Done Since 2022-03-20

[mdlbear]

Not a bad week. Except for yesterday, when I cleverly left Sable (my main laptop) down in Seattle. I know how it happened, too -- a slight disruption to my usual routine (caused by having someone quarantining in "my" room for a week, so having to make sure I had a week's worth of everything) plus having an extra bag in my hand (the shirts that need buttons sewed on).

Fortunately, this was only a mild inconvenience, because I have backups of almost everything. Except for the most recent version of my password file, which includes all of my WordPress passwords. Fortunately, I have ssh. Connecting to the server directly and using the wp command, it became obvious why I couldn't just reset my password -- I'd put an extra "z" in my email address! Fixable. Everything else I absolutelyneed is in Git. (My financial stuff, including what I need for taxes, isn't. But I don't need it this week.)

<rant>

Have I mentioned that I've been fighting with WordPress? The designers N hired to build GoingSideways.blog are very good designers. The logo they designed is great. But they do not appear to be programmers. WordPress is in the process of switching to a new paradigm -- blocks. There's a block editor -- Gutenberg, which has been around for a while now -- and it is finally possible to find block themes, and to lay out the entire site in Gutenberg instead of just the main content area.

Old themes and old WSYWYG "page builders" are, to a greater or lesser degree, incompatible with the new way of doing things. The WPBakery page buiilder is almost completely incompatible with blocks The WoodMark theme, which is primarily intended for ecomerce sites rather than blogs, is almost as bad. Once I figured out how to switch to Gutenberg for page content, I've been using it exclusively. Among other things it works very well with importing markdown text from Emacs, and doesn't import it from GMail. N uses markdown-style asterisks to indicate italics. And it's also a lot easier to do basic image processing with command-line tools and the Gimp.

At this point I have almost all of the content we inherited from the designers converted to blocks. The only exception is the home page, which is loaded with gimmickry and will probably require considerable cleanup and a little redesign. With luck I can get that done this week or next, and ditch WPBakery. Then I'll be able to switch to a block theme and get rid of WoodMark.

GoingSideways is about adventures for people with chronic health issues. Adventures for programmers and writers -- not so much.

</rant>

Notes & links:
0321Su  Equinox
  * up 7am; ; exercises
  @ Adrian Hon on
    Twitter: "The only way you could claim the metaverse is a new medium with “no history”
    and no cultural baggage, free of exclusivity and misogyny, is if you were totally
    ignorant of the long history of virtual spaces https://t.co/24wVppVbwF
    https://t.co/h22QOz5mrW"
  @ TIL Pointless topology (Irregular Webcomic!)
  * c has to be at work at 10
  * 15min: laundry
  @ Equinox - Wikipedia
  @ Sleeping With Even a Dim Light Can Raise Blood Sugar and Heart Rate | Smithsonian 
  * pictures for upcoming trips widget
    -> the left column of upcoming trips is a single image over a column background image
       setting an image in the hover box on the right has no effect
  * 15min: dishes

0322Mo
  * up 6:45; S=7:54;  postural hypotension briefly on getting up
  * 15min: dishes  
    % heat for back pain
  @ Jason L. Salemi on Twitter: "@CDCgov changed the way it measures county-level "risk",
    which then is supposed to, in part, guide decision making. They call these the
    "COVID-19 Community Levels" & it replaces the previous "Community Transmission
    Risk". The details in this calculation matter. So, a thread. 1/"
  @ Preparing for the quantum-safe encryption future | CSO Online
  @ 8 IT security disasters: Lessons from cautionary examples | CSO Online
    What is a cyber attack? Recent examples show disturbing trends | CSO Online
  % 10:44 lots of tension across chest; BP pretty high.  Anxiety?  -> whatever; not COVID
    got a negative result, which also -gets rid of- _uses_ the last BD Veritor test kit.
    Which is distinctly NOT recommended.
  ~ 1pm (4pm EDT) Zoom meeting with Al and Greg -> moved to 10am Th
  % 9:15 meloxicam with pm drugs.

0322Tu
  * up 6am; S=6:25, BP=118/76, P=63; 
  * post The Dutch in the Ancient World - GoingSideways.blog
  * singing:  Wheelin', The River, Eyes Like the Morning  % broke down a little on Eyes...
  @ APOD: 2022 March 22 - A Whale of an Aurora over Swedish Forest green phoenix
  * 10am Healing Center Memory Keepers support group  next 0412Tu
  @ Alcohol Ink: Complete Beginners Guide with Supplies, Techniques, Tips, and Tricks
    fluid-painting.com – Your Painting and Drawing Guide
  @ via Cloud Paper Blog
  % have not been getting much done today.  (as usual)
  % meloxicam with pm drugs; ointment on the itchy spots
  * move dresser to underneath the overhang of the bar counter.
    % maybe a little more than I should have tackled, but I got away with it by doing it
      in increments with rest in between.
  : sudo apt install pandoc texlive-latex-extra texlive-latex-recommended
    needed to get MakeStuff working in Lyrics.
  * guitar: Wheelin', Eyes

0323We
  * Up 6:30ish, S=7:23;
  * guitar: Wheelin', Eyes
  : exterminator came 8am (ants in j's room)
  @ Mercedes Drive Pilot Beats Tesla Autopilot By Taking Legal Responsibility
  @ Antidepressants Make Things Worse in the Long Term 
  ~ GS: look into Medium (post all if possible) and r/travel
  : Phone call from Al, just checking in -- lots of catching up.  Nearly an hour.
    He's worried about many of the things I'm worried about -- memory, politics, ...
    % I seem to be in better physical (and financial) shape than Al, though
  * print set
  *- GS: email signup bribe: eBook of the Africa trip, with extra photos.
     and we'll do one for every trip, so that email subscribers will always have an extra

0324Th
  * Up 6am; S=6:17;
  @ Governor Spencer J Cox of Utah vetoes anti-transgender bill. Cox (andrewducker)
  ~ 10:30am  Zoom meeting with Al and Greg  -> DAMN - 10:30 was the END time.
  * spent most of the morning working on GS -- done except for alt text
  * spent much of the afternoon (until ~3) converting pages to block editor.
    Miserable, error-prone, and frustrating.
    -> install Yoast Duplicate Post, which has a "rewrite & republish" option -> works
    -> now 5:30pm; all posts and many pages converted.
    -> it can't or won't convert a block with shortcodes into a text, which is a pain
       Fortunately one can bring up the original page and copy-paste text from it
  @ Antidepressants Make Things Worse in the Long Term maybe
    Tardive dysphoria: The role of long term antidepressant use in-inducing chronic
    depression - ScienceDirect
    Breaking Off My Chemical Romance | The Nation controversial
  : apparently there's a BECU debit card I haven't activated.  -> sent in 2019??
    -> yup.  sitting in my wallet with the "activate me" sticker still on it, so...
  * singing: River, Wheelin', Eyes Like the Morning -- add one or two more just in case
    ->  When I Go, maybe.  Or Ship of Stone
  % meloxicam with pm drugs

0325Fr  E's birthday
  * Up 6ish; S=7:08; (actually woke up around 4:30-5)
    % trigger finger - right pinkie and most of the left hand  WTAF??
    % took a bite of baked salmon that had been out overnight.  May live to regret that.
  @ post Shipping Out
    Boosted on FB, TW, DW
  * 10am (1pm Eastern) zoom meeting
  * continue fixing pages (== removing WPBakery junk)  About Us and bio pages done earlier
    Done today:  Contact Us, 404, Work With Us.  At this point (3pm) I think the
    only active page not fixed is the home page.
  % diclofenac ointment on left hand
  * 15min order CPAP supplies from Norco
  @ Should you use a page builder on your WordPress website? - Holly Pryce tl;dr: no
  * text E for happy birthday wishes  -> FB timeline post  -> text
  % meloxicam with pm drugs
  * 15min: start putting things in drawers

0326Sa
  * up 6ish; S=6:34;
  @ 10 Genius Ideas for Securing Your Stuff While Your RV is in Motion -> GS tweet
  * before leaving RS collect:  drugs, CPAP (leave humidifier tub); Sable
  * get other stuff stowed so k can use the space for the week
  @ Statement between the Commission and the US on energy (andrewducker)
  * bring Plink in; 
  * on the way up, check S's mailbox
  % I feel like a total idiot -- I left Sable down at Rest Stop on my desk.
    -> Fortunately I have spares.  Took longer than it should have to get Raven working
    -> Unfortunately I haven't sync'd my passwords in a long time, including for GS.
    -> Fortunately I can ssh, and the wp command works.  Reset the password for user
       steve on GS.  Not an admin.   Discovered that I'd mistyped the email address for
       the admin user, and also forgotten its name (which is obfuscated with a suffix)
    -> note that one should not use wp to set a password because of saved history
  * pack some fluticasone
  % 9ish very sleepy

Comments

[spiffyvoxel]

Sorry to hear about your WordPress woes. The sites I ran using it have all used either one of the annual WordPress themes or ones based off of them — anything else has usually turned out to be either too inflexible or so customisable it can become a complete mess.

Gutenberg is definitely the future, and will render a lot of page-builders and frameworks obsolete. Most developers are adapting, but there's still opposition from those used to the old ways and resistant to change.

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for boosting the GoingSideways.blog -- it's amazing!

Virtual vacations for many of us.

[mdlbear]

You're most welcome! We're having fun with it.