However, once titles had been properly formatted, I returned to the dark depths of the plugin’s internals. Lured in by the siren call of an interesting problem, I’ve spent the past few days refactoring and optimizing the plugin’s core framework and admin functionality such as custom menus, settings, etc. This will help current and future projects in the long run so the work is worthwhile (or so I told myself).

The Void

Last night, after another day of feeling less than satisfied with my progress, I realized that I was neck deep in the The Void, a momentum-sucking black hole where progress is the inverse of the amount of time and effort you spend on a task. Hours and days roll by as you chip away at the work. You’re so engrossed in the work that you don’t notice that your momentum and morale is also being chipped away, but by then it’s too late.

I should have banged on the sheet metal more before jumping into the pinstriping– created a widget and another major feature or two. The plugin would be ready for a beta release and then I could have spent some time going down the rabbit hole on the optimization train.

Committed

I’m committed to this current task now though. I’ve reworked the admin settings functionality and the tweaking will continue until it is usable. Knowing that my time could have more impact elsewhere is painful, but better to learn my lesson than to take the easy way out and jump ship now. Once this task is done though, it’s back to big features with a focus on releasing a beta of this plugin as soon as possible.

Remember

All tasks in a project are important, but the order in which you attack those tasks is at least as important, if not more so.

The post Building a WordPress Series Plugin: A Costly Mistake appeared first on Archetyped.

Oh wait, it was yesterday.

How quickly things change (or not)

Today I opened Gmail by muscle memory. A completely unconscious action– the very thing that kicked off this entire quest to put email in its place.

It was still here. Had it ever left?

Everything that happened in the last 30 days– my first full day without email, curbing busywork, the elation I felt when I realized my priorities were changing. Was it all for nothing?

Thankfully, I closed the window before Gmail loaded, but I almost didn’t realize what I had done before it was too late. Even after all this time, after feeling zero temptation to open my inbox for 7 days straight, tapping out “Gmail” on the keyboard felt as familiar as ever.

Must remain vigilant.

Today’s Stats

• Checked email: 0 times (just barely)

The post 30 Days of Email Domination: False Sense of Security appeared first on Archetyped.

Don’t forget the mountains you’ve climbed and the things you’ve overcome.

Don’t get complacent and don’t get comfortable.

Or else you will forget how much you are capable of (hint: it’s always more than you thought or expected).

A Forgotten Past

For a long time, I have wanted to learn every language of my ancestry. I’m already fluent in more than one, so why do I hesitate to learn another?  Too much work and too little time? Perhaps, but the thought that invariably pops into my head is that learning a new language will be difficult and I may not be up to the challenge.  But why?  Learning French, for example, was one of the best experiences of my life.

I’m fascinated by the idea that we can become a completely a completely different person than one would expect based on our past experiences simply because those experiences have faded from memory.  Sometimes our faded past can seem like another life altogether and it’s not until you’re suddenly swept up by the reminder of a forgotten achievement that you realize how cautious you’ve become.

When this happens, go climb a mountain.

I guarantee that 100% of the time you’ll discover that you have more strength, talent, and fortitude than you could have ever imagined.

A Key to your Past

The important thing is to remember these accomplishments so that you can continue moving forward fearlessly.  This is something that I’ll be talking about more in a future post, but here’s one simple way to keep the memories fresh:

Write it down.

It sounds so simple (and it is), but the habit of writing down and keeping a list of your achievements can mean the difference between reaching new heights or falling well below your true potential.

Cheap and Simple

All you need is a piece of paper and pen to start your list.  It doesn’t matter if you can’t remember your past achievements (that’s to be expected), you can simply write down your wins– whether big or small– starting now.  You may want to also write down the date of each challenge you’ve overcome as well as some notes about the experience (biggest challenge, feeling after success, etc.).

Another Option

If you’re like me and you want something that’s a little harder to lose and will save some trees at the same time, then grab this template I created and start keeping track of your wins today so that you can remember where you’ve been come tomorrow.

Et vous?

What ways have you found to help you remember your past accomplishments?

The post Don’t Forget appeared first on Archetyped.

Like the first wasp, this wasp was sitting on the screen window trying to find it’s way out.  I closed the window so that it might have a better chance of finding it’s way back out, but if I’m honest, it was mostly so that it didn’t fly around the house.

Later, I returned to the bedroom to find that the wasp had not found its way outside and instead somehow found its way out of the closed window and onto the adjacent window!  It was inside the bedroom and the only window it could fly out of was closed.

I’m going to have to kill it.

That was my thought in that first moment.

But then the moment passed, and I realized that I was about to act based on fear.  I was afraid of experiencing pain.  In this case, it was the physical pain of a wasp’s sting, but other types of pain (emotional, psychological, etc.) are equally able to evoke fear.

In the next moment, I realized something.

This is a chance for redemption.

You see, the first wasp’s escape didn’t fare so well either.  I tried to release it from the confines of the window, but the wasp ended up dying in the course of my rescue operation.  I guess I’m a bit more Lennie than George when it comes to handling small creatures.

I wasn’t happy about the first failed rescue attempt, so I pocketed my fear of being stung and grabbed the same “tools” (a clear plastic CD spindle cover and a piece of cardboard) from my last wasp encounter.

I was going to do it right this time.

And I did.  I covered the wasp with the CD spindle cover as it sat on the window and then slid the cardboard under the spindle so that I could lift the spindle and wasp off the window without letting the wasp out.  I took the entire contraption outside, walked a bit from my house, put the spindle on some grass and lifted removed the lid.

Then I ran.

Ok, not really, but I definitely didn’t hang around to see the wasp fly off to its wasp buddies to tell them about the adventure in the hyumahn house it just had.

Things ended nicely this time, for which I am grateful, but I wonder how often we have chances to redeem ourselves from past failures but never get past the fear?  I’m definitely more aware of fear as a motivator now, and I hope it sticks.

Fly on little wasp.  Please don’t come back.

The post A Chance for Redemption appeared first on Archetyped.

What am I doing?

I decided to run 3 miles up a hill that I had not run before.  I drove up this hill today and thought it might be fun to run it.  Oddly enough, it was a lot steeper than I remembered.  One-third (or less) of the way up the hill, I thought to myself,

“What am I doing?”

These 4 words encapsulated several other creeping questions:

• Am I crazy?
  
• Did I bite off more than I can chew?
  
• Why did I think I could do this?
  
• Should I just give up now rather than be forced to fail later?

This is a question that you must ask yourself when you are doing something worth doing.  If you don’t question your sanity then you’re not challenging yourself enough.

Simple as that.

The answer for me was simple: I wanted to prove to myself that I could set a goal and reach it.  Whether it be a short run up a hill or starting a new venture, I like the challenge of the unknown.  Sometimes I need to remind myself of this.

Don’t be afraid of shadows

I was planning to run on the other side of the street on my way back home.  When I glanced across the street, I noticed that all of the street lights were out on that side.  It seemed like such a stark contrast compared to the well-lit side of the street I was currently running on.

I would be running in the dark.

When I reached my turnaround point and crossed the street, I was surprised to find that it really wasn’t all that dark at all.

It’s interesting how things look far worse from afar, but when you’re in it, you often find that it’s actually quite nice.

Be prepared to stop

I passed my turnaround point and was now running down the hill.  Things were going great– gravity was my friend as I flew down the hill.  The hard part was behind me.  Then I saw a street sign that said:

Be Prepared to Stop

It was, of course, a sign for cars on the road, but nevertheless the words on the sign scared me.  I was going to have to stop soon.  I didn’t know how soon, nor did I know how abruptly it would come about.  Most worrisome of all, I didn’t know if I could stop with all the momentum I had behind me.

Not stopping could spell disaster.

In a broader sense, stopping, could be referred to an “abrupt change in direction”.  In our projects, goals, and life we don’t know when we may have to change direction.  Often enough, these changes come upon us quickly and without warning.  The only thing we can do to prepare for this is to be open to change.

The momentum doesn’t have to die when directions (or circumstances) change– we can let it carry us on our new heading as long as we don’t fight the change.

Don’t look back

As I was coming to the foot of the hill, I heard a sound behind me.  Was a dog chasing me (this can be fun when it happens)?  Did I drop something?  Coming up ahead of me was a crosswalk right at an on ramp to the highway, and I since I was still running downhill, it was getting closer by the second.

Looking back when you should be focusing on what’s in front of you can be dangerous.  Diverting attention and energy to thinking about the past means that you have less to devote to the present (and the future).

Focus on what is in front of you.

I never saw if there was a dog behind me, but I do know it never caught up.

Run in the grass

As I neared the end of my run, I cut through a large park and ran through the thick, soft grass.  This park has great grass.  At the same time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was cheating.  I was taking a shortcut by running through the park instead of running around its perimeter.  Worse yet, I was enjoying it.

I’m really big on not cutting corners, and I have to sometimes remind myself that it’s also important to enjoy the journey.  Focus too much on discipline and it’s easy to lose sight of why I’m running in the first place– because it’s fun and I enjoy it.

Don’t get too stuck on the “rules” and miss out on all the fun along the way.

A Reminder

I write down these thoughts primarily to remind myself of them during those times when my mind isn’t as clear as when I’m running.

I did not accomplish all that I set out to do today, mainly because I lacked motivation.  I didn’t know why I was doing what I was doing.  I didn’t know if I would hit a roadblock in my projects (and thus be forced to change direction).  I thought about past experiences that were less than enjoyable.  Mostly though, I think I lost sight of why I’m working on some of these projects.  I was focusing more and more on just slogging my way through the tough bits to get it done, when I should have been enjoying the learning process and soaking up as much experience as possible.

Thus, I write these thoughts for tomorrow.

The post What Am I Doing? appeared first on Archetyped.

Ye ‘ole midnight snack

One summer night when I was a kid, my parents shocked us by saying that we could order pizza at midnight.  I’m not sure why it is, but there is just something awesome about getting food in the middle of the night when you should be asleep.

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but on this occasion, the idea of coco puffs from Liliha Bakery just seemed…right.

We took a short drive and grabbed some tasty treats.

The Order of the Pastries

Cocoa Puffs & Green Tea Puffs

Of course, I had to pick of a couple coco puffs.  These are what Liliha Bakery is best known for and it’s about all I care to have here.  The chantilly frosting is particularly delectable.  Over the years, Liliha has branched out and added a few new flavors to the mix.  I never tried the green tea puff, so I decided to pick up one of those as well.

Blueberry Almond Danish

I’m a fan of almonds, but I’m pretty ambivalent when it comes to blueberries, so I’m not entirely sure why I decided to add this to the order at the last minute.  I think the colors just grabbed me.  I was also having fond memories of those perfectly balanced pains au chocolat in France.

Enjoyment (?)

As things like this often go, the idea of eating a box of pastries was much more enjoyable than the actual act itself.  It’s not that they didn’t taste good, but the first coco puff was more than enough (like I said, I simply don’t have much of a sweet tooth).

Had I stopped there, things might not have ended up the way they did.

But I ordered 4 pastries, and mama taught me to always eat what I take, so I was going to eat 4 pastries.

And eat them I did.

I can’t say I enjoyed myself much after the first coco puff.  The richness and sweetness of these pastries overwhelmed me more with each bite.  They were only pastries though, so I downed them rather quickly.

Perhaps too quickly.

Aftermath

I often gauge my enjoyment not just on the experience itself, but also on the aftermath– the after effects of the experience.  The next day, I woke up feeling like I was swimming through molasses.  The day before was a long day and I went to sleep rather late, so some sluggishness wasn’t all that surprising.  However as the day went on, the sluggishness never went away.  Instead, a queasy stomach was added to the sluggishness which did not help things at all.

By the end of the day, I ended up losing my lunch (even though I didn’t eat lunch) and went to bed early, hoping to just forget this day ever happened.

Unfortunately, for the better part of the next week, I felt much the same, except that it got a lot worse before it started to get better.  I’ll spare you the details and just say that I began to wonder if I would ever be able to keep food down again.

Resolution

Eventually, as with all stomach bugs, I began to get better.  However, it was not lost on me that my condition for the previous week was due to my own actions– specifically, my gluttony.

As a result, I resolved to never eat another pastry again.

Of course, this is easy to say when you’re not sure if you’ll ever eat anything again, but even in that condition, I knew that this would not be a piece of cake, as it were.

Some may say this is a rather drastic response.  Surely, pastries were not to blame, rather it was my gluttony that led me to scarf down pastry after pastry.

Nonetheless, I made the promise and now I’m going to keep it.

The post The Last Pastry appeared first on Archetyped.

Well, not so much a problem, but it is what gave me reason to pause. I had been living in France for about 4 months now, farther away from family, friends, and familiarity than ever before in my life. I could remember feeling that a lot was different here in France, but as I looked around at the tomates and pommes, I could not specifically say what was different here. In fact, I couldn’t remember knowing anything but this— as if I had shopped at this grocery store my entire life.

No, I wasn’t experiencing a sudden case of amnesia, but it felt like anything that happened before moving to France was part of another life.

Something had to be different. The layout of the store? Nope— aisles under fluorescent light, just like every single grocery store I’ve ever been in. Perhaps the food? No again, produce, meat, and frozen stuff— nothing out of place there either. Wait! The signs! The signs are in FRENCH! Yes, that is different. But I look at them, and they aren’t different at all. The language might be different, but they still say the same thing; “2 for 1″, “sale”, “fresh”— nothing I haven’t seen before. A different language isn’t enough because I could just as easily have gone to Chinatown back home to see signs in a different language.

Everything was the same, or was it? The strange thing was that couldn’t figure out whether everything was the same as back home or if I simply was so used to my new surroundings that it felt no less familiar than home itself.

I learned some interesting lessons that day.

We Always Adapt

Difficult or enjoyable, the new will always become the banal.

No matter how different a situation is, it will become more familiar with time. We may not be able to see a single familiar thing around us at first, but after a week or two, it’ll be so normal that we’ll wonder whether it was ever any different at all.

This is something that I remind myself of when I am in a difficult or stressful situation. Though it may be hard to bear now, it will get better, if nothing else because it will become more familiar. Times of stress are also the hardest times to have a clear perspective in, so this lesson is a good reminder that it will get easier, even when I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Life Is Short, but we get several of them

Four months, or even just two weeks, is not a lot of time, but our experiences in the past— even the recent past— can feel like they were a lifetime ago. I often remember amazing experiences that I’ve completely forgotten about. I climbed that mountain? I nearly froze my hands off in an underground cave? I swam with dolphins? I ate that whole pizza? Ok, some of the remembered experiences are more profound than others, but they all make me stop and wonder, “How did I ever forget that?”

I also think about the peripheral experiences that led me to these highlights of “past lives.” Sometimes, I’m astounded that I was adept enough at something to do what I did, when the same thing feels so foreign to me now and I wonder why I let that skill and knowledge fall away. Other times, I try to remember my mindset at the time that motivated me to accomplish these things.

Remembering the highlights of your past can have a profound effect on your actions in the present.

Remembering that I’ve done interesting and amazing things in the past encourages me to expect more of myself now. I always want to be moving forward, so even if I don’t remember actual details, just knowing that I’ve accomplished big goals in the past pushes me to continue to grow during those times when I feel small.

The memories of past experiences can also tell you what lay in store for the future.

The fact that I forget some of the most impactful experiences of my life only to remember them later tells me that I will likely be doing something very different in the future and the present will only be a distant memory.

Two things:

1. If I don’t think anything I’m doing now is important enough to remember later, then I’m not using this life to its fullest. Time to climb a mountain.
2. If I can look back and easily remember things far into the distant past (more than a year or so), then I’ve been living this life for too long. No life should last forever. That would be boring.

I sometimes wonder how I got to where I am now, since I can’t remember the long trail of choices and events that led me here.

Often, we think that what we do now commits us to what we will be doing in the future— possibly for the rest of our lives.  This can make it hard to make big decisions.  What major should I choose in college so that I’ll have a career that I’ll love for the rest of my life?  One choice decides what we’ll do for the rest of our lives. The truth is that this commitment is completely artificial. We are the only ones that keep us where we are in life. We are also the only ones that can enact change in our own life. Nothing else is keeping you where you don’t want to be.  There are no “big decisions”.  A decision or experience in the past can affect your future, but you can also make new choices now that will have at least as much of an effect on your future as those of the past.

The final lesson: I need to take more pictures.

And video. Video is harder to deny.

The post Another Life appeared first on Archetyped.

However, due to some changes last night, the featured posts weren’t being retrieved for output on the site.  To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure what I could have changed yesterday that could have broken the featured posts functionality, so I had no idea what to expect when I started investigating it this morning.  Thankfully the issue was relatively minor and was causing the wrong section ID to be used when attempting to retrieve featured posts for a specific section of the site.  I tightened up a couple conditional statements to make sure the section ID is properly retrieved and featured posts were once again working!

With that out of the way, I proceeded to prepare for deploying all updates to the production server.  Since everything had been updated to work with WordPress 3.0+, the first order of business was upgrading the production server to WordPress 3.0.1.  After that, I updated Cornerstone and the site’s theme files.  I cleared my cache, hit refresh, and held my breath.  The site loaded up fine and everything is working great on the production server!  The final step was changing the Dump section to Know, which basically entailed adjusting the section’s title, slug, and icon.

It took longer than expected for such a small change (all I originally intended to do was change the name of a section), but in the end the site is much better and more stable for the work that went into it.

Lessons learned

As with any situations that require troubleshooting, there are always lessons to be learned.  Here are some I lessons learned or reaffirmed today:

• Test, Test, Test – before any update big or small, I always follow the same workflow:
  1. Develop and test the code on my computer
  2. Upload updates to the offsite staging server (basically a private mirror of the public production server) to test for issues not found while testing locally
  3. Upload updates to the production server (the public site) and run through tests to confirm no issues exist

  The goal is of course to avoid any downtime on the public site and this basic workflow has saved me many headaches on all of my projects.  I should note that prior to each step I also backup all relevant files and databases so that I can revert to a working version very quickly and start fresh if things get too messy while I troubleshoot an issue.

• Exercise caution when manipulating WordPress’ post queries – Cornerstone hooks into the post query process in several modules (permalink rewriting, content types, featured posts, etc.) and I feel rather comfortable manipulating the query variables to retrieve the posts that I want, but it is also very easy to invalidate the query with just a small change.  Vigilance is key when manipulating post query objects.

I enjoy troubleshooting because I like the challenge of finding elegant solutions to problems.  Nonetheless, I am glad that I was able to work out the issues rather quickly today because it feels good to have my production site running the latest version of WordPress.

Next

I’m about to start working on 2 small WordPress plugins that I have been thinking about recently (one of them since this morning).  One is intended to improve privacy and the other will make it easier to customize a site’s favicon from within WordPress.  I’m looking forward to it.

The post What you should know now is that Dump is now Know appeared first on Archetyped.