You're reading Sentences, etc., a design and development blog by Justin Michael.

Having Fun

Being laid off sucks, but it’s also an opportunity. Being my own boss means I get to do whatever I want (as long as whatever I want ends up making a living). Having the freedom to make fun choices when it comes to work is important, especially in my situation. Given what’s happened it would be easy for me to fall into the depths of despair, but if I’m sad and downtrodden it will bleed into everything I do, and that’s the last thing I want.

The WP { CSS } course I’m working on needs a WordPress install to use for the examples and screenshots. I run several WordPress sites, but none of them would be appropriate to use in the course, so I had to create a new one. What better opportunity to have a bit of fun?

So, if you’ve ever wondered about what’s on the mind of a Lego brick, check out The Red Brick Blog and wonder no more.

I had the idea for this blog a couple weeks ago. I set up the WordPress install a few days ago, and I’ve been jotting down post ideas when they’ve come to me, but today was the day to finally sit down and make it happen. I spent the day writing a bunch of silly blog posts (with an the about page to match), and it was a blast (all but the most recent post have fake dates).

While fun, this project is not without its practical upsides. Having whimsical example material helps keep the course material from getting stale, and the examples I create will be more memorable than traditional (read: boring) examples, which helps students retain what they’re learning a bit better.

Another benefit is that this blog (and the overall concept of a sentient Lego brick that’s active on the internet) can easily be reused or extended whenever I need examples in the future. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find myself spending way too much time trying to come up with a good concept for examples. One less thing to waste time on going forward!

All that, and the domain is pretty cool, too.