When I began the job hunt, I despaired over the small size of my network. Being a small number of years into my career, I didn't think "it's who you know" would work for me as a search strategy. I'm happy to say I was totally wrong. Online and offline, the more I put myself out there, the more people I met who were willing to help me out.
First, I have these people to thank for engaging me for work.
When I come across an unfamiliar phrase, especially one that's metaphorical, it's useful to be able to search text documents, on the web or elsewhere, for regular expressions matching that phrase.
Paper Republic (PR) is a charitable organization which promotes Chinese literature in translation. PR's founder, a well-known translator named Eric Abrahamsen, doubles as the organization's sole technical staff member. He recently recruited me to assist with creating new platform functionality permitting PR website users to add to a database of Chinese literature. I'll provisionally refer to this new feature as "Book Lookup."
As currently designed, Book Lookup will ask the user to type in an ISBN. After being validated, the ISBN will be submitted to internal or external lookup services, through which Book Lookup can automatically populate the PR database with verified information.
Responsive web design is the practice of ensuring that website material adapts to the capabilities of the user's device. I've taken some steps in the last couple days to make this site more responsive.
How this benefits you:
on mobile, all website text now loads at a device-appropriate size, rather than appearing zoomed-out
mobile images now load at a device-appropriate size, saving you from wasting time and mobile bandwidth on oversized downloads
images now resize themselves in your display, such as moving from portrait to landscape or shrinking the browser window
at smaller screen sizes, lines of poetry now wrap to fit your display, instead of running off the page or requiring you to scroll
Skillfully weaves together biographies and historical events from the Golden Age of Piracy, focusing on the lives and exploits of Henry Avery, Blackbeard, Charles Vane, and other major pirates in the West Indies (which includes the Caribbean Sea.)
A meditation on taste, culture, artistry, and aesthetics which is worth the read. I can't say I cared for the ending, but that's probably on me. Recommended to those who consider themselves artists or art enthusiasts.
