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Very unpopular opinion:

Users treat their WordPress websites like red-headed step children because people who cobble together themes and plugins while calling themselves building custom websites do stupid, stupid things.

Just because you can do anything you want with WordPress doesn’t mean you should do whatever you want with WordPress, or any other tool for that matter.

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Long-Needed Date/Time Improvements Land in Core by Justin Tadlock
After more than a year and several WordPress updates, an overhaul of the core Date/Time component concluded. WordPress 5.3 will ship with fixes for long-standing bugs and new API functions.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The core Date/Time component is a rabbit hole which is not for the faint of heart, and I’m glad to see these changes coming to WordPress 5.3.

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I have a feeling I’m going to be doing a lot of extra looking in the near future for hotels skipping the smart speaker craze. I do not want to walk into my hotel room and say anything to Alexa. If Amazon gets its privacy act together, (same with Google et al), then I’ll be happy to jump on board, but until then, I’d like to hold on to at least some choice in the matter.

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I have several Facebook pages I have to manage or help manage for work, so I downloaded the Facebook Business app on my phone after I realized I can’t accept an admin invite from the standard Facebook mobile site.

I totally get why this app has a two-star rating on the app store, because this thing is a pile.

Shout-out to everyone else who has to use it.

Facebook: We make your life miserable just because we can. Move fast and break things yeah!

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I would like to sincerely thank the White House for attempting to unsend an email this morning.

Granted, this latest technological oopsy wasn’t nearly as hilarious as the Javascript 404 joke fail, or the or the fake news awards server fail within thirty minutes of launch, but well, this administration and its defenders have provided so few laughs over the last three years that I take them where I can get them.

Thanks guys, you brightened my day.

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I think I’m going to change my site’s footer to “Site best viewed with a computer and a cold one.” I suppose I should modernize that a bit, since people use more than just computers to view websites, but I’d dearly love the opportunity to poke fun at the whole “site-best-viewed-with” (insert browser, usually Chrome) nonsense.

The surprise heat wave broke today, so the windows are open and there’s a wonderful breeze coming in. I looked at the temperature in Augusta and it’s 94 compared to our 72. Glad I’m not there.

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This secondary character, (I think she’s secondary but can’t really tell at this point) likes both mojitos and Earl Gray tea. I’m trying to decide of the Mojito and Earl Gray tea liking should be categorized as one fault, or two separate faults. At this point i’m hoping she doesn’t become too important, because right now I’m not impressed with her.

228 McCormick Ave, State College, PA 16801
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Since I am so close to finishing my original challenge goal, I have decided to update my reading challenge to 150 books instead of 100 books. We still have three months left in the year, so I don’t think this will be too hard to complete. It took me until the third book to really get into the series, but having read and really liked the last three books, this one will definitely end up in the re-read pile for later.

921 S Pugh St, State College, PA 16801(1085ft)

82 °F Partly Cloudy

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You don’t realize how dependent you are on a working internet connection until you’ve finished the last book you downloaded and are about to download more books, only to find that you have no internet connection.

I have ten books to go for my reading challenge and I will probably have this one in the bag within the next week. I haven’t decided if I’m going to up the challenge before I finish it in order to make it last through the end of 2019, or just call it a win and set the one for next year higher.

What say you internets?

289 Easterly Pkwy, State College, PA 16801

66 °F Clear

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I don’t know if the WordPress project has any official ties to the Free Software Foundation. I did a quick Google search but didn’t come up with anything.

We are a project whose members/contributors value diversity and inclusion, and we have done a lot of work to make our official events, (WordCamps) welcoming to everyone, including people with disabilities and children.

Richard Stallman is free to spout whatever disgusting, bigoted things pop into his brain, and even to offer non-apologies which serve no other purpose than to cover his ass.

And we, as a project, one around which a thriving community has formed, are free to disassociate ourselves from him and his comments.

Whether we like it or not, we are the gateway for a lot of people who normally wouldn’t touch free software on their own.

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Right now I am incredibly grateful and thankful for the extensive accessibility improvements to the WordPress widgets screen, because today I learned that there is at least one developer on this planet who actually worked to not support accessibility mode.

Is there a legitimate reason to do this other than pure unadulterated ableism? That’s not a rhetorical question.

If it weren’t for all the accessibility improvements to the main widgets screen, I would quite literally be prevented from completing this project.

So whoever did all this work, (and it was probably done in very large part by Andria Fercia), thank you so much, I owe you a ton right now. If it wasn’t all Andria, or if it was completely someone else, please get in touch so I can edit this post to ensure that you are publicly thanked by name or names.

I would be totally screwed right now if it weren’t for all your hard work.

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Accessible Death – Songs by Joe O'Connor
I’m putting together this play list for my wake and writing about my life while I am able. Time will come when I won’t have the strength. I want to make sure that my daughter Siobhan ( born with severe intellectual disabilities) understands what is happening and that she feels included in the process. I’ve used some songs she will recognize. In this way she’ll hopefully feel included.

I’ll update this post later once I can manage to get my thoughts together so that the words I’d like to say while Joe is still with us are in some kind of order instead of a jumbled mess mixed with grief and swearing.

I’ll try to do it quickly. Hopefully there’s enough time.

If you don’t know who Joe is, he’s one of the original gangsters of WordPress Accessibility.

Through this connection he is someone very dear to me.

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Lord knows I have some very strong criticisms of the blind community, but if you think that the solution to constant negativity in your social media feeds is hang out with less blind people you haven’t spent time in any other small, tight-knit community. And if you want a less bitchy social media feed, spend less time on social media. Step away from your keyboard and your phone and go outside. I swear, the people constantly bitching about drama are worse than the people supposedly creating the drama.

921 S Pugh St, State College, PA 16801

66 °F Mostly Clear

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Why I Have a Website and You Should Too by Jamie TannaJamie Tanna
A persuasive look at the many reasons why you should have your own website, and some of the benefits it will bring you.

This post has a lot of takeaways for non-developers and even non-technical people. You don’t need to be a geek to have a website.

Personally, I think it’s vitally important, for example, to use a website to maintain a record of all the free accessibility testing you do as a person with disabilities. While I’d rather that the “f*ck you, pay me” approach be adopted instead of every organization and its brother jumping on mailing lists and social media asking for free work from persons with disabilities, maintaining a record of all the free work you do that can be used later to complete the experience section of your resume is the next best thing.

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It’s Friday, and I started the work day finding out that today is actually going to be the most full and most crazy day of the week. Three-day wekends are great, but then four-day work weeks make you pay for that greatness by piling five days of work into four.

I plan to spend Shabbat catching up on Elul preparations, reading others’ entried in the #BlogElul challenge/series, and generally relaxing.

I’ve closed my rings on the Apple Watch all but one day this week, and that one day I didn’t close them I was ten perecent away from closing my move ring, so I’m not that disappointed. Next week’s another week.

220 McCormick Ave, State College, PA 16801

64 °F Partly Cloudy

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We are fast approaching the end of Thursday in the work day sense, and I, for one, will be happy to see that end. For being a four-day week, this one’s been a bit crazy, and there’s a book I’d like to get back to reading.

I had a big lunch today and am skipping having a big dinner, in case I decide to go to bed early. Since I had a big lunch, I’ll just snack and graze throughout the rest of the day.

There are a ton of fresh tomatoes on my counter, and by fresh I mean straight from a garden, and I plan to slice at least one of them up, sprinkle salt and pepper on the slices, and enjoy a refreshing snack while I read later on.

117 McCormick Ave, State College, PA 16801

68 °F Mostly Cloudy