
## In General

2021 was a difficult year, but I'm so grateful I was able to end it with a new job on a healthy team and a lot of space away from projects and social media to reflect. I'm looking forward to approaching 2022 and my projects in healthier ways.

## Posts Published

I didn't get to publish as many posts as I wanted to, but I still published 10 different posts and I'm very proud of all of them.

- "Build a Blog Site with Next.js and Firebase" ([now archived](https://ashleemboyer.com/blog/archive/nextjs-firebase-blog-01))
- [My Writing and Planning Process](https://ashleemboyer.com/blog/my-writing-and-planning-process)
- [How to Create Your Own Next.js RSS Reader App](https://ashleemboyer.com/blog/create-your-own-nextjs-rss-reader-app)
- [How I Added an RSS Feed to My Next.js Site](https://ashleemboyer.com/blog/how-i-added-an-rss-feed-to-my-nextjs-site)
- [What the heck is "web a11y"?](https://ashleemboyer.com/blog/what-the-heck-is-web-a11y)
- [Speaking My Truth—I Did Not Leave for Personal Reasons](https://ashleemboyer.com/blog/speaking-my-truth)

## Speaking Events

I was hoping to do more speaking events this year, but a few were canceled or postponed due to the pandemic. Here is a list of the speaking events I did get to do, three of which were live streams on Twitch! I had so much fun on the streams and it's interesting to see how far I've come in public speaking. I _hated_ it in high school and most of college and used to be terrified to speak in front of groups of people.

- ["Getting started with accessibility" interview with Kevin Powell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr0ujkLLgmE)
- ["Debugging Semantic HTML Elements for Accessibility" SomeAnticsDev Twitch stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vAo0-puheM)
- ["Accessibility August 2021 on Dev Roulette LIVE" with Stephanie Myers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWpj7t8I6SM)
- ["Build a Dark & Light Mode Switcher in React using Context", React.Indy meetup](https://github.com/ashleemboyer/react-indy-20210922)
  - _Note: I'm realizing I still have to upload the finished code from this event! I'll try to do that as soon as I can._

## Books

I am really good at starting new things, especially books. Part of my difficulty with finishing books is ADHD. It takes me a long time to get into a reading focus if I'm only reading. If I use an audiobook or speech-to-text in addition to reading, however, I have a much easier time. What's difficult about that is being deaf. If I don't have headphones to listen while I read, then I can't really listen. I've found that I can also read/listen better when I have a simple knitting project. I didn't finish a ton of books this year, but what's great is I'm learning all of these things about myself and working on carving out the right space for myself to read more.

### Books Started

This list is currently all the books I could find with my Goodreads account (I read on a Kindle). I'm 100% sure there are more books that belong here because I purchased multiple from people that self published. When I find them, I'll add them to the list.

- [It's About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48927823-it-s-about-damn-time)
- [Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41646234-sissy)
- [Real Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46263943-real-life)
- [Their Eyes Were Watching God](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37415.Their_Eyes_Were_Watching_God)
- [Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40651827-burnout)
- [How to Live With the Internet and Not Let It Run Your Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57000631-how-to-live-with-the-internet-and-not-let-it-run-your-life)
- [Conflict Resolution Playbook: Practical Communication Skills for Preventing, Managing, and Resolving Conflict
  ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56164760-conflict-resolution-playbook)
- [In the Land of Men: A Memoir](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45730112-in-the-land-of-men)
- [Brag Better: Master the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53105899-brag-better)
- [Sorry I Missed You](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52951550-sorry-i-missed-you)
- [Women in Tech: Practical Advice and Inspiring Stories from Successful Women in Tech to Take Your Career to the Next Level](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25852961-women-in-tech)
- [The Beginner's Guide to Stoicism: Tools for Emotional Resilience and Positivity](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52085903-the-beginner-s-guide-to-stoicism)

### Books Finished

- [Changing the Conversation: The 17 Principles of Conflict Resolution](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24751306-changing-the-conversation)
- [Such a Fun Age](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43923951-such-a-fun-age)
- [Help for Women with ADHD: My Simple Strategies for Conquering Chaos](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30248423-help-for-women-with-adhd)
- [Weird in a World That's Not: A Career Guide for Misfits, F\*ckups, and Failures](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33913476-weird-in-a-world-that-s-not)

## Projects

Like I mentioned already, I didn't get to finish as many projects as I wanted, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to all of these!

> _Note: I can't remember all my projects right now so I'll have to update this post as I remember them._

### Projects Started

**Knitting Projects**

- Socks in (yarn I can't remember the name of, I'll update ASAP)
- Triangle shawl in Cascade 220 Superwash Merino, color number 86

**Coding Projects**

- StaySemantic.com, a web accessibility resource that will have demos and explorations of various components, their properties, and how they sound with screen readers. Check out [a preview of the Disabled Button Demo](https://staysemantic-com-git-dev-ashleemboyer.vercel.app/demos).
- "Build an Accessible Blog with Next.js and Semantic HTML" course for egghead.io, which will get into the importance of semantic HTML in regards to accessibility, how to navigate documentation, and how to identify accessibility issues. I have [a GitHub repository that will get updates](https://github.com/ashleemboyer/egghead-accessible-nextjs-blog-course) as I work on the course.

### Projects Finished/Shipped

**General**

- 25-cube IKEA KALLAX shelf
- IKEA BEKANT standing desk

**Knitting Projects**

- Plain hat in Boss Kitty Hand Dyed DK Weight, Rock-A-Doodle-Doo colorway

**Coding Projects**

- What Can I Plant? For determining what you can plant in Stardew Valley and make the most money off of. _Last updated January 2021._
  - [Link to code](https://github.com/ashleemboyer/what-can-i-plant)
  - [Link to site](https://what-can-i-plant.netlify.app/)
- The Golden Girls Quotes API. Just for getting random quotes from The Golden Girls. _Last updated October 2021._
  - [Link to code](https://github.com/ashleemboyer/the-golden-girls-quotes-api)
  - [Link to site](https://the-golden-girls-quotes-api.fly.dev/)
- [React, TypeScript, Less/CSS modules, Jest, and Enzyme boilerplate.](https://github.com/ashleemboyer/webpack-typescript-jest-less) I did this for the learning experience and don't use it as a boilerplate. I mainly use Next.js for everything these days. _Last updated May 2021._
- [Discord bot for eventually doing cool things in Discord!](https://github.com/ashleemboyer/ashleemboyer-discord-bot) I like the idea of having a cool Discord server for engaging with folks. Maybe it'll happen this year? _Last updated August 2021._
- [Discord bot API for custom webhooks.](https://github.com/ashleemboyer/ashleemboyer-discord-bot-api) It currently sends various notification message in channels only I can see about my new newsletter service and subscribers. I'm hoping to have that newsletter live soon!


2021 was a wild ride. Here are some details from my year.

2021 in Review


Accessibility can be pretty overwhelming at first. There are a lot of things to consider and it's really hard to figure out what you don't know when you're just starting out. I hope you find this short list useful to help your first dive into making accessible digital content. My focus is usually on websites, but a lot of this is good for things like mobile apps, ebooks, and slideshows, too!

## 1. Color Contrast

Ensuring you have a good contrast between text color and background color ensures nearly everyone can consume your content. People with vision disabilities (vision loss or color blindness) need high contrasting colors. Your minimum goal here is to meet contrast standards for normal and large sized text.

My favorite tool for this is the [WebAIM Contrast Checker](https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/). You can input your foreground and background text colors and it will tell you how they fare under the WCAG level AA and level AAA standards.

![A screenshot of the WebAIM Contrast Checker in action. It shows the overall contrast ratio of two colors to the right of two inputs, and below that it shows whether the contrast passes level AA and AAA standards for both normal and large sized texts.](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/ashleemboyer-2018.appspot.com/o/headers%2F2020%2F07%2F26-three-thigns%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-07-26%20at%209.53.28%20PM.png?alt=media&token=aa6423ce-f0b1-4b2d-b43d-bb23765d0c40)

## 2. Alternative Text

Alternative text is also important for people with vision disabilities. There are two ways you can go about alternative text depending on your platform.

When you're making a website by writing your own HTML, writing blog posts, or posting to social media sites like Twitter, you can add alt text to images. In HTML, make sure you're providing an `alt` attribute all `img` elements. When writing blog posts, a lot of blogging platforms will have a text input for you to provide alternative text. On Twitter, you can add alternative text as you're about to tweet an image or GIF.

The previous points are only going to be useful for people using a screen reader. These devices pick up those attributes to present images to the person consuming them. However, not all users with vision disabilities use screen readers. So, if you feel like you'd rather make your alternative text available for everyone, it's common practice to surround an image description in square brackets and preface it with "Image description", like this:

```
[Image description: ...]
```

As for actually writing the image descriptions, that's going to take some practice. Imagine you are sitting socially distanced from a friend and you want to show them a picture you've come across on your phone, but you'd have to break social distance to physically show them. How would you describe the image to them in one or two sentences?

## 3. Semantic HTML

This point is a little more technical, but also useful for folks that use blogging platforms that provide text editors. The main lesson for this section? Use the elements that we have been given for their intended uses.

- Need to display things in a list format? Use a bullet (`<ul>` element) or numbered list (`<ol>` element).
- Have a navigation menu at the top of your site? Use a `<nav>` element.
- Have an element that users can click on to perform an important action? PLEASE use a `<button>` element. 😁

Using semantic HTML elments is so important because they're already able to be presented by assistive devices without much addition. You're going to start adding ARIA roles and properties the minute you start using `<div>`s for `<button>`s, and if you don't know what you're doing there, you can severely and negatively impact a screen reader user's experience.

W3Schools has a great resource for [reading about and practicing with HTML semantic elements](https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_semantic_elements.asp).


You'll leave this post with straightforward action items for making your digital content more accessible.

Three Starting Points for Making Accessible Digital Content


In April of 2019, I knew I needed to change my life. I was extremely unhappy in a toxic workplace, had no involvement in my community, and the only tech people I knew in my area worked at the same place and none of us talked to each other. I decided to [join Twitter to network](https://ashleemboyer.com/why-and-how-you-should-use-twitter-for-networking) and figure out what was going on in the tech world. (Side note: I've gained 1,800 followers since!)

Then, I discovered [DEV Community](https://dev.to). It seemed like a great place to start writing. I needed to do _something_ with all of the emotions I was feeling at the time. So, I wrote about my process for looking for a new job: [How to Identify Your Knowledge Gaps in Under an Hour](https://ashleemboyer.com/how-to-identify-your-knowledge-gaps-in-under-an-hour). It got 187 views, 8 reactions, and 1 comment.

I'd never gotten so many views on one post before! So, I decided to write another one the next day: [It's OK to be Scared](https://ashleemboyer.com/it-s-ok-to-be-scared) (204 views and 6 reactions). Then I wrote my first "hit" the following day: [Neither You nor Your Work Has to be Perfect](neither-you-nor-your-work-has-to-be-perfect) (1234 views, 82 reactions, 24 comments). I think that was my first post that DEV Community ([@ThePracticalDev](https://twitter.com/ThePracticalDev)) tweeted out. It felt so validating having my post shared by an account with hundreds of thousands of followers.

I think it was at this time that I decided to do a 30-day blogging challenge. I've always loved to write, but never succeeded in making it a habit. My goal was to write regularly. This is something I'm still trying to figure out, and I think most other people are too. Life is unpredictable and very hard to plan for. Habits and hobbies are hard to keep up with.

So, I did my challenge, and I was hooked. Some posts did really well, some got less than 100 views. It helped me gauage what I really wanted to write about and what people liked reading about. If you want to read about the results of the challenge, I wrote about it: [After 30 Days of Writing on DEV.to](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/after-30-days-of-writing-on-dev-to-a08).

The challenge did exactly what I wanted it to. I felt confident in what I had to say and decided to spend some time to work on my own blog site. I'd cross-post everything and keep track of stats with Google Analytics. I started recording stats on my personal site on August 11, 2019. I'll spend the rest of this post sharing some of those stats and also the ones I can get on DEV.

---

## Personal Blog Stats

### Audience

- Users: 2,157
- New Users: 2,153
- Sessions: 2,558
- Countries: 100 (unset is not counted here)
- Top 3 days: September 3rd (186 users), September 17th (106 users), August 27th (105 users)

### Behavior

- Pageviews: 3,720
- Unique Pageviews: 3,160
- Top 3 posts: [Build a React & Firebase Blog Site: Part 1](https://ashleemboyer.com/react-firebase-blog-01) (417 views), [How I Keep Coding When I'm Low on Spoons](https://ashleemboyer.com/how-i-keep-coding-when-i-m-low-on-spoons) (364 views), [Re-Create an Image with Colorful Text](https://ashleemboyer.com/re-create-an-image-with-colorful-text) (281 views)

### Acquisition

- Social: 991 users (45.3%)
- Referral: 858 users (29.2%)
- Direct: 301 users (13.8%)
- Organic search: 27 users
- Other: 10

## DEV Stats

### General

- 9,500 Followers
- 3,186 Total Post Reactions
- 70,700 Post Views

### Top Posts By Views

- 7,650: [I Tried the Top 5 Coding Challenge Websites](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/i-tried-the-top-5-coding-challenge-websites-4lo9)
- 5,326: [The Perfect First Project for Exploring Any JS Framework](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/the-perfect-first-project-for-exploring-any-js-framework-48ip)
- 3,433: [Yes, You Should Have Hobbies Outside of Code](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/yes-you-should-have-hobbies-outside-of-code-4ao9)

### Top Posts By Reactions

- 225: [Build a React & Firebase Blog Site: Part 1](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/build-a-react-firebase-blog-site-part-1-4gn0)
- 224: [Why and How You Should Use Twitter for Networking](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/why-and-how-you-should-use-twitter-for-networking-357m)
- 163: [How to Dynamically Create Many Similar CSS Classes with Sass](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/how-to-dynamically-create-many-similar-css-classes-with-sass-1538)

### Top Posts By Comments

- 54: [I am a web developer, hard of hearing, and an a11y advocate, Ask Me Anything!](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/i-am-a-web-developer-hard-of-hearing-and-an-a11y-advocate-ask-me-anything-4f91)
- 51: [Yes, You Should Have Hobbies Outside of Code](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/yes-you-should-have-hobbies-outside-of-code-4ao9)
- 47: [Why and How You Should Use Twitter for Networking](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/why-and-how-you-should-use-twitter-for-networking-357m)

---

2019 was an excellent year for me both professionally and personally. I'm so glad I decided to make a change 9 months ago. Thank you all for hanging out with me and helping me make this a great year. Here's to 2020! 🎉


I blogged regularly for the first time in 2019. How'd it go?

2019 Blog in Review


Last week, I was feeling [fired up and ready to go](https://youtu.be/5AhRqg0ADbk). I wrote a whole post about some exciting things and plans.

But here's the thing: I've thought some more about my plans for writing, and I'm changing my mind. Let me get into the "why". The plans I made were way too strict for me. This is probably because of the spontaneous nature of [my recent 30-day blogging challenge](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/after-30-days-of-writing-on-dev-to-a08), but I think it also has to do with deadlines.

For more than 80% of my life, I've dealt with a whole lot of deadlines. That's two decades! Don't get me wrong, I don't think deadlines aren't something we can totally get away from. I do think we can dramatically reduce the number of deadlines we encounter, however.

So, that's what I'm doing. Here's my new plan:

> I'll be blogging 4 days a week: Monday through Thursday.

How's that different from what I originally planned? Well, I wanted to write a bit more about the things I'm learning in my Software Architecture course, but:

1. Making half of my posts about it is way too much
2. I would love to "teach" technical material, but Software Architecture isn't where my passion lies

Today's post was "supposed" to be about Software Architecture, as a matter of fact, but writing it to my standards was far more stressful than it needed to be. I'd rather save that energy for something I plan to immerse myself in by choice, not because I have to.

Here's the moral of the story: you can change your mind whenever you want to. I was a little nervous about changing my mind on this because I really was excited to write about Software Architecture. Some people showed interest in it, and I also don't want to appear like I'm not holding my word or something.

But then I remembered: I _started_ blogging for _me_. People finding value in what I write is an added benefit! Of course, I still want people to enjoy reading what I write, but I also need to enjoy what I'm writing or I'll burn right out.

You are your primary stakeholder. Keep doing the things you enjoy, and if you're not enjoying what you're doing, give it your very best shot to turn that around.


I change my mind so often. Maybe it's a curse, but it's usually a sign of something bigger.

It's OK to Change Your Mind


This past month of publishing one post per day far exceeded my expectations. I was inspired to do this challenge by the co-hosts of the [Office Hours Podcast](https://discoverpraxis.com/office-hours/), [T.K. Coleman](https://twitter.com/TK_Coleman) and [Isaac Morehouse](https://twitter.com/isaacmorehouse). They talk about the challenge a lot, so I decided to just dive in. Here are my results.

# My top three posts by views

Reactions are a bit weird on this site and I don't really think they consistently express the success of a post. For the following three posts, these are the view counts at the time of this writing: 4595, 2331, & 1623.

- [The Perfect First Project for Exploring Any JS Framework](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/the-perfect-first-project-for-exploring-any-js-framework-48ip)
- [Yes, You Should Have Hobbies Outside of Code](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/yes-you-should-have-hobbies-outside-of-code-4ao9)
- [Things You Shouldn't Say to a Disabled Person About Why Your App Isn't Accessible](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/things-you-shouldn-t-say-to-a-disabled-person-about-why-your-app-isn-t-accessible-eg5)

# My total reaction and view counts

My view count is beyond what I could have guessed it would be. There are a few things I think helped a lot with this:

- The DEV Community admins are really supportive on Twitter
- A lot of devs read and share posts from this site on Twitter
- I posted every single day (except once, I was sick)&mdash;that's a lot

![Screenshot of the counts from the dashboard page](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/cbj6kz6a0wh71g6bjh9l.png)

# My follower counts

Publishing here and sharing my posts on Twitter really spiked my follower counts for both sites. I have 2061 on DEV and 238 on Twitter. I can't remember exactly how many followers I had on Twitter when my challenge started, but it wasn't too many. I started the account sometime in mid-April.

# The unexpected side effects

I joined Twitter mainly for networking. I felt like I was missing out on knowing devs in my area, and Twitter seemed like an easy way to see what events were happening as well. Turns out, a lot of really cool and inspiring devs are over there. I think one of the coolest things I've seen on Twitter is the #100daysofcode hashtag. I'm so proud of the tech community and the educational environment over there.

Twitter for networking was a great idea. Interacting in various discussion threads, reading wisdom from experienced devs, and e-meeting all kinds of cool people has literally changed my life.

- I discovered my love for web accessibility advocacy
- This summer, I'm attending my first conference in years
- I released textua11y, my first React app
- I've found a ton of meetup opportunities in my area

Overall, this blogging challenge has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. If you're an aspiring writer, my best advice is to just do the damn thing. I don't know if I'll be posting on the DEV site every single day, but I plan to continue posting daily on my personal blog site to get out of the tech headspace sometimes.

Finally, thanks for being here. You've helped make this a helluva ride. Hope you'll stick around for more! I have massive dreams. 😊


This is my 30th post on the DEV Community site. Here's a summary of my experience.

After 30 Days of Writing on DEV.to


I don't know where [Joshua Fields Millburn](https://twitter.com/JFM) was inspired by his advice, but [Steven Pressfield](https://twitter.com/SPressfield), Nike, and he all have roughly the same thing to say: "Just do it."

![Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce dancing with the words "Just do it" moving with her](https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7TKPVo3SMEMMwISY/giphy.gif)

JFM said in _["How to Improve Your Writing: 3 Tips"](https://www.theminimalists.com/how-to-improve-writing/)_

> I didn’t become a writer until I developed a writing habit. People don’t learn how to write via osmosis; it takes work. So forget word count or page count, and don’t worry about creating the perfect writing space—focus instead on **sitting in the chair** [emphasis mine] distraction-free, writing for at least an hour a day. Do this for a month and you will improve more than you thought possible.

In _[The War of Art](https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Steven-Pressfield-ebook/dp/B007A4SDCG/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=)_, Pressfield talks about Resistance numerous factors surrounding it. I haven't gotten too deep in it yet, but Resistance is what we have to fight every time we want to do something meaningful. You could be avoiding doing The Thing out of fear, worry, sheer boredom, whatever. At the very beginning of his book, he says

> There's a secret that real writers know about that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write.

> What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.

This is the 15th day of my 30-day blogging challenge, so I'm over halfway there. I have to agree that the hardest part about it all was sitting down to write and get started. There's always something to be distracted by: watching [Brooklyn Nine-Nine](https://twitter.com/nbcbrooklyn99) on Hulu, playing with my dog, scrolling through the Twitter, ...

But all of those things will be there _after_ The Thing is done. You might also find that The Thing wasn't so bad or it didn't take as long as you thought it would. Just sit down and do it. You've got this!

![Jake Peralta excitedly giving Amy Santiago an encouraging thumbs up](https://media.giphy.com/media/d2ZeMUDQSSsCP9FC/giphy.gif)


We all procrastinate from time to time at varying degrees. Sometimes you just have to go do whatever it is that you're avoiding.

Just do The Thing


Why, yes, I would love to be done with the set up of my sites so I could focus more on the side projects I want to post on my portfolio.

_Didn't you_ just _[post about perfectionism](https://ashleemboyer.com/neither-you-nor-your-work-has-to-be-perfect) yesterday?_

Sure did! But this is different. Software will forever be a road with many twists, turns, and hills. 😉

In all seriousness, I hadn't tried Gatsby out before publishing the current Angular version of my sites. I finally gave in over this past weekend and decided to give it a go. It was SO. FUN. **First of all**, their documentation is excellent. They explain things well enough that people with any level of coding experience can work out what to do.

**Second of all**, the framework is just incredibly easy to use. Make some files in a well-named directory, and you have some magical pages. You can make pages _dynamically_ too, which is one of the reasons I'm switching.

**Finally**, it's just too easy to do everything you want using their plugins. For example, with the [`gatsby-plugin-react-helmet`](https://www.gatsbyjs.org/packages/gatsby-plugin-react-helmet) plugin, you can handle SEO _and_ Open Graph metadata dynamically. Which means you can have cool Twitter cards with images when you share your posts in a tweet. Which blows my mind! _(Is this possible in Angular? Too late for me, but maybe someone else could use that knowledge.)_

And let's be honest, I just want to play around with Gatsby some more. You see a ton of people who use it for their blog sites, so I want to take that information and use it to challenge myself to make something that'll really stand out. 💪🏻

So, what about you? Do you use Gatsby for your sites, or do you plan to? I'd love to hear about your projects in the comments or [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/ashleemboyer).


I just published my new sites less than 2 weeks ago. Yeah, we devs and designers tend to redo our sites a lot, but isn't this a bit excessive?

Posts Related to the "blogging" Tag