A long overdue Buzzard repo reunion - game 04.01
by: Kristen Pavle
game 04, post 01/10
Context
I've been meaning to get into the Buzzard repo for weeks, if not months now. But for some reason, just haven't had the headspace to do it. I think this is in part because I've been acclimating to the #nomad journey: at first, decompressing from moving and putting stuff into storage; then getting used the nomadic lifestyle; and finally, ending up in [[San Diego]] (Sandy Eggo) and #LA-- #urban playgrounds where I had a lot of friends and family.
It was interesting to reach@Jon's post from today, and seeing a reference to the distraction of #city life: "...waking in the city where I feel behind on life the minute I open my eyes... The social presence also adds extra pressure...But I’ve got to fit in a coffee with a friend and a few errands first..."
Here, north of #Ensenada, miles away from city-life, it's socially quiet, less distracting. The #ocean's waves crash in a constant rythym, the shore beckoning me for a stroll. The sound of waves and birds mix with traffic passing through. Life feels as if it's at a distance--I can see it all out there, and I don't need to "do" anything.
It is from this place of openness, broad views, and no agenda, where I can begin to focus on the task of Buzzarding. And wouldn't you know, I couldn't just sit down and write a post for Buzzard game 04. First I had to reacclimate to the site, and take a gander at where I would share my posts. I found that I didn't dig the basic organizational structure of the site, particularly listing the games on the home page.
Relatedly, we also received our first email to hey@buzzard.life with a simple message: "helloooooo what’s this". The note was from a friend, so not as exciting as someone random stumbling through the front doors, but nonetheless, I realized - no sane person would understand what "this" is. (And perhaps that's on purpose, and currently we're only looking for insane people to join the cause).
At any rate, I figured this was as good a time as any to give the site a bit of a tidy up. Nothing major, but something that would begin to explain to external parties what "this" is and give me a clean place to drop my game 04 posts.
Changelog
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Moved the games information from the home page to its own (top level nav) page, and simplified the content
- Instead of listing out current, completed, and future games on this place, linking up to sites where this information can be found
- Listing out all games in a simple format, including adding game 04
- Game 04 page addition
- Instead of listing out current, completed, and future games on this place, linking up to sites where this information can be found
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For Game 04, deviated from the prior design pattern of linking up each "step" of the game to its own page see Game 1 for comparison.
- Collapsed the game steps into one page for game 04
- Linked up a separate page for all of the game 04 posts
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Tidied up the Current Play, Completed, Future Idea pages on the game directory page;
- Added some suggestions based on prior conversations to Future Ideas
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Added @Shahruz to the site
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Cleaned up home page and added "status" section
- Very open to copy additions and edits to the status! 🙃
Updating the repo - meta, take 1
I'm new to collaborating in code, so I humbly ask for some feedback on my approach. Usually, I wouldn't change things around without talking with the "team" first. I was, however, with @Gorum and @Jon, so it felt ok to blaze a trail.
I also figured the updates weren't signficant enough to warrant checking in before taking action. It feels like this approach is fine given how early we are in the project, and how slap-dash the site is stitched together. There's a lot going on in the code, and the design system is... emerging. In some ways, I'm throwing my two cents in for a design approach (which is: simplify whenever possible).
Jon, Dave, and I got into a broad discussion about the games, and the game steps. I'll write up this separately, and cross-post. The structure and process of game definition, design, play, reflection--all of this influences the site layout and design system. So there's no need to spend much time finetuning a design system. I just need to get some basic simplification out of my system. And hopefully the site feels a bit cleaner as a result.
Updating the repo - meta, take 2
I was having a hard time getting into game 04, not sure what to post. For some reason, noodling around in the repo and getting refamiliarized with the code we have, the site structure... all of this helped me warm-up into posting.
I think there's something about "warm-ups", akin to a physical sport game. Something to ponder for Buzzard games, how to facilitate getting started, how to warm-up?
Note: working in a code editor and editing a website is very new to me, so I think there's something here particular to me about getting into code as a way of warming up. I know that Dave mentioned he has to stay away from the code because all he wants to do is "clean up" and design but it's not really necessary now. While I realize it's not necessary, it's helpful for me to conceptualize and contextualize the project by getting into the site behind the scenes.
Game 04 post structure and approach - meta
Opted for a very stream of consciousness reflection on updating the repo, with a few subsection headers. Used a changelog type of approach to get started, and found myself writing up the context to set-up the changes.
This post feels like an anchor for the rest of the game for me, it's providing security so that I can now venture out and see what other tricks I have up my sleeve to share.