I had very little sleep last night. This past week my not-so-spare time has been consumed by attempts to learn how to write WordPress blocks and full site editing themes as they replace the old ways that I am so familiar with. I woke up at 2 AM, thinking about them, gave up trying to sleep and returned to the PC that I had left on.

I have been so busy administering sites, planning them, documenting them, providing support for them, that I have had little time to learn about the future. Not so my colleague, a front end developer.

But the more I delve into the React JS and his code, the more I realise their complexity. This is not something you can pick up in your spare time between other work.

I suspect that this is the result of front-end developers. Always obsessed with details, with trying to place everything perfectly, to control every little element, frustrated by the simplicity of blunt server code. The simple mathematical elegance and Zen minimalism I prize is not for them.

And so I am frustrated. I will need to delve deep into JavaScript and its offshoots to understand more, to deal with a place where style and function are blended again. My gut feeling is that this is wrong, but it is too early to make that call without knowing more. I’m sure that I’ll revisit this in a later post.

Anyway, after that I needed to clear my mind. The first day of summer turned from wet the hot and humid, so we drove down to Cronulla for an evening walk along the beach and hamburgers for dinner.

Simplicity. Clarity. Fresh Air. The scent of seaweed. Planes drifting down across the crowds. Paddleboarders out to see. Lifesavers practicing. Each bite of the hamburger savoured. Time with family.

Came home and watched Monsters. A journey. Along for the ride. Relaxing score.

Now at peace, it is time to sleep and not to dream of code.