Author: Greg Boone
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Static sites revisited
I’ve been thinking a lot about static site generators lately. We use Jekyll at 18f, a generator platform I had previously only used in the context of Octopress and very briefly and fleetingly at CFPB. My past life as a WordPress developer effectively ended in September when I began shifting careers a bit to go back…
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18F Three (and a half) Months In
When I left my last job the company threw one last happy hour for me—a typical send-off for that firm. While we were mingling around the bar my co-workers were asking me how I was feeling about the move. Earlier that week someone on my account asked me if I felt any “trepidation” about going to the GSA…
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Something From Nothing: Sonic Highways in Pursuit of the American Sound
Sonic Highways is the title of the latest release from the Foo Fighters. A short (their shortest ever?) album clocking in a just 8 tracks, one for each of the episodes in the HBO series of the same name. It is also the follow on album to Wasting Light, the band’s 2011 release and Reel…
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Fear and Justice in America
It’s easy to forget the first time I realized I had to go five blocks out of my way to continue going east on F St. NW when I hit 17th St because of the 4 by 8 block area closed off around the White House. DC is a confusing enough of a place to drive for…
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YOMYOFFICECLOSED, A Yo App
Note: Zero guarantees this app still works. I haven’t used Yo! in a while and don’t live in DC anymore anyway. This week marked not only Thanksgiving week but also the first winter storm of the year. The first time GSA emailed me about the possibility of the government closing or forcing telework due to inclement conditions.…
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Your Comms Team Needs A Developer
I recently started working at 18F as their first “comms person” which in a startup environment means you’re the person who does everything, just like everyone else, but you focus on writing blogs, publishing the website, and pitching new ideas for how we might communicate about what we do. Most of my work has been on the website and…
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Dark Pattern Alert: Forced continuity at Blue Apron
This post is likely very out of date. I’ve been told Blue Apron has made improvements to their account closure process. This post is an historical representation of how they handled user requests in 2014. A friend of ours gave us an awesome wedding gift: a week of free meals from Blue Apron. We’d recently…
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18F: Hacking Bureaucracy
Excited to announce that I’ll be joining the fantastically talented team at @18F on Monday. Let’s get to work hacking bureaucracy. — Greg Boone (@gboone42) September 5, 2014 It’s a big life change for me to add on to so many others lately. (Did you hear I got married?) On Monday I leave almost two…
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Sound City: American music, recording, and audiophiles
Sound City is a documentary about the now defunct, eponymous Van Nuys studios. If you’ve never heard of the studios you’ve almost certainly heard music recorded there. The studios also hosted some of the most famous producers of the last 70 years, many of whom got their start as runners or assistants. The studios operated…
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Retracing footsteps: Bukhansan through Naver
Most people who know both of us know that my friend Andre and I met on a mountain in Korea. Two Minnesotans (and our significant others) who connected on twitter and decided a hike up one of the South Korea’s most famous peaks, Bukansan, would be a good place to meet for the first time.…
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Minnesota: The north shore, a giant lake, and a lighthouse
Wedding Week part two began with a drive from Madison to Minneapolis followed by another drive in the morning from Minneapolis to Castle Danger, an “unincorporated community in Silver Creek Township, MN”, nestled along the shore of the world’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Superior.(1) Silver Creek is a short drive north from Two Harbors, MN where we stopped…
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Wisconsin: Mud races, free ferries, and small towns
The first day of Wedding Weekend brought us to Parfrey’s Glen State Natural Area in Southern Wisconsin, the first stop on our Saturday tour. Here, a section of The Ice Age Trail follows a creek bed that has carved a beautiful, fertile canyon that eventually brings hikers to Devil’s Lake. In 2008 a major flood washed out…