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Mitch Canter

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Musings

Twenty-Twenty

CMDR Mitchcraft

Reading time: 2 minutes

But for real, though… who’s still blogging in 2020?

Me. At least, I should be, and so here we are.

I’d love to be one of those people who say that “2019 was a year of <insert whatever amazing things happened here>” but, really, that’s not what it was for me. It was growing, but with growing pains. It was stepping back, but stepping back to fight the fires around me. It was a year of learning, but I’m not sure that the lessons learned were the right ones.

I was absolutely ready to kick 2019 to the curb as soon as I was able.

Don’t get me wrong, there were a few awesome things that happened in 2019:

  • My daughter was born. She’s 8 months now, and every bit as amazing and adorable as it comes with that age.
  • I was finally able to figure out the ins-and-outs of my Etsy store. It took a LOT of growing pains, but those two stores are fully automated from the point of sale to the customer’s delivery. Which, since at one point I was doing all of the fulfillment, is a huge load off.

There were also several challenges:

  • Freelance work is still fun, but inconsistent. I think that’s a change with how the ecosystem is changing, and I’m trying to figure out how to change with it.
  • I have several things going on at once, and I think I need to pair some back. The Etsy stuff above will definitely help with that, but I also need to remember that I need sleep occasionally.

I know it sounds all doom-and-gloom, but to be honest… It wasn’t any one thing that was bad. It was just a long string of weird situations and issues (we replaced all four tires on our van within 2 months. That ate quite a bit of our budget up). Stuff like that.

With all that behind me, I do at least have some awesome plans for 2020:

  • Consolidate a bunch of stuff into one or two things so I’m not running all over the place.
  • More content creation, less content consuming. I’ve become lazy and complacent with my creation and it’s starting to show.
  • Learning some new skills. I got an Oculus Rift S for Christmas and I want to learn how to create some VR apps. I have a few ideas to ‘play around’ with.
  • Twitch/Youtube. I want to stream more, make more, create more, and grow my community.

So, here’s to kicking 2019 to the curb, and here’s to an even better 2020.

  • WordPress Heartbeat API: An Introduction

    WordPress Heartbeat API: An Introduction

    Reading time: 2 minutes

    If I were to mention to a casual WordPress user something about the WordPress Heartbeat API, most would have never even heard of it, much less know that it’s been in WordPress since version 3.6(!) with very little fanfare.  But, as it turns out, the Heartbeat API has gained traction in the developer community, as…

    WordPress
  • Should Businesses Use WordPress?

    Should Businesses Use WordPress?

    Reading time: 3 minutes

    Short answer: Yes. The longer one: WordPress has been around for over 7 years now.  From its humble beginnings as the blogging software that took down MovableType, it’s morphed and changed and evolved itself into the number one content management system (or CMS) on the web today.  WordPress powers over 10% of all websites on…

    WordPress