Category: WordPress

Categories
WordPress

Twenty Twenty in 2020

New theme, who dis?

I’ve finally done it. As a chronic late adopter it did take me forever, but I finally changed themes on this site, which is now running Twenty Twenty, the latest WordPress default theme. It’s going to take me a while to get used to – I’ve been running my beloved Writr since first launching the blog in 2013 – but it was overdue, so here we are.

I also switched over to the block editor – aka Gutenberg – another embarrassingly late move to the modern WordPress world.

It’s been a good “empathy exercise.” As a full-time Happiness Engineer helping users build and customize their sites, it’s so easy for me to tell someone, “Go ahead and switch themes, it’ll be fine!” or “Oh yeah, activate the block editor, you’ll love it!”

Doing it myself is another story.

But… it’s been alright so far. No, really! OK, I’ve already encountered two small visual bugs that I’ll report when I’m back at work, but that’s what dogfooding is for, isn’t it?

Speaking of bugs, if you spot anything amiss, do feel feel free to let me know. In the meantime, I hope you like the new look.

May 2020 be good to you all, whether you decide to shake things up or not.

Categories
Personal WordPress

Librarians and Happiness Engineers

Students of St. Francis School in Richmond lining up at McGill's McLennan Travelling Library

I don’t often get out to author readings, but my friend Sarah had an extra ticket to see venerable Canadian Broadcasting Corporation host Eleanor Wachtel interview Michael Ondaatje (of The English Patient fame) for her long-running radio show Writers & Company. While I’d never read any of his work, Wachtel is a compelling interviewer no matter who’s in the hot seat, so I figured why not.

I arrived early (as usual) and Sarah was running a bit late, so I scored great seats for us near the front and took out my phone to catch up on emails while killing time. An older woman asked if another seat next to me was available, and joined me at our table. As I age, my definition of “older woman” morphs upwards, but I would later find out she was in her late seventies.

When Sarah arrived, we somehow ended up in a conversation about Montreal’s BIXI bike-sharing program, and the woman next to us casually joined in our chat, opining about the best BIXI subscription formula, and whether the bikes were suitable for shorties like the three of us. (Apparently they are.)

In the course of our conversation, Sarah revealed that she’s a librarian at McGill University, and I instantly thought, “Oh, the lady is going to be so tickled to meet a librarian – she’s obviously very into books and reading.” But the woman barely reacted. She turned to me next, “And what do you do?”

“Well, I’m a Happiness Engineer, which means I do tech support.” A smile spread across her face. “Yeah, I help people with their WordPress websites, it’s a software for content management and blogging.”

The lady’s face lit up – I mean beamed. “WordPress? I know what that is, in fact I just took over managing a WordPress site for an association I belong to, I’m in the process of figuring it all out!”

In that moment I realized exactly what I’d done. My brain’s unconscious bias had taken over, and I’d totally stereotyped her interests and knowledge, based on her age and gender.

Although I’d disappointed myself, there was still time before the reading started to perhaps make amends a little bit. I pulled up her website on my phone and proceeded to try to engineer some happiness…

Flickr photo by Mac Juster. Canada. Department of Manpower and Immigration. Library and Archives Canada. Creative Commons 2.0

Categories
Automattic Personal WordPress

Five

Five years ago today, I started working full-time at Automattic. It’s the longest I’ve ever worked for someone besides myself.

Thanks to Automattic, I’ve eaten pastéis de nata in Lisbon, tucked into tapas in Barcelona, devoured croissants in Paris, and savoured street art in London. I’ve travelled all over the US and Canada, developing a burrito fixation that haunts me.

I have colleagues and friends spread out on six continents.

I’ve answered more questions about WordPress than I could have ever imagined – and (amazingly?) I’m still not tired of it.

I have skills I didn’t when I started – responsive design, child theming – and got comfortable enough to teach them to others.

My imposter syndrome is still a part of me, but it doesn’t consume me like it once did, and I share tips with others on how to tame it.

Thank you, Automattic, for giving me opportunities to learn, stretch, and share over the last five years. You’re still my people.

Categories
WordPress

Upcoming Theme Workshops

workshop

I realized recently that when I used to run my own web development business, I was always good about letting people know ahead of time about things I’d be doing in the future. Once I started working at Automattic, I stopped doing that as often, and instead mainly write about things I’ve already done. I’m going to break that habit today, and let you know where you can catch me at two upcoming events!

Getting Comfortable With Child Themes

Tuesday August 8, 6:30-9:30pm ET

I’ll be giving a workshop on creating child themes with WordPress at this year’s WordCamp Montréal. The cost is CA$10, and you need to buy a ticket in advance. Not sure what a child theme is or why you’d want to make one? Check out all the details.

We’ll be offering all sorts of other useful WordPress-related workshops that week, culminating in the two-day WordCamp Montréal event over the weekend of August 12-13. Hope to see you there!

The Developer’s Guide to Supporting Your Themes

Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 16:00 UTC (12:00 ET)

Not in Montréal? I’ll be offering a free online workshop on improving your support skills as a theme developer. While geared to theme support specifically, many of the skills will be relevant to other types of support, so if you’re a plugin developer or volunteering in the WordPress.org or .com forums, you’ll likely pick up some tips as well. Learn more and join us!

featured image by Nic Price (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Categories
Automattic WordPress

The CSS Song

guitar

One of my greatest delights as a Happiness Engineer helping users with their WordPress themes is witnessing “lightbulb moments” – seeing people start to understand technical concepts that had been fuzzy before, as their site starts to take shape.

Recently, one of the folks I helped with some custom CSS in the WordPress.org support forums was particularly grateful. I’d lent a hand getting his custom-song business website looking just the way he wanted, and taught him a bit about responsive design in the process – that’s the art of crafting a site that adapts to any device, from desktops and laptops down through tablet and phone sizes.

Once the site was looking close to what he had in mind, James casually offered to write me an original song on any topic, as a thank you for the help he’d gotten. I couldn’t resist taking him up on his kind – but completely unexpected – offer, and asked if he could write a song about CSS, since it seemed apt.

A week or two later, an audio file and lyric sheet arrived in my inbox. And I’ve been enchanted ever since. Thank you, James!

The CSS Song
by Custom Song Workshop

CSS
it’s so mysterious
I wasn’t the best best
in fact, way down on that list
In truth a total novice
hit the forum to enlist
my coding therapist
pray we’ll take care of this

CSS
if I really must confess
my mobile columns were a mess
media queries, I didn’t know yet
Concepts like margin and float
like distant islands, too remote
as I flailed and drowned
until Kathryn calmed me down

‘Cause I spent all my life thinking that I’ll never need it
But with Kathryn’s help even I still clumsily succeeded

CSS
design a site for my business
it simply couldn’t look a mess
the visuals had to impress
on a variety of screens
from big to small and in between
I sat alone, cowed and upset
‘Cause I didn’t know how…yet

See, I lived all my life having never even coded
When forced to web design my declining confidence eroded

‘Cause I wanted a beautiful site
but I didn’t want to pay with two limbs
Well it all turned out alright
and I owe it all to Kathryn

I copied so much code to the CSS additional section
Who would ever think I’d become somewhat independent?

CSS
Should I revisit this mess
won’t feel such pain and distress
for truly Kathryn is the best
Automattic Engineer of Happiness
and to that title I can attest
for I didn’t burst nor implode
send my Mac crashing three floors below