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JavaScript has become much easier to write over the past two years with the help of top notch libraries such as Prototype and jQuery. Before getting my feet wet with either of the two aforementioned heavy-weights, I spent my time slugging it out with tedious DOM methods and ‘vanilla’ loops. It was certainly time consuming, but I knew exactly what my code was doing and would still know what it was doing six months from then.

Now, much like the rest of the world, I can’t seem to get by without jQuery or Prototype to do most of the heavy lifting for me. This is all well and good, but if/when the occasion arrives when you can’t rely on a library to plug all the holes for you, you might be surprised how much plain ole JavaScript you’ve mis-remembered.

I certainly was. I had to lean pretty heavily on the ole Rhino book - which by the way, is a book no serious JS scripter should be without - because I had forgotten stuff I used to be able to do in my sleep.

So, as a healthy exercise, I think it’s a good idea to try and write some scripts without using one of the fantastic libraries and frameworks out there, so you can spend some quality time reacquainting yourself with JavaScript. In fact, if you have some time to kill, you might want to run through Chris Heilman’s JavaScript course and work on the demos. Though the course is a few years old by now, the exercises are still worth taking a shot at to keep your skills in check. It’ll force you to think a little bit differently once you can’t rely on CSS selectors to whiz up and down the DOM tree for you.

Don’t worry - I am not suffering from a fit of dementia in which I want to do away with libraries and frameworks - quite the opposite. Why, I even helped debug a famous jQuery plugin. I just think it’s healthy to approach code from a different angle every once in a while and realize how good these libraries make our lives as developers.

Co-worker and friend Kristina has launched brockandkristina.com - a website dedicated to her ceremonious wedding later this year. Not enticed by most of the free wedding template sites, she cranked out a custom motif that draws its inspiration from the desert landscapes of Palm Springs, California.

As it turns out, not only is the site a good way to learn the back story of how she and her fiance Brock met, but it’s also a damn good resource for hotel and activity information for those planning a trip to Palm Springs.

All the coding was handled by yours truly. jQuery helped keep the Ajax call simple and also allowed me to use nyroModal, the highly customizable and flexible jQuery plugin from monsieur Cédric.