Blog Posts

Big Bud Press with a little CSS

or: your Shiny apps can be cute, I promise!

Star Trek: The Next Generation catchphrases

It was only a matter of time before I reached “The Sopranos Point” of the pandemic and decided to pick up Star Trek. I thought I might …

comparing two data frames: one #rstats, many ways!

today i tweeted asking about packages to compare two data frames (specifically, their variable names and types): anyone aware of an …

crying @ sephora

A few days ago an amazing tweet made the rounds: I made a dataset of Sephora reviews that mention crying ☔️ https://t.co/BNObniWmOM …

opendatatoronto 0.1.0 is on CRAN!

I’m beyond excited to announce that opendatatoronto is now released on CRAN! opendatatoronto is a package for searching and accessing …

Recent + Upcoming Talks

Cleaning up after the federal election

Questions to ask yourself when cleaning data, demonstrated with results from the 2019 Canadian federal election.

opendatatoronto demo

Demo’ing the opendatatoronto R package

Opinionated Strategies for Uncharted Territories

Strategies for working with new data

Game Notes

These 12 long game notes are controlled by PHP. Each note stays hidden until its weekly unlock date, and each unlocked note is at least 1,000 words.

Next unlock: June 16, 2026.

Grand Theft Auto VI

hype, open-world design, and game culture

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until June 16, 2026.

Marvel’s Wolverine

action design, superheroes, and single-player AAA releases

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until June 23, 2026.

The Blood of Dawnwalker

dark fantasy RPG design, vampires, and player choice

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until June 30, 2026.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls

fighting games, recognizable heroes, and competitive scenes

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until July 7, 2026.

Halo: Campaign Evolved

classic shooters, co-op play, and the return of iconic campaigns

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until July 14, 2026.

Gears of War: E-Day

squad shooters, PvE and PvP pressure, and loyal fan communities

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until July 21, 2026.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword

samurai action, Japanese aesthetics, and modern sword combat

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until July 28, 2026.

Phantom Blade Zero

wuxia action, difficult combat, and player reaction

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until August 4, 2026.

Silent Hill: Townfall

horror atmosphere, psychological storytelling, and narrative expectations

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until August 11, 2026.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV

strategy design, battlefield tactics, and the RTS community

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until August 18, 2026.

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam

military online shooters, communication, and team play

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until August 25, 2026.

Fable

RPG choice, comic fantasy, and the return of a beloved series

This paragraph is hidden by PHP until September 1, 2026.

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Sharla Gelfand

Freelance R and Shiny Developer

I’m a freelance R and Shiny developer specializing in enabling easy access to data and replacing manual, redundant processes with ones that are automated, reproducible, and repeatable. I also co-organize R-Ladies Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area R User Group. I like R (of course), dogs, learning Spanish, playing bass, and punk.