Dino’s Journal 📖

Bookmarks

I have been slacking off on sharing bookmark posts lately. It's not that I haven't been reading new articles or posts. I'm still reading, almost everyday. I've just been so busy at work and at home that I run out of time to write bookmark posts. After reading a lengthy article for instance, it's usually time for me to get back to work or help with the kids. I've no time left to write down my reflections on the articles or posts I've read. So, going forward I might eschew that practice in favor of getting more bookmark posts out faster. The goal of my bookmark posts was always to bookmark and share what I think are good reads anyway. Writing down my thoughts on it are just a bonus.


This is a great read on the topic of parenting. Specifically, how to avoid over-parenting your child. I myself think that I could be considered a “helicopter dad,” so this read was a very good wake-up call for me.

Link: How to raise a resilient child

Read more...

Last time I shared an Emoji Unicode Reference from w3schools. I found a better one. This one is from the Unicode website itself. It's better because they have an extra column in their table called “CLDR Short Name”. To me, it's really more like a description column. That means you can do a browser search for say “book”, and it will lead you to all the emojis with that word in its description. It just makes it easier to find the emoji you are looking for.

The other benefit is that it gives you a preview of what an emoji looks like on different platforms. For instance, the open book emoji looks noticeably different between platforms. I'm using the same emoji on the title for this site. And I was wondering why it looks different on my Windows PC and on my iPhone. Well, now I know why — each platform or “vendor” can implement their own version of the emoji.

Link: Full Emoji List

Tags: #Bookmarks #Blogging

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This seems like a great primer for learning how to use CSS to improve readability of posts on your site. It covers a bunch of CSS topics like font size units, letter and word spacing, width and alignment of text, etc...

Link: Modern CSS Techniques To Improve Legibility


This post is Day 36 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

Tags: #Bookmarks #WebDevelopment #100DaysToOffload

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Bookmarking this before I forget... again. This is a pretty cool, easy to use, open source virtual whiteboarding tool. It allows you to quickly create workflow diagrams using just a browser.

Excalidraw is a whiteboard tool that lets you easily sketch diagrams with a hand-drawn feel.

Link: Excalidraw | Source Code

I would have never discovered Excalidraw had it not been for this post by Erik.

Tags: #Bookmarks #Tools

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I've been playing with adding emojis to this site recently. If you haven't noticed, the pinned pages now have emojis at the end. It is as simple as copy and paste. I didn't have to use escape characters. I basically went to the Emoji Unicode Reference page on w3schools, copied one of the emojis, edited one of the pinned pages, pasted the emoji and hit publish. And it... worked. Too easy really. Maybe everyone else already knew that it was that easy, but not me 😀

Anyway, I'm bookmarking the page so I can easily find more emojis to use in the future. Maybe someone else will find it useful too.

Link: Emoji Unicode Reference


This post is Day 23 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

Tags: #Bookmarks #Blogging #100DaysToOffload

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The narrative that science and Christianity are enemies is false. Not only are they not enemies but Christianity helped science develop beyond the limits imposed on it by ancient cosmologies.

I know, right? The title seems absurd, even for me as a Christian. But, keep an open mind and listen to Dr. Stacy Trasancos make her case. In this free sample lesson from Word on Fire, she discusses ancient culture and the history of science. Culminating in how it all led to the modern science that we have today.

Link: WOF 240: Science was Born of Christianity

While Catholic teaching maintains that God operates within the universe, it does not go all the way to saying that God is the universe. Rather, we say that God created the universe and holds everything in existence. The universe is not God, it is God's creation — God's handiwork. This nuance puts science in its place, as the study of the handiwork of God.

That is the first time I've heard someone say, that science is the study of the handiwork of God. If you think about it though, it makes sense. If God really does exist, then science is definitely the study of His work. From this perspective, science is not in conflict with belief in God. It is not in conflict with faith.


This post is Day 22 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

Tags: #Bookmarks #WordOnFire #Theology #100DaysToOffload

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Perhaps lesser known is the fact that Ignatius also developed a method of discernment or decision-making that is still relevant today and that can be applied by people of all faiths and adapted to those who are not religious.

A great read on a decision-making process developed by a 16th-century saint. Belief in the divine is not a requirement to make use of this decision-making process. Credit for that goes to the author, who makes an effort to make this process applicable to everyone.

He also urged people to make decisions for the “greater glory of God.” How can non-religious people use this advice? I argue they can consider how their decisions will affect the vulnerable, the poorest and the most marginalized.

That is a wonderful way to translate the phrase “for the greater glory of God” and make it applicable for people who do not believe in God.

In today’s hurried world, a 16th-century Catholic mystics’ advice may seem quaint or his process tedious. However, many modern psychological approaches confirm the value of such reflective practices.

A good reminder to look into the past for solutions to problems that we might still have today.

Link: What a 16th-Century Mystic Can Teach Us About Making Good Decisions


This post is Day 20 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

Tags: #Bookmarks #DecisionMaking #100DaysToOffload

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Great read on why being right is not enough to convince people to get on your side. You have to show kindness too. In this post, Ryan breaks down what makes online debates and discussions so toxic nowadays. And how we can hopefully fix it.

Link: It’s Not Enough to Be Right—You Also Have to Be Kind

As we’ve become more polarized and more algorithmically sorted, we care a lot less about the people who think differently than us and put little effort into persuading them. That’s because persuasion is no longer the goal—it’s signaling. And with signaling, it’s vehemence that matters, not quality. The constraints of social media also reduce the space for any nuance or qualification you might be inclined to offer; 140 characters or even 240 does not leave much room for humility or kindness. And the desire for viral sharing heightens the need for aggressive, simplistic arguments.

Another reason why you should share your thoughts on your blog, instead of on social media. Use social media to point to your blog, instead of making social media your blog.

Read more...

Last week I received an email from a reader who recommended this site. Read This Twice is in the same vein as the Good Books website. Both websites serve up book recommendations based on books that influential people have read. I'm always up for finding more sources of books to read. This one is a good one to bookmark too. I will also say that compared to the Good Books website, this site loads a lot faster on my devices. Not sure why that is, but that is just an observation.

Note that both websites make use of Amazon affiliate links. I'm in no way affiliated with any of these two websites or their owners. I'm just sharing because they have good content.

Link: Read This Twice

Tags: #Bookmarks #BookRecommendations

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Elevator.js fixes those awkward “scroll to top” moments the old fashioned way.

Sharing this because it just brightened up my morning. And it might be of use to those working with JavaScript. Totally did not expect that when I hit the “Back to Top” button. That gave a me a good chuckle ^_^x

I know it goes against Write.as' minimalistic design, but it would be totally cool if we could get it implemented on here haha.

Link: Elevator.js


This post is Day 13 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Visit https://100daystooffload.com to get more info, or to get involved.

Tags: #Bookmarks #JavaScript #100DaysToOffload

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