Weeknotes 2025W08

This week, I launched my first client website! This is the first time I got paid for doing development work. It took a few weeks and I learned so much about how to work with others and what my process will look like moving forward. On the technical side, I started from a public domain template built with 11ty and vanilla CSS. From there, I implemented features and elements the clients wanted, went through a few rounds of revisions, and shipped it. They were really happy with it and are excited to get their new business moving with a fresh new home on the internet.

I also started another client website using what I just learned from the last project. This time, I’m using Astro and Tailwind to optimize for speed and quality-of-life improvements for me. Things like optimizing images took a bunch of time in the last project and Astro does a lot of that stuff without me really thinking about it. I used Tailwind a long time ago but opted to really dig into vanilla CSS since then. I like the speed, I do not like how messy it makes the HTML.

I switched from Todoist to Tweek for my task management. I really took advantage of all of Todoist’s features (and their student discount) during college and just got back into it a few months ago. There is a lot going on there that I don’t need. Tweek is ultra-simple and really good-looking. It’s a simple weekly layout with tasks under each day and that’s about it. You can create custom lists (e.g. Someday), use colors to differentiate tasks, and set reminders as well. It has just enough features without bogging me down and it also fits nicely into my weekly review process. Excellent find, thanks to ner3y.

For fun, we celebrated AM’s birthday by going out for cocktails and charcuterie. It was a quirky little venue with great drinks and friends. After that, we went to a dive bar for some cheaper beers and called it a night.

Links

• Gulf of anything by MapQuest. Name the Gulf of Mexico into anything you want to share with your friends.
• The secret Poker Game You Can Play on the Subway! by falken. Use groups of seats on public transport as your hand in a game of poker.
• Bye Todoist, hello Tweek by ner3y. So glad I found this post and was introduced to Tweek. It is a nearly perfect task management system for me right now.
• Registration data lookup tool by ICANN. Apparently, you should use this to find available domain names instead of searching directly with registrars.
• CSS Pattern by Temani Afif. Lots of cool patterns to use as backgrounds powered purely by CSS gradients.
• Why “move fast and break things” doesn’t work for government by Anonymous on We the Builders. Government systems need to prioritize scalability and resiliency. Leave the speed and innovation to the private sector.