Hello! Long time no see. I hope everyone is doing well. A lot has changed since last year and I am excited to provide updates on the direction of Pushblock, as well as future projects in the works.
The current project at the top of my to-do list is creating a maze solving micromouse. I was up late one night on a Youtube binge when I stumbled across a video of a micromouse zipping around a maze at lightning speed. Each turn was perfectly precise and didn't crash even a single time. Thus would initiate the beginning of my micromouse career.
I know what you're thinking.
You: "Wow Justin thats great! You must have a great understanding of electronics and coding to be able to do all this."
Me: .....I don't
Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will my micromouse.
I'm going back to school for Computer Engineering in August, so this will be an excellent project to put what I learn to good use. I downloaded a Udemy course on electronics and PCB Design which will be a great help in understanding the hardware portion of this endeavor.
As for Pushblock, there are a few new features that I am currently working on.
Light Mode – Since the current look/theme of the blog is quite dark, adding a lighter theme will help to keep things fresh. While I write this, I’m imagining a nice “minty” color palette will make for a nice light mode.
Contact Form – At the bottom of the page, I would like to have a box where readers are able to contact me via email. Wondering if I should have this just be an icon next to my github and twitter link as I don’t want to clog the page with unnecessary clutter.
Pagination – As I write more blog posts, there will be a need for additional pages as I don’t want readers to be scrolling for hours to find a certain post.
Estimated Reading Times – I am still debating whether this is a feature I want to implement. On the Title Card of each post, there would be an estimated time of how long the post would take to read. It seems like a cool idea, but then I thought, books don’t have estimated reading times printed on their covers so is it really essential? We'll put this on the back burners for now until I come to a decision.
That just about wraps up all the updates for now. Very excited for the second half of this year and what it has to offer. Take care and I'll see you next time!