Thoughts

I was woken this morning at 2:18am by what must’ve been a dream where people were urgently calling my name to get my attention. Once awake, I was unable to fall back asleep. I’ve woken up like this before. I’m not sure what it stems from.

I had a great idea for my next WordPress plugin this morning while reviewing the hacks I’ve added to my own site’s functions.php file. More to come soon.

Two months after “the episode” I’ve managed to shed 17 pounds. A balance of meds, extreme dietary change and exercise made it possible. I’ve managed to develop a refined sugar aversion/phobia because of it too.

Today, I was a hero. I saved a four man-hour meeting with a single email that took less than five exchanges to resolve. Remember kids, a meeting is not always needed to get something done if you’re clear and concise with your questions up front.

After seeing how cool and powerful EchoFeed really was, I decided it was a tool I could definitely use. Totally worth the $20 a year.

jimmitchell.org/2024/04/2…

After seeing how cool and powerful EchoFeed really was, I decided it was a tool I could definitely use. Totally worth the $20 a year.

Giving Echofeed a shot for posting from my WordPress blog to Bluesky since I haven’t found any plugins I like yet.

After using Mona for the past few months as my Mastodon client, I thought I’d give Ivory a go today, just to see if I was missing anything since my subscription is running out. And the answer was… Nope, not missing a thing. I think the feature I like most about Mona is toot threading. Ivory doesn’t have it and it’s impossible to follow conversations.

If you’re a Tinylytics for WordPress plugin user, what features would you like to see next? I’m planning roadmap.

wordpress.org/plugins/j…

I moved my jimmitchell.org domain to a US based VPS this morning from a shared SAS (Slow as 💩) UK based WordPress hosting. Thanks to @vincentritter for the Hetzner recommendation. Really liking it. This is really a test post to be sure Mastodon federation is working as expected.

Nerd friends… Looking for a reliable VPS recommendation that runs about $10 per month with decent specs to handle a WordPress site. Currently looking at IONOS as an option. Anything better?

macOS users… Do you prefer widgets on your desktop? If so, how many do you have? I’ve tried it, but the clutter stresses me out. I have to have a 100% clean desktop.

Doing dev type work today that I haven’t done in quite a while. It took a few minutes to remember the correct syntax… I used to be able to do this stuff in my sleep. Gotta start working that individual contributor muscle again.

I’m finding it hard to believe that my youngest child turns 27 today. Where have the years gone?

Today has been a very slow day. The missus and I went out to buy a couple of small items, but that’s about it. The rest of the day has been filled with wandering and puttering around the house. I’ve learned to appreciate days like these more lately.

Grrr. Today is probably my least favorite day of the year: Tax check writing day.

I just configured and handed over my old MacBook Air M1 to my wife who had the same model except with an Intel chip. I think I might install Linux Mint on her old machine to have as an extra toy for tinkering once we’re sure I’ve migrated all she needs.

Cleaning up files on the old laptop, I came across the Hacking with macOS book I bought a few years back but never got started on. Now is as good a time as any to start.

I think my (eventual) podcast will focus on office etiquette. I have so many examples from coworkers over the years that I’d easily have 15 episodes out of the gate. Does that make it a “rantcast?” Now if I could only make the time to record…

Well… A month later, and my eyesight has returned to what it originally was, and my computer glasses work again. An added bonus related to “the event” is I’ve managed to shed more than 10 pounds so far. Let this be a lesson kids; refined sugar is simply pure evil.

I’m really liking Bear as my new notes app, but I’m seeing a somewhat consistent rendering issue when switching to one note from another. When I do, sometimes the new note’s content draws funny and needs a quick scroll to rerender. Anyone else getting this? How about you, @canion?

Some people are way too quick to call a meeting for something that can be solved in one or two email exchanges. Don’t be that person, because I’ll shoot you down if you send me a pointless invite. 💥

I’m playing a form of “Apollo 13” with the work laptop now, trying to find the right combination of apps that will keep the thing charging while I do some work. Launching any browser puts me over the limit and the charge stops. 🤣

Got to the office this morning to find my work laptop’s battery is drained. Sitting here waiting for sufficient charge to get going. I must remember to shut down for the weekends rather than sleep the thing.

A productive weekend. Cleaned most of the back yard. The rest is for next weekend. Built a new barbecue and grilling burgers for dinner. But the best thing was sleeping in really late this morning. The week ahead looks manageable. Life is good.

I just updated my Tinylytics for WordPress plugin to v1.1.1, fixing a bug that would cause a critical issue to be reported in Site Health about an active PHP session being detected that should have been closed.

Oh, and day 5 of battery on the new MacBook Air and we’re still at 30%… 🤯

Speaking of bucket list performers to see live, we’ll also be seeing Tab Benoit at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano in August. I played The Coach House as part of the opening act for Elvin Bishop back in May of 2011.

Just bought a couple of cheap tickets to see Eric Clapton at the Hollywood Bowl in October. We may be way in the back, but we’ll get to see a bucket list legend perform live.

I’ve spent the better part of the day trying to debug a system failure. I can get it to happen once, but then the exact same data update rolled back and updated again is successful no matter how many times I run it. It’s friggen’ maddening I tell you! Maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow. 😵‍💫