Everything

CSS Custom Properties (aka Cascading Variables) have gained broad browser support since 2015 – but what are they good for, and why do we need them?

New CSS proposals like Container Queries, Cascade Layers, Scoped Styles, and Nesting are all aimed at improving the way we write responsive components and design systems.

I’ve spent nearly two decades learning, teaching, and writing CSS – as a founder at OddBird, a member of the Sass core team, and an Invited Expert on the CSS Working Group.

New CSS proposals like Container Queries, Cascade Layers, Scoped Styles, and Nesting are all aimed at improving the way we write responsive components and design systems.

Don’t let the declarative syntax fool you – CSS is a powerful and dynamic programming language.

“What is one thing you learned about building websites this year?”

I join Ari, Ben, and Tessa to talk about getting into CSS from other languages, the absurdly massive problem CSS is designed to solve, and the mental model behind the language.

As I spend more of my time working on the CSS language, I wanted a place to take notes and explore new ideas in the open.

How do we write code that is modular & maintainable, in a language designed to be systematic & contextual?

The Cascade makes CSS unique – forcing us to revisit even the most common programming feature: the variable.

The web is designed to work across platforms, devices, languages, and interfaces – but how can we possibly design for that unknown and always-changing canvas?

Learn how design engineering brings together form and function.

From the very start, “web design” has posed a nearly impossible paradox.

CSS Custom Properties allow us to manage and control both cascade and inheritance in new ways.

From building beautiful sites to maintaining complex design systems across multiple applications, CSS is the web-language of design.

Jina and I answer questions about CSS, Sass, Design Systems, and more!

A spinoff of the Party Corgi Network discord. I chat with Chris Biscardi about The CSS Working Group, open-source projects, art, and music.

I wrote this at the start of the Iraq war (2003), and later made the short film. It’s been on my mind again during COVID-19 isolation.

lively debates of the inconsequential

Sommer asked people to record themselves reading a poem from her collection, Backup Singers. I put together this video of the poem Alcohol affects the frontal cortex.

“What about building websites has you interested this year?”

Firefox 69 was the first to implement selector feature queries, but other browsers are following suit. I’ll show you how it works, and how to start using this new feature query right away.

Horizontal text overflow has always been difficult to manage on the web. The default visible overflow is designed to make sure content remains accessible no matter the size of a containing box, but it’s not our only option.

Why waste your time on half-measures? Make your site THE MOST NORMALEST with this ULTIMATE CSS RESET.

When we’re scrolling down a page, or through a gallery of images, snap-targets can help guide us from one section or image to the next. In the past, developers have used JavaScript to hijack scrolling, but now we can manage scroll alignment directly in CSS with only a few lines of code.

The display property has been in CSS from the beginning, handling everything from block and inline boxes to list-items and full layout systems like flexbox or grid. Now the display syntax is getting an upgrade to match it’s multiple uses.

I drop by the show to talk about Sass in 2019, design tokens, Oddbird, unused CSS, new CSS properties, and Dave & Chris’ explanation of revert.

There are a number of property & value combinations that can lead to CSS being inactive, and now Firefox will tell you why. Open the developer tools, and look for the greyed-out property with an info-box on hover.

It’s a common pattern to align form labels and inputs in grid-like layout. I’ll show you how to do it quickly using CSS subgrid, with several quick fallbacks.

Card layouts are popular on the web, rows and columns of boxes with similar content. CSS grids can help align those cards, but it’s still be hard to line-up content inside the cards – headers and footers that might need more or less room.

The web is designed to work across platforms, devices, languages, and interfaces – but how can we possibly design for that unknown and always-changing canvas?

For years, we’ve struggled to build resilient layouts on the web, but CSS Grid promises to change all that – and you can start using it now, with only a few properties and basic concepts.

I’ve often used initial and unset in my CSS – global keywords that can be applied to any property. The difference is small, but important: unset allows inheritance, while initial does not. But then Firefox implemented revert and I was confused – how is this one different from the others?!

Sass recently launched a new module system. The new syntax will replace @import with @use and @forward – a big step forward for making Sass partials more readable, performant, and safe.

Love it or hate it, CSS is weird: not quite markup, not quite programming in the imperative sense, and nothing like the design programs we use for print. How did we get here?

When you create lists in HTML, browsers add bullet-points or numbers we call list markers. Now CSS gives us the tools to style those list markers, and even create our own!

A project-manager’s reflections on human-centered problem-solving, client communication, and user feedback in agile web development.

A fragmented memory of friendship – navigating fluid genders, relationships, and bodies that resist order, category, or completion. Inspired by Margaret Clap, and the many myths of Hermaphroditus.

In the CSS naming-convention arms race to lowest specificity, I’ve decided to only use universal * selectors. I call it F*CSS.

Style Guides & Pattern Libraries are great tools for documenting the relationships between code and design, but beautiful docs are only half the battle.

Art installation featuring a mix of pieces from Riding SideSaddle*, PROPHETIA VETITUM MUNDI, Gods on the Lam, and elsewhere. I also put together an original diptych for this show.

We start by talking about design systems and design tooling – how they differ, and the problems they solve.

Pushing past the “variable” metaphor, CSS Custom Properties can provide new ways to balance context and isolation in our patterns and components.

The Narrators is a live storytelling show and podcast featuring true stories on a monthly theme.

Trans-femme 90’s-alt sad-girl rock

Steve Jenkins interviews me about the state of CSS, and what’s coming next for the language – from Intrinsic Design to Dynamic CSS.

live-filmed music video

From building beautiful sites to maintaining complex design systems across multiple applications, CSS is the web-language of design.

live-filmed music video

I was invited to perform a Vagina Monologue, and ended up writing my own.

Thunder Nerds interview me before her talk at VueConf US 2019.

lively debates of the inconsequential

Erin talks about fainting from too much empathy before my surgery.

Explore the history of web layout with the creator of Susy – why grid systems exist, how they work, and practical tips to avoid using them.

an un-rehearsed play by Greg Wohead

The panel and the guest talk about grid systems, fonts, and more!

Script for My Body, My Gender rogue Vagina Monologue.

A family struggles to find humanity and normalcy in a world made uncertain and strange after the transformation and “othering” of one of their own. This physical theatre piece imagines what happens on the other side of the iconic door in Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

On Episode 18, the TalkScript team continues the live-ish at JSConfUS podcast series with guests Myles Borins, Tim Doherty, and Miriam Suzanne. Listen in!

The Journal of Mennonite Writing asked me to submit for their queer issue. I don’t identify as Mennonite, but I did grow up in the church, so I asked my friends what to write about. They suggested the common question: In a world without rigid gender roles, would anyone need to be trans?

Yesterday, I shared an article about my impending surgery, and a request for help – both social and financial – as I go through this. I was embarrassed to ask, and not sure what to expect, but your response has been swift and overwhelming. I can’t thank you enough, but I’ll keep trying.

lively debates of the inconsequential

Denver Health has started offering vaginoplasty in addition to their other trans medical services. While I’ve been on the waitlist for various surgeons around the country, Denver Health called me this week to give me a date: September 10, less than two months away.

A non-technical guide for taking your project from concept to launch, without ever losing sight of the goals.

An LGBT concert of writers and composers by the Playground Ensemble, with three works by LGBT authors and the composers.

An LGBT concert of writers and composers by the Playground Ensemble, with three works by LGBT authors and the composers.

A queer adaptation of the classic novel

We are not here to flatter egotism, or prop up humbug; we are merely telling the [queer] story. We value what is good in the book; but we believe in the existence of other, and more vivid kinds of goodness.

lively debates of the inconsequential

Style Guides & Pattern Libraries are great tools for documenting the relationships between code and design, but beautiful docs are only half the battle.

“I don’t have many guy friends, but my guitarist is one. Parting, I lean in for the cheek-kiss but he plants a good one right on my lips.”

I used exerpts from Body & Gender Fragments to talk about the contradictions of transition – a sort of “crossing over” without going anywhere.

Inspired by Robin Rendle, I demonstrate some of my early experiments combining CSS Grids and custom properties to create dynamic layouts and data-visualizations.

At the family vacation in Moab, everyone is doing their best. It’s not enough, and my day is peppered with the wrong name and pronouns. I hide in my room through dinner so they won’t see me crying.

“I’ve seen myself in the mirror. I find me… disorienting. What do they see that I don’t? Why aren’t they laughing at me?”

“Mother finds me at her wardrobe, in her pumps and pearls. What are you doing? Being a mommy. Are you, then? She clips on the earrings (they pinch!), reaches for her lipstick.”

A reflection on the nature and value of productivity for the SuperYesMore series: The Human in the Machine.

Viewport units have been around for several years now, with near-perfect support in the major browsers, but I keep finding new and exciting ways to use them. I thought it would be fun to review the basics, and then round-up some of my favorite use-cases.

by Christopher David Rosales

official music video by Gio Toninelo

I wasn’t born in the wrong body. I was born, a body. Without my body, I don’t exist.

lively debates of the inconsequential

It feels like CSS Grid has been coming for a long time now, but it just now seems to be reaching a point where folks are talking more and more about it and that it’s becoming something we should learning.

official music video by Gio Toninelo

It’s been a month since our country pseudo-elected a bigoted blow-hard for president. I’m heading to DC to protest his inauguration in January, visit friends, and go on a mixed-media resistance tour…

My friend Maureen Maloney asked to document my reaction to the 2016 election, as part of the America Heard film series.

The Denver Quarterly vol 51 no 2 features side-by-side excerpts from Riding SideSaddle*, and Buntport’s adaptation: 10 Myths on the Proper Application of Beauty Products.

I’m still reeling from this year of insults,  a traumatizing campaign turned traumatic election. I’m not sad about a contest lost, but what those results mean for real people around me. 2016 is over, but 2017 is going to be even harder.

There’s a lot of language that gets thrown around, but much of it comes loaded with over-simplified baggage and misconceptions. Here are a few that have been on my mind – from gender identity to biological sex, transition, passing, and visibility.

A stage adaptation of my novel, Riding SideSaddle*, created with Buntport Theater and Teacup Gorilla.

It’s been a month since our country pseudo-elected a bigoted blow-hard for president. I’m heading to DC to protest his inauguration in January, visit friends, and go on a mixed-media resistance tour…

No matter what acronym drives your selectors (BEM, OOCSS, SMACSS, ETC), loops can help keep your patterns more readable and maintainable, baking them directly into your code. We’ll take a look at what loops can do, and how to use them in the major CSS preprocessors.

Miriam Suzanne creates experimental experiences with her band and her fellow developers.

Chris Coyier interviews Miriam when she joins the CSS Tricks team as a Staff Writer. We talk about gettting started in the industry, name confusion, fouding OddBird, building Susy, and more.

In this episode of the Versioning Show, Tim and David are joined by Miriam Suzanne, best known for Susy, a responsive layout toolkit for Sass. They discuss going from being a lurker to finding your voice, the importance of writing about what you’re learning, stumbling into fame, approaching new projects, and unit testing in Sass.

The writing and comedy of Jordan Wieleba

Maps are a powerful data type in Sass – perfect for managing color and scale palettes, framework configuration, data storage, and more.

There are some questions that come up again and again if you are trans. A few of those questions are terrible, but most of them are well-intentioned. I’m lucky to have a supportive community around me, so I thought I’d write down my most common answers to help ease your stress about getting it right, and ease my stress about answering the same questions over and over.

Founded in 2001, The UMS is an annual three-day celebration of music featuring hundreds of bands across multiple venues.

Try to locate the moon. Look longingly at the sky. Talk to others. Don’t lose track of where you are. This is the invitation from the Warbler to the other canyon inhabitants of the audience.

Award-winning stage adaptation of Riding SideSaddle*, weaving myth with everyday ritual

Using Sass, you can write your stylesheets in a more concise, dynamic, and readable way, and cut down many of the repetitive tasks that come with writing vanilla CSS. This book provides a thorough introduction to Sass for the beginner. Co-writen with my friend Kitty Giraudel.

A stage adaptation of my novel, Riding SideSaddle*, created with Buntport Theater and Teacup Gorilla.

Riding SideSaddle* has gone vertical – all 250 cards displayed in a gallery show.

Design systems streamline development, communication, and consistency – but often rely on dedicated teams and extended budgets.

This interview serves as a follow up to my performance of The Obsolete Book in a Post-Obsolete World as Represented by a Post-Obsolete Book About Dance at the Media Archeology Lab.

Riding SideSaddle* has gone vertical – all 250 cards displayed in a gallery show.

a case-study in building and sharing open-source Sass

A joint tour for Teacup Gorilla’s debut album The Holes They Leave, and my debut novel Riding SideSaddle*.

A joint tour for Teacup Gorilla’s debut album The Holes They Leave, and my debut novel Riding SideSaddle*.

Founded in 2001, The UMS is an annual three-day celebration of music featuring hundreds of bands across multiple venues.

We’re excited to be part of the single release for Species of the Stars by our good friends Open to the Hound!

We’re excited to be part of the single release for Species of the Stars by our good friends Open to the Hound!

Teacup Gorilla’s debut album

Teacup Gorilla’s debut album

An interview with the insightful Ryo Yamaguchi at Michigan Quarterly Review.

A fragmented memory of friendship – navigating fluid genders, relationships, and bodies that resist order, category, or completion. Inspired by Margaret Clap, and the many myths of Hermaphroditus.

Design systems must be meaningful to both humans and machines Accoutrement provides Sass design-token management that improves readability and consistency, while encouraging automation.

Story panels for PROPHETIA VETITUM MUNDI (available as prints)

An archival rhizome ecology in ten parts, and a reflection on the obsolescence of obsolescence – documented on the cloud, and open-sourced as a defense against post-post-obsolescence.

an introduction to the Susy layout toolkit

Not our album, but we did write a few of the songs…

An artist residency at the Media Archeology Lab, working on development of The Post-Obsolete Book.

True is a full-featured unit-testing library for Sass. The core functionality is written in pure SassScript, so it can be used anywhere Sass is compiled. Advanced features are available with our JS test-runner integration.

Part 7 of Fuck the Muse

Part 6 of Fuck the Muse

Part 5 of Fuck the Muse

by James Belflower

Part 4 of Fuck the Muse

Part 3 of Fuck the Muse

Part 2 of Fuck the Muse

a series of articles on creative process

interview with Richard Wall of the Boulder Writers’ Workshop

the art of Jason Nelson

An archival rhizome ecology in ten parts, and a reflection on the obsolescence of obsolescence – documented on the cloud, and open-sourced as a defense against post-post-obsolescence.

Studied writing and performance with E. Tracy Grinnell, Michelle Ellsworth, and Caroline Bergvall – resulting in early drafts of The Post-Obsolete Book and Riding SideSaddle*.

A novel about new love, moving apart, and what comes next. A love story, and an after-love story – told wiith poetry and pictures.

For a few years, Teacup Gorilla performed & recorded music with Rachel Eisenstat – initially as Iron City, and later as Raven Jane.

For a few years, Teacup Gorilla performed & recorded music with Rachel Eisenstat – initially as Iron City, and later as Raven Jane.

Thanks to Chuck Mee for some borrowed words…

A modern, theatrical interpretation of the Catholic Mass – created by Grapefruit Lab and Teacup Gorilla.

Combining the sacrifice, transcendence, blood, and circumstance of the Catholic Mass with history, live music, science, dance, literature, and pop culture to find a wholly modern communion experience. What we have left is our selves, broken and battered, but surviving together.

Part science lab, part disco, Roller Skating With My Cousin is a lively, dark romp in which synchronized roller skaters build a tower under a star-flecked mirror ball sky.

She is a plain and pensive woman. He is a rather ordinary man who lives in an extraordinary house. This house does algebraic equations and plots violence. One evening, woman, man, and house collide; not all of them survive.

Susy is a lightweight grid-layout engine for Sass, designed to simplify and clarify responsive grid layouts without ever getting in your way. Originally released in 2009, Susy has become one of the most popular layout frameworks on the web.

The citizens are easily roused and swayed, as a culture of fear infects the city with the constant threat of execution.

Inspired by Georg Büchner’s unfinished masterpiece, Woyzeck, The LIDA Project reinterprets the story of a young soldier returning from the horrors of war.

A parable play and fantastic spectacle, warning of the dangers of a desperate populace handing over power to a corrupt leader.

We created this site-specific and interactive performance as an opening act for the Dresden Dolls – performed in the lobby.

A parable play and fantastic spectacle, warning of the dangers of a desperate populace handing over power to a corrupt leader.

Rachel Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. She was killed when she tried to obstruct a Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer o perated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF.)

Founded in 1995, The LIDA Project is a meta-media art collective dedicated to experimental live performance.

Rachel Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. She was killed when she tried to obstruct a Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer o perated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF.)

Blues-inflected bright/dark music

A live action comedy, inspired by the movies, and created by our ensemble.

An action comedy for the stage, based on our favorite movie tropes. The script was devised by the entire ensemble, lead by Michelle Milne, Miriam, Emily Swora, and Ben Jacobs. I don’t believe this is the final script…

A sister and brother dig through the rubble of their lives…

OCD and love produce the same chemical in the brain…

a ten minute play, and short film

We hurt ourselves for love…

Based on a series of interviews with Annie in 2003, this play was produced first by Goshen College as a runner-up for the International Peace Play Contest, and then in collabiration with New World Arts for my senior thesis production.

I wrote this at the start of the Iraq war (2003), and later made the short film. It’s been on my mind again during COVID-19 isolation.

It’s not a great script, but it was my full-length directorial debut.

My first one-act play…

a play in one act, and a short film

a play in one act, and a short film

Reflections of a Mennonite holocaust survivor after the war

a glimpse of the aftermath

A glittering tragedy, a passionate romance, and an internship opportunity.

Some brutal Sam Sheppard…

The play by Wendy MacLeod.

My first forray into professional theater, as a lighting designer for New World Arts.

Founded in 1998 as New World Players, we produced original & alternative ensemble theater for over a decade – along with an art gallery and event space.