At the end of October I bought a pair of Merrell Bare Access Flex. Absolutely loved the shoes from the first run. I instantly became a fan of the zero drop shoe style which is closer to running barefoot. After only about 80mi / 130km of running, I started to notice some tearing forming on the outside of both shoes near that darker rubberized swoosh. Turns out I'm not the only one experiencing these problems. I saw the reviews before I bought the shoe but I didn't want to believe them. I still didn't want to believe it. How could a shoe that felt so great start to fall apart so quickly? I had already put 300mi / 500km on my last pair of Nike running shoes so this seemed awful. ...

This past weekend I attended WordCamp US 2017 in Nashville TN with over 1,000 other attendees. I don't know the actual number, but it was a lot. This was the first WordCamp US I ever attended - so I didn't know what to expect. I was given the honor to be able to speak to everyone in a session called "How Working Remote Saved My Life" based loosely on topics related to my favorite blog post. ...

Here is a photo of my two favorite logos - the Jetpack logo and the That Conference logo. Jetpack is a plugin you can install on your WordPress site to give it super powers that WordPress.com sites have but still self-hosted on your own servers. That Conference is an awesome community tech conference that I've blogged about before. I've spoken there a number of years and really enjoy the mix of people and personalities it brings. Plus it's at a waterpark and families are not only welcome but integrated into the conference itself. I've seen some pretty smart children giving awesome talks! ...

Having an all-you-can-eat music service like Apple Music is fairly incompatible with how music is traditionally released. Releasing singles and then eventually full albums and then sometimes deluxe albums and then even remix albums causing a lot of confusion. I end up with tons of duplicates in my library which then skews the "randomness" of shuffle. Here's the scenario: Hear a new song that you like and add it to you library. This song comes from the single.Listen to "radio" streams or curated playlists and hear the same song. That song is being sourced from album. You add it to your library again because you don't really know if it's in your library yet or not.Listen to your library in shuffle and keep hearing the same songs over and over again.Realize you've added five versions of the same song - several are identical versions.The multiple versions of songs also creates confusion when individual albums are pulled from the service by the studio for whatever reason. I'm assuming most reasons relate to contract negotiations. I also hate when songs are pulled and then are no longer playable then we they do get added back they're not always associated with what's in your library. ...

My leadership coach shared a quote with me today that I'm using to help develop a talk I'm doing about how working remote saved my life. In general, people are not drawn to perfection in others. People are drawn to shared interests, shared problems, and an individual’s life energy. Humans connect with humans. Hiding one’s humanity and trying to project an image of perfection makes a person vague, slippery, lifeless, and uninteresting.Quote taken from Robert Glover in No More Mr. Nice Guy: A Proven Plan for Getting What You Want in Love, Sex, and Life

My employer recently changed our insurance plans around because we're big enough now to manage our own insurance rather than use a third party co-employer. We actually have nearly identical plans with the same provider, Blue Shield of California. A limitation with their website requires me to register a new account to use with the new insurance plan. The stabby part of that is usernames are based on e-mail addresses. I have to use a different e-mail address which is annoying but at least they support the Gmail plus sign trick. ...

kern | kərn verb [with object] (usually as noun kerning) adjust the spacing between (letters or characters) in a piece of text to be printed. • make (letters) overlap.design (metal type) with a projecting part beyond the body or shank.When I saw this poorly kerned sign in a doctor's office I suddenly became less trustworthy of their ability to perform as medical professionals.

I did something amazing today. I climbed a freaking mountain. I'm at the Automattic annual Grand Meetup in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. I went on a hike with several of my coworkers up Blackcomb Ascent Trail. This was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I made it. Time: 3 hours 15 minutes Distance: 8mi Elevation Hiked: 3,900ft (1,200m)

I'm off to Whistler British Columbia for another yearly Grand Meetup at Automattic. Eight days of face to face work and play with 600 of my closest coworkers. I expect to come back with a full heart, head, and notebook. I also expect to be emotionally drained from being "on" for that many days. Cannot. Wait.