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My Personal Blog


“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Year 3 has begun - the plans and thoughts for next year

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
So yesterday was my birthday. My 47th, actually. It marks the beginning of year 3 as I started the new website based on Invision Community back in 2019. In 2019 and 2020 I have done quite a bit on the website and I aim to continue that in year 3 as well. The sections are finally getting some attention and I feel less focused on databases and more focused on pages to build up more structure. Year 3 will be a bit more focused on Pages in general, I think.
About Me
This section is missing the about me part, actually, which is a bit annoying. So I am focusing on that right now, where my focus is on building components for the About Me section. This page will focus on a few key areas:  My Competence, My story and probably a section about Who Am I. The Competence area are focused around four components: The Holistic Consultant introduction,  The Section Roles, The Hire me banner and a block with reviews.
The Section Roles will be a node in itself where I will make sort of a CV for each role. It will act as a landing page of sorts where I will present myself in that role. I will bring in relevant projects, downloadable CV,  some images and so on. I will probably also connect to the roles database and tools that seem relevant. With 19+ roles that I need to have in two languages (English and Swedish) this will take a while, but I am in no hurry.
For my Story, I will have multiple pages, I think. I have not quite ironed out how I want this yet, but there will be multiple sections for sure based on the different periods in my life. Early years, running my own company, the consultant years and so on. I am toying with a sort of timeline, but I fear it will be too much work to maintain in the long run. I do not aim to create a record of my life after all, just a background to who I am and why.
The Sections
Another area that is sorely missing are the Section areas. I had this idea in my mind, but it never really manifested the way I wanted it. Now I feel I have at least a little idea on where to take them next. I am still looking into the focus areas, as each section will have certain products are services that should have their own little spaces. I have used Clubs for this in the past, but I am not 100% sold on that setup yet, even if clubs absolutely will be a prominent part of that setup.
The landing page of each section is divided into two subsections. I am doing this for consistency, but also because I feel all areas have at least two subsections that make sense. I will start with Development, where I will divide into backend and frontend on the landing page. As my area of expertise is in the frontend aspect, I will then focus on that area in particular. The frontend section will in term be divided into two new subsections: HTML/CSS and JavaScript.
Since there are plenty of products and services that are frontend focused rather than HTML/CSS or JavaScript focused, I will need to find a good way to present this and also to create focused areas where needed. Bootstrap for example is a framework that includes all frontend, so it should be at the frontend level. Same thing with IDE's like Visual Studio Code or IntelliJ that even works on the Development level since both frontend and backend can use them. This is where it would be useful to be able to add a product or service to multiple categories...
I do plan on focusing on one area each month, which should mean that all nine areas will be updated by the end of Year 3.
Writings
Writing is an important part of the site and although I am not unhappy with the way things are set up, I want to encourage more guest blogging. So there needs to be a page that describes this and a set of benefits that fit that as well. So I am going to create a new page for guest blogging and promote it with a block on the articles section. This way, I can at least add some attention to the fact that you can guest blog here.
The second thing I want is to drive in some attention to the site itself by posting on other websites. Medium is a popular area and I might look at that, but I am more interested in guest blogging on other websites. Since I am planning on building a new links section, it makes sense that I also reach out to prominent bloggers as I find good websites. I will try to write at least one guest blog each month as part of that month's Section focus.
It has been slow lately on the writing front. It is not that there is nothing to write about, quite the opposite. It's more that life in general has been a bit challenging and I have not had the calm that I need to sit down and write. Not only that, but it has also been very hot and more troubling with my SHR that has caused some issues. I do think that once the sections are more in place, I can find more focus on writing as I can focus on the products and services that I define myself.
Databases
On the database side, I don't feel any rush to extend the databases I have so far. The exception would be the Roles database that I need to update and get setup properly. I will create two new databases as well: The Atlassian add-on database and the Profiles database.  The Profiles database I will take some inspiration from the About Me section to build up a database where you can present yourself. The idea here is to provide a connection between people and companies, but also with products and possibly even articles and more. It is still early in the ideation phase for Profiles, but it is a focus area for Year 3.
Contact and Jira
Right now I have a setup with customer support in Jira and I want to move away from that I think. Not that it is a bad thing to have Jira setup for that, but because I want to focus things on this site. I also will attempt to make some videos based on Jira and Confluence, and it is best if that can be done without live data. So I will change this setup and use a forum instead. At least until I decide I want to make a custom solution based on Pages in the future.
Year 3 is also Year 0
Starting today, I am also making a fresh start in regard to health. I am getting older and I have gained a lot of weight lately since I am just sitting around all day. I need to address this and since my son is very keen on training I will get back to that again. Like the site, this is not a quick fix or a short term solution, but a long term one with focus on losing weight and increasing flexibility. I have a big belly that needs to be tightened as well.
How this will play out depends a lot on the way the pandemic will affect life. Travel time is always a factor, but I have found a way to get things done before, and I can do it again if I put my mind to it. So it is time to get back to the gym and to get the adrenaline flowing again.
 
Year 3 is here and it is full of marvels!

Home Office - starting to come together

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
Yesterday I got some deliveries from Amazon with the latest upgrades for my home office. It was not a lot of things, but it made a big impact. Two new screen raises, a monitor arm with laptop tray and a little foot-pillow really made a big difference. Not only that, but it was also very cheap for the improved experience.

The main screen raise is a three part black wood version and it was pretty easy to put together. It also fit very well on the desk and since it is adjustable in width, I can play around with it to see what width I like. The monitor arm on the other hand had more parts than a small car, and I needed less than a third of it. I still have the option to add a second arm if I like, but I don't have any plans for it at the moment.
The idea behind the laptop on the side is that I will use that for presentations and streaming. I do have an extra camera as well, but it looks a bit nicer when I can look into the camera while I also show things, as opposed to showing the side of my head, or top of it as my main monitor is so huge. I can easily switch the settings on my keyboard to work on either computer, and I am getting an apple trackpad to use as a secondary mouse for the mac. I will of course also use it for design work on  the PC when needed.
The second screen raise was pretty much just the tray and four legs. I assembled it in 30 seconds or so, and I use it to get my PC off the ground a bit. It is a bit short, but I managed to get the feet of the PC on the edge on each side, so it works pretty well. The foot-pillow was surprisingly good and I feel the effect right away.
With this second upgrade, I now feel very good about my setup. Next step will be to get the walnut desk top from Ikea. I am not sure if I will get the second desk top for building my own screen raise just yet. The reason for that is that this screen raise actually worked very well and since it is black it will still work well even on a walnut desk. There is also a pretty big cost involved.
I do feel I need some LED to illuminate the back of the desk a bit so I can see a bit better what I have below the screen now. I also spent some time yesterday looking at something to add to the wall behind the screen. It will probably be some form of canvas or MDF, so I just need to find the right motif that fit not just my home office, but also the bedroom where the home office is located.
So, step 3 will be the new walnut desk top and then during the fall I will add some items from Grovemade as step 4.
So far so good.

Sections - what to do about them

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
The sections have received a first update in Figma. This is the first step to make Sections the natural landing hubs of the site. It is a part of the planning process, and it feels so good to have the tools needed to make new designs with ease now. In both light mode and dark mode.
Sections was always the intended nodes for content. Everything is actually built around that concept, but it never turned out the way I wanted it. So to get a good start now feels very good to be honest, and I will focus on the Development section first this summer. This is because I feel that this is where my passion is at the moment. I think it will be Atlassian next if the Martin & Servera project get a go for phase 2 in September.
For the Development section, I am going to split into frontend and backend. Since I am a frontend developer, I will focus on that section first. The Frontend section will focus on two sections: HTML/CSS and JavaScript. Since I suck at JavaScript I will again focus on HTML/CSS and for that area I want to make resources for people who are new to this field. So some starting guides and probably a list of tags, like on W3Schools, are things I consider.
I have still not decided if I want to focus sections to different products, like Code Editors, or specific code libraries such as Bootstrap or Angular. I think I need to consider the possibility, but not focus on it right away. It might become more interesting down the line when I have had a chance to get some help with content.
This is something I will try to expand upon in Year 3, adding more admins to help with certain areas that they are passionate about. Not sure if it will happen in year 3, or if I need to add more content first, so it might happen in year 4. I will still add it to the sections and I will dedicate a whole page for guest blogging, just to make things more valuable for others to contribute.
So, sections are starting to take form. It's still a long way to go, but it is moving slowly, but surely.

Home Office - the new upgrades

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
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.

A new beginning - the new theme is in place

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
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!

Year 3 design refresh is a slow, but steady progress

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
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 steps - for year 3 site updates

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
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!

Rebuilding the site again for Year 3

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
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!

CSS Deep Dive - Exploring CSS in more depth

By 💫 Jimi Wikman ·
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!
 

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