5 + 3 ways to hide an element with CSS

Blog Posted by kitt at 13:11 on 2 July 2013

I had a phone interview today with a company that I am incredibly hopeful to be contracting for shortly.

Pragmatic Guide to Sass

Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 07:03 on 2 July 2013


Pragmatic Guide to Sass, by Hampton Catlin and Michael Lintorn Catlin
128 pages
Published: 2011-12-16
ISBN: 978-1-93435-684-5

When I was first becoming a professional programmer, I worked with a consultant who, despite being newer to the language and IDE I was using, was able to teach me some new syntax and features. When I asked how he knew these things, he pulled out an intermediate book on the language and commented, "You find a lot of new tricks reading the manual cover to cover."

In that vein, I picked up the Pragmatic Bookshelf's Pragmatic Guide to Sass by Hampton Catlin and Michael Lintorn Catlin. It is a relatively short read at 126 pages, made shorter by the function reference that starts at page 107, and the Haml introduction at page 114

The book is a fast read, made up of tasks and Sass solutions. The basics of the concepts are introduced: variables, imports, mixin, extend, math operators, @each and @if, along with a number of conventions that would surprise anyone who didn't know about them. I'm thinking of the underscore-prefixed file name convention for Sass files that are not standalone after compiling (partial imports) with that comment.

The book is a couple years out of date, and could be updated to include new Sass and Compass features such as namespacing and possibly defining custome sass functions.

As a introduction book, which this book describes itself as, it works. As a refresher book, which this book describes itself as, it works less well. It skims over some of the whys one would use a feature, in favor of how one uses a feature, and doesn't contrast features much. As an introduction, this could be okay for most designers or developers. I prefer the whys, even if only in a sidebar.

Wasn't I just so clever?

Blog kitt decided around 09:14 on 29 June 2013 to publish this:

Last night, before going to bed, I wrote a schedule for myself for today. This morning, I jumped out of bed, and started in on that schedule. First item: walken the doggen.

Simple enough. As I grabbed the leashes, though, I thought, hey, the big dog always has the bigger, longer leash, and the smaller dog always has the shorter leash. Why not switch them up?

The Joliet Toilet

Blog Posted by kitt at 13:19 on 28 June 2013

For years, I struggled to remember how to spell toilet. I would spell it either T-O-I-L-E-T or T-O-L-I-E-T, and rarely figured out when I spelled it incorrectly.

Today, I think I figured out why I struggled:

I lived off Joliet Road when I was kid, so OF COURSE toilet is spelled T-O-L-I-E-T.

Wasn't until Kris told me a couple years ago, "Just spell it TWAAAAAAAAAAA-LET and you'll be fine," that I was finally able to spell toilet correctly.

Go me.

Toilet.

Toilet.

Toilet.

Toilet.

Toilet.

Toilet.

Toilet.

Toilet.

T-O-I-L-E-T.

Weird Sexy Man Hug

Scalzi Story Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 10:28 on 28 June 2013

Wherein I take a band name from Scalzi’s Next Band Name list, and spend no more than 20 minutes writing the story with the band name as a title. Current one is Weird Sexy Man Hug. See also: the full story archive.

---

"Okay, now, we're going to practice what I just showed you all. Just stand up, and approach your partner. That's right, just step forward and hold your hand out, turned upward.

"George, a little more vertical and a lot higher up. You're going for the Bro Hug, not a handshake. If your hand is low, you will get a handshake. If your hand is too horizontal, the guys are going to look at you like you're a girl and you want your hand kissed. Do you want your hand kissed? When you're going for the Bro Hug?

"No.

"No, you don't. So more vertical. That's right.

"Okay, step into the hug. Clasp hands, good, turn into it. Yes, like that. Nick, no, into the hug. And don't yank.

"...

"...

"Step back everyone, I'll demonstrate again with Mike here. See how I approach him? Note how this is different than the arms-open-wide stance of the Big Uncle Hug? Right. So, arm bent, almost like we're going to arm wrestle, but WE ARE NOT ARM WRESTLING, GUYS, we are Bro-Hugging. Okay, we take each other's hands, step into each other, touch shoulders. If you'd like, you can pat the other guy on the back of his upper shoulder, but don't force this. See how Mike here became a little uncomfortable when I patted his back too low? You don't want that. Keep it at the lowest intimacy part of the back, the shoulder. And then we step away.

"This is not a torture session, guys. We have a smile through this all. We are inviting the other guy in, he is our brother.

"Well, a brother we like.

"Okay, try again. Step a few steps away, and now approach.

"Much better guys, nicely done. Good work, there, George, good hand placement. I guess that arm wrestling image helped, eh?

"I'm glad. Say, do you guys need a break? We've been going at this for a few ours now, and you are all progressing well. I want to make sure we're not overloading you now.

"No? Okay, we'll push through. Take your seats again.

"We have two hugs left before we summarize all of the hugs, bring out our huggees, you'll do your final test of all the hugs we've learned today, and then class ends.

"These last two hugs are the most intimate hugs, but you need to be careful with them. You don't want to overstep the boundaries of the huggee, regardless of gender, guys. I need to remind you about that, you can be intimate with someone regardless of gender and your hug can be an invitation. Be sure you are meaning to give the invitation and reading the huggee's signals.

"Okay, the last two are the Warm Greeting Hug and the Bear Hug. There are, of course, variations on these hugs, and let me roll my eyes for you with that 'of course' I just said, because I will keep saying there are always variations on these hugs. We'll go over the variations of these a bit.

"First, you need to know what your intentions are with the huggee, and have a best guess on what the huggee's intentions are. Sometimes you are offering comfort, sometimes you are merely saying hello or good bye. The Bear Hug is a good, friendly greeting hug.

"To do this, you open your arms wide, go on, everyone do this. Right, wide, smile big, you're happy to see your friend. Great! Now step in and wrap your arms all around the huggee. If you are taller, you go on the top. If you are shorter, expect to go under. If you are similar heights, you will lift your right arm a bit and drop your left arm a bit to signal the more complicated cross hug.

"Next, you step into each other, as Mike and I are doing, wrap your arms around the other person and squeeze WITHOUT OVERSQUEEZING. You are not trying to choke out the huggee. Keep your hands up and let your body feel what the huggee is doing. If the huggee squeezes gently and releases, that is your signal that the hug is over. You will give one more gentle squeeze and break the hug.

"Got that?

"Good. Let's practice this. Everyone stand up. Arms wide, that's good. Jeff, we're not stretching here, don't overdo it.

"Now step forward. Remember to smile guys. Good.

"Remember, if the huggee wants the hug to continue, you will allow it to continue. If the huggee indicates done, either by pulling back or with a quick tighter hug, you will let it go. Hugging beyond the signal turns the Bear Hug into the Weird Sexy Man Hug, and YOU DO NOT WANT THIS.

"Got that? You do not want that.

"Mike, let go now."

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