Ross's Micro Blog

If you’re curious (gosh I use that word a LOT!) then you can watch today’s talks back at https://wordsesh.com/recordings
https://mastodon.social/@barrd/114505557610007620

I have just learned that some people… astonishingly… incredulously…

…eat their chocolate digestives with the chocolate side down!!!

MONSTERS!!!!!

😂

I’m watching back the first of my fellow presenters’ @wordsesh talks and I’m declaring this online conference highly under-hyped.

There is some GREAT stuff here and it’s free to watch until August.

https://wordsesh.com/recordings

@rzen has done an awesome job curating this. Bravo!👏

The WordSesh talk is recorded! Hurrah!!!

A reflection: Dang, you REALLY have to ham it up to get any emotion to come across on camera. I thought I overdid it, but no. I could have gone wild and it would still look like I’m only vaguely excited. 🤣

I don’t do public speaking often so it’s a big deal (for me) when I do.

I’ve done three screen tests at this point.

I just had to cut 1,000 words from my loose “script” to get it into time.

I commissioned my kid to make me a custom pixel-art avatar for my slides.

I take these things seriously!!!

Quite pleased with the summary of my talk which will be shown at WordSesh next Tuesday (9am UTC!):

"I'm going to use (and really stretch as far as it will let me!) the metaphor of side quests in video games to explain how side projects can benefit your career.”

I'm having a LOT of fun writing this.

Sign up – it's free!

Oh, there's a whole bunch of other serious talks you can see too. If that's your thing. 😉

https://wordsesh.com/sessions/level-up-how-side-quests-enhance-your-career

I’m now so old I’m watching the generation below me despair that the generation below them thinks they are uncool.

Lol!

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/08/cringe-how-millennials-became-uncool

I’ve recently been mentoring someone towards being a software developer. It FASCINATING going right back to the roots of solving problems with code. I remember this from classes I took a whole 30 years ago:

– Abstraction
– Encapsulation
– Decomposition

These are still the core principles behind any language or programming paradigm.

Separation of concerns. Good naming & APIs. All the key things are wrapped up in these ideas.

You should learn and practice these as much as the coding bit.

So, @tnash and I moved to a private Mastodon instance on @mastohost

Despite following all the instructions, trying reboots
and re-running dead jobs, we are both WAY down on followers that haven’t redirected.

I’m at about 25% of my old followers from ross@fosstodon.org !!!

Is this normal? Did we do something wrong? Are they dead accounts? Do we need to just wait? Tips for fixing?

NOW!

You judge. Grey, almost bald, giant eared elephant?

Or shaggy-haired, small-eared, admittedly tusk-less terrier.

The future of mammoth comparisons is yours.

Do the right thing.

Elephant
Yorkie

#introduction

I'm Ross!

I code with PHP, Javascript, WordPress and Laravel.

I work at Delicious Brains/WP Engine.

I have too many side projects including Turbo Admin, my magical command palette for #WordPress.

I'm a dad of two. I care about sustainability. I ride bikes. And my boss says I "bring lots of questions and energy".

Server move imminent!

I’d always wondered about self-hosting Mastodon. But was happy where I was.

And then stuff happened. And I became wary of the sustainability of big instances.

And I found a friend willing to share the costs. So it became very viable!

So you may see a new me shortly.

Huh. So. Birdsong in general, and the call of the Great Tit in particular, make an excellent accompaniment to Belle and Sebastian’s “The Boy with the Arab Strap” 😃

Up late preparing for a talk I’m giving soon.

It’s so great to have some creative energy flowing.

Talk prep is fun and exciting!!!

(No I can’t tell you what it is yet. Soon!!!)