https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/ Blog of writer and web developer Maureen Holland. Untidy nest of shiny things. en-ca https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/a-vanilla-personal-site https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/a-vanilla-personal-site Tue, 18 Apr 2023 12:00:00 GMT I rebuild my personal site every few years. This time, I decided I wanted to go as minimal as possible. It's been the most enjoyable iteration. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/indieweb-ification https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/indieweb-ification Sun, 03 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT This is a catch-all post for a bunch of miscellaneous updates I've been meaning to do since last April: rel=me, microformatting, RSS, and garden bird themes. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/rss-club-1 https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/rss-club-1 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT What makes me a good front-end developer? https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/thoughts-on-international-womens-day https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/thoughts-on-international-womens-day Sat, 09 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT I have mixed thoughts on International Women's Day, perhaps best encapsulated by the gender pay gap bot that notes discrepancies between a company's social media messages and real-world actions. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/my-css-mindset https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/my-css-mindset Sun, 05 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT I used to have Tim Gunn's catchphrase in my head during CSS development. A steady, insistent echo of “Make it work” encouraged me to brute force a lot of styles into place, condemning myself to a frustrating cycle of fixing something here only to find it was now broken there. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/inheritance-theming https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/inheritance-theming Sun, 25 Aug 2024 12:00:00 GMT I've seen a huge benefit in switching from selector-based to inheritance-based theming at work. CSS custom properties have been the key to unlocking a more flexible and scalable system. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/css-and-child-proofing https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/css-and-child-proofing Sun, 01 Sep 2024 12:00:00 GMT I’ve watched my sister put out a beautiful display of perfectly non-choke-able sized toys and games for her 18-month-old child to play with. Know what the Kid does? https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/digital-marie-kondo https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/digital-marie-kondo Sun, 26 Jan 2025 12:00:00 GMT All these articles popping up about how to delete Facebook and Twitter reminded me I’ve been meaning to do that for years. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/state-of-the-browser-2025 https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/state-of-the-browser-2025 Sun, 30 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT One of the joys of working in web development is a lot of content relevant to your interests ends up, well, on the web. In particular, a lot of conferences offer online tickets. 99 times out of 100, I go online. But yesterday, I attended State of the Browser in person. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/all-day-hey-2025 https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/all-day-hey-2025 Sat, 03 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT I left home at 5h30 and got back around 22h. A seven-hour round trip transit for eight hours of the All Day Hey! 2025 Conference. Worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? Dear god, not like that. Some Leeds-based accommodation would have to be involved. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/gaad-2025 https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/gaad-2025 Sun, 18 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT This past Thursday marked the 14th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). In honour of the event, London Web Standards held a series of accessibility-focused talks at the University of Greenwich. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/mass-trespass https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/mass-trespass Sun, 07 Sep 2025 12:00:00 GMT Walking along Kinder Scout in 2025, it’s easy to forget that these paths weren't always open to the public. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/web-dev-conf-2025 https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/web-dev-conf-2025 Sun, 30 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT The first line from my notes is “Does anyone wanna hear some a cappella screamo?” Yes, I enjoyed this conference. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/ffconf-2025 https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/ffconf-2025 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT All conferences should have an ice cream break before the final block of talks. I mean, I had a lot of takeaways from ffconf 2025, but that feels like the headliner. https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/we-need-to-tax-billionaires https://maureenholland.ca/magpie/we-need-to-tax-billionaires Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT I bought this book after seeing an interview Gary Stevenson did with the author, economist Gabriel Zucman. I recommend both the book and the interview.