Talk.CSS #56 with Eric Meyer and Daniel Tan

Remember in my last blog post I said Talk.CSS #56 would be a big one for me? Here’s why:

I presented my first ever CSS talk.

And I wasn’t alone in giving a talk today. I would have my turn… right after Eric Meyer.

Timestamps, courtesy of Makyen:

1. 19:25 for Eric’s talk, Design in the background. Or watch separately via Engineers.SG.
2. 58:48 for my talk, Introducing :is() and :where(). Or watch separately via Engineers.SG.

Before I get to the part about me, some brief thoughts on Hui Jing’s and Eric’s sharings:

• I was utterly gobsmacked when the emoji Hui Jing used for my talk title (as she always does with talk titles) turned out to be 🐙. How did she know the octopus was my favorite marine animal?! At the end of my talk she said it was a guess. Georgie, who thought it was my doing, said it was a “damn good guess” (her exact words), and I have to agree.

• Before the event even started, I was secretly hoping that the CSS color of this month would be rebeccapurple, in honor of Eric. And well, I totally called it. And it was spectacular, wonderful and bittersweet at the same time. I’m sure a few heartstrings were pulled — I know mine was. There’s a reason I use it here on NOVALISTIC.com, too, which I’m super happy I got to tell Eric himself in as direct and personal a manner as this.

• I was there when Eric unveiled his site redesign, Hamonshū, after CSS Naked Day 2020 (which I participated in as well!). He would publish an article as well about the background effects he implemented, so it came as no surprise, I said, that he’d develop a talk about it. That’s not a bad thing; it was great to be able to listen to him speak about it and get a visual insight into the process. Even if I was somewhat preoccupied with trying to keep my nerves (in fact, throughout both Hui Jing’s and Eric’s segments I was constantly talking to Georgie privately in the Zoom meeting chat)…

• I’d like to extend my utmost gratitude to not only Hui Jing but also Eric and the rest of the audience for allowing me extra time to calm down until I was ready to share my screen and start talking, during which time Hui Jing shared some fun facts about me and dove into a chat with Chris, as filler. Thank you all for your patience, which you continued by my request in the first slide of mine you saw!

So, getting to my talk now. Why the sudden decision to put together a presentation on PowerPoint about Selectors, my favorite thing? Because of this:

While it was super cool that we actually managed to get Eric to share with us, it was the last part of the tweet that had me shook: “this wind-up edition”. That’s right: Talk.CSS #56 was going to be the last ever Talk.CSS (meetup in this format, anyway).

You see, after I started speaking for the first time at Talk.CSS #46 at the beginning of the year, I had written this footnote:

You might be wondering why I haven’t made the obligatory “putting the ‘talk’ in Talk.CSS” quip… that’s because I’m not ready to give a full-on talk just yet. But maybe someday! I’m mostly just not comfortable being recorded (something Engineers.SG is really efficient at by the way). Much rather a written article were shared.

And since I hadn’t been attending Talk.CSS all year (except in March), this would be my only chance to present a talk at Talk.CSS, before the curtain call. So I had only a little over a week to acquire equipment, think of a topic, put together said PowerPoint presentation, and practice. And I only managed to do all but the last one.

But I guess it didn’t matter that I didn’t get to practice, because I didn’t need it. In my very limited experience with presentations (due to anxiety and selective mutism), and my extensive experience answering questions on Stack Overflow, I’ve always known that I was a decent presenter, and I just needed the right, limited audience to feel safe and comfortable speaking. Presenting virtually on a Zoom conference was another great way to get me comfortable as well.

I told Georgie, as well as the other Stack Overflow mods (mostly because Samuel happened to have been a regular attendee), and some folks from church. And they came to support me, alongside Hui Jing, Chris, and Eric. I shout these folks out at various points in my talk.

So… I have, indeed and at last, put the ‘talk’ in Talk.CSS. And I had the utmost honor of having Eric Meyer listen to my very first talk. I’m glad people learned something new from it.

I only <tongue-in-cheek>regret</tongue-in-cheek> the following misses:

• I didn’t get to say “NOVALISTIC” out loud. (Wait, did I at the final slide? I actually don’t remember.)
• I didn’t get to reference the title of the previous blog post.
• My playful flexbox diss was supposed to be addressed to “flexbox fans” rather than the “flexbox users” I actually said.
• I mentioned that I might’ve used the color rebeccapurple somewhere in my slides. Turns out the only slides I did use it in had been cut. Oops.

Lastly, if you’ll indulge me, a couple of screenshots of the event page for posterity before its layout goes through the typical archival metamorphosis: