May 2025

The goal of this page was three fold - to experiment with Firebase cloud functions, to try out the Strava Webhook API, and to have a fun way of tracking all the different activities I do throughout the month. Right now, I have set up a webhook so that whenever I post on Strava, my cloud function will trigger and add that activity to my Firestore database. My website reads from this database, and based on what type of activity I do, a different image will show on the calendar. If I happen to do multiple activities on the same day (not often), I can click on the image to cycle through them.

Curious where these beautiful images come from? They're the official pictograms from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. If you love great design and art like I do, Olympic pictograms are a perfect blend of history, tradition, and visual communication! First introduced at the 1924 Paris and 1948 London Games, these sleek, language-free symbols were crafted by the Olympics organizers to guide spectators—no matter their native tongue—by delivering information in the clearest, most intuitive way. There's a rich and fascinating story behind how these symbols evolved over the decades—I highly recommend reading about the history of Olympic pictograms here and see how the pictograms have changed over the years!. I plan to change up the pictograms I use every month, but I started with this one because it was the most recent.

Because there are some sports on Strava that don't have a corresponding Olympic sport (like yoga), I've taken the artistic challenge to create them in the same style! Stay tuned to see what I come up with :)