Updates

Koko Analytics for simple Stats

Years ago, when you needed a simple way of displaying stats in your WordPress Dashboard, the only set and forget option was WordPress Stats which later got incorporated into Jetpack. And for years, that’s exactly what I installed in WordPress sites. But besides the fact of Jetpack slowing your site down, its Stats module is not a privacy friendly one. Thankfully, we have a much better option now!

Hello Koko Analytics

Koko Analytics for WordPress, created by my friend Danny van Kooten, is a sweet little plugin that is optimized for three things:

collecting web traffic statistics for your site
doing so in a perfectly privacy-friendly manner
extremely performance friendly

I urge you to check it out and add Koko Analytics to your WordPress toolbelt for simple and privacy friendly stats. I should probably change the title to “for simple and privacy friendly stats” 😏

Force re-downloading plugins and themes with WP-CLI

Recently I found myself needing to force download all plugins and themes in a WordPress installation. Now, the old way would be to download them, upload them via SFTP. Very laborious, no fun.

Enter the fun way: WP-CLI. If you’re unfamiliar with WP-CLI, it’s the command line tool for WordPress. And as all sites on Servebolt have the wp command available, this was super easy to do with just two commands:

Force download all plugins:

wp plugin install $(wp plugin list --field=name) --force

Force download all themes:

wp theme install $(wp theme list --field=name) --force

Genesis + IndieWeb

I’m a big fan of the whole IndieWeb movement. You own your content. Always. I believe we have a better future ahead of us when we start publishing our content independent of the big “news” outlets again like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you’ve never looked into it, I’d start here.

Inspired by my good buddy Frank Meeuwsen, I’ve been wanting to indiewebify my Genesis child theme in such a fashion that it supports the required Microformat 2 markup perfectly.

Luckily, Genesis makes it quite easy to change its markup via a plugin. Will publish a full post here when I’m ready to publish my plugin.

I made my blog the primary for my content

This is just a short note to let you all know I’ll be using my blog as the primary for my content again. I’ve tried in previous years to backup my tweets into WordPress, but I’ve since deleted that. Turns out, not all of my tweets should be saved.

So, I solved it differently this time around. I’ve added Notes and Status to my site as Custom Post Types. I will use Notes to share short version content like this note, and Status updates will be the tweets I’d like to save, basically. Except, I’ll post them here first and syndicate them to Twitter and Mastodon.

If I can be bothered to write more than three paragraphs, I’ll maybe write out a proper blog on how I connected everything.

Covers are fun!

Covers are fun. I sometimes discover a new song that I enjoy a lot. After then learning it’s a cover, it becomes an interesting process of defining your preference. I’ll give you an example. I first discovered the song Elastic Heart by Longfellow. And I thought, wow, this is a great song!

Only to then discover the original is by Sia. Not a bad song, but didn’t really do it for me.

But, when Sia then “covered” her own song into an acoustic version, I was fully onboard with that being the best version.

What do you think?

Letting go…

Remkus wrote on 27 December, 2019 2 Comments

This is just a reminder to let go. To let go of things you’re not going to pursue. Of things that are never going to get the full attention that they deserve. Of things that are cluttering your todo list. Of things that you feel obligated to do because you once thought of them.

I’m a gatherer of things, a collector of things by nature. That’s my modus operandi. However, as much as I like to collect things, I’m also keenly aware of the power of letting go. So, to that end, I’ve let go of a lot of “things” to in the last couple of days and perhaps you’ll recognize some things to let go of as well in my list. I let go of:

Mindmaps of ideas I once had
Domain names I’m never going to find the time (read: priority) to pursue into actual projects
Draft posts I haven’t touched in a loooong time (think years)
Trello cards and boards full of ideas
Reminders in reminder apps full of things I “need” to do still
Notes in my notes app with information that is no longer relevant
The content of my Downloads folder
Old boxes which at one time contained iPhones, iMacs, etc.
Screenshots of things in my Pictures/images folders
Duplicate images on my devices
Any old pair of shoes that were extra to having one pair of backups for painting the house or something like that
Email subscriptions that I dismiss too regularly
Screws and other assorted metal thingies in glass pots
Keys to locks I, for the life of me, can’t remember where they belonged to.
Electrical cords, chargers, USB cables, etc. You know what I mean, you have one of those boxes as well!
Old phones that were already ancient in 2004
Papers no longer needed
Food ingredients that are way past their due date
Books I was never ever going to read
Clothes I was never ever going to wear anymore.

In other words, any and all things that cluttered. All of this I let go because it’s so much better to have a clear focus. And clear focus only truly works if the list is small.

So, what are you letting go of?

About mental and physical health

Remkus wrote on 4 July, 2019 23 Comments

My working days consist of my sitting behind my computer all day. I’m not sure what the percentages are of people having similar work scenarios, but I’m guessing they’re pretty high. This sedentary work life is something I struggle with. I like being active during the day, but it’s hard to be active when you’re just sitting in your chair all day.

Apart from the obvious health risks of just doing anything actively all day, I started experiencing mental effects as well. I felt locked up in my own mind. I was having trouble unwind at the end of the day and not think about work anymore after work hours.

So, something had to change. I’m a firm believer in symbioses between a healthy body and healthy mind. To compensate for my stationary work life, I started to work out in the gym. This is years ago now.

In the beginning, all I did was just a little bit of fitness, but I quickly started feeling better mentally. And as I progressed in the weights, I physically started feeling better as well. And while I started feeling physically better, I started feeling better mentally as well. It was almost as if one influenced the other 😏.

Why Am I Sharing This?

A few weeks ago I shared an Instagram story of me walking with a Yoke for the first time, as well as doing a Farmers Walk. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go ahead and go to my Instagram profile and look for the #fitdad stories.

A couple of people commented on that story and started asking questions. Instead of keeping those answers in my Instagram DMs, I thought it’d be good to answer them here. Because there was a common theme in those questions. I’m also including some other questions I get about working out and what it does for me.

My workout frequently asked questions about working out

I wish I could do cool stuff like that, but that looks way too heavy!

You know what? When I started working out properly, I did my bench press, squats, overhead press and deadlifts with an empty bar. So, that’s just 20kg and all I did was incrementally add kilos. As little as 0,5kg per time. I focused on the form only.

Is it even healthy, lifting so heavy?

Not only do you create more muscles and thus burn more calories in rest state, doing heavy lifting actually increases your vascular and nerves system. And, if done correctly, it can be the best cardio exercise you ever did!

What do you do in any given week

I basically have two workout sessions which I alternate. The first starts with Overhead Press and Squats plus some complimentary lifts. The other workout is focused on the Romanian Deadlift and Bench Press and also some complimentary lifts.

Additionally, I do some LISS exercises like outdoor walks or on my indoor bike.

What if I really don’t like working with weights. Are there any alternatives?

So, looking at the end goal for me, which is to live as healthy and strong for as long as possible, lifting weights really is the only option. But, if hauling with weights isn’t your thing, body weight exercises will get you there as well.

What else do you do to feel to empty your mind

My favoriete is lifting weights, but I also like going for an hour long walk, meditate, listen to music loudly. Basically, anything that stops me from thinking 😅.

What are your favorite excercises?

There’s really only one absolute favoriete one and that has to be the deadlift. I’m currently doing the Romanian Deadlift (RDL) and loving it. It the one excercise that absolutely destroys me, depletes and leaves me with no room to think. I mean, there’s really no room to think once you’re going for sets with 10 reps of 200kg.

WordCamp Soltau Recap

Remkus wrote on 9 May, 2018 Leave a Comment

Last weekend Taco, Karin and I from team Yoast attended a new kind of WordCamp. A WordCamp Retreat. Located in the North of Germany we experienced a very relaxed WordCamp with some interesting differences from your regular WordCamps.

I’ve written a full recap for WP Tavern which was published this morning, and this is one of the things I mentioned there:

Most of this was made possible by the location. Hotel Park Soltau is located in the North of Germany surrounded by woods and heath. The hotel was reserved for WordCamp attendees only. Everyone stayed there, ate there, and networked there. It was an incredibly immersive experience on a different level than any of the other WordCamps I’ve attended.

I highly encourage you to read the rest on The Tavern and do let me know if you have any questions.