MyThoughts

Just When You Think You Know Someone

Earlier this week, Rebecca Gill, a friend of mine in the WordPress community, shared her personal story of how being diagnosed with LADA: a 1.5 diabetic who isn’t quite type 1 or type 2 changed her life for the better.

If I ever question myself, I am reminded quickly of the gifts diabetes has given me. I see my healthy son, I feel his bear hug, or I hear his words of pride and praise when he tells someone new that his mom is a diabetic who takes good care of herself.

The day I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I chose my son and his survival. The day I was diagnosed as a LADA, I chose to be a survivor.

It’s an inspirational post, but out of all the times I’ve talked to her, she never mentioned that she had LADA. It’s none of my business and I didn’t ask, but it reminded me that there are a lot of things I don’t know about the people I interact with on a daily basis in the WordPress community. Without her post, I might never have known this about her. Rebecca says it best:

I’ve known some people in the WordPress community for more than 6 years and yet, there is so much I don’t know about these people. Sure, I could follow them on Facebook, Twitter, etc and learn things based on what they share to the public, but without a good reason to do so, I feel like that’s akin to stalking. Just when you think you know someone, you realize you don’t know them at all.

I use my Facebook account and this site to let people know that I’m not as obsessed with WordPress as people might think. I have other interests such as good food, bird watching, trains, military aircraft, meteorology, astrology, the 90s, and more. Using these mediums, I specifically choose what I let people know about me. I feel like I’m a public person, but I do keep a lot of things to myself or to those who I consider personal friends.

Do I even want to know more about the personal lives of the people I interact with on a weekly basis? Yes and no. Yes, because it provides a foundation for a story because it adds context. No, because there are things I might find out that I can’t say which may really add to a story. Also, I have a big mouth and would rather not be entrusted with anyone’s personal secrets. I don’t want that burden anyways, so don’t give it to me!

I Feel Sorry For Matt Slack

With the rise in popularity of SlackHQ as a collaborative chat environment for teams, a lot of people mistakenly Tweet to @slack when they have an issue instead of @SlackHQ. Apparently, Matt Slack is not a real-time messaging, archiving and search for modern teams.

I am not SlackHQ

I am not SlackHQ

Poor fellow. It reminds me of Brandon Kraft who uses the Twitter handle @kraft. I bet he gets his fair share of cheese tweets. By the way, his profile says (FYI- Not ).

Ohio Buckeyes Win

The Ohio State Buckeyes just won the first ever, college football National Championship. I sat at home alone, watching the game via a live stream on my Macbook Pro. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, it felt like I was watching the game with a group of people.

Twitter favorites and Facebook likes were given out in earnest as I mentioned the Buckeyes winning. Granted, a lot of my followers are in the Ohio area as am I. However, I just wanted to note how cool it is to witness an event alone in my home but in reality, connect in real-time with those who are watching the same event at the same time.

It’s a weird feeling knowing I’m watching and participating in an event at the same time as several other people as well yet, I’m alone. Thank you social media.

Please Don’t Let Us Be Alone in The Galaxy

When man or woman looks up into the sky on a clear, crisp, night, what do they think when they see a horizon filled with stars?

Stars in the night sky

Stars in the night sky

Surely it’s not the fact that we’re all alone on this blue/white planet called Earth? So far, no concrete evidence has been discovered that shows we’re not only alone on this planet, but in our entire galaxy. I don’t know about you, but if we’re really all alone on this planet, I don’t have much hope. There is too much evidence in this day and age that suggests humans are more apt at destroying themselves than progressing to the next stage of civilization.

It’s a disappointing realization but one none the less. What I wouldn’t give to have a UFO land on the front lawn of the White House and showcase power and might that forces humans to realize we are nothing as a species compared to an alien life form. Yeah, perhaps it’s not the best of things to hope for, but if humans as a species don’t realize we are nothing compared to something else beyond the grips of Earth’s atmosphere, we’ll destroy ourselves. It seems like it’s a series of events bound to happen.

Until then, if it’s a clear sky at night, don’t look up and think about how alone we are amongst the stars, but wonder what lies beyond Earth’s atmosphere. There’s no way we can be the only somewhat intelligent species in the galaxy. There’s too many stars and potential life bearing planets in the goldilocks region to support such a theory.

At the very least, I sure as hell don’t want to think we’re all alone in the galaxy. What a scary notion!

The Personal Blog Sanctuary Doesn’t Exist

Some folks out there may be thinking that their personal blog is their sanctuary. I don’t think so. Once you’re employed, your personal blog becomes a weapon used for harm. Just as you can’t speak your mind in public for fear of being protested against, you can’t do the same on a digital medium.

Once folks find out who you work for, they’ll stop at nothing to get you unemployed. The easiest way to accomplish this is through protesting sponsors of the company the person works for. This is not happening to me but, I’ve seen it happen to a lot of other people.

Getting your thoughts from brain to digital paper is important but if you hit the publish button, make sure you have the toughest armor possible. It’s a rough world and it’s getting tougher every minute. I’m almost at the point of suggesting that personal blogging does more harm than good when you’re employed.

What I’m Really Thinking During Car Commercials

I’ve watched my share of car commercials and I wonder if there’s a job title where someone travels around to find the perfect location to shoot a commercial. I think that would be a cool job to have. There must be since so many of them have what seems like the perfect setting to sell a car. Empty streets in a downtown city, tight curves surrounding a hill, or a perfect tree-lined street.

Since I can’t afford the vehicles they put in my face, I pay more attention to the surroundings of the vehicle being advertised. I wonder what it’s like to see the landscape where the commercial was filmed. I’ve never driven down a perfect looking, tree-lined street, something I’d love to do. Secondly, I wonder what it’s like to live on such a street.

In commercials where neighbors are looking across the street at a fancy car, I wonder what the property taxes are for the nice house they’re walking into. What’s it like to live in a such a nice home, I may never know but these people in the commercial supposedly do. The lawn is so precise and green, it must be nice.

Sometimes I wonder what it took to set up a particular shot for the vehicle. A dark room, shiny floors, bright lights, etc. Sounds pretty easy compared to locating a physical location to film the vehicle doing cool stuff. I always get a good laugh when at the end, the text shows over $500 a month for payments. I mean, WTF.

Have any of you actually purchased or leased a vehicle based on seeing commercials for it? Do they work? Hell, I spend more time thinking and looking at the environment surrounding the vehicle versus the vehicle itself. I’m pretty sure I’m not their target market.

Can I just have a cool looking ice cream truck with 90s tunes blasting from it?

Will I Be Able To Stay Relevant With WordPress?

As I was writing an article for the Tavern containing my thoughts on a few of the topics I’d like to see new sites dedicated to WordPress cover, I wondered if WordPress has passed me up. Five to six years ago, I felt like I had a good handle on what WordPress was doing and where it was going. Now, not so much.

Not only do I not know where it’s going, I’m personally not interested in some of the topics that WordPress users today want to know about. eCommerce, the business of WordPress, enterprise, and application development. These things sound cool, but hurt my head just thinking about them.

I have no idea how to be relevant with these topics since I’ve never operated a WordPress business, have no experience with enterprise, never operated an eCommerce store using WordPress, or know anything about product development or pricing. Some of those topics scream BORING to me and the best content is based on real life experience.

I’ve always written about WordPress from a user point of view as I’ve primarily used WordPress for publishing and managing content. Every now and then, checking out new plugins and themes. Over the years, I’ve become less of a tinkerer and have become comfortable with the way the Tavern operates. I don’t experiment as much as I used to.

If I’m not already, at some point, I think people like me who use WordPress just for blogging and managing content are going to be considered old school. Using it as a foundation for applications, frameworks, eCommerce, or powerful solutions to problems is going to be the cool, shiny way to use WordPress. I’m wondering when/if what I have to offer the WordPress community in terms of information, experience, etc will just be irrelevant to the trends, topics, and use cases of WordPress in the near future.

I don’t think it will be any time soon considering the huge user base of novice-intermediate users who are always looking for the next cool theme or efficient plugin to handle tasks. But it is something I’ve been thinking about and will continue to think about in the foreseeable future.

 

Ask Me Anything

Reddit has this thing where you can ask people anything and supposedly, they’ll answer any question you ask. The whole concept is funny to me because I live my life based on the ask me anything mantra.

Unfortunately, there have been several instances where being honest has gotten me in more trouble than just lying or making something up. It’s a shame really because if I ever have kids, I’ll have to explain to them that honesty is a double-edged sword. Oh, and some people really can’t handle the truth.

So, if you want to take me up on my offer, use the comments to ask me a question, about anything. I’ll have to choose which side of the sword to use for my answer :)

 

WordPress Is Nothing To Lose Sleep Over

When it comes to WordPress, I have my personal views and takes on things but for the most part, I can be persuaded to one side or the other of an argument. I don’t ever claim to know everything as that’s impossible.

What I enjoy most about WordPress is talking about it with others. Discussing ideas, the future, the past, what mountain is in the way that needs to be blown up! I don’t have a personal allegiance to one side of an argument unless I strongly agree with something. Only then do I fight for what I believe is right.

WordPress is just software. Software that powers over 20% of the web of course but at the end of the day, it’s just software. It’s nothing to lose sleep over.