After years of writing on Blogspot and Medium , I’ve made the jump to Substack , and it wasn’t a decision I took lightly. These platforms have been a wonderful space for me to share ideas and engage with readers. But like everything, growth is key, and Substack offers something different — something that’s hard to pass up. Growth-Centric Features for Writers Substack isn’t just a place to publish; it’s a place to grow. One of the standout features for me was their recommendation system . Substack makes it easy for readers who love your work to discover other like-minded writers. This collaborative ecosystem helps amplify voices, whether you’re just starting out or you’re an experienced writer looking to expand your audience. Collaboration & Referrals On Medium, collaboration often felt siloed. Substack takes a different approach, offering collaboration tools that allow writers to work together more seamlessly, which I believe fosters a richer exchange of ideas. Plus, their referr...

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. While there are still many doubts about its utility, there is no question that its responses can help generate drafts and collect your thoughts around a topic. Many of us who have faced layoffs this year have looked to others in our network to support our journey to the next stage in our lives, often with mixed results. Now that I am approaching the three-month mark, I have noticed a deluge of resume writers and career coaches flooding my feed. The algorithms generating targeted marketing have also catered to my personal needs around consistent positive imagery to handle the roller coaster job search. This got me wondering if ChatGPT could be an effective artificial career coach. Here are some use cases you might find interesting. Mental Health Reminders Positive affirmations can be beneficial for mental health because they help reframe negative thought patterns, promote self-belief, and cultivate a more positive mindset. By repeating positive st...

Instagram | puraten10 Layoffs are more often than not a brutal experience for employees and employers alike. Not only can it be mentally devastating to those that were let go, but has a mental ripple effect for those that remain and can severely impact loved ones. Here are some simple things that can help you to come out on top. 🛣 Talk, Walk, and Breathe It is important to acknowledge that being laid off is a traumatic event. Depending on the circumstances and timing, especially in relation to other recent changes in your life, you may find yourself overwhelmed and may need to employ some tactics to cope. If you still have health coverage until the end of the month as part of your severance, consider getting some free therapy sessions while available. This is the perfect time to randomly place sticky notes and positive affirmations around the house, take a bubble bath, go on a picnic, or do some yoga. My guess is that you haven't taken a proper vacat...

Misery, turmoil, disappointment, disdain, and others hold value. If it were not these things, I don't think I would recognize as many simple joys in my life. Things like the sounds and smells of my husband sleeping soundly next to me, a late afternoon sun shower softly spraying, field mice joyfully jumping with their spring-loaded match-stick legs in the grass, placing just five more pieces in a very difficult puzzle, the salty crunch of a grilled cheese and spam sandwich, or the sparkly smile on child's dirt smudged mug. I think some of the biggest mental health problems of the world stem from a lack of rich experiences. Admittedly, it is natural for humans to seek trauma when there is none. This is especially apparent for those that have "had it good". Increasingly, those that have never gone days without food, had their body violated, neighbors murdered, or witnessed loved ones die of cancer, have no frame of reference to know true happiness. Those that...

Businesses need to adapt to the economic tides more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Since the beginning of my career, I have been an active change agent where others were slow to adapt. A Harvard Business Review article stuck many chords for me today. Here are some takeaways that can help your organization make significant, actionable, and sustainable changes. Insight One Organizations need “fertile soil” in place before the “seeds” of training interventions can grow. Improvements are greater in units that had already developed a “psychologically safe” climate in which subordinates felt free to speak up. Insight Two If the system does not change, it will set people up to fail. Failure to execute on strategy and change organizational behavior is rooted not in individuals’ deficiencies but, rather, in the policies and practices created by top management. Insight Three Manage internal change like any other project: 1. Define organization values 2. Conduct interviews...

Response to OP : Effective resource management includes planning and task assignment in a collaborative environment.  The best performers are driven by a passion to excel in their field and a transparent "opt in" culture can go a long way towards building trust and buy in. Plus, once you have established a baseline velocity, you are better able to reset delivery expectations with downstream business owners and clients. It is very easy for management to forget that success INCLUDES negotiations rather than despite them. 

Whether or not you are Consistent, I will be persistent In times of turmoil I will be quite. You will return to the predececent, You will insist on the most recent Not because you are reticent, But because you are adolescent 

When my clients ask " Why not WordPress ": Not only is there often a separate licensing cost associated with WordPress plugins, coding standards are lacking or non-existent in the WordPress plugin marketplace. This often leads to disproportionately and unexpected costly WP developer support, and frequent release delays, increasing overall security risks. Not to say these things don't happen with Drupal and contrib modules, just less frequently . Through my direct involvement of various Dev Shops over the past 20 years, has revealed another factor, which is often overlooked: Drupal sparks more joy than WordPress. As a Technical Project Manager, my currency is in passion and velocity and when my team members are frustrated by the work, risks, delays and costs rise, often snowballing towards the end.

I refuse to be ashamed of my pain, my ailments, my anxiety They are not a result of my actions, or lack thereof I refuse to be a prisoner of my trauma, my body, my mind They are not enemies of my experiences, or lack thereof  I refuse to be a fool for my desires, my love, my ambitions They are not the destinations of my life, or lack thereof

No shit, there I was.... Today, started much like any other day.  Finished up with morning communications and coffee, and having a bit of extra time available, and being increasingly eco and health conscious, I decided to ride the bus for a meeting.  With springtime upon us, I was excited to get a jump start on increasing my step goals.  Laptop slung, cell phone squarely in my jacket pocket, wearing my ridiculously furry ushanka hat, trodding along, my mind started to wander.  I was looking forward to finishing out paperwork following a great offer for a remote opportunity with Creighton University (out of Omaha, Nebraska) as a Senior Drupal Architect and pondering some details leading up to a scheduled session with a new mentee this afternoon. Imagining Tulsa's beautiful green rolling hills during spring and summer, though somewhat, decidedly, a lack of sidewalks along S Memorial Dr that I failed to notice a perfectly symmetrical depression and found the land had su...

I'm always open to connecting with awesome people and I tend to surround myself with artists, thinkers, entrepreneurs and dreamers. People that are up for a healthy intelligent debate, can take and dish out jest, and are also willing to trust and talk about their fears, their ugly side, their aspirations and their strength. In this crazy world, we have all become experts at building walls between each other... but, I believe that defeats the purpose of life... I came here to connect... touch... hold... and feel... How about you?

The Drupal FOSS CMS (Free and Open Source Software Content Management System) is considered to be the one of the most developer friendly CMS available. However, for those new to Drupal, something as "simple" as changing the text displayed after submitting a form can be daunting. Originally released in 2011, with Drupal 7, the Drupal Entity API defines different types of information stored and displayed in Drupal. When Drupal 8 was released, the concept was further refined into what's referred to as "specifically typed objects", meaning that each Entity is defined as having a specific set of information and operations that can be performed on it. As you might imagine, Drupal 8 Forms are used to perform operations on Entities, such as add, edit, and delete. When creating a form, a form handler is used to define which class should be used. So, when you want to modify the implementation of a form, you will need to extend the original ...

My life history is.... Unique.... My mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia before I was born. My father, a Vietnam vet seduced her and, POP!, there I was living in a shack in northern New Mexico. Not long after my birth, my father abandoned us, and my mother had to carry me 5 miles to the nearest highway in late fall to hitchhike back to Grandma in Los Alamos. We moved into an apartment in Albuquerque, while she tried to goto school and hold down a job. But is was no more than a year before is became clear that she was not capable of caring for me. So, off to live at Grandma's house I went. My Grandma was raised Lutheran. However, lost the desire to attend church several years prior. Because her life choices were limited by religion, she thought it would be best that I wait to be baptized by whomever ended up adopting me. I remember having my first thoughts about spirituality around age 5. I have vivid dreams, you see. Some would say that I am an astral plane walker. An...

With the latest version of WordPress comes with some pretty awesome sounding tools . The number of community and third-party plugins have continued to grow over the years and with that growth and WordPress core continues to change dramatically (*harum* Gutenberg *cough*). To keep up with changes, the WP Core devs have introduced a few new features that you may find helpful. Site Health Check Site Health Status Performance Checks Security Checks Site Health Info PHP Error Protection Additional Developer Updates Site Health Check (improved) The Site Health Check tool was first...

A few weeks ago, after having a lengthy discussion with a friend on facebook about forgiveness and reconciliation, I held my breath, scrunched my eyelids, and jumped into an abyss. I had no idea what to expect when I sent that initial message. But, I knew I had to. It was time. When I finally got the courage to peek through narrow slits and a haze of eyelashes, I was greeted with a pleasant extended exchange with a person I thought I had lost forever. After several weeks of conversation, today, I was asked a relatively simple question. One that you would think would have been asked and answered during the first couple of minutes. They wanted to know what I had been doing with myself for the last 20 years! I found it impossible to explain in brief and sitting here writing this now, I realize that I have spent much of my adult life telling close friends and loved ones about my childhood. To be honest, I still can't believe that I have lived more years since leaving Rocklin, CA ...