Dewey Library - QR21.R58 2020

Barker Library - QR46.G58 2019

Online Resource

Online Resource

Online Resource

Online Resource

Barker Library - RD129.5.F58 2018

Online Resource

Hayden Library - RC280.B8 N537 2019

Hayden Library - QR189.5.P36 G69 2018

Hayden Library - RC338.H33 2018

Hayden Library - RC591.K46 2018

Online Resource

Online Resource

Hayden Library - RC268.44.B73 P46 2018

Online Resource

Hayden Library - RC569.H44 2018

Dewey Library - RC552.P67 O33 2018

Online Resource

Barker Library - RC438.G66 2018

Online Resource

Online Resource

Online Resource

Online Resource

Online Resource

Online Resource

Online Resource

Dewey Library - RC552.E18 L473 2019

Online Resource

Online Resource

Inexpensive inkjet printers and scanners enable big advances in the small world of UTLC.

Analytical electron microscopy-empowered by advances in electron optics and detectors-is poised to radically transform our understanding of the complex phenomena arising from atomic and electronic structure in materials chemistry.

Raman spectroscopy, phase contrast microscopy, and optical trapping are combined to gain information with high temporal resolution.

A lab-on-a-chip approach to cell counting and analysis could become an inexpensive, disposable, and rapid point-of-care diagnostic tool.

An instrument with a microfluidic platform generates DNA profiles within hours so police can quickly check crime records.

Monitoring personal exposure to the pollutant ozone becomes possible for the first time with the development of a miniaturized ozone monitor.

As one might expect in trying to go to numerous restaurants around the world, much travel would ensue. And sure enough, that happened.

In 2019, I travelled to:

• Montreal (twice)
• Toronto (twice)
• Pittsburgh
• Portland (thrice)
• Phoenix
• Austin
• Atlanta
• San Antonio
• San Francisco (twice)
• Napa Valley
• London
• Lima
• Paris (twice)
• Amsterdam, with a drive to Zwolle and Ghent, Belgium
• Barcelona
• Buenos Aires

Some of my favourite memories, in no particular order.

I’ve never been a fan of Formula racing but a friend of mine is. I’ve known him since I was a teenager and he was my first roommate when I moved out at the tender age of 18. We went to Montreal to watch the race. He loved it. He even ran into Mitsou.

Made a trip the following weekend back to Montreal with my mom to have dinner in complete darkness.

My eldest son and I were supposed to go to Tokyo but our trip got cancelled. We ended up going to Toronto to see his favourite comedian: Fluffy! And then we went for his favourite food: Ramen! I enjoyed giving him that experience.

I got sick in London. Got to chat with the chefs at The Clove Club and The Ledbury.

Drove the Dutch and Belgian countrysides in search of food. Driving down a lane flanked by rolling green fields on the way to Hof Van Cleve. It was so picturesque, we had to pull to the side to take pictures.

Found a Cuban-themed bar in Lima and enjoyed a couple good drinks before it got too loud.

Sat on the rooftop of a restaurant in Napa Valley enjoying the best dessert wine I’ve ever had: a madeira from 1920. Some things do get better with age.

Hanging out with friends in a large house outside of Atlanta enjoying some of the finest whisky, cigars, and food.

Hung out in Austin during SXSW, bringing back good memories from a decade ago.

Celebrated a friend’s wedding anniversary in Pittsburgh. I enjoyed getting to see a bit of the ‘burgh for the first time and hang out with friends that I don’t get to see very often.

Walking with the girlfriend to coffee shops in Portland. Chatting with the baristas at Proud Mary, learning more about their process as I continue to improve my own process.

Walking for 45 minutes through the streets of Lima on the way to Central to beg our way into a table. Only to be denied and instead enjoyed the best meal at their sister restaurant, Kjolle.

In buying a bottle of whisky in Paris, the guy told us about a whisky speakeasy that the store runs. It’s in an old underground spot that used to be a spa. I had some of the best whisky I’ve ever had.

Sitting in the back of an Uber in Buenos Aires, chatting with the driver on the way to a restaurant. He asked what the average salary was in Canada. We said maybe $30,000. He was stunned. Like, utterly flabbergasted. He wanted to move to Canada right away. Then we figured out he thought that was monthly, not yearly. His excitement quickly deflated.

Finishing off the year here in Ottawa, with friends that I’ve known since I was 14 in high school. Much reminiscing with stories of those times.

Adventure is out there

A couple years ago, I decided to make the shift from “things” to “experiences” and my life has been full of them. I am frequently amazed at how lucky and privileged I’ve been and continue to be and how my life is full of amazing friends. Here’s to 2020 being filled with just as much and more.

As the clock turns over an arbitrary time boundary that marks one year from the next, many reflect on their past and make promises of change for the future.

Not one to want to feel left out in such reflecting, I, too, have made promises for the year (and, really, years) ahead. Well, one in particular: be more creative.

Being more creative was purposely vague so as to leave numerous avenues in which to pursue that creativity. Web design and development is assuredly a given, as that’s well within my wheelhouse of skills. Tangentially, I’ve been working to improve my photography and photo editing skills, turning that work into one web project or another. More writing. And cooking.

Each new channel of exploration has become a new way to spend money. There’s a name for this: The Diderot Effect.

The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption which leads you to acquire more new things. As a result, we end up buying things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or fulfilled.

Photography is fun. Surely, I’d have better photos with that particular camera. Or the latest iPhone. Or that new lens. Y’know, I really need a better camera strap. And a new shoulder bag. Maybe a backpack for particular trips to carry all this gear.

Cooking is fun. Let’s give sous vide a go. I need the plastic tub that is especially designed for the wand. And the wire mesh to hold the food off the bottom. And a cast iron pan would really be better than my 10 year old teflon pans. Oh, and a blow torch for post-bath Maillard reactions. (And maybe try my hand at a crème brûlée while I’m at it.)

Making coffee is fun. Yes, I must have the double boiler espresso machine. And grinder, of course. And knock box. And some lovely cups to go with it.

Oh, I’ll tell you with a straight face that I’m a modern minimalist man but I have a knack for filling up my home with all the latest gadgets in pursuit of something to fill my spare time. In my effort to produce more, I end up consuming more.

Maybe in an effort to be more creative, I should be more creative in accomplishing my goals without all the gadgets.

Right after I buy this thing I need for the kitchen.

I’ve been working on this site, Fifty, to track a list of restaurants that I’ve been to. Each new restaurant was a list item. The list will eventually reach 50 items and a long list is long and visually uninteresting.

The first attempt was to use CSS columns. I threw on a column-width and bam. Slightly more visually interesting—at least, on larger screens. It’s still just an ordered list on smaller screens.

Lately, I’ve been wanting to play with layout that had more of a magazine feel. (I’ve also been wanting to do an actual magazine but that’s a story for another day.) I even picked up a stack of magazines from the local bookstore to get some inspiration and ideas.

One thing that I noticed is that they’ll play with grids to create visual interest or to move your eye through a more dense page.

Magazines have the advantage of a fixed size. For the web, we need to consider everything from watches to wide screens. CSS Grid seemed like a great way to play around with different options.

Repeat

Grid’s repeat function is one of my favourite tools. It’s like a built-in responsive design tool that instantly creates a flexible design. I tell it the minimum column size and then it will create the number of columns that’ll fit into the space allotted.

grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(250px, 1fr))

This, in and of itself, isn’t much over what I had before. I beefed up the style with some numbers in boxes.

Spanning Columns and Rows

To make things more interesting, I wanted to have items pop out, both in size and colour. If everything popped out, it would be overwhelming and I didn’t think it’d make the list any easier to parse.

I decided to create a pattern that would work when I had a few items and would continue to work as I completed restaurants on the adventure.

The first idea I had to make certain items stand out was to have some restaurants take up two columns and two rows and include a photo.

I specified the row and column span:

grid-row: span 2;
grid-column: span 2;

A problem reared its ugly head when the page scaled down to a single column. Why is this a problem? By spanning an item over 2 columns, there will always be 2 columns, even if I only want 1.

I’d love a way to say: grid-column: span minmax(1,2). It’d take two columns if there’s two columns; otherwise, it only takes one column.

Instead, I had to define a media query for when there was a single column and adjust the spans for that.

@media (max-width: 674px) {
    .restaurants li {
      grid-column: span 1 !important;
    }  
}

(I probably should’ve done this mobile first and defined the default as span 1 and then did a min-width for anything that wasn’t mobile. But it’s a personal site and whatevs.)

I played around with what would create the best look at all viewports and with various items. I wish I could say I had a magical formula but it was really just trial and error. I’d put something together and then resize to see how it’d look. Then play around with the numbers until I had something I liked.

The next problem was to make it looks semi-random. Or provided some alternation with where the spanned items would be placed. If I just use :nth-child then weird patterns can emerge at different viewport widths.

To solve this problem, I’d use multiple :nth-child declarations with alternating offsets. This provided the best results over all viewports.

Random colours

I was okay with that but I wanted more. I decided to use the alternate colours, green and brown, on random boxes. CSS doesn’t have a random function, which would’ve been really handy here. Instead, I tried to figure out what offset would create a pleasing pattern. Again, this was a lot of trial and error figuring out offsets that worked well.

.restaurants-devoured li:nth-child(17n-16):before { … }
.restaurants-devoured li:nth-child(11n+12):before { … }

And again, I used a similar solution to how I placed the large boxes. Offsetting numbers with multiple patterns helps create the illusion of randomness.

The Result

I’m really happy with the way the grid turned out. Probably the biggest problem is that people look for meaning in patterns. “Why are these restaurants a different size or colour? Are these the ones you like best or stood out to you for some reason?” The answer is no, there’s no significance. I thought it would look nice. Unsure how I’d tweak the design to make the insignificance more obvious.

I look forward to going to more restaurants and seeing the grid continue to fill in.