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This is where the magic happens. And by magic, I mean “poorly thought-out hot takes.”

Please enjoy my ramblings on Apple, CSS, Classic Illtron, GraphQL, Gridsome, Gulp, Indieweb, Microsoft, Netlify, Playing the Covers, Sass, Star Wars, TV, The Simpsons, Vue, WordPress, amphibians, animals, birds, cityscapes, comics, crustaceans, current affairs, flowers, frogs, helicopters, insects, javascript, landscapes, machinery, markdown, movies, music, people, personal projects, photo, photography, pixel art, politics, protest, reptiles, sculptures, site stuff, static sites, tech tips, these fuckin guys, video, video games, and web work.

  • Using Eleventy filters in Directory Computed Data

    Eleventy Computed Data makes it easy to reuse your filters outside of your templates.

  • Hello 2023

    Maybe I'm blogging again.

  • Two years in to the pandemic

    Oh, this dumb shit is still going on.

  • I fixed it!

    All the way back in August, I started working on some improvements to this site — and now they're ready!

  • I broke something.

    So here I am, in the middle of completely rebuilding this site under the hood, when I went and broke something completely unrelated.

  • One year in to the pandemic

    It's been a year. Let's see how we did.

  • That’s that

    Our long national nightmare is finally over.

  • DOOM

    RIP to a real one.

  • The Republican Party

    Republicans have a really obvious tell when they’re lying about their opponents.

  • A quick one before the election ends

    We should count ourselves as incredibly fortunate that a smarter guy than Trump didn't try this shit first.

  • Some thoughts before Mandalorian Season 2

    I want to get myself on the record before the next episode airs.

  • The west coast fires

    Quick, without googling it, are the west coast wildfires still happening?

  • I’ve been thinking about this election

    I’ve been too busy to write, but that doesn't mean things aren’t on my mind.

  • Black lives matter

    We can't fix a 401-year problem overnight, but we've got to start somewhere. I think we have gotten started.

  • In the year 2005

    Here’s the story of a design I never did anything with. It’s also the story of a turning point year in my life.

  • On restarting a blog in the age of coronavirus

    I think I figured out why I’ve suddenly got the urge to start maintaining this site again. It’s not a great reason.

  • Into the woods

    This isn’t just a test, but it is mostly a test.

  • Track & Field II

    It turns out not every NES game was a classic.

  • Things I’ve done so far

    Here is a non-exhaustive list of the good, the bad, and the inane things I’ve stopped putting off, as well as the things I have yet to stop putting off.

  • Back again, maybe?

    Find out all the normal as hell shit that’s been stressing me out these last few months and what I plan to do about it.

  • Gridsome and Netlify CMS

    I’ve really been loving Netlify’s entire platform ever since I finally dove into it earlier this year when I rebuilt this site.

  • Hexagons are a pain in the ass

    Have you ever tried incorporating hexagons into a web design?

  • Melon Collie

    After a re-listen, I am prepared to state that _Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness_ does not hold up.

  • Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

    Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest was at the top of the list of games I either got frustrated or bored with, but I finally powered through, and very I’m glad I did.

  • MCU viewing order

    I have created the definitive order for watching the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

  • Super Mario Bros. 2

    I’m playing through the games featured on the covers of Nintendo Power. Join me for a deep dive into Super Mario Bros. 2!

  • Playing the covers

    I’m kicking off a series where I play through the NES games featured on the covers of Nintendo Power in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

  • The Mandalorian

    I may have jumped the gun the other day when I said this isn’t a Star Wars fansite.

  • Thoughts on the Episode IX trailer

    I have many thoughts on the Rise of Skywalker trailer. Join me as I speculate!

  • Boba Fett’s Lair

    A quick story about the first real thing I put on the web, along with some GeoCities-era web archaeology.

  • Rebuilding this old website

    I wrote about what went into rebuilding this old blog as a high-performing, modern static site. Buckle up, this one’s a real journey.

  • Styling images with Markdown

    If you write in Markdown and control the CSS of a site, you can get a surprising amount of control over image display.

  • Digital resurrection: George Lucas interview

    Much of the early World Wide Web is lost. If the creator didn’t archive it, and the Wayback Machine didn’t catch it, it’s probably gone. Well, I’ve got one of those things to share.

  • Sparking digital joy

    I’ve been letting digital crap pile up for well over two decades.

  • What’s in a name?

    The latest relaunch of this site has got me thinking: Who is Illtron?

  • You may remember me…

    This made the rounds a few years ago before getting taken down from YouTube.

  • OK, let’s do this one last time

    My name is Chris Coleman. I make web sites. We’ve been over this before, but here we are again.

  • What am I talking about?

    Do you know who doesn’t care about how technologically impressive your website is?

  • Code alone can’t solve problems

    I do user experience, product, content, and all kinds of touchy-feely things that make digital experiences usable for humans.

  • Responsive off-canvas navigation

    I made a responsive off-canvas navigation that’s easy to implement and doesn’t require much in the way of additional markup.

  • The Yule Blog

    This time of year, for the past three years, my good friend Beth and I have producing a fun little web site called The Yule Blog.

  • Question block in pure CSS

    I’m trying to think of how a mixin could simplify this, but it seems like it’ll be a lot of manual labor no matter what I do.

  • Mario in CSS

    No images were harmed in the making of this pixel guy.

  • Another link color mixin

    You know, I just checked, and Compass does include something like this.

  • iOS style toggle mixin

    This could probably use a little more work, but it’s heading in the right direction.

  • Link color mixin

    I needed a mixin for links, so I made this.

  • The world needed another grid system… so here it is

    Introducing the 1140px Responsive Sass Grid!

  • A bookmarklet to see if a site is down

    Smart people head to Down for Everyone or Just Me when they can’t reach a website. But who has time for all that typing?

  • Tips for getting started with Sass

    I’m still only ankle-deep in the world of Sass, but I already can’t imagine building a site without it.

  • Simple IE 6 alert with jQuery

    First, let me say I realize that in 2011 we’re supposed to be detecting features, not browsers.

  • Fancy reveal with CSS3

    Here’s a little thing I put together that hides a comment form (or whatever) until the user requests it, and then shows it with a nice little CSS3 animation.

  • Adding custom post classes in WordPress

    Here’s my first attempt at writing something useful on this site.

  • Well I’m back

    I figured that since I’m one of those guys who make websites for a living, I should probably have one of my own.

Oh, you’re still here?

Since you’ve scrolled this far, I guess you’re clearly hungry for content. If you truly are desperate for more, check out the Version 1.0 archive and the TypePad archive.

I should tell you first: There are a few gems, but it’s mostly not great.

Anyway, you’ve been warned.