Matt Ryan

A journey lugging aspirations and experiences, tools and ideals.

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DKC Developer Collective Website Pilot Program Kickoff

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I had an amazing experience this weekend. On Saturday I was fortunate to serve as a mentor to a group of students from the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (PSD) as they learned how to build their own WordPress websites from scratch. I was assisting Andy Stitt who was the technical lead on this pilot project being coordinated by Shireen Hafeez, founder of Deaf Kids Code. The DKC Developer Collective enables the kids to work with some local grassroots businesses in need of a website. The PSD kids are going to build them. It will be a semester long project which will help the students cultivate developer skills and implement design thinking

Launching the DKC DEVELOPER COLLECTIVE! So grateful to have the local community involvement. — Deaf Kids Code (@deafkidscode) February 16, 2019

An Amazing Experience

I have never been involved with this type of service project, and to be honest, I was a bit terrified. The pilot project had kicked off early in the day on Saturday, with the students, teachers, Collective representatives and project mentors, myself excluded, meeting with a local business who was also participating. The business is going to permit the students to build them a new ecommerce website. The students met with the business for a couple of hours.

I wish I had been able to join them, but I was leading a group of WordPress enthusiasts in a discussion on Atomic Blocks for the Block Editor – a fab block plugin – at a meeting of the Philadelphia Area Computer Society in Willow Grove, PA.

I arrived at PSD about 1pm and was introduced to the group as one of the WordPress ‘experts’ who would be working along with them. As I introduced myself to the group, the ASL interpreter signed my comments for the students, the student leaders, and a couple of members of the PSD Board. It was a humbling experience. Watching the signing, experiencing the kids signing back, asking questions. They looked nervous too, but as soon as one of the students suggested that I looked very wise (thanks to my long white beard – that’s me in the picture over there), we had a little giggling, the ice was broken and we were off.

wise expert circled

Andy had prepared a program so that we could help the students build the new WordPress websites using an online IDE – codeanywhere.com – since the kids were going to be using Chromebooks for the project, or so we thought.

When we walked into the technology classroom we found about a dozen Dell laptops running Windows 7. UGH. All the connections to the internet were going to be via classroom wifi so on online development process may get a bit bogged down with everyone accessing the ‘net at the same time.

Let’s go with Plan B and have the students load up Local By Flywheel (LBF) and create the website. This will give them a feel for editing the websites in a local environment that they may be a little more comfortable with. Lunch was just about ready so while the students headed off to grab some pizza, Andy and I got the LBF download started. Oops. This many laptops downloading a 500 MB file is going to take some time. We left it running and headed off to lunch.

It turns out these laptops aren’t used regularly, which means they aren’t updated regularly. And that means that halfway into the download, while Andy and I are having a slice of pizza and getting to know the students a bit better, Windows decides its time to update itself and reboots automatically. Noooooooooo! UGH times 2.

There goes our downloads. We gotta start this all over again. This time we find a network cable and each in turn, connect the laptops to the one network port and complete the downloads. Whew. All done.

We then instruct the students to kick off the Local install. It’s moving along well, until . . .

Hmmm. Remember I said Windows 7? Turns out the included drivers on the Windows 7 box do not support the version of VirtualBox needed to run LBF. UGH3.

Plan C

Let’s go back to an online IDE and forget the whole LBF scenario for now.

poppy life smiling poop logo

Poopy.life to the rescue! Andy walked the kids through the initial setup; I became his mouse-man running the keyboard while he described what the students were to do. Together we worked with each student, and the translator, to help the students set up WordPress, update it to the latest release (5.0.3), and then load up the Twenty-Seventeen theme to work with the Customizer. We chose Twenty Seventeen since if offers a much better out of the box visual experience for new sites, and we needed to get something exciting and fun in front of these kids. Quickly.

It’s not like we didn’t already lose the room when the poppy.life icon filled the front of the room from the projector. Hearing-enabled or not, ‘poopy’ is always going to bring a smile and giggle to a kids face.

I worked with a couple of the students helping them to change the site name, the site tagline, tweak the colors of the fonts, all very easily handled in the Customizer. I had never thought of the Customizer as an ADA-focused tool, but in this environment, the users appeared to be right at home.

Mac vs PC? Still?

The proverbial Mac vs PC discussion came up, as I am a PC-to-the-core type of guy, having been at this stuff since the 70’s or so, and Andy, while a good 20 years my junior, has a definite tendency to the cooler Mac, as did almost all of the students. I had a conversation, via the interpreter, with one of the kids about my preferences and we left it agreeing to disagree.

I’ll have to say, working with a group of hearing-impared kids really made me think about what I was saying and how I was saying it so that it could be interpreted accurately. Did I mention that I know no ASL, at all. By the end of the day, I did learn the sign for clapping. One point for the old guy.

Time For Woo

We decided to have the students search for, download and install WooCommerce. After all, this was going to be an ecommerce site selling hard goods. Let’s do this.

Comparing the plugins to the apps on their phones enabled them to get the concept in terms they are comfortable with. We were able to get the plugin installed and activated. Working with the WooCommerce setup wizard, well, let’s say is wasn’t as smooth. Too many detail fields were required from the students which brought up the issues of whether or not to use their names and addresses, or the school address, what email address, did they have to be valid, and so on.

We did get through the setup and got to the point where the students were entering their first product. Anything they could think of. With varying degrees of success, they were able to see their product on the front end of the website.

Wrap Up

We were closing in on 4p and it was time to wrap up. Shrieen offered a heartwarming thank you to everyone in attendance and talked about the high level project plan. The students are going to work on the project with the expectation of showing the live site to the business owners sometime mid-MArch. Comcast will be assisting with that unveiling of the websites.

Andy and I are committed to meeting with the students virtually, using Skype or Google Hangouts, for 2 hours each Wednesday afternoon until launch .

This weekend, as I stood in the middle of the kitchen during the lunch break, I was amazed by the number of conversations that were taking place in the small room. These students were so animated, so engaged. Hands flying through the signing to each other, adults and kids alike. Hearing and non-hearing actively engaged.

These Kids Are Engaged

Little did I realize at that point, how engaged these students would be with the technology project. It was an experience like none I’ve ever had. These kids were eating up everything Andy and I were saying. They were asking us awesome questions, given this was their first experience with website.

While LBF was downloading, the first question that was thrown at us was ‘How does this compare to Wix?’. Andy and I looked at each other. Really, this is what they’re hitting us with first? How about something a little more debatable? Wow, this is going to be a tough crowd. They will push us, and hopefully, we will push them forward.

I’m already looking forward to the first Wednesday check-in call.

Stay tuned.

  • Setting up site on Local.
  • “Is this correct?”
  • “I can do this”.
  • Old wise guy rules.

WordCamp Lehigh Vally 2018

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matt ryan ready to speak on security at wordcamp lehigh valley 2018

This weekend I had the opportunity to speak at the 3rd occasion of the WordCamp Lehigh Valley. My topic, WordPress Security, was directed to those new, or not-so-new, to managing or creating their own websites in WordPress. I have attended the two previous Lehigh Valley WordCamps, and the event is growing every year. It is organized and managed by good people who provide an exciting conference.

Below are a couple of tweets related to my presentation. Once the video of my talk is published on wordpress.tv I’ll update this post with the link.

 

Link to slides

 

Photo credit: WordCamp Lehigh Vally website – Carol Bell / cbell7153.

Branding is Everything. Right?

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Pulled the trigger on something new last night. I changed a couple of my social media usernames / account names. Both Twitter and Instagram are now “MattRyan_co”.  Still working on some others.  I am trying to pull everything together under the branding I use for this blog. Branding is everything these days. Right? It still is, isn’t it. We’ll see how it goes.

I even tweeted about it.

In an effort to be more active here, I’m going to expand the scope of the stuff I talk about. Over the last 2 years or so, I’ve done quite a bit of speaking at technical gatherings and I want to catalogue those presentations here. I’ll be including my talks at local WordCamps,  WordPress meetups, and the Philadelphia Area Computer Society (PACS).

I’ll be including my local WordPress meetups, one based in the Philadelphia suburbs, others in Philadelphia, Lancaster, Reading, and the Lehigh Valley. I’ve given presentations at all and enjoy sharing the knowledge I’ve gained with others. No matter how long I’m working with WordPress, I feel that I can always learn more, and then share that knowledge with someone who has been using it just a little less than I have.

This past October (Oct 2017) I spoke at the Baltimore WordCamp,, the first time I’ve ever presented at a WordCamp, about how to setup a WordPress development system on Windows. And then 2 weeks later, I presented a session at Philly WordCamp on how to troubleshoot new WordPress sites. An amazing month. I want to do it again.

If it is new to you, WordCamps are where the best WordPress learning and connections happen. WordCamps are 1 or 2 day technical conferences with numerous sessions, sponsors, swag and lots of time to network with other WordPress’ers. I’ve attended WordCamps in Philadelphia(5x), Baltimore(3x), Lancaster(3x), Lehigh Valley(2x), and Scranton PA.

I am an active participant in the Philadelphia Area Computer Society, currently serving as a Director and leading the Web Design SIG. I have delivered presentations on social media and WordPress at their respective SIGs too.

I am a proud participant in the GoDaddy Pro Connect program and love helping GoDaddy customers with their WordPress websites.

So there is a lot of material to work from and more being created as I move forward.

Stay tuned, and follow me. I’d appreciate it.

Image by Ibrahim.ID [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Minsgame Complete

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The game is over. Time to take a step back and see how it all turned out. (Actually, it ended August 31 and this post languished in my ‘drafts’ folder for a month! Stuff happens. We move on.)

First, I want to point out that the sheer act of removing almost 1000 “things” from your home in 31 days is liberating. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, it doesn’t result in a spartan residence. Instead it left me with a strong sense of accomplishment.

I set a goal to do this, with my wife, and we did it. We finished an entire month of the #MINSGAME. If you missed our startup of this little game, you can read all about it here.

Our Instagram feeds are now stuffed with pictures of stuff that we no longer have. Well, I need to be completely honest on that point. We do still have some of the stuff, however, its in a box or a pile that has to be transported to either the local Habitat For Humanity ReStore, or taken to our neighborhood Thrift Shop.

N.B. As of publication of this post, all of the stuff really has left our abode.

Someday I’ll include an inventory of what has moved on, but suffice it to say we have a lot less stuff that hasn’t been touched in 5+ years.

I say that the process left me with a sense of accomplishment. True, but during the month, I will say that I did experience periods of elevated stress. Primarily toward the later half of the month when each day meant identfying 20, 21, or even 25 separate things to get rid of. With two of us doing it we had to make sure we didn’t overlap.

And then the inevitable “You’re getting rid of that?!
I can use that for . . . <insert future potential project idea here>”.

We worked through it. Much of the give and take we’ve been practicing the last few years. If something new comes into the house, then the same number of somethings old must leave the house. So it went with our #minsgame items. If I longed for one of the items in Carol’s pile on any given day, I had to replace it with something from my pile, which means I then had to find something else to add to my pile.

Fair is fair – even in #minsgame.

The stress was mostly self imposed – after all, isn’t most stress self-imposed? – and a daily conversation with myself about purpose and goals helped me settle down and get back in the rhythm of decluttering.

It’s kind of ironic that I am nearing the end of a web development project for a client in NYC offering lifestyle coaching and personal decluttering. As I begin to add more of her actual content to the website, I find myself reading her words and getting caught up in the mindset of cleansing – not so much from a body perspective, but more from a personal environment point of view.

Experience a cleansing of your personal space and reduce the stress associated with too much stuff. After all, how many times do I need to walk past that laptop shipping box from 2010 sitting in my office before I just put it in the paper recycling bin. Too many times; but no more. It’s gone, and with it the daily “I really don’t need to keep that box, do I?” question. There, one extraneous bit of self-doubt and internal judgement gone. Thank you #minsgame #day25.

Truth be told, I would do it again. Probably wait until after the first of the year though; I have enough going on right now.

But . . . the Christmas season is approaching. Do you think there’s anything we can get rid of in 27 years of accumulated Christmas decorations 😉

Let The Games Begin

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No, not the Olympic Games.  The Minimalist Games! A different type of game, where you win even if you don’t come in first.

The brainchild of The Minimalists – Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus – this exercise in jettisoning excess stuff is just what I need at this point in my quest for living a more meaningful and stress-free life. Carol and I are doing this together, so that means by the end of the month, together, we will have reduced our possessions by almost 1,000 items. *Show my work. That sounds incredible!

As I write this we are on day two of #MinsGame. Carol has already done away with her two items for today – a pair of unworn and forgotten shoes (not quite sure if that should count as one pair or two shoes, but I’m trying to check my severe anal-retentiveness at the door for this). We both did our due diligence yesterday, day 1.

instagram-glyph-logo_May2016_200
Matt

instagram-glyph-logo_May2016_200
Carol

If you are so inclined, follow along as we try to regularly record our progress on Instagram.

 

I have been dancing around  the edges of a more simplistic lifestyle for a while now, partially out of necessity, but more out of a desire to better appreciate things around me. The book, Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown, which I first read back in early 2014, got me hooked on the path to create a lifestyle of intention, focus, and purpose; devoid of excessive noise, stress inducing clutter and disruptive distraction.

As a solopreneur, by definition I work by myself, and full expect to remain so. I do interact with clients via calls, both voice and video, and lots of email. Since my clients are global (yes, I can say that now), I don’t do much in the way of face to face meetings. Regular monthly WordPress and Computer Society meetups keep me in touch with the human side of being a remote website developer. Without commuting and less meetings there’s more time to spend in the office. I need to find ways to decompress when its time to move away from the keyboard.

My wife and I are empty-nesters, our youngest having moved out about 17 months ago, so simplifying things is high priority. I really want to be able to enjoy this new stage of life. Simple life, reduced stress, more quality time, time to learn new things – I think this is a good point to find these things.

minimalist-fundWe had a yard sale about a month ago. It was wildly successful and enabled us to stuff our “minimalism fund jar” with lots of cash (mostly $1s, but hey, every dollar counts). More importantly, we were able to move physical “stuff” out of our house and onto others who could love it and re-purpose it for a new use.  I don’t want to fill up my local landfill with my past, but rather move it along its life-cycle.

Our stuff has had a purpose here, in our house, and now its time for a new purpose, with someone else.

Many of the  books I’ve read and bloggers I follow talk about surrounding yourself only with things that bring you joy – whether they be new things, or well used things – they should make you happy to see them, or at the very least, not bring about pangs of “I need to do something with that thing”.

Reduce the clutter and reduce the stress. That’s our goal. By the end of this month, if all goes as planned and we fully participate in our 31-day #MinsGame, the clutter will be reduced by 992 clutter-contributors. I’ll be real happy with that.

Gotta start somewhere …

 

 

Work Shown

1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+17+
18+19+20+21+22+23+24+25+26+27+28+29+30+31 =

496 things * 2 people = 992 clutter causers => approx 1,000 items outta here!