Red The Steakhouse

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to eat at one of the premiere steak houses in the country, Red The Steakhouse. I have a bucket list of local restaurants I want to eat at before I die and this is one of them and it didn’t disappoint. Red’s participated in Cleveland’s Restaurant week where over 70 restaurants offered deals to try their food. At Red’s, they had a four course meal for $39.

The wife and I went with another couple who we are good friends with and although I was going to order a flat-iron, a generous donation allowed me to upgrade to a Prime Filet Steak. Words can’t describe how delicious it was. I didn’t have to use any steak sauce and each bite was like a small piece of meat heaven. The total amount for just my meal with the upgrade was $64 which is awfully expensive, but that’s why it was on my bucket list. As far as I’m concerned, the meal was worth every penny.

I doubt I’ll eat there again considering the prices but if you’re ever in the Cleveland, OH area and want a damn good steak, you can’t go wrong with Red The Steakhouse.

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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?

A Tipping Point For The Open Source Project Known as WordPress

In the past year or two, I’ve taken notice of a particular trend. That is, a lot of excitement surrounding the REST API being added to WordPress. When I attended WordCamp San Francisco last weekend, I talked to a few individuals who confirmed my suspicions. The WP API also known as the REST API will create an untold amount of opportunities for developers to interact with WordPress.

Everything from custom backend experiences to unique ways of interacting with WordPress data are possible with the REST API being added to the core of WordPress. While this isn’t slated to occur until WordPress 4.2 or later, there are projects already taking advantage of the API. FooCapture by FooBox is one example of a plugin tapping into what the API has to offer. FooCapture utilizes the Rest API in WordPress to capture, optimize, and upload screenshots directly to WordPress.

I follow the Drupal community and for several months, I’ve seen talk and examples of something called Headless Drupal. Basically, the backend of Drupal is nothing more than a series of API calls giving developers a chance to create a unique backend experience for clients.

While it doesn’t utilize the REST API, Jason Schuller’s Pickle Project is interesting. While it took him two days to complete, I can’t help but wonder what he would be able to create using the WP API when it becomes part of WordPress’ core.

I ended up speaking to a few individuals close to the WP API project and asked them several questions. Their answers solidified a suspicion I’ve had for a long time in that, the REST API is instrumental to WordPress’ future. We’re going to see custom backends, perhaps thousands of them.

We’re going to see the backend of WordPress used in ways we haven’t thought of or imagined just yet.  The next two years of WordPress news is going to be exciting. I have the opportunity to review a countless number of apps that will utilize the API in ways we don’t know of yet. The REST API being added to the core of WordPress is an exciting period of time. It’s a pivotal moment of the platform’s future.

If you disagree, I’m all ears.

I Love My Dog

Vesty is the coolest, cutest, dog I’ve ever owned. We love her like a kid. She even has a driver’s license. In case you couldn’t tell by the photos, her favorite activity is sleeping. What a life my dog has, she’s been in retirement mode since day one.

Having survived the death of my wife’s father and mother, she’s been through a lot with us in the 10 years we’ve had her. We try not to think about her absence from our lives but the day is inevitable and will come sooner rather than later. That day will hurt but until then, there’s a lot more happy moments to be had!

My WTF Moments Using The New “My Sites” Interface

WordPress.com has unveiled a new interface to manage and access WordPress.com and Jetpack connected WordPress.org websites. In testing the interface, I encountered a few WTF moments. Here they are in no particular order.

The New My Sites Interface

The New My Sites Interface

Choosing Sites

The top item in the left sidebar is a dropdown menu containing all of the sites connected to my account. I can only select sites using this menu. If that’s the case, I don’t understand why so much space is dedicated to showing the cards on the right hand side. Alternatively, you should be able to select a site by clicking within the tile. It would also be nice to be able to move the tiles around as a means of organizing them.

What’s a WordPress?

I’m unsure if this is an error or if it’s supposed to say “Start a New WordPress”. Even for someone as experienced with WordPress.com and WordPress.org, I scratched my head trying to figure out what a WordPress is. It should either say “Start a New WordPress Site” or “Create a New WordPress Site” since the link takes you to the WordPress.com signup page.

Certain Links Don’t Correspond to The Selected Site

When I select a site, the Blog Posts, Pages, and Stats links don’t correspond to the choice. Instead, they point to my WordPress.com user account. My expectation is that these links are connected to the site I select. For example, if I select WordPress Tavern, the links should take me to the Tavern’s Blog Posts, Pages, or Stats.

Top Bar Confusion

The bar at the top of the website which contains the pencil icon, my Gravatar, and notifications area is tied to whatever site I selected. The connection is not obvious. I suggest using a tooltip that upon hover, tells me the action and the name of the site it will take place on. For example, if I choose WordPress Tavern, the Pencil icon in the top bar should say something like “Create a new post on WordPress Tavern”.

Contextual Menu Items

If I select a WordPress.org powered site using Jetpack, I shouldn’t see an Upgrades menu item. WordPress.com upgrades are the last thing that should be accessible when managing or quickly accessing a WordPress.org powered site.

Quick Dashboard Access

Instead of hiding the site’s dashboard link behind a gear icon, it should be added next to Stats and Customize.

The Gear Icon

During further testing, I discovered that the gear icon has a link to select the site. However, if you allow the user to select the site by clicking anywhere within the tile and a link to the dashboard is added to the tile along with Stats and Customize, the Gear icon can disappear. This saves users at least one mouse click to access the dashboard to whatever site they choose.

I’m no genius, but I am a user and this is what my experience is like using the new “My Sites” interface. It’s a work in progress like everything else on WordPress.com so I’m sure it will improve in due time.

Distributed

“You go Spiderman on the world at the expense of going Peter Parker on your life.” – It’s a bout time I read a “Work from home piece” that is on par with reality instead of something that claims that being a distributed worker is the greatest thing since sliced bread.