Sooke Council Meeting -- November 25, 2024
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Sooke Council's regular meeting November 25th, 2024 has multiple delegations and at least two potentially contentious topics.
The Joy of Automated Tests
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Automated tests are such a joy. I have at times deleted tests but I've never regretted writing them. Today was a good reminder.
Moving to an East Sooke wide focus
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It took a while - especially with summer holidays and a fall election - but discussions with CRD Directors Al Wickheim & Paul Brent where much more productive. The conclusion is that it is best to approach this as a community wide issue rather than a single neighbourhood. So, onwards...
Stalling out with MOTI
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Despite, a fair degree of communication and politely worded, the final answer from MOTI is essentially "that isn't in our normal procedure go pound sand", but maybe one day. With a slight hint that a direct request from the CRD would have more weight but likely be short term ignored as well.
Elections in BC are secure
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Canada’s and (in my particular experience) BC's voting systems are secure and resilient.
Are there problems? Yes. Is it corrupted? Not at this time. Are there sufficient checks to ensure accuracy? Yes -- if we take advantage of them.
You may be asking… who am I to be making these grandiose claims? Read on to find out.
Drupal 10 Triple Certified
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Took all three (English) Drupal 10 exams from Acquia; Developer, Back End Specialist and Front End Specialist, which automatically gives you the Triple Certified designation upon completion. So, I’m happy to share that I am now officially Drupal 10 Triple Certified from Acquia!
Back to Politics... Road Safety
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Been extremely out of active politics basically since the Langford - Juan de Fuca by-election. Extremely good reason and all but great to be getting back into active politics. Got a new reason to be majorly engaged too - a son - so now have a moral duty to try to make things better. First on my list right now is road safety.
Debugging Drupal with Xdebug
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Xdebug is a PHP extension that can massively improve your debugging experience and speed – for both backend and frontend developers. Conversely, it can also drag down your php speed to a crawl, so you want to configure it to be a simple toggled – and only enable when you are using it. Xdebug works with most IDEs but I will be specifically showcasing usage with PHPStorm as that is what I use it with.
Standardizing Sites with Drupal Scaffolding
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Learn how to use the Drupal Composer Scaffolding plugin - both customizing it in your site and creating new data sources for it to standardize and improve your site builds. Presented at DrupalCon 2023 Pittsburgh
Winter Weather Pedestrian Safety in Sooke
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This is unfortunately a story of failure, and a call to change. Our current method of ensuring safety and accessibility for pedestrians in Sooke in the winter is not working. There are short term improvements we can make but long term we need a fundamental shift.