For a fuller view of my writing beyond my recent posts, dive in below and peruse as much or as little as you’d like. I write about a wide range of topics from WordPress to Surrogacy to Photography to Mental Health. Don’t follow me if you want to only hear about a certain topic as I write based on what comes up for me in that moment of time. As always, thanks for reading.
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A few photos from Uniting WordPress YouTubers dinner @ WCUS 2024
I shared this in the email to those who attended and mean it so I am sharing it with you all here: Thank you all for coming tonight. Time is a big gift to offer someone and I don’t take it lightly when asking folks to join something like this. As you could probably tell, I […]
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wooden knife
In the last two years, I have built up a supply of throwaway pieces of wood from a wood carving instructor in North Carolina who kindly lets me raid his trash each year when I see him. My dad then ships me the wood scraps, usually surrounded by candy and snacks, from Florida to Washington. […]
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Automattic: 10 year anniversary
I’ve spent just barely under a third of my life working for Automattic. These were not mindless years that somehow added up. I have felt each of them in the best way. wordpress. this is new. kevin and the gang went to teh VIP conference and he got me some AWESOME contacts. needless to say, […]
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Raising my hand to help others create their own productive spaces in WordPress
There is so much room for so many spaces in the WordPress world. Having created and run an official space for a few years (the FSE Outreach Program) and, as I venture into creating an unofficial one with WordPress YouTubers, my brain spins with all of the communities and pop up spaces I want to […]
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Join me in testing the Block Bindings API
The Block Bindings API was launched in WordPress 6.5 and it allowed you to “bind core blocks to read from different sources without needing to write custom block boilerplate”. In WordPress 6.5 and WordPress 6.6, this was all done via code and there wasn’t a UI yet to bind blocks to different sources. For WordPress 6.7, […]
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Uniting WordPress YouTubers Part II on August 20th, 2024
In the spirit of open sourcing everything, I wanted to share my notes too alongside the video anyone can watch. I used Otter.AI to create the transcript and then used their baked in ChatGPT integration to pull a summary out. The notes are incredibly high level so I recommend watching the video itself if you […]
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write back
Growing up, I had a few influential pen pals, a kid my age and a 70-80 year old man. This precious correspondence with the latter continues to impact me today. It’s been much harder to write cards since my grandma died and I lost the weekly ritual of writing to her, especially during COVID times. […]
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Responding to “Should we be open about discussing WordPress?”
I wanted to share a quick response to Should we be open about discussing WordPress? Yes, yes, yes, yes. We all should. That’s the beauty of open source. Please criticize, engage, share feedback, ask others hard questions, ask a simple “why”, show specifically why something is painful, show something you love, share what would be […]
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unexpected joy
I never thought I could be so ecstatic to have a flight get cancelled. Tuesday this past week, I was hanging out in Western NC (aka WNC), finally recovered from a cold caught during a week with extended family. I had made the best of getting sick fully embracing the chance to rest and so […]
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Join me in testing Data Views
As the Test lead for WordPress 6.6 and from my experience running the FSE Outreach Program, I remain obsessed with how we can bring more people into testing key parts of what’s new in WordPress and empower people to share feedback in the project. A few weeks ago, I decided to throw together a WordPress […]
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flatten
I started to write this on July 18th and haven’t been able to write much more on the topic. Yet still, the urge to document, to witness, and to wonder how it’ll all evolve is strong. I share these incomplete thoughts and know it’s enough: I met my brother at my sister’s wedding — the […]
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On contribution pathways and experiences
If you talk to someone deep in the WordPress project, you’ll often hear the refrain of: “Pull requests welcome!” “Open an issue!” Not all contribution pathways are the same though and something I am trying to be more aware of these days is sharing more nuance around what contribution in a certain area might be […]
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didn’t pound
Last night, I slept and my heart didn’t pound. In the morning, I could hear the rain lightly knocking on the roof of the tent and seamlessly mixing in with the sounds of river. I went back to the same campground as my recent solo adventure this time with my partner in tow. We filled […]
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WordPress 6.6 Source of Truth
I’m offering up the next edition of the Source of Truth for WordPress 6.6, set to launch July 16th, 2024. You can see all prior editions under this tag. As always, I’d recommend staying up to date on the dev notes as those are rolling out along with reviewing the Field Guide. As a reminder, this is […]
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Create your own living plan
Content warning: references to suicidality. A few years ago, I sat down to write out as concisely as possible what’s helped me at times when I’m not exactly attached to life around me and quite suicidal resulting in To those who aren’t very attached to life. As part of that effort, I created an open source […]
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Here’s to zazu
There’s a familiar rhythm to it and, if I close my eyes, I can feel what it’s like to pack up my car to head out on a new adventure or to a brand new place to live. After a long day spent outside, returning to find it felt almost as good as an embrace […]
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Uniting WordPress YouTubers?
With WordPress being used by so many people (40+% of the web), I’m kept up at night sometimes thinking about all of the feedback that might be missing. When running the FSE Outreach Program in the early days of the Site Editor and block themes, it meant I spent a lot of time going to […]
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gain them back
This week a childhood friend came through Seattle. We texted back and forth about where to go to dinner and, when I offered up a Roman restaurant (Rione XIII), the response was instant. We were going there. We both took Latin for 6 years and it felt imperative to pay homage to our roots. An […]
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On moving at the right speed at the right time in the WordPress project
Depending on who you talk to and when, you might hear the refrain that the WordPress is moving too fast or too slow. The sentiments are often held so strongly with each side expressing dismay. An easy example I’ve heard since I ran the now evolved FSE Outreach Program is around the desire for responsive […]
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deep pull
There are some places in the world I could return to again and again. Often for those same places I feel a deep pull to bring as many loved ones as I can there. It’s not enough to return alone. Chamonix, Thun, La Jolla, Jackson Hole, Brevard, Dolomites, the list goes on. The Oregon Coast […]
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hardly
A restlessness has been brewing within me over the last month. I blame the twin forces of my body healing, allowing me to do more yet also not all I want, and the passage of time leaving me living in Seattle far longer than I could have imagined. It has been beautiful to stay put […]
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Healing from disc herniations: learning to listen rather than to push
Since early this year, I’ve been recovering from two disc herniations and am still on that path. I’m lucky that I both caught it early and that they are, in the grand scheme of things, not extreme enough to warrant surgery. Add to my luck a remote job with a flexible schedule for taking time […]
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baby making age
I run a separate site called Surrogacy Stories, dedicated to stories of those born via surrogacy, that hardly gets any views or traction. It’s okay — I recognize it’s for a more niche audience considering I’ve never met another person born via traditional surrogacy. At the same time, I’m tired of lack of awareness around […]
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what makes it
I went to explore a row of cherry blossom trees this morning after getting word that it was popping. It was like a dream land and I got there early enough to avoid any instagram influencer types posing in the middle of the street. I didn’t linger long — I was feeling pulled to a […]
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How do you keep up with the Gutenberg project?
I get this question often and have written about this previously nearly four years ago when the site editor and phase 2 work was getting underway. Thanks in part to the immense amount of work the Sources of Truth are, I must keep up to date across many levels. What follows are the varying levels […]
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two years on
Two years on and grandma is still gone. I burst into quick tears on my birthday listening to her voicemail where she sang to me happy birthday to me years ago (I’m so glad I didn’t pick up). Tonight, she kept me company thanks to old recordings of our conversations as I went on a […]
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Sour options for at home treatment of salivary gland infections
Pardon the overly descriptive title — I’m trying to help anyone who was in my position over the last week get some relief and sometimes accurate titles are what’s needed. I am recovering from a salivary gland infection and, with my last dose of antibiotics today, I wanted to do a little deep dive on […]
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WordPress 6.5 Source of Truth
Building off of both the public 6.2 Source of Truth, 6.3 Source of Truth, and 6.4 Source of Truth, I’m offering up the next edition for WordPress 6.5, set to launch March 26th, 2024. Compared to prior times, I waited to share this version partially due to time off for my birthday and some hard decisions in […]
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knew it was good
I try not to lug my X100F camera around (I call it my “nice camera”) too often. Over the last month, I’ve mostly opted for a disposable camera or to resist the urge to constantly capture. I had an exception this week driving out to West Seattle with my partner for a walk along Alki […]
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31
I went on my last short walk of the day a few nights ago, looked up at the sky, and really thought about where I was in the world in the far left corner of the US. It doesn’t feel like my birthday. The days are blending together right now and I feel very in […]
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