Well now – it’s been just over a year since my last post, and something like 18 months since last regular posting. Life has been somewhat insane in the intervening months, and there’s been both amazing things that have happened, as well as some really challenging events that have changed life in myriad ways. Continue reading
Author Archives: Joshua O'Connell
A new home for the blog
There’s been another crazy long gap on the blog (nearly four months; might be a record in this iteration), which is a sure sign that I’ve been busy. But the blog had to get updated, or at least relocated, recently when the host I was keeping it on the past few years was scheduled to be shut down. As such, I had to get things into action to get the site moved in time.
Thanks to my job I’ve become quite familiar with some WordPress-focused web hosts now, and decided to go with WP Engine, which I’ve heard great things about for years. If you’re seeing this post, you’ve followed me over!
I’m confident enough working with WordPress that I could have moved the site without difficulty to just about any host, but I really liked the WP-centric offerings of WP Engine, and their migration tools, which I used just to become familiar with them, were ultra-smooth and very useful. I was able to get my site up and running pretty quickly, and the site feels faster than ever, which is pretty cool.
They help keep the site’s security up to date, protect against certain issues, create and offer the ability to grab a back-up of the site if something goes wrong, and ultimately will help me manage the site in certain ways so I can focus on what I want to do most with the site – write and share.
I can’t promise regular updates will be back just yet, although I have a TON of drafts that have built up, some of it probably too old to actually post, although I may anyway for the heck of it, but I hope to get into a rhythm here again soon enough.
Women laughing alone with tablets
Here’s something light for you on a Friday: For those who were amused a few years back by women laughing alone with salad, here’s a new meme: Women laughing alone with tablets. Continue reading
YouTube has everything: Epic Princess Rap Battles
The Princess Rap Battle series has been out there for awhile, but the ante has been raised with the latest one, featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Cinderella while series creator Whitney Avalon is Belle. Along with other Disney twists, the rap battles play off of the canon while putting a modern spin, asking what they’d be like if they were set in modern day society. Continue reading
An interesting, if somewhat frivolous, look at how dogs drink
This post is really just so I can have a moment to LOOK AT DA PUPPY. Last fall scientists examined how dogs drink, just out of curiousity. The results led to video from various places, such as the New York Times.
Truly Peak Performance: Arthur the dog signs on for heavy travels
The original story is one I saved last fall and fell in love with: An adventure race team encounters a dog, feeds him a meatball, and he tags along for the remaining legs of a grueling race. Continue reading
Notorious B.I.G. song gains new prominence thanks to remix
The Notorious B.I.G. has been gone for almost 20 years at this point, and while his legacy is strong, efforts to extend that legacy posthumously fell flat in many ways. Many of the tracks only contained small snippets of his rapping, and given they were leftovers, probably wasn’t the strongest material to work with. Continue reading
Rare photos show what subways were like in the 1980s
With subway ridership hitting records and with the expansions currently marching towards the finish line with the 7 line and the Second Avenue Subway, it’s hard for many to realize how far from this scenario we could’ve been if the subway kept going down the path it was headed in the 1970s and early 80s. Continue reading
Bob Barker can still make a game exciting
This week, as with previous years, The Price is Right had a little fun on April 1 for April Fool’s Day. In recent years, they’ve moved beyond “accidents” with prizes and models into more creative territory. This year, while not so much a joke, may have been one of the more fun ideas, however: How about Bob Barker walk out the doors instead of Drew, and play a game with a contestant? Continue reading
Required listening: Chelsea Lankes’ ‘Secret’
Spotify has increasingly been a source of new music for me (thanks to my car radio recently totally breaking), and it was on one of their playlists I recently tripped across this awesome song by Chelsea Lankes, which has been out for a bit but I continue to enjoy. Continue reading