YouTube video by Locksmith Animation

A couple of years ago I participated in #the100dayproject and let's just say that my planned project that year went well beyond the designated 100 days. It was, however, a labor of love. This year I want to try something, or maybe even somethings, that will help push me towards my stated goals for 2026. Participating in this project is a great kick in the, er, pants.

I don't even know where to begin with this post. Even though I left Minnesota over forty-five years ago, I still have family and friends who live there. What I never could imagine in my worst nightmare is the US government engaging in terrorist acts in Minnesota against its own citizens. Even from this distance it's clear that this is chaos for the sake of creating additional chaos.

The good news about the WordPress Classic Editor end of life is that it's now 2026 and WordPress site owners continue to have access to the Classic Editor. Apparently, we're still in the "as long as necessary" time frame. The official WordPress plugin today has upwards of 9 Million installs. On WordPress.com, however, access to the full Classic Editor depends on a few things:

Go spend the best 8 minutes you'll spend today and watch "Cardboard". It's a gorgeous, heartwarming short animation that is up for Best Short Subject at the Annie Awards, BAFTA, the Oscars and others. ❤ "Cardboard" is from Locksmith Animation, the same team who brought you "Ron's Gone Wrong". Locksmith Animation is streaming the full film only on YouTube until Sunday, 11 January 14:00 (2pm) GMT.

YouTube video by Locksmith Animation

Here we are. The year has flipped to 2026 and I have no special insights or clever words to sum up last year. "Shitshow" and "Dumpster Fire" were the ones I saw most frequently. My most profound feeling for the last few months of 2025 (with the notable exception of October) was a renewed sense of quiet.

Every once in a while we get a hankering to see snow and mountains. Last week our morning walk took place in a very chilly Zermatt, Switzerland.

The Day Everything Changed - Ten Stories from October 7th My Rating: ★★★★✰ Author: Various Genre: Graphic Novel ISBN: 978-965-93144-8-5 The time was around 06:28 in the morning on October 7, 2023 when alert sirens began to blare all over Israel. A massive rocket and mortar attack was taking place, sending millions of people into bomb shelters and safe rooms.

After Friday's torrential rains, thunderous thunderclaps and occasional hail, along with not one, but three power outages, my Saturday morning walk was especially fresh and green. Here are a few photos:

Where to even begin?! October was so full of events that it felt several weeks longer than its allotted 4 weeks. The month started out relatively calm, but then, wham!

This now-closed, AI-generated art exhibit at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art just blew me away, along with my electricity bill. Have a look at the artist statement (or, better, read it in English on the TAMA website, link below). Then zoom in on the lower left corner of the flower image to see the information on energy consumption for this particular display.

I previously wrote a "technical" nostalgia post for my 15th anniversary on my "all things WordPress.com" website, so I'll keep this post short and non-technical. How does one maintain a blogging journey for such a long time? It definitely is a challenge! Over the years I've blogged about nearly all the interests I mention on my About page, including starting a separate blog for a few of those interests.

After a hiatus of nearly 11 years and after taking the WordPress.com Premium + plugins plunge, I decided to reboot my personal blog. Welcome! While I enjoy blogging about the roller coaster ride that is the multi-user install called WordPress.com (and heaven only knows they continue to provide a lifetime of material to blog about), I forgot what a personal blog looks like.

Some things to keep in mind when creating a website for your SMB on WordPress.com.

You've signed up and created your very first WordPress.com website. Congrats, but now what? Two of the biggest challenges new users have when starting out on WordPress.com are choosing a theme and learning the basics of site set up. WordPress.com helps you select an initial theme based on the information you provide about what your site content will be and how comfortable you are in setting up a site, but you aren't locked in to staying with that theme forever.

It only took two and a half months since my last post for a major change to happen to our WordPress.com experience. TPTB (AKA Automattic, WordPress.com's parent company) decided this month that it will make WordPress.com much closer to the core WordPress experience. They first switched several of our site dashboards to the WP Admin view. This caused the Classic Editor to temporarily disappear.

Once you set up your WordPress.com site at some point you'll probably need extra help in finding information or solving an issue. While every new member of the WordPress.com community receives a welcome letter with a link to Learn WordPress, the always free tutorial for beginners, and other helpful resources, many answers can be found quickly by first searching…