Be careful out there: A phishing story
01 May 2023
I am about to go into “mom mode” for this post, because I recently came across (and almost fell for) the most clever phishing attempt I have seen to date.
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Git reversions by tag (and why git can be a scary place)
14 April 2023
I have been using git for (checks watch) over a decade and reverting commits still trips me up.
Converting static blocks to dynamic blocks
17 March 2023
I started working with custom Gutenberg blocks sometime in late 2017. Or, perhaps, it was early 2018. To be honest, the timing is a bit fuzzy because I was pregnant at the time and pregnancy brain is real. For those of you keeping track, these timeframes are well before the WordPress 5 release date of December 6, 2018.
Static vs. dynamic blocks: What’s the difference?
27 February 2023
Published on the WordPress Developer Blog** The Block Editor offers two types of blocks, static and dynamic. The difference between these two types of blocks comes down to how they are rendered on the front-end. Read on to learn more about the details, advantages, and disadvantages of each.
Writing a Custom WordPress Block
27 September 2022
This post has been a long time coming. I have talked about custom WordPress block creation for several years now, from blogging about registering dynamic blocks with block.json to speaking at various conferences about why dynamic blocks are awesome.
26 August 2022
With the latest news about exponentially-rising tuition costs and student debt forgiveness, I keep asking myself whether college was truly necessary. Truth be told, I have been asking that quite a bit over the years.
19 August 2022
I am a published author.
29 July 2022
Joni is a full time developer. Joni is a single mom with a 4 year old. Joni is a newly (almost) published author. (T-3 days until launch!) Joni is a self-published author, which means Joni is also a PR agent. How does she do it all? We don’t know. She’s not sure either. Seriously, it’s amazing everyone is still in one piece and the house didn’t burn down.
09 July 2022
I have spent the last several weeks (slowly) evaluating different email newsletter solutions because, according to my marketing plan, a newsletter is something I should consider starting. I mean, it is a great way to get the news out about my book and any future writing I may (probably) do. However, I am not 100% convinced I have anything meaningful to say on a pseudo-regular basis.
16 June 2022
They say, “try to do something that scares you.” They say, “say yes to everything.” Who are “they”? And why exactly am I listening to them?
Sweet Little You: Available for Pre-order!
31 May 2022
Today is my birthday. This is not a marketing ploy. Today is actually my birthday. Being at the end of May, it often overlaps with the Memorial Day holiday weekend, which, to be honest is pretty nice. I get some time off to relax and recharge and catch up on my mile-long to-do list. It is a bonus that my child goes to a Montessori school that is inexplicably, but thankfully, open on almost every holiday, so I get some extra quiet time at home.
Sweet Little You: Cover Reveal!
11 April 2022
Something happened this weekend. Something big. I got the final illustrations for Sweet Little You! OMG OMG OMG!!
08 March 2022
Oh carousels. The last time I wrote about carousels, it was 2017 (seemingly a lifetime ago), when I shared a solution for fixing keyboard navigation in carousels.
Overriding WP core: Dynamic blocks edition
07 February 2022
I was recently given the task of making the WordPress core RSS block look exactly like one of our custom blocks posts block. That custom block displays a series of news stories. RSS feeds are series of news stories, so this request totally makes sense.
The art chaos of time management
01 February 2022
Once upon a time, there was a (not exactly) young girl who decided to have a full-time tech job, solo-parent a pre-schooler, and publish a book. “I am so organized!” she exclaimed. “I can totally manage my time to get this done.”
12 January 2022
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my early career as a developer. Getting a CS degree was hard - harder than it needed to be. My classes were filled with C++ and (mid-1990s) Java. Those languages were neither easy or pretty. I learned HTML and CSS on my own. (It was the 90s. Web development degrees didn’t exist then.) I struggled with (presentational) Javascript.
30 December 2021
I have been meaning to write more, mostly to have some sort of creative outlet that does not involve code. Don’t get me wrong. I love coding and still have about 20 different side projects and ideas that I want to work on. However, writing code for fun after writing code all day for work has not sounded… well… fun these days.
15 December 2021
In an effort to spend more time on Twitter1, I came across a tweet with the following advice:
28 November 2021
Well, the text is done! After a few rounds of editing (e.g. many, many, many rounds) with both alpha readers and a proper editor, I am feeling quite good about it. I’m happy with the message. I’m happy with the story flow. I’m happy with the rhythm of the verses. I’m happy with the rhymes.
17 November 2021
It has been a busy year! Between running after my newly-minted preschooler, excitedly settling into life as a fully remote worker, and remodeling our kitchen, you would think I would have time for little else.