Ramblings

Finishing 2018 on a High Note with Hallway Chats

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What a great way to wrap up the year! I had the opportunity to talk with Liam Dempsey and Tara Claeys for their podcast, Hallway Chats. We talked about WordPress in higher education, the definition of success, the Walker Principle, theater and lots of things in between.

You can check out the episode on the Hallway Chats site — which includes a transcript — or download the podcast from the store in iTunes. Be sure to check out their other episodes. I’ve enjoyed listening to episodes with other members of the WordPress community and getting to know them better.

Hallway Chats is also on Twitter.

Making New Year’s Resolutions for 2019

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I’m sitting here working on New Year’s resolutions, as I often do when I have a low-key New Year’s Eve. Yes, I actually write them down. And I look at the ones from last year to see if things turned out anywhere near what I had planned.

They never do.

But there is one thing I’ve gotten really good at over the past couple of years: recognizing that modest accomplishment is still accomplishment.

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Watching Gutenberg from the Trenches

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On my first full-time gig managing a university’s web presence, the head of the Criminal Justice department grumbled about a photo on her site of the building where the program was located. She didn’t have a specific criticism; whenever the subject came up, she just said it looked funny.

Months later she showed me a set of images she wanted to use for new pages and I finally realized: Criminal Justice. When she sees pictures she evaluates them solely from the standards of her profession, meaning crime scene photos. When she said the picture looked funny, she was trying to convey that she didn’t understand photography optimized for aesthetics rather than forensic use.

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Vote!

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ballot boxToday’s the day. If you’re an American citizen and haven’t voted yet, please exercise that right in a year when the outcome promises to have real consequences for civil liberties, national security and pocketbooks. If you voted already, thank you for being on top of it.

For those still unsure at this point, I’m not going to comment on the candidates or parties. Instead, I offer this: think of yourself as part of a review committee recommending the finalist for the most powerful and difficult job in the world, and weigh your options accordingly.

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