My home office is getting a new upgrade next week. It is time to get some things sorted and I am making some test in this upgrade to see where I want to go next. It will not be any expensive upgrades this time around, except for maybe ordering a custom desk top from Ikea. The aim is to test some things out before I decide on what to do next, and to get some things ready for this fall.
So the first purchase I did was to get a screen rise. Considering my screen is a 48' tv with a base of 25 cm, I needed something big. So I have bought a black FITUEYES that has a base of 28cm. If this works well, I might keep it or I will build my own using the same custom walnut desk top from Ikea. The aim here is to raise the screen and free some space below so I get more space on the desk.
The second purchase is a BONTEC monitor arm with a laptop mount. This will allow me to use my laptop for screencasts by mounting the laptop to the side. This will make it a bit easier and more natural to present and have video calls, as my huge screen make it a bit awkward when my eyes focus far off the camera. I also have a Logitech C90s on a swivel arm that I can use as a secondary camera if I like.
In addition to this, I also have purchased a small HUANUO stand to place my PC on so it comes off the ground a bit. It also allows me to place the computer over the table foot if I need. I am testing a HUANUO ergonomic foot support as well and a new 900x400mm mouse pad since my current one is a bit dirty and I can use a second one to switch to.
Next up on the list is a new desk top from Ikea. It will be a bit expensive since I will order a pretty big top. I will go for a Karlby walnut desk top as I like the color of that one. At 160cm x 65cm it will cost close to 6000 SEK ($690), which is why I want to test some things before I commit to the exact size.
Once I commit to the desk top, I will either put some money on a second one that will be the new screen raise, or I will use the black one if it works well. This fall, I will most likely make some orders from Grovemade where I am aiming for a felt desk mat and a leather mouse pad that seem to be good investments. I'll probably order some coasters and maybe a planter or two.
I will update you next week when I have had a chance to set this up and test it.

The new theme has been added to the site. As I started to convert things I realized I would mess up the current theme anyway and there was really no reason not to make the switch. So the new theme is here, with the dark mode switch. This now means I have some bugs to fix and a whole new playground to play with!
The new theme is not really new as it is based on the old theme, but as I have rebuilt the header from scratch I still call it new. I have also done quite a lot of work to get the dark mode to work properly. The dark mode required a bit of thinking, as I do not want to have multiple classes for everything.
So instead I used the standard IPS classes and I added a set of color variables for the custom code I have created for my databases and Pages. This works quite well because all I want to do is change the colors when changing to dark mode. I have four background colors defined and two font colors. This pretty much takes care of all the basics I need.
I have realized that I might need an inverted set as well for areas like the featured blocks. I need a background color for it and two fonts, one darker and one lighter. Furthermore, I might need a border as well, but I don't use it yet, so I am not sure if I want to add it.
IPS use RGB for their colors, so I may adapt my colors to that as well. It is a bit annoying that they only add the RGB value, even if I understand why. While this makes it possible to add the opacity value separately for each class, it also locks the color values to RGB and prevent me from using hex or HSL.
Regardless, I can not continue making small adjustments to the bugs that can be seen in dark mode, especially, and then focus on the next steps. Right now, I am refocusing the site and trying to figure out what it has to offer for visitors. Who do I create for and what do I hope the site will provide for a visitor, these are questions that are very important as they will determine how I will redesign the different areas.
I am recreating the hero banners with a new structure that will make them to behave a bit more the way I want. Rather than just being a one layer image, the new hero banners will have multiple layers that behave differently. The aim is to have a background color and a vector based image on top that both stretch 100%. On top of that, I will have the vector section image that will be restricted to the content area. This will allow me to control the presentation of that image better.
The content on top of the hero will also be rebuilt. I will use flexbox to create a two section area, with the left still having the text box and buttons. The right side can have different content depending on the area, and I am playing around with different ideas here. I have a lot of isometric images I can use, but I am also trying out characters to help humanize the site a bit. Not only is it fun to create characters, even if I will use stock characters for starters, but it also helps visitors to identify with the site on a  psychological level.
I am considering what to do with the different databases as well. Right now things are a bit scattered about and I am not sure clubs is the best way to handle all things. So I will for example bring in Movies into the general forum and I will create new forums for frontend development as part of the refocusing of the Development section. These will be questions based, as that is mostly what I think people will want to do anyway in these sections.
The Development section will be split into frontend and backend, where I will focus on the frontend part. The plan is to start building a platform for letting others learn about HTML and CSS and then to allow people to become community leaders for different focus areas.  So for HTML and CSS for example there will be areas for the different frameworks such as Bootstrap and Tailwind. If this turns out the way I like it, I will expand on this for the other sections. Management for example will have sections for methodologies like SAFe, ITIL and IT4IT and design will have for the big tools like Sketch, Figma, Adobe, but also a split between UX and UI. And so on...
As you probably can tell, there are a lot of new sections and pages that will need to be built. This is where I really get excited, however, and my Figma is already loaded to start the process of designing new blocks and modules.
Year 3 will be very exciting indeed!

The first step of the design refresh is complete. The new header is in place and I have the dark/light toggle setup. I have moved over the design into a new skin on this site, and it is now time to rebuild the custom templates to make them work with the dark/light toggle. Overall, I am happy with the changes so far, but there is a lot to do going forward.
Adding the Dark/Light toggle was a bit of a struggle to get the cookies setting right, while also maintaining the original concept. The fact that I wrote the code in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping might have had an impact on that, though. One benefit of having this switch is that it show very clearly where the original design deviated from the standard. It might sound like a simple thing, but going back and remake the designs will not only allow me to make things right, it also is a good learning experience into the Invision Community variables.
My next step is now to redesign the footer, since it contain a lot of code I no longer need. There are some bugs involved in the footer as well, so I will take care of those at the same time. After that, I will focus on the pages templates. For them, I will just start with adjusting the CSS so they use the variables instead of hard color values.
With this now in place, I will add all of this to Figma so I can start working on making designs for the many pages I plan for year 3. I already have colors and fonts setup, but I need to recreate and set up the header and footer and then redesign the blocks and heroes a bit. Once I have that, I can start creating new designs. Since I now have two designs with the light/dark mode feature, I will need to make multiple versions of each design, though. It will be extra interesting!
The first pages that I will build are the sections of course. I have had this on my to-do list for 2 years now, so it is time. The start page also will get a facelift with a proper design. Here I have collected ideas for a while and I think I have a design in mind, but it includes buying some more images from Shutterstock. Since I want the most bang for my buck, I am collecting graphics to fill up the 750 images I plan to purchase. It is actually not as easy as it sounds to collect that many, but I'll get it done.
So things are moving forward, slowly, but surely.

The first new steps for Year 3 updates are in progress now, and I am rebuilding the theme again on the beta site. I have started with the new header and will do the footer as well before I move things over to this site. I plan to add a light/dark toggle as well because it seems like a fun thing to do, but overall it will be a lot of cleaning up mostly.
The new header is starting to come along and I have the basics done. I decided to move away from custom navigation and will instead use the default navigation. The only downside is that adding icons and pills require a bit more CSS than before, but I can live with that. The upside that the navigation is always in sync makes up for that, I think.
I also remade the sections that will only be seen in desktop mode. It's pretty similar to what I had before, but some slight adjustments as I rebuilt it from scratch. If you want to test the prototype, then I have a codepen for that (seen below).

See the Pen JWSE Sections by Jimi Wikman (@jimiwikman) on CodePen.
I will move on to the footer soon, but first I will need to add the color variables and the font variables into the custom.css. I will also add the toggle for dark/light so I can see that it works properly before I do the footer. This is because the header and footer will probably stay the same regardless of setting.
With the update, I will also go over the areas and the current features, since I want to remove some areas and set some others as hidden. This so I can focus on the refresh areas and remove areas that are no longer things that I find useful. I am also stepping away from the changes I made to the widget areas previously, and I will instead use CSS to break out full-width containers.
For blocks, I will rework them completely to make them work even if I switch themes. That means that each block will contain all the CSS and JS, just like how Angular components work. I will also rework the CSS for every Pages template to clean them up as much as possible.
It is still a week and a half until I start my vacation, but as always...things are moving, even if it is slow!

With the upgrade of the site to 4.6 I noticed some areas where things broke a bit. Nothing major, but it will add up eventually and I do have a planned clean up set anyway, so I will do a bit of reconstruction, or rebuilding. As things have progressed, I have felt that the CSS is getting bloated, so I feel like correcting that while at the same time try some new things.
As part of the rebuild, I will make some adjustments to the structure of things, like making sure that all databases have unique templates and that CSS is loaded only when a certain component or section is called. For example, I plan on adding section specific CSS only when that section is loaded by using template conditions. Same thing with components, where I will include the CSS needed in the component itself rather than using the global one.
I will start listing the different main classes for Invision Community as well so I can use it in different overrides, but also to reuse in certain aspects of the design. For example, I am toying with the idea of having different theme colors based on the section, so I could quickly make a change to these colors by making an override file that only show on certain sections.
I am looking into the possibility to add a dark theme switch to the site as well. Not because I think it will be necessary, but mostly because it is something that looks fun and it can be a good learning experience. When it comes to adding things, I am going to remove some things as well. It will be some plugins that I am not really using at the moment, like the Quiz, the Links and the Books sections.
I will start with the framework of the site, where I will look into the possibility to move the header and footer to their own templates and then build the basics for the global variables. I will of course make these changes to the beta site first, where I will also take advantage of the Designers' mode since it will allow me to work faster.
So, there is some work to be done!

With the new update to Invision Community coming next week and the end of Year 2 for this site closing in, I am excited to play around some more this summer. One area I look at digging deeper into are CSS and HTML, as they are things I love to play around with, but also seem to be a bit tricky for new developers. So why not dig into it and see what is going on in the world, while show some basics to new developers?
CSS is one of those areas where you are never, ever fully a master. There are so many ways to work with CSS, and it is continuously evolving. It feels that every day I discover new ways to do things and how to use things in ways that baffles my mind. Everything from what measurement units to use to variables and key frames or even how to use CSS to create 3d animations is just mind-boggling at times.
So I feel that CSS is a good place to focus for a while and to build up the section page for.  It would be nice to build something like the W3Schools, but I am not sure if it would make sense unless I can add something that w3schools do not already provide. I'll ponder on that for a while and see how I feel once I start playing around a bit. It would make sense to make sort of a catalog over things and create a new CSS section in the forum as a way to start expanding on the code section a bit.
What I aim to do though is to go through pretty much all the CSS properties and see what new things I can learn. I have not played around much with animations, for example, and you always can look through the selectors and functions because I don't use them nearly as much as I should. Overall, this will be a fun exercise I think, and it should give me plenty of article material for a while.
A bit unrelated, I am also going to work more on the mobile aspect of the site. This means there will be a some refactoring in general around here, and my first stop will be the database templates that I will rebuild from scratch. I will probably go with CSS grid since I want to move some things around, but also to play around with it to see its capabilities compared to flex.
So, a lot of fun things to play around with soon!
 

Now that I have received the first vaccination for COVID, time is absolutely here to start working out again. While I am hardly immune in any way, I have a slightly better protection against severe illness. This is good enough under the circumstances I think. I really, really need to lose weight and get more activity, so I'll risk it.
I have always been a gym-rat, loving the pain of pushing and pulling hard cold metal so I will go back to that. While hard exercise will have positive effects on the body it will not really be what I need initially. So rather than focusing on that I will focus on reducing weight.
I also need to get those lungs back in shape again, not just to increase oxygen to the body, but also because that will help me with SHR as well. This means more walks and more cardio at the gym. It's not what I love the most, but it has to be done. Once body fat is down a bit I can focus a bit more on adding muscle mass again, but for the first 6 months or so it will just be to reduce the body fat and trim the muscles again.
One of the really big advantages with working from home is that I can work out in the morning again. I love that, but it has always been a bit difficult when you have to commute 75 minutes every morning and every afternoon. Those 150 minutes really drain the amount of time you have available during the day. I could still manage that when we lived in Märsta as there was a 24/7 gym available so I could work out at 4.30 in the morning. That is not really possible here, so working out at 6.30 when gyms open here is not possible with 75 minutes commute and you start at 8 in the morning.
When you don't need to commute however 6.30 works fine. I can take a 5k walk in the morning to get to the gym at 6.30, then work out for an hour before I head home. Get a quick shower and something to eat and then start working at 8.15 or so. That sounds great to be honest.
When things get back to more normal and working from home may not be as easy as it is now I have the options of another gym that is much smaller, but opens at 5 in the morning. There is also the option of attending a gym close to the client, like I did when I worked at H&M. It requires that I bring extra clothes, which I prefer not to do, but if it's the option available I'll take it.
The direction is set, the mind has been adjusted for uncomfortable pain.
Now all I have to do, is to see it through.
 

Invision Community 4.6 is coming soon and with it comes a new rank and achievements that is awesome. This will be a great place to start working on more community based features and to build in this system in the various databases and so on. I am also considering diving more into multi theme by adding more themes. Not just to play around with themes, but to explore better ways to build things, so it will work with any theme.
The first iteration of ranks and achievements will have pretty much everything I was missing in the current rank system, so it will be a great start. The problem however is that the feature is only shown in the forum, so I will need to add it to the comments form for all other areas. I will see if I can find a good solution for that.
Design wise I am looking into childe themes so I might be able to use it on the sections. This also means that I am going to dive a bit deeper into adding multi theme setups. I will probably also start looking into a dark theme eventually and how to best make the switch for the users. Not because it is exceptionally important from a health perspective, but more because I want to explore that aspect of web development.
As far as making my setup here at home the way I want I have made some additional investments this week. I will make the big investment next month for the new table-top, but this month I have bought a set of Philips Hue Light bars. These will be placed behind my TV to brighten up the wall behind it. Once I have the new table-top I might add a light strip as well.
 
I also bought a Logitech C920s Pro HD webcam since I not only spend a lot of time in video calls, but also because I might be doing some tutorials for my YouTube Channel later. People keep telling me that I am a good teacher, so I figure I might try to throw out some tutorials for Jira and Confluence for example. I have heard good things about this one, and it comes with a privacy shutter that is also nice. Since I have a very thin top of my TV this one also seem to be able to handle that.
To get my head a bit in order and to get some creativity flowing again I ordered a new Moleskin notebook and some pens. I felt a bit crazy today so I decided on a Blend Hardcover Large Dark Blue Moleskin. It has a fabric cover, which I have not tried before, so I figured why not. For the pens I caved and ordered some Tombow Fudenosuke hard tips since everyone say they are so great. I start out with just 4 colors to test things out: black, brown, orange and pink.
Finally, I ordered a Samdi Vertical Laptop Stand in Walnut to place my MacBook Pro. I have not really tried to plug it in yet into the new setup, but I figure there are times when I might want to do that. If for nothing else to use Sketch again. It's not a big investment and it will look good on the new table-top I think.
So, this setup I have in mind is slowly coming together. With the new table-top and the homemade "bench" to raise the TV a few inches so I get a lot more desk space I think this summer will be pretty amazing!
So, fingers crossed 🙂

Spring is here and with that comes some good things and some bad things. On the upside I am doing quite a lot of overtime lately, but in a very good way that is well worth the time spent for my well-being. I am also slowly getting back into a creative mode and it feels amazing.
So, lets start with spring and the feeling of daylight returning that invigorate the soul. It has been some amazing days lately with lots of sun mixed with some rainy days that also have their positive effect on me. The combination have had a bit of a downside as well as the trees have really gone bananas releasing a lot of pollen.
While I am not allergic, I have SHR and that makes it almost as bad. Unlike people with allergies or asthma, there are nothing that will take the edge off for someone with SHR. So it has been a bit annoying at times when breathing was a bit difficult, my eyes swollen and all my joints aching. Everything itches and I feel hot without having a fever.
In short, it is not the best feeling in the world and it drains energy for sure. In the greater scope of things however it's nothing compared to the suffering we still have around the world. So I'll complain a bit and sleeping is a bit tricky, but I'll live.
On the upside I have a second project on top of my 100% at Martin & Servera where I am helping ChessIT writing up a design guide for the design work I have done over the last year or so for them. I am doing this on weekends and evenings, which is usually a bad idea, but in this case it is doing wonders for my energy levels. It is really satisfying to be able to do design again and document it in a design guide type of way.
It has inspired me to do more design as well, so this weekend I have created the new rank icons that will be added when Invision Community will release their 4.6 release that should come sometime before the summer I think. They turned out pretty good and just for good measure I have decided to top that with writing the guide for setting up the Task Manager using InDesign. It has been a while since I last used InDesign, but it is as fun as always!

Life is (mostly) good and I expect that I should be able to get the first vaccination in a few weeks for COVID-19. Hopefully that allows me to go back to the gym again soon. I really, really need that...

Other than that I am doing design sketches for the fence we are building around the porch and in about a month I will buy that new wooden desk top so I can pimp my desk a bit this summer.
Life is good.

Another week has passed and this week I caught a little cold again. This time stuck in the nose and throat, making things a bit difficult so I had to take a few sick days again. It sucks, but fortunately it was only two days. Over in Twitter-land things are stir crazy as always and today I looked into ordering a new top for my desk for my summer plan. It is busy days as always!
This week started with a cold, which was a gift from my son combined with pollen no doubt. I still managed to get through a full day of training on Monday, but on Wednesday I had to call in sick and reschedule a few things as I could barely speak and was running a bit of a fever. On Friday things were under control again, even if I still feel the clog in my sinuses and don't really hear that well yet. I'll just blame old age and no one will notice anyway.
Meanwhile, over at Twitter...
On Twitter I have tried to stay positive, but it is testing my patience sometimes. People are...well, not thinking like me if I put it like that. I am also fascinated how many people that create accounts on Twitter for the sole purpose of being a complete asshole. I don't mean that they have different opinions than I do, I mean they go out of their way to really be mean and rude.
Like some women that wish me and all men to die and trying to even say anything to these people will result in an all out assault that one could argue could fit the definition of hate speech. Or the arrogant and spoiled Marxist brats that will basically scream their lungs out to cancel anyone that does not agree with whatever they focus on at that moment. It is as toxic as you can imagine it, and then some.
I also notice that the Swedish politicians are stirring things up and they seem stuck in a drive-by shooting tactic with little to no thought behind their actions. The latest stupidity is a list of 43 points to combat violence against women posted by one of the leaders of one of Sweden middle parties. I thought it was a joke at first because some points are so unrealistic and on a level that make me wonder if this is written by a politician or a 14-year-old with no knowledge of society. Some of these suggestions are even outright damaging to society, some are just nonsense and some are good actionable suggestions. It is the overall quality that baffles me and the lack of insight on how this reduces the credibility for that political party.
New features from Invision Community
As the world around us seem to burn it is easy to get caught up in it, but for every bad thing coming my way I have realized that if I look I can find 10 good things. For example there are some nice things coming for Invision Community soon and one thing I look forward to is the new achievement system. It allows me to build a rank progression system that I have put off for a long time now.

The Best Movie of the year?
Yesterday I also watched a wonderful movie that just came out on Netflix. It is an animated movie filled with relatable situations of fatherhood and the dynamics of families. It is of course The Mitchells vs The Machines I am talking about, which I think is one of the best movies I have watched this year.
Desk Upgrade project
This morning I also sat down and did some planning for the desk upgrade this summer. Basically I am going to replace the top of my desk with a sturdier version that look a bit more like I want it. I am looking at a custom sized top from Ikea with a walnut faner that you usually use for the kitchen counters.

The project itself is not so much getting a new top, because that is just removing the current one with a new one. The project is that I am actually getting two of these and one will be a shelf for my TV/Monitor. So I will have one smaller (35cm/120cm) of these and then I will add legs to it. This will be placed on top of the desk and the TV/Monitor will be placed on to of it. This will provide more space below the screen and lift the screen up a bit.
It will cost a bit, but I think it will be worth it!

Ever since I left Destiny 2 due to the horrible behavior of Bungie I have been focusing on Outriders. It is a very fun game, even if it started with quite a few bugs. A lot of people rushed through to the endgame, but I kind of got stuck a bit and I am now in no rush really to clear the end game.
Slow and steady. That is how I do it and my focus is on having fun rather than kin-maxing things. Just like with everything else. I started with the Devastator and really took my time with the campaign. Once done I had big problems getting into the end game and felt kind of frustrated for a while.
Rushing through the campaign with a Trickster and end game suddenly was much easier. Pushed up to World Tier 8 and then went back and took a Pyromancer through to end game as well. I took almost a week off to focus on work and playing some Diablo 3 just for fun. Now I am going to get my Technomancer through because I think that is the class that best fit my playing style as I am not so much in your face but rather midrange.
So unlike many you see online I am in no hurry to get to endgame and clearing World Tier 15 expeditions. I will get there sooner or later and I focus on enjoying the game and the story until then.
Slow, but steady.