A few weeks ago Slack made a change to the app and added a new WYSIWYG toolbar. This alone didn’t bother me, but they also started doing weird things with markdown style code blocks using the three ticks. Thankfully they just announced you can turn this feature off. Just hit “Preferences -> Advanced -> Input Options” and then check the following option:
I’ve been watching the impeachment testimony every day and I’m thankful the Republicans pushed this to be a public hearing. I love watching it and I find the chess match between the two sides in this exhilarating. So far I’ve stayed away from talking-head commentary and only watched the proceedings through my own lens and I wanted to share my thoughts after Sondland’s testimony yesterday. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch the night session so I’m not sure if they had a lot of other new information.
In his opening statement, Sondland threw everyone under the bus and it was damaging to the defense. He said everyone knew what was going on from the POTUS, the VP, and down, and there was definitely a quid pro quo. It was a bombshell.
Really the only recourse the Republicans had was to discredit him and he’s had a lot of changing stories, so it shouldn’t have been very hard. However, I think the Republicans made a huge mistake when they didn’t allow him access to the transcripts of his calls and meetings. Yes, he should have taken notes, yes he changed his story, but for me holding these back had the reverse effect. It gave him more credibility and made them look weak.
In the end, none of this really matters. It will be a party-line vote and he will be impeached, then nothing will happen in the Senate. I think the same happened to Clinton if my memory is correct. People will scream about fairness, witch hunts, and moving goalposts, but it’s just noise. The impeachment has been decided and they have the votes.
His description of this was so perfect and I was nodding in agreement the whole time. I haven’t done a lot of night riding and I just did my first one of the season last week on trails that I know. It was a ton of fun, but not sure I’d be comfortable taking a beginner. Although, they would have some great stories from the adventure.
Someone I follow on social media shared a quote this morning and I disagreed with it.
Instead of quickly replying with my smart remark, I researched the quote, found the book it came from. Then, as luck would have it, I had a free Kindle credit so I bought the book and read the entire chapter to get the complete context. Now I agree with the quote.
I honestly don’t follow politics too closely, and I don’t know much about political science at all, but I found my local mayor race this year eye-opening.
The race came down to two men, the incumbent and the challenger. The challenger had signs on every street corner, he sent me 3 or 4 mailings, his name was everywhere.
I had a suspicion he was going to win handily based on signs alone. Yet, I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday and the doctor and I started talking about it and he said that he heard they were spending all their money online.
That seemed pretty wild to me because to be honest my city isn’t the most tech-savvy. So I’m assuming it was all Facebook ads. I was actually very surprised to see the paper this morning and see that he won re-election.
If him moving to online to get out the vote really worked I have to say I’m impressed. My gut reaction was that would be a bad move on our small local level. Now I’d love to hear how it was really done and see if they just hired a firm to handle the online stuff or if something more grassroots.
At any rate, congrats Mr. Reid on your win!
Justin Tadlock writing for WP Tavern about the importance of Press Releases:
On occasion, I get a message that says something along the lines of, “Hey, you’re giving the big businesses too much coverage. How about throwing the smaller folks a bone?” That is a fair question. However, what is often the problem is that this news by a smaller company may not be on a particular publication’s radar.
Enter the press release.
This is where smaller companies should sneak a peek at larger companies’ playbooks. Large businesses often have entire public relations (PR) or communications departments. Sometimes they only have one person in that role. What those PR positions are doing is getting the word out, and they are making sure the publications within the WordPress realm know about their news.
Individuals or small companies need not hire someone for communications with the press. However, at least one person should serve as a representative and handle this role.
There are many things happening in the WordPress world on any given day. Even with a press release, there is no guarantee that WP Tavern or another publication will publish your story. There is a guarantee that they won’t if they do not know about it.
The whole post is worth reading especially if you are a small business. Just like Justin, I want to help your product if it’s in the Laravel space, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll cover your launch. However, your chances greatly increase if you can send a press release and the earlier the better. I honor embargo’s and knowing before the release gives us time to put your news in our weekly editorial calendar.
