Dino’s Journal 📖

I've decided to start publishing software development specific posts on this journal. Previously, they would go into my dev blog. But nowadays, I feel like that's too much work — maintaining multiple websites that is. So, in the interest of simplifying things, for 2021 at least, software development posts will start showing up here.

While I've already had this idea in my head for the past few months, I was also inspired by this post from Angelo.

When working with a Windows Forms TextBox, and you want to display updates periodically while a long task is running, you can make use of the Application.DoEvents() method.

There are two ways that I know of to customize the footer on a Write.as website. The first one is through CSS and the second one is through JavaScript. I'll go through those two options in this post.

Option 1: CSS

I got this idea of customizing the footer via CSS after looking at Robert Xu's Write.as powered site. It puzzled me that I could not highlight the text in the footer. After viewing the page source, I finally figured out that it was CSS trickery.

So, anyway here we are. To customize the footer using CSS, all you need to do is modify the following CSS script, then add it to the Custom CSS settings for your website.

footer nav::before {
    content: "Copyright © 2020 - 2021 by Your Name \A";
    white-space: pre-wrap;
}

So, it turns out subscribing to a Write.as blog via an Outlook email address, means you might run into issues with Markdown formatting in the emails. I tested it by subscribing to this site using two different email providers. The email that I received in Outlook had formatting issues. But the same email in Protonmail did not have issues.

Helped Davin build a makeshift house using Lego blocks. I can now see why the wife likes helping Davin with his Lego blocks; it is fun.

Last week, the Dallas Mavericks won a game that I watched on TV. I guess I’m not cursed after all haha. They just suck this early in the season.

After that win, they went on to play an excellent game against the Denver Nuggets. Jokic hit the buzzer beater to send the game to overtime. But unlike the previous seasons, the Dallas Mavericks were able to close this game out. They need more games and wins like this, to develop their ability to close out games.

Finished reading The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease — and the Statin-Free Plan that Will by Jonny Bowden, PH.D. and Stephen Sinatra, M.D. Here are my thoughts on what I think is a must-read book for everyone.

Why did I pick up this book?

My primary care physician was getting worried about my rising cholesterol numbers. She was worried enough that she wanted me to start taking statin medications to lower my cholesterol. I, on the other hand, was concerned about having to take said medications. And this was before I even knew of the scary side effects mentioned in the book. Also, I was getting frustrated at not being able to lower my cholesterol on my own, without having to take medications.

TWSBI Eco-T Fountain Pen – an affordable fountain pen for beginners.

Got a TWSBI Eco-T fountain pen as a Christmas gift. I've been using it last week and I'm still not a big fan of it. But I also can't seem to stop myself from using it. There's something fascinating about a fountain pen that makes me want to write with one.

I think my Zebra Sarasa Grand Gel Pen writes better. But I need more time with the TWSBI Eco-T fountain pen before I make a final judgement.

For my Zettelkasten in Obsidian, I decided to no longer keep links between my Daily Notes and my Permanent Notes. This is based off what I read in Ahrens' book saying to discard or archive Fleeting Notes. And that's pretty much what my Daily Notes are, a collection of Fleeting Notes.

I'm removing the links, but I'm still archiving them though. And that's because I use the Daily Notes to create my Weeknotes post. It also makes those notes searchable via Obsidian.

Have recently become addicted to Skyrim. Yeah, I know I'm late to the party. I've had the PC version of the game for a long time, but I never really got into it. Then last week, I found that it was available on Xbox Gamepass, so I decided to give it another try.

Gameplay for me, seems to be much more enjoyable on the Xbox than on the PC. I'm not quite sure why that is. Maybe because of the Xbox controller? Melee fighting seems to be much better suited to a controller, than to a keyboard. In any case, I was drawn into the game much more deeply than when I was playing the PC version.

I unintentionally ended up with a Shield Mage play-style. This is something that I've never thought of doing while playing the PC version. I usually go for Shield and Sword. But man, a Shield on the left hand and a Flames spell on the right hand, makes for another fun way to fight.

A hilarious exchange between my wife and son.

Coney: Davin, why are you not wearing your slippers? Davin: Because I'm waiting for my slippers to rest.

***

And another one, this time between my dad and my son.

Grandpa: Where did you go? Davin: I dunno. I forgot to check the map.

Meta comment: I'm not really sure where to put this kind of content. They're too short for a single blog post. And it also seems out of place in a weeknotes post. In the past, this would go into my microblog. But that doesn't exist anymore, so I decided to include them in a weeknotes post. It was either social media or this site, so I decided to publish them here for now.

Watched The Mandalorian last week and it kept getting better and better. It culminated in a jaw dropping season finale that in my opinion, has revived interest in the Star Wars story for most fans. If you are a fan of Star Wars, you have to watch The Mandalorian.

Figured out how to convert the “Published” date in Wyam into the GMT equivalent of my local time. You can find my solution here.

Side-note: I am liking the new “discussion” feature on Github.

Was supposed to create an “Unpopular Posts” Blazor WASM app, but ended up creating the opposite. Anyway, I managed to make the app flexible by having it use query string parameters. That means that you can use the app and embed it into your own Write.as page/site. Just follow the instructions in the readme.

Link: Write.as Popular Posts – Blazor WASM App

I previously decided to move my Game Screenshots series to my micro journal. That didn't really work out for me as I have since let my micro.blog subscription expire. So, the series is back on this site. And since I've been playing some Guild Wars 2 lately, I'm starting it off with a new post about Guild Wars 2.

This is my Human Guardian. He is the character I use the most in the game. In this screenshot, he is wearing the Luminous Heavy Armor set. You can only get this armor set on your sixth year anniversary of owning the game. I've been playing Guild Wars 2 on and off since 2012. Me and my wife were actually beta testers for the game. This is still the only MMORPG that I will go back to time and time again.