I really have no idea how to even start writing out all of things that I want to cover in this post. It’s been a bit of while since I’ve written anything, really (and one of the last programmatic post I wrote was sometime ago – and no, I don’t plan to stop the series).

Over the past few years, I’ve written about taking time off of social media during certain parts of the year. I still plan on doing that, but this post is a bit different because it’s going to cover a lot of things.

Second Social Media Sabbatical of 2018

If you’re interested in how I’ve done this in the past, take a look:

  1. Social Media Sabbatical 2018, Part 1
  2. Social Media Sabbatical 2018, Part 2
  3. Social Media Sabbatical 2018, Part 3
  4. Social Media Sabbatical 2019, Part 1
  5. Social Media Sabbatical 2019, Part 2
  6. Social Media Sabbatical 2019, Part 3

But here’s the thing: At the time of this writing, there’s nothing I can say that wouldn’t be an understatement, right?

With that said, I think I’m going to leave that there and move on to issues that are more relevant to the blog. Namely, an update as to what’s up, some thoughts I’ve had around this blog, and some changes I’m aiming to make in the near future.

Time Off 2020: Part 1 of Social Media Sabbaticals

We all have a lot of things going on in both of personal and professional lives, right? Last April, I started working at WebDevStudios then in September we welcomed our third kid into the family. After that, we decided to move. So, even though we haven’t carried all of the way through the last step (we’re packing), that’s where we are.

Bundle that up with everything that’s going on in the world and it’s been an interesting year on all fronts. Further, I’ve been thinking about the state of the blog and other things that I’ve been doing outside of WordPress, some tangentially related, and some note.

Anyway, there’s a bit I want to cover so, in no particular order, here’s what’s up.

Writing About WordPress

For years now (at least, what, almost ten years?), I’ve been writing about almost almost nothing but WordPress. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m still working with the software and, really, doing so in some really exciting ways.

Check out the content of the post (even though there are no styles associated with it – WordPress 2.5 and the launch of Dropbox).

There’s a lot of really cool stuff I’m getting to build with some great people, but the problems we’re solving are so unique to given situations that it’s often hard to abstract the solutions into something that I can easily write about.

Outside of that, there are plenty of other technical related things and other programmatic things I’ve been working on or at least exploring and I’d love to have a place to share it. I’ve considered spinning up a blog but yet another thing doesn’t seem the way to go. Plus, I think there’s probably overlap in the type of stuff I’ve wanted to share with some of your interests, too.

If so, it’d be great to read; if not, no big deal, right?

All of that to say, I’m likely going to be expanding the content on the blog a bit but it will still largely be centered around PHP, object-oriented development, WordPress, and backend engineering.

Fitness

This is going to be a short section. In the past, I’ve shared much more about what I’m doing, what I’m planning to do, and my goals.

Right now, though, things are so chaotic that there isn’t much to share. I’m working on maintaining where I am primarily focusing on cardiovascular work.

This includes consistent running anywhere between 2.5 miles to a 5K a few times a week, using my rowing machine, and bringing in weighted jump ropes with Crossropes (the latter two which I got for Christmas).

And The Usual Time Off

Finally, with all of the above happening primarily being work, expanding the content about what I want to write about all the while packing, moving, and raising a 6+ month year old, in addition to the global pandemic that’s happening, now seems like a good time for me to take a time off of social media so I can work on all the above without sacrificing my attention on the things near and dear to me.

Although the circumstances under which this is happening is mixed, it’s something that I still find healthy and conducive to focusing on certain things now so other things can be emphasized later.

And with that, I’m planning to be off of Twitter save for buffered posts (though I’ll likely still be using Instagram) and so on for the month of April (which is par for the course, right?).

So here’s to you and yours staying safe, managing the global crisis in whatever way works best for you, and as well as managing your day-to-day work.

I’ll be back on social media in May because, you know, Star Wars Day and all that fun stuff. In the meantime, I’m hoping to get back to blogging as well as tweaking the site to cater to a variety of different content.