And they finally put me on the website.
To be fair we’ve been so swamped with client work this whole time I have no idea who would’ve had time for the photo editing or page updates anyway. But it’s nice for people to know I don’t just make up my job.
Also, check out that head of office security!
The latest episode of Cortex was so so good. Myke and Grey have discussed in previous years that neither is fond of New Year’s Resolutions and tend not to have personal goal setting in the strict sense. But Grey liked the idea of having yearly “themes” and Myke stole the idea from him. Now the thought technology is understood enough it deserves its own episode for 2018.
Cortex #62: 2018 Yearly Themes
It was so good I’ve decided to steal the idea. I’m working on creating a year theme for myself. Several ideas come to mind but it’s all a bit of a jumble. Maybe by the end of the year I’ll know what it was, and next year I’ll better know what 2019 should be.
We paid for a gym membership all 12 months of 2017. Turns out I only went during the first six months of that:
There may have been a couple more in that last half of the year that I didn’t record in my workouts note. But I know I didn’t go once from October to December and it doesn’t sound like me to workout and not record it.
It’s a trope to be thinking about this kind of thing in January, but I’m getting too fat again and who cares what month it is.
46 workouts isn’t really a high number. Plenty of people work out for 40+ hours a month and that’s all I did all year. One real workout a week is 52, so even that would be better than what I did last year.
I’ve also been stress-eating a lot and eating sugar way more than usual. It’s systemically a bad time for me and my body.
Looking into changes but right now I more just feel sorry for myself.
Most weekends are pretty dull. We keep them that way. We prioritise sleep, go to the grocery store, and if there’s anything special it’s usually D&D with our friends. This is life because 2-year-olds like nothing more than to ruin plans so it’s usually easier to not make them and put on hours and hours of Disney movies.
This weekend though some nice geekery came together.
After a pancake breakfast on Saturday, I decided the family needed an outing. We were out of dog food and while the snow storm hadn’t been too bad it was cold enough I knew we would mostly stay inside if we didn’t force ourselves out. We went down Preston Highway to Feeder’s Supply, but on the way stopped at Book and Music Exchange to browse.
Grace had a great time chasing us down the aisles, and picking up movies them back. For her pleasantness we got her a copy of The Lion King.
I purchased an A/C adapter for the NES system that’s been sitting idly in our entertainment center for a long time, and a couple games. Proud to announce the system is up and running! I’ve not tested all of the old games yet but I only had a little time Sunday morning to play.
After such a big morning, Grace took a long afternoon nap. Amber and I took it as our opportunity to catch up on Stranger Things 2. We still have one episode remaining, but I’ve really enjoyed the series. Especially El being so resourceful.
It was getting to the point I was nervous I might not get out to see this movie in theaters. That just can’t happen with a Star Wars movie. Amber’s mom accepted a plea to babysit and we got to see the matineé today.
Holy cow did I love the movie. I don’t have the energy to write a review and I’m too late for that party anyway, but Ber and I have spent most of conversations the rest of the day about it.
Do things that make you happy. It’s okay to let yourself do thing that make you happy. I don’t feel this way most Sunday nights, but I feel pretty great right now. A bit of nerd recovery is totally reasonable.
WordCamp Cincinnati 2017 is happening this weekend: November 11th and 12th. I’m excited to attend all day Saturday, but most importantly for four hours that afternoon I’ll be volunteering in the Happiness Bar.
At the Happiness Bar, volunteers are available to help you troubleshoot any issues you’ve run into on your WordPress sites. Helping folks at these events is one of my favorite ways of contributing to the WordPress community.
Cinci has a pretty a big event, so if you’re brand new to WordPress you’ll want to attend the WordPress 101 track offered all day Saturday first. But if you’ve already got a site and up and running (or almost up and running) then Happiness Bar is for you!
Hope to see you there if you’re in the area. If not, you can also find a WordCamp near you at central.wordcamp.org/schedule/.
Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash
In the late summer, ice cream is my vice of choice. Milkshakes can cure what ails ya, and a carton of Moose Tracks is available in my freezer. During those phases, it’s not uncommon to find my ice cream scoop in the sink: dirty and in the way.
As soon as it’s clean, I scoop up some ice cream. Then it’s time to eat ice cream, not do dishes! Back in the sink it goes.
One could transmogrify this into just-in-time delivery. The scoop is available right as it’s needed, after all. But you can seek the truth and recognize that it’s nothing but procrastination and waste of space.
Think of your brain power, your workspace, your schedule. So long as stuff gets done, we can pass off all manner of dirty, wasteful habits as part of an overall efficient system. But the truth may lead to cleaner, useful changes you can make as soon as you’re ready to acknowledge them.
In 2010, I used WordPress for my company’s blog posts. My boss made the site already, I was just typing words into the post editor. This WordPress thing seemed easy enough to use!
In 2011, I used WordPress to start sites anytime I needed them. It was only five minutes to setup, then themes and plugins could take care of all the work for me after that. WordPress.com was even faster and easier: I could focus on content!
In 2014, I used WordPress to help thousands of other people make sites on their own. I was a Happiness Engineer at Automattic; one of the greatest jobs you could ask for. I was getting paid to teach WordPress all day!
Now in 2017, I am going to use WordPress again to make custom sites for clients of Makespace!, a web design agency here in Louisville.
Automattic is an amazing company and leaving it was no small decision. Moving from a support role to a development role became my top priority in the last few months, and right now the dev team at Makespace is a better fit for me to succeed.
We use WordPress for most of our projects at Makespace, so all this time will continue to serve as valuable experience. I plan to be involved in the WordPress community as well: the Louisville WordPress meetup, WordCamps, facepalming at the WP Tavern comments, etc.
Thanks for all the support everyone has given to me in this change! It’s been a great 7 years of WordPress and I hope to contribute even more in the next 7.
