Author: tracy

I listen to a lot of podcasts. No, seriously, a lot of podcasts. On all different subjects: Apple, space, movies, front-end web development, and even one particular radio show that has described itself as a soft-core sports show — just to highlight a few of my favorites — all funneled through Instacast onto my iPhone.

Mostly I listen to these podcasts either during my short commute to and from work and while I’m working (so long as what I’m working on isn’t super brain-intensive, requiring my complete focus and concentration; it’s off to Pandora for those times).

So while I’m not a great expert on producing podcasts, I consider myself somewhat of an expert at listening to them, and I’ve compiled a few friendly suggestions for those podcast creators to improve their product.

Continue reading “5 Suggestions for Improving Your Podcast” →

By the time you read this, heck, by the time I’m finished writing this, Redskins coach Mike Shanahan is likely to be out of his job.

This has become a macabre ritual on the Monday following the end of the regular NFL season: the Black Monday head coach death watch. Browns coach Rob Chudzinski, already received his pink slip, after less than a full year on the job and a 4-12 record. Reports are that Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier has suffered a similar fate.

Continue reading “Why No, I Won’t Cry for You, Mike Shanahan” →

It seems the reports of my future isolation have been somewhat exaggerated.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a new doctor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore who still recommended the RAI treatment, but basically called all of the other doctor’s recommendations “silly.”

So here’s the scoop: In the beginning of January I’ll be spending a few days in Baltimore receiving medication and getting tests in advance of the RAI. I will not have to come off my current thyroid hormone replacement medication, which means I won’t feel crappy from lack of thyroid hormone. Yay for that!

I’ll still have to take the radioactive pill (probably), but at a lower dose. The next week will still be spent in the hinterlands, but then it’ll be back to Baltimore for a follow up test. Assuming all goes well, I’ll be able to head home after that.

Over all, much less dramatic than the original plan. Which means less time to work on all those projects I’ve been queuing up.  Hmmm…

…is another person’s broken workflow.  Courtesy of XKCD:

When 2013 is all said and done, it will have been quite the eventful year for me, including turning 40, writing a book, winning Twitter, and attending my first WordCamp San Francisco.

Sandwiched into all of that was some not-so-minor health issues which I’m still going to be dealing with for a few more months to come. In late September, just after WordCamp Baltimore, I had to have my thyroid totally removed because it had grown too large and gross to do me any more good.

Continue reading “Just Call Me “Fallout Girl”…” →

Yesterday, as I was frantically researching for my upcoming talk at WordCamp Baltimore, I wanted to get all the details on WebKit’s implementation of the srcset attribute.  A link to .Net magazine, a leading resource of information about website design and development, was the third option that came back on Google.

I clicked on it, only to be redirected to a welcome page on CreativeBloq.com.  No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t actually find the article I was looking for.  I was able to bring it up on Google’s cache, but still. (The article in question, FYI, was all of one month old.)

Continue reading “Oops, I Did It Again” →