Brian DeVries' Personal Blog
I sit on a fold-out camp chair in the gymnasium. My ears pick up the constant echo of balls hitting the floor while several voices bounce of the walls. Children are running back and forth. Intense fluorescent white light beats down from the high ceilings. The scent of freshly cleaned court gently brushes my nose. Cool air from outside floods into the gym, refreshing all inside. This is my…
For the last 6 years, I've had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit. I like trying new things, and it's fun to make money from my efforts as well. Over the years, I've made money from woodworking, programming, graphic design, and more. Now I've found another fun avenue to explore: custom stickers . Everyone likes stickers, right? They're fun, easy to store and distribute, and economical. Stickers…
To my lovely, beautiful wife Hannah. Happy Anniversary Hannah! ❤ I can't imagine living life without you. We've laughed together, cried together, prayed together, and so much more. Thank you for being a constant through the ups and downs of life. When we got married half way into college, I don't think either of us could have predicted just how much God would bless us. Our three sons definitely…
Sometimes I find it hard to remember what I did in the last month. Keeping track of my plans and accomplishments on my calendar and in my journal helps me when I feel like I haven't done anything recently. It's similar to a "done" list, where you record what you've accomplished to keep yourself motivated. Anyway, here are some of the things I was up to last month: My oldest son started spring…
I drew a sketch of a house that looks similar to mine today. I don't consider myself an artist, but I do enjoy drawing occassionally and learned how to digitize them recently so here it is. That's me waving in the front there 🙂 Thanks for reading! Shoot me an email with your thoughts or just to say hello.
I enjoy learning about people through their personal websites. It's a piece of them put on the web for others to find and connect through. But many people don't have their own space on the web outside of social media. Nowhere to call "home" online. Maybe this is your situation right now. Maybe you've thought about setting up a website, but you don't know what to write about or you simply don't…
I removed web analytics from my site. Despite using a more privacy-focused web analytics provider than Google, I realized I was still tracking people who visited my site. And I don't love the idea of doing that. So I removed the analytics script. No more page view info, no anonymized location data, no trends, no nothin'. And I'm done considering SEO or the algorithms at all when I write. Websites…
I have contemplated the value of social media in my life for a while now. The first social media account I signed up for was Facebook in 2009 when I was going into high school. Since then, I've had accounts on several other platforms including Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, etc. While there have been some good things to come from being a part of these online platforms, the experience has…
My oldest son recently turned 5 years old, and like many boys his age, he is very excited about dinosaurs. He can tell you the names of dinosaurs I've never heard of! His attention to detail and the descriptive language he uses to compare them is so fun to hear. But perhaps the best part is how he's improved his drawings of them. The Tyrannosaurus Rex has never looked sooo good 😎 Thanks for…
Well, here we are a quarter of the way through December. My kids have informed me we only have 17 days until Christmas (from the Christmas countdown tree) and it doesn't feel like we got access to our house almost 2 months ago already! It's been a busy, fun time for us. Anyway, I wanted to sit down and reflect on all the things we've already done since moving in. I have a few reasons for wanting…
A few weeks ago, I was sprucing up my website's "404 Not Found" page. I had seen some useful 404 pages that offered other web pages to check out instead of just a dead end. One addition I thought would be nice was a custom search bar. It turned out to be effortless with DuckDuckGo. Customize results page Duckduckgo offers several query parameters that affect the search results of the page. Go here…
I have an addiction. No, I don't go to anonymous meetings to support others or to get support. This addiction isn't thought of as destructive like drugs or alcohol. But it does affect me on a daily basis. I'm addicted to information You might be thinking, "But information is a good thing, right?" Often at the heart of all addictions are things that aren't bad. But when obsessed upon or distorted,…
I've spent a lot of time thinking about who my target audience is. Originally I thought I should write content specifically for developers. Then I thought I should perhaps write about woodworking or other projects I work on. Now it's whatever I feel like writing about. The truth is that I'm writing for anyone interested in me as a person and for myself . The purpose of writing I want to use…
Ahoy, readers! Now that it's been over a month with a newborn (2nd kiddo born 9/15), I have an updated daily routine. Clearly I was being ambitious before. Interrupted sleep makes it difficult to get up at 4:45AM... 😂 Here's my current routine: Start Time Item 6:00AM : 🌄 Wake up, get ready for day 6:15AM : 📖 Devotions 6:45AM : 👨👦👦 👨👩👦👦 Get kids up, then Family time 7:30AM : 👨💻…
For over 2 months now, I've been turning the water to its coldest setting for 1 minute at the end of my shower. What started as a desire to build resilience has taught me valuable lessons about building habits and consistency. Start Small When I first started my cold shower endeavor, I felt ready to go to the max. I thought, "Why not prove that I'm super tough already and can do 1 minute of cold…
I want to be consistently moving forward towards freedom. Financial freedom, time freedom, location freedom. It will not be without its challenges, but I think it's worthy to strive for. I need to get into a daily routine or schedule, but my second son is about to be born (my wife is getting induced TODAY ). I'm not sure how that is going to affect the process quite yet. But if consistency is what…
Long-term thinking yields greater results. But short-term results feel more urgent. I get caught up in coming up with my next endeavor to make a quick buck on the side. I need to stop chasing the quick money and start investing in an asset for the long-term. I like building websites and working with software. How can I leverage those skills to build a product? Consistent execution is paramount.…
You visit websites every day, but you might not know what the basic building blocks are. Websites are built with 3 fundamental pieces: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. HTML elements are the bones of the web page. CSS is the skin and appearance of the site. JavaScript acts as the muscles, running functional scripts to execute logic. I'll show you how to take a look at source HTML of a website. View web…
I've been more conscious about online privacy lately. Maybe it's because I'm building more websites and have to consider traffic analytics. Or it might be due to the ever-present advertisements that mysteriously match searches on other platforms. Whatever it is, I'm not a fan of all the tracking. We know these large companies are tracking us. But we don't do anything about it. Why? Let's think…