Life’s been pretty good lately! I’ve just signed a land contract with my previous landlord to buy the house I’m living in, in Milwaukee. I quite like Milwaukee and the house, so I’m excited about that. Feels a bit grown-uppy.
Last month I took a trip to Scotland with some friends which was great, in part because it’s the only non-tech trip I’ve taken in some time.
I’m significantly healthier than I was 3-4 months ago. I’m down about 40lbs. I have quite a ways to go to be truly healthy, but I’m doing all the right stuff including a lot of walking, biking, weight training, and eating better and drinking less. I’ve already booked another stay at the health resort thing that helped me kick it off, so I can really keep it going.
I spoke at my first An Event Apart event in Austin earlier this month. That was cool. I’m doing another in San Francisco in December, but if you don’t already have a ticket I’m afraid it’s sold out.
This Sunday I leave for CSS Dev Conf which is exciting and obviously right up my alley for a conference focus. I’m polishing my slides right now.
I got to be a guest on some podcasts since I’ve last done one of these Chronicles. Pixel Recess and Dorm Room Tycoon. The Dorm Room Tycoon one wasn’t published, so not sure if that just didn’t work out or what, but it’s a good show worth checking out.
Speaking of podcasts, ShopTalk took a few weeks off while Dave and his wife tended to their brand new baby Otis. We’re now back with what we’re calling Season 3 in which we’ll have shows every week through at least the holidays.
Most of my time, as always, is dedicated to CodePen. Since the last Chronicle, we’ve released several major features and countless little features and improvements. Among the biggest features: Customizeable Embeds, the Mobile Editor, and much better Comment Notifications.
We recently got the team together in Bend, Oregon (where Tim lives) for some co-working which was fun and productive. We’re doing another little mini-sprint together in December in Palo Alto (where Alex lives).
The year is still going for The Pastry Box Project where I write monthly. Several posts since last time including article about my internal struggle with spammers, my one bit of advice regarding “success”, and a fake story about mustard.
Glad to get some insight into your non-techy life and that ShopTalk show is back online. It might sound crazy but its sometimes easy to forget that you’re human after all. Must be all the good content you keep pumping out. Good to know you’re taking care of your self. And as usual keep up the good work. Long time shoptalk listener here. Congrats to Dave and tumbs up to both of ya’ll for the show. Has changed my life a lot. May have even been the reason for landing my first true frontend job in London. Ok enough said. Bye for now.
Glad things are doing great for you! Just wanted to take the time and give a shout out and thank you for all your work. You have no idea how useful this site has been in my career.
Chris, Those are some fantastic achievements you’ve got there ! Keep up the stellar work ! and Keep on keepin’ on You’re doin’ good !
I doesn’t meet codepen.io, nice to know about that! Thanks Chris!!
Chris, with such a quality piece of software like CodePen, maybe you should really think about having some sort of account verification process. You could make it invite only to those who are established in the industry, or some process that has you verify accounts by having users submit links to their work, where they are learning, etc. This might take some extra effort but maybe it’s worth the future of your website.
Also, as much as a lot of people are against it, I’m all for having verified identities online. In the long run it would save websites and blogs huge amounts of time. No one drives wreckless on the road without a driver’s license, and you shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever you like online, anonymously, with no positive contribution to the future of the web.
And to counter act your comment with some “against” arguments.
Browsing the internet != driving a car.
Giving up all liberties and anonymity for some magic solution to all the Internets problems?, sounds legit.
No matter what systems you put in place, you’re only harming the experience for “good” people, the “bad” people will always find a way to bypass.
People can do what ever they like in real life with no positive contribution to the future of anything, why not online?
/end devils advocate
And as for the article, great news Chris, I remember reading your personal blog about weight issues way back in the day when I was also in the same boat. It’s a major pain and never gets easier but good luck!
i really admire your work and especially codepen and css-tricks
Congratulations Chris, for your new home and your weight.
Indeed very difficult to lose weight without study.
I managed to reduce my weight without excessive diet, without excessive sports, without buying products and medicines. I just eat rice vermicelli as routine practice every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Perhaps because it is easily digested.
Can i ask something technical about website?
how can i block content with permalink pages that have a question mark symbol (?) using robots.txt ?
Example:
MyDomainDotCom/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=3
MyDomainDotCom/2013/10/name-of-post.html?showComment=1381513186301
MyDomainDotCom/search/label/Landscape?max-results=8
MyDomainDotCom/?m=1
Recently, I tried blocking it with robots.txt structure below. Is this format correct? be blocking content with permalink pages that have a question mark symbol (?) to index?
Thanks for read and help Chris.
Chris,
If you are pumped about the weight thing, I definitely recommend (if you can) to **SWIM.
**
It’s the best way to work out; it’s both aerobic and anaerobic when working out. I know Milwaukee is cold and stuff, but there should be an indoor pool out there.
It’s awesome on so many levels. Most people hit the gym, jog, etc, but not many swim (it’s not as trendy as the other two).
Hope it works out!!
Chris, congrats on the weight loss, that’s a huge step. In our line of work, it’s pretty common place. Keep up the great work. I’ve been on a similar journey myself and am still working towards a weight goal, but all in all, it’s an overall lifestyle change for the better. Cheers.
Glad to hear about your lifestyle changes, and your plans for the future, the world is better with you around, and not dying early.
However, no matter how much weight you lose, Lea Verou will always be prettier.