and talking to dozens of people a day. I’m not an exceptional person by any means. I’m a product of an amazing culture of perpetual mentorship.

Mentorship is changing.

Mentorship in the age of the hackathon is less formal. It’s subconscious. It’s perpetual.

Building a network of people with diverse skills and interests is now more important than trying to pair with a single guide. The hackathon community is comprised entirely of talented people who are constantly growing and learning. It’s time that we take advantage of that and embrace mentorship as a part of our community culture.

#MentorCulture

Let’s make constant mentorship the default.

Always be learning.
Ask for help often.
Share the things you’ve learned.

Free Mentorship

If you want to try this mentorship thing, but aren’t sure where to start, I’ve opened up several free mentorship sessions just for hackers. You can book them here. The permanent link is http://ari.li/HackerChat. I’d love to talk to you about anything, but I’m most useful for people wanting to learn front-end web (HTML/CSS/JS) the right way, looking to get into self-employment, thinking about dropping out, or seeking the internet’s best hedgehog photos.

My original sessions (HackerChat beta, if you will) were inspired by my good friend Dave Fontenot’s http://bit.ly/chatwithdave, where he will also talk to you about anything!

Hackers - take some time and teach your favourite technology, tell a story about a cool event or your first job, or give some candid feedback. You don’t need to be an expert - just be open!

I’m looking forward to chatting with more and more of you. A special thank you to the hackers I’ve already spoken to - you inspire me to keep teaching and learning!

When I don’t write on this blog, I write on Medium

2014 through 2015: #NewChallenge Days 6 and 7

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 23:30:00 +0000

Part of the New Challenge

Yesterday: big-ass bagels, freelance, quest for ramen, weird mixed accents, cold parks, MEETUP, malls and loitering, subgrouping, Chinese food, freaky fish, cute tea house, whisky, Frozen

Today: sleeping in, brunch, Tumblr tour, walking, best damn pizza in the whole wide world, food coma

Person

On New Year’s Eve, I hosted a Hackathon Hackers meetup, where I got to meet about 30 new people! It was really awesome putting real faces to the Facebook profiles I had interacted with.

I was hosted by Luke, who is visiting New York from California!

My first new person of 2015 was Mike from Tumblr, who took Luke and I on a tour of the offices. Cool offices, cool people, in-depth tech discussions.

Food/Drink

We got Chinese food, and this happened:

We had a lot of fun with that fish.

The next day, I had Artichoke. Oh my gosh. Best. Pizza. I felt very happy and very fat and proceeded to food coma. (I blame some of my procrastination in posting this on the pizza.)

Music

While staying with Luke, I’ve been listening to his Play it Forward Spotify playlist. It’s a little heavier than what I’m used to, but parts of it are really awesome.

Reading

I spent a lot of time on Medium reading posts. Some serious, some funny. I really like its recommendation system - there is always a new post that I’ll be into.

Picture

We had a meetup. Check out how cool we are:

Post by Rakesh Ranjan Sukla.

Post by Ari VanIderstine.

Writing

I started on the next installment of WAYWO This Week! It’ll be released on Monday.

Code

Not too much coding, but still working on freelance. I also did a couple designs for a project that I’ll start coding next week.

Tomorrow: good food?

Lazy Lounging: #NewChallenge Day 5

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 23:30:00 +0000

Part of the New Challenge

Today: sleeping in, lounging, lounging, freelance, lounging, fattening food, lounging, movies, Mexican food

Note: Today was my rest day, so there isn’t much to talk about.

Person

I mostly stayed inside today, but I did get to chat with Grace, a Hackathon Hacker, over Google Hangouts. I’m looking forward to working with her on some web projects!

Food/Drink

CHURROS. So yummy. The only problem - I couldn’t decide whether the chocolate or caramel dip was more delicious.

Music

This is the first track I listened to this morning. I’m diggin’ it.

Insane

Reading

I know it’s not written, but it’s poetry. I was feeling really stressed today, and someone sent me this. Hopefully it touches you as much as it touched me.

Picture

This is actually from yesterday, but because I was in such a beautiful place, I just needed to share another. This is the roof of one room in the Met.

Post by Ari VanIderstine.

Writing

Today, I wrote some stuff that will be finished and released tomorrow! Soon!

Code

I spent a bit of time fixing up some scss files for a freelance job.

Tomorrow: New Years HH meetup!

All the New People: #NewChallenge Day 4

Mon, 29 Dec 2014 23:30:00 +0000

Part of the New Challenge

Today: AlleyNYC, almond milk and hipster coffee, MLH, thai, the Met, selfies and imitations, black coffee, arepas, coffee rum, Saskatchewan, 1am delivery pizza

Person

Oh man, I met a lot of people today.

First up was the Major League Hacking team, some of whom I had met before. Always a chill time, and they have a sweet coworking space.

After that, I went on an adventure with two hackathon hackers: Ifeanyi and Samantha. We went to the Metropolitan museum and spoke broken English; check Facebook for hilarious Met photos to come later. I love that HH lets me meet up with people from all edges of the globe.

Food/Drink

Lunch in midtown is always an adventure, but it’s even better with MLH! I got to try some Thai food; I had Pad Kana (broccoli, kale, and tofu in a ginger sauce over rice) and Papaya salad. Both were delicious, even if my mouth was burning a little from the spice.

Later, I tried arepas (mine had cheese, plantain, and avocado). Also delicious.

I finished off the night with coffee rum - possibly one of the best things ever. Apparently it’s only available in Portland, so I’ll definitely be grabbing some while in Seattle.

I lied, that wasn’t the end of the night. I conquered a pizza at 1am. Even crappy New York pizza is delicious.

##Music Courtesy of the lovely Daniel, some pump-up office music:

Reading

While at Starbucks, I got through a good amount of a pretty awesome Ruby on Rails tutorial as I try to brush up on my Ruby skills.

Picture

We went to the Met. It was puuurrrdyyy.

Post by Ari VanIderstine.

Writing

Today is an exciting day for writing - I launched a new Medium collection! WAYWO (What Are You Working On?) is a common question and topic of discussion in the hacker community, and a Hackathon Hackers Facebook group dedicated to WAYWO has over 3.5K members. My new blog collection - WAYWO This Week - will summarize and review the most popular projects from the group each week. I’m really excited to share the great ideas of the hacker community. The first post was published today. Check out the collection now!

Code

I’m working on rails tutorials, so my code sadly isn’t available yet! Soon!

Tomorrow: Undecided. Typical Ari Tuesday.

From Isolation to Bustling Crowds: #NewChallenge Day 3

Sun, 28 Dec 2014 23:30:00 +0000

Part of the New Challenge

Today: coffee, big breakfast, trying to stay away from people, coworking space, $1 pizza, wild crowdedness, ritzy commercialism, the quest for Starbucks, sore muscles, financial district aimless wandering, high-class accommodations, tinder

Person

This evening, I’m staying with the bright, young Jason, another Hackathon Hacker, who I learned dropped out of high school to work on his real estate startup. In his financial district apartment, I got to see him work (an allnighter) with 2 monitors and 5 windows open. This kid is going places.

Food/Drink

Spending the afternoon walking around in Manhattan makes you hungry. Nothing quite fills the void like $1 pizza - a New York City staple. It was surprisingly delicious, and left me satisfied for quite a while. I can’t even imagine how good it would taste when drunk.

Music

This is how I’m winding down on this lovely Sunday evening:

Down to You

Reading

Very quick, very simple, very impactful, and very relevant to my current exploits.

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give,
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.

Hans Christian Anderson

Picture

Post by Ari VanIderstine.

Writing

I promise, I did write 100 words today. However, it’s part of a larger piece that I’ll share later this week!

Code

Again, basic blog stuff, but I added social icons to the top of my blog - learning about svg files in the process! I also changed up the font. (The code for this blog is always available on github).

######Tomorrow: Alley NYC, MLH, midtown

Walking Manhattan: #NewChallenge Day 2

Sat, 27 Dec 2014 23:30:00 +0000

Part of the New Challenge

Today: Starbucks, Grand Central, Shake Shack, new friends, parks, lots of walking, nice views, Google maps failures, nice dinner, drunkeness.

Person

I spent the entire day with three fabulous Binghamton hackers: Akshay, Carly, and Dan. Carly has an apartment in Manhattan (West Village), and she gave us a tour of several parts of the city - SoHo & the West Village, Washington Square Park, Union Square Park, High Line, and the World Trade Center (& memorial). We talked about topics all over the map (with a special emphasis on good food in New York).

Food/Drink

Today, I had the fast food gem of the northeast - Shake Shack. Portobello mushroom and cheese, coated and deep-fried, resting on a bed of lettuce, tomato, and mayo, and nested within a soft, buttery bun. OMG. Also, a chocolate shake. I cannot describe the happiness. However, I did feel pretty fat for the rest of the day.

Music

Today’s song comes from the electro-swing playlist I was listening to on the subway ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan. If you’re not into electro-swing yet, you’re about to be. Definitely my favourite genre of all time. This particular mix is just - yum. It samples a couple tracks that I remember from the Monopoly PC game back in the early 2000s, which was basically my first taste of New York, so it feels particularly vintage New York-y to me. (Side note: the street/metro names are monopoly spaces. LOL. I guess they had to come from somewhere.)

Swing Mood (Castaman Edit Mix)

Anyone know of any cool electroswing clubs in NYC? I know it’s big in Montreal - some of my best nights out have been swinging.

Reading

This poem was sent to me by Collin this morning. I’ll include the whole text, because I think it’s beautiful:

All through that Sunday afternoon
a kite flew above Sunday,
a tightened drumhead, an armful of blown chaff.

I’d seen it grey and slippy in the making,
I’d tapped it when it dried out white and stiff,
I’d tied the bows of newspaper
along its six-foot tail.

But now it was far up like a small black lark
and now it dragged as if the bellied string
were a wet rope hauled upon
to lift a shoal.

My friend says that the human soul
is about the weight of a snipe,
yet the soul at anchor there,
the string that sags and ascends,
weigh like a furrow assumed into the heavens.

Before the kite plunges down into the wood
and this line goes useless
take in your two hands, boys, and feel
the strumming, rooted, long-tailed pull of grief.
You were born fit for it.
Stand in here in front of me
and take the strain.

Kites, as a representation of life. I don’t think I can remember the last time I flew one, myself. I’ll have to make a point of doing that soon.

Picture

We were walking along the river at sunset. ‘Nuff said.

Post by Ari VanIderstine.

Writing

I said I’d give you 100 words, so here’s over 100 words on all the walking I did today:

I like cities. One of the biggest draws - accessibility. Today, I took a walk across a good part of NYC. As much as I love public transit (expect another post soon), walking gives a unique perspective. Every shop, every person, and every block is a new experience that you can choose to pass by or to stop, and experience. Entire trajectories can be changed by taking a few turning steps. Sure, it’s tiring, but it gives you new abilities - cutting through parks and buildings. My feet definitely have some blisters today, but getting to see the city block-for-block is more than worth it.

Code

Today, I set up the drafts functionality on Jekyll, which allowed me to test this post before giving it to all of you. You can always check out this blog’s code on github.

Tomorrow: I have no idea. Maybe brunch?

Brooklyn Beginnings: #NewChallenge Day 1

Fri, 26 Dec 2014 23:30:00 +0000

Part of the New Challenge

Today: All-nighter, early morning blog-building, hurried packing, 7 hour car ride, 1 hour border wait, epic playlist in car, subway adventures, Subway (the food) adventures, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

Person

Today’s new person was Rakesh, a graduate student and Hackathon Hacker. He helped me to find a place to stay and made sure I got food, then we went on an adventure across the Brooklyn Bridge. We had a great discussion about differences in education between India and North America, and the idea of gap years.

Food/Drink

I didn’t eat much today, but I did try something new - a Milky Way Bar. My review? It’s basically the same thing as a Mars Bar. Why do they both exist?

Music

Thanks to Spotify for powering my new music discovery today. This new Modest Mouse track comes from the playlist New Music Friday.

Lampshades On Fire

Reading

On my long subway ride from Manhattan to Brooklyn, I read the history chapter of the Letters section of the book Thinking with Type, which was given to me as a Hackathon Hackers Secret Santa gift. I don’t think I can express how much I like fonts and how fascinated I was looking through the history of typefaces.

Picture

So, I went a little touristy with this. It was my first night in NYC - give me a break. I’m convinced that the new World Trade Center is the prettiest building in the skyline now (it’s certainly the brightest) and I’ll definitely be making a point to go see it up close next week.

Post by Ari VanIderstine.

Writing

I wrote an artsy blog post about feeling grown up this morning.

Code

Today, I set up this blog (using Jekyll) and implemented Google Analytics, AddThis social sharing, and Disqus commenting. Sure, not the most unique work I’ve done, but it was 5am and I did manage to get them all working together. You can find the code for this blog in its github repository.

Tomorrow: Manhattan, jazz, meetup, Hackathon Hackers

The "New" Challenge

Fri, 26 Dec 2014 06:12:00 +0000

It’s almost the end of another year. Instead of getting nostalgic and thinking of the past, I’m taking full advantage of the time off and doing a full-reset. I’m moving in one direction - forward. How? Everything new.

Setting the Scene

Today, I’m leaving for New York City, the largest city within a few thousand kilometres. I’ve been there only once before, for an organized event. The little time I did have to explore was spent gawking at the looming skyscrapers. You could say I’m far from comfortable in the city.

However, in the spirit of adventure, I’m going. I’m going alone. I’m going for over two weeks.

The Challenge

While I’m out gallavanting and exploring, I decided to pursue some personal development. I’ll be doing this through a set of daily challenges.

Every day, I intend to:

Meet and have a conversation with one new person
Eat or drink one new thing, and review it
Listen to and share one new song
Read a new poem, short story, or book chapter
Take a picture of something beautiful
Write at least 100 words on a new topic
Write at least 1 line of public code
Complete a suggested challenge (as available)

It sounds like a lot, because it is. I never was one for taking a typical “relaxing” vacation, I suppose.

The Blog

I’ll be posting my progress at some point every day on my blog. I’ll let you know who I talked to, what I read, what I listened to, what I coded, and provide updates on each component of the challenge. There’s an RSS feature somewhere, if you’re into that. I’ve also integrated comments so you can provide words of encouragement or criticism.

Follow the journey in real-time on Twitter!

Challenge Me!

Got an idea for something new I should try? New foods, new coding tools, new books, new anything? Throw your suggestions over to Twitter or leave them in the comments and I’ll incorporate as many as I can!

Updates

Day 1
Day 2

Ari Blogs

Understanding CSS Fundamentals With Interactive Playgrounds

Interactive Box Model →

Interactive CSS Display →

Interactive Flexbox →

What’s next

Supplementary material

Improvements

Future interactive playgrounds

Abstracting Out and Open Sourcing

No-frills Mobile Menu →

Static Site Boilerplate →

Future developments

What Independence Teaches You About Money, Education, and Happiness

Money

Education

Happiness

Continuing Independence

#MentorCulture: Mentoring Beyond Hackathons

Mentorship is changing.

#MentorCulture

Free Mentorship

2014 through 2015: #NewChallenge Days 6 and 7

Yesterday: big-ass bagels, freelance, quest for ramen, weird mixed accents, cold parks, MEETUP, malls and loitering, subgrouping, Chinese food, freaky fish, cute tea house, whisky, Frozen

Today: sleeping in, brunch, Tumblr tour, walking, best damn pizza in the whole wide world, food coma

Person

Food/Drink

Music

Reading

Picture

Writing

Code

Tomorrow: good food?

Lazy Lounging: #NewChallenge Day 5

Today: sleeping in, lounging, lounging, freelance, lounging, fattening food, lounging, movies, Mexican food

Person

Food/Drink

Music

Reading

Picture

Writing

Code

Tomorrow: New Years HH meetup!

All the New People: #NewChallenge Day 4

Today: AlleyNYC, almond milk and hipster coffee, MLH, thai, the Met, selfies and imitations, black coffee, arepas, coffee rum, Saskatchewan, 1am delivery pizza

Person

Food/Drink

Reading

Picture

Writing

Code

Tomorrow: Undecided. Typical Ari Tuesday.

From Isolation to Bustling Crowds: #NewChallenge Day 3

Today: coffee, big breakfast, trying to stay away from people, coworking space, $1 pizza, wild crowdedness, ritzy commercialism, the quest for Starbucks, sore muscles, financial district aimless wandering, high-class accommodations, tinder

Person

Food/Drink

Music

Reading

Picture

Writing

Code

Walking Manhattan: #NewChallenge Day 2

Today: Starbucks, Grand Central, Shake Shack, new friends, parks, lots of walking, nice views, Google maps failures, nice dinner, drunkeness.

Person

Food/Drink

Music

Reading

Picture

Writing

Code

Tomorrow: I have no idea. Maybe brunch?

Brooklyn Beginnings: #NewChallenge Day 1

Today: All-nighter, early morning blog-building, hurried packing, 7 hour car ride, 1 hour border wait, epic playlist in car, subway adventures, Subway (the food) adventures, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

Person

Food/Drink

Music

Reading

Picture

Writing

Code