Yesterday was a very "fun" day for anyone managing servers, hosting accounts and any websites or apps running on PHP. As usual, I see the easy crap takes as a chance to dunk on WordPress... as if WP caused the PHP vulnerability itself (it did not... WP is simply built on PHP as the core language). Many of the largest systems, website and application backends in the world are built on top of some flavor of PHP. Here I had to monitor and test sites across numerous different hosts and server configurations (around 30 websites total). That's a normal part of my work running a lean web agency, but it was definitely "all alert" yesterday and compressed into a much smaller window of time to act quickly. With AI developments we'll continue to see more and more "cat and mouse" issues and remediations like this. That's the trade off of having these incredibly powerful resources at everyone's fingertips now (for good actors and bad actors). Anyway, glad to have gotten through the worst of it yesterday and have things settle back down into normal... even though "normal" has changed a TON and will obviously continue to do more and more.

The pain of FB marketplace can't be understated I have about 20 of these for this item...

One of those days I wish I made cabinets instead of websites. Can't hack a shelf... (other than taking a hacksaw to it, but that's different)

What's the PHP update status @wpengine @WPESupport ?

You know the concept of what advice you’ve give to your younger self if you could go back in time? Yeah, it’s this.

Want to feel better about AI doomerism? Spend less time here.

Dang, guess they can't be found

The most trash UX ever is trying to force you to an app when you’re on mobile for something that’s just a regular website otherwise

Client feedback like this keeps the engines burning.

Heavy morning. Had to say goodbye to our sweet dog of 13 years. Lots of waves lately.

Working for yourself is full of the highest highs and lowest lows, usually flip-flopping between them at a rapid rate. Today I literally walked in the door from selling some old music equipment at the pawn shop to free up a little cash to keep things afloat, and then 30 minutes later got a $10.5k wire transfer for a new project kick-off. This past year has been wild because it's been a very humbling experience and shown me so many of the mistakes in how I've built my career/business. This isn't a negative or pessimistic post, it's just a real post. Things that got you here, won't get you there. When things are good, it's easy to gloss over the cracks in how you operate, and I've definitely been guilty of that these past few years. In between the rollercoasters of ups and downs these days I'm aiming to keep my focus on building better... rather than just hustling to do the same ole same ole again and again.

This card design drives me crazy. Why the hell isn’t the content contained either same width top and bottom, OR wrapped in the same block. Looks so sloppy

Working on a site for a UK client today, cloning the custom site we built out months ago and using it as the framework for another site in the client's portfolio. It's always nice to see the well-laid ground work get put to use when we can build on and build out what's already working. In this case, there are numerous businesses in the umbrella that are meant to have a unified look and feel and experience across the web. Different colors, imagery and little touches, but the framework stays. When you build the first site in this strategy, it's obviously front-loading most of the work. But site two, site three? It pays off.

At first the models took the emdash… then the eyebrow… and now italics. We had so much greatness, but we never appreciated it fully 😂

Been wrestling with the concept/idea/reality that a lot of what has made me valuable as a consultant for the past decade has been seriously compressed. Was noodling the other night and realizing I’ve got to go much deeper into either design, marketing, or products. I was blessed that by the time I graduated high school (2007), being able to write HTML and do CSS was a valuable skill that could keep you busy and making pretty good money. That easily lead into doing front end work, freelancing, contracting and then working at startups around Atlanta. Later came my WordPress focus (around 2016). That wave kept rolling hardcore for the last decade. Last year though I’ve been hustling to try and rebuild my business since wrapping up a 6-7 year engagement that kept the business afloat (by itself, even though I did other stuff around it). I’ve got 11 active clients in the mix now, but I’m noticing the value and rates for a lot of the sorta “regular website work” is declining and compressing. I’ve been super busy lately, but not making what I used to money wise. A lot of that is my fault I’m sure, by taking on work that might not be an ideal fit… but that’s part of the shift I’m feeling. In the past a lot of that “non ideal” work was still worth more. That’s gone or going now. Figure now is as good a time as any though to let go of the past and figure out what’s next. Hopefully it’s not too late 😆

Been feeling trapped with the idea that posting here needed to fit neatly into growing my business. Done with that. That school of thought is valid if this platform is a real lead source for you, but it’s only ever been a small referral source for me. The best I’ve always felt here is just using it as a way to get thoughts out and let the chips fall where they fall. Going back to that, even more since everything is freaking super optimized, super automated, and less and less human by the day.

My Google Pixel battery swelled again, so I went through the painful process of switching all my accounts and authentication stuff over to my work iPhone. Guess I’m gonna daily drive this for a while since carrying two phones has been kinda dumb for a while anyway.