Delightful Reveal #61

“Sorry, there are squirrels everywhere.” - overheard at Flagrant

What we did:

• Shipped and deployed to production the improveffect.com!!
• Created a guidebook for how to use Decap CMS for the client so they don’t fall into CMS potholes
• Hacked together css overrides for the out-of- the-box UI on the Decap CMS experience – our version of the configuration makes the rough edges rougher to use for the end user
• Create workflow charts for imports and email log functionality for Training Tracker.
• Shipped out Madison+ Ruby t-shirts to remote team members.
• Addressed and mailed out 40+ postcards to Wisconsin companies on Inc’s 5000 List
• A product plan for a couple of small prototypes
• Submitted a PR to Jumpstart’s docs to add more detail on the color system we designed—blog entry coming soon!
• Ordered nametags for Training Tracker
• Designed a t-shirt for Rocky Mountain Ruby
• Finalized Yeeot branding and logo
• Began writing a blog about the t-shirt designing process for RubyConf 2024 (dusting off those writing skillz)
• Wrote analysis to explain the responses to one question in Planet Argon’s Ruby Community Survey
• Synced with the rest of the RubyConf Program Committee to confirm all accepted speakers have confirmed and get them published onto the website
• Met with Amanda Perino (Rails Foundation), Rebecca Miller-Webster (GitHub), and Roy Tomeij (App Signal) to coordinate our roles at Rails World
• Cleaned up the code for a simple AI driven app that answers questions about a series of documents. 

What we’re reading:

• Commonwealth by Anne Patchett
• The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
• Sara Winokur “Double Blind: The Icelandic Manuscript Murders”
• Rebecca Murphy, Otto Hilska “Build: The Elements of an Effective Software Organization”
• When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamin Lebatut
• A Cage Went in Search of a Bird: Ten Kafkaesque Stories by Charlie Kaufman, Keith Ridgway, Elif Batuman, Leone Ross, Helen Oyeyemi, Naomi Alderman, Yiyun Li, Tommy Orange, Ali Smith, Joshua Cohen with Becca Rothfeld 

What we’re playing:

• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Still on that Stardew Valley
• Hogwart’s Legacy – Completed main story arc now onto side missions
• Griftlands again
• Palia on Switch

What we’re watching:

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE
• The new season of Slow Horses
• Flower Crew
• Pachinko S2 — I’m SO EXCITED
• Call the Midwife S13
• Star Trek: Voyager
• The U.S. Open
• The Watchers
• Batman Beyond (animated series)
• Leave The World Behind
• Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee S2
• Last 2 seasons of Doc Martin

What we’re listening to:

• St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming album
• Wet Leg by Wet Leg
• The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan
• De Stijl by The White Stripes
• Rains in Heaven by NCT Dream
• Lee Mujin Service EP. 129 Jaehyun
• Pricey by NCT 127
• Let Me Love You by Day6
• O sole mio - Italian Version by Dalida
• Teddy Swim’s Lose Control 
• Jessie Murph “That Ain’t No Man That’s the Devil”
• Smoke Screen - Season 7 Betrayal on the Bayou
• American Tune by Paul Simon
• Hoang - 5 Years (Lyrics) feat. Dia Frampton
• Sleep Soul Relaxing R&B Baby Sleep Music Vol. 2 Presented by Jhené Aiko
• The Flaming Lips Rig Rundown Guitar Gear Tour with Steven Drozd

What we’re interested in:

• Building workflows for Alfred - yay productivity!
• Southern Vermont Art & Craft Festival
• Sightseeing in Toronto
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
• Ketamine Group Therapy
• Visualization meditation practices

What we’re struggling with:

• Morning alarm not going off and waking up 3 minutes before start of the work day :

• Shoulder pain +1
• Rib pain
• Styled Components, how using this abstracts out classnames to untargetable objects and then needing to hack over “Not Our Code™” thru super awful feeling css trickery
• Headaches (probably related to torrential rain all week?)
• Skin issues ie ​​Rosacea
• No hot water for a little bit
• Dogs eating flip flops
• Not using vim
• The vim extension for VSCode not being consistent
• Word salads +1
• Blood sugar
• Remembering how to set up a Sticky Note Game
• Heat waves

What we’re buying:

• New flip flops
• Tickets to the night tour of Alcatraz
• Tickets to a Pirate themed cocktail party where they tell you spooky tales and put on a show
• A range hood for the kitchen
• Native plants & ferns
• Postage stamps
• A new/thrifted dress for the fall
• Racks for Rotopax gas cans
• Loop earplugs for sleep

What we’re celebrating:

• Hanging out with girlfriends at a Korean spa
• Figuring out Foundation Single Crochet
• Progressing on a baby blanket
• All the needed house work nearly being done
• One of the moving pods being emptied
• Fall on the horizon
• Chipmunks
• Sending postcards & care packages to friends
• Client finding all the easter-eggs we designed into their t-shirt

If you’re looking for a team to help you discover the right thing to build and help you build it, get in touch.