Writing – R. Chris Johnson

Cleavers is a Spring tonic for the lymph

Over the past winter, I’ve encountered a few people experiencing problems with lymph drainage. One person had a problem with swollen ankles and feet while another had some hard nodules in the lymph in their armpit. Cleavers has been reported as a great medicine for cleaning the lymphatic system.

Many of my human relatives consider cleavers as a weed rather than a reliable food source. If you live in an area where herbicide is regularly sprayed you may never have seen it. My first memory of this plant was the way it clung to me when I touched it.

I have so much gratitude for the abundance and accessibility of cleavers. It grows in so many places and I’ve seen it alongside every walking trail thing spring. This year I will be getting to know this plant more deeply by making teas and cooking with it and noticing the effects on my health.

March 27, 2024

Circles: grief and rebirth

Inside of the big circle
there are so many small circles
connected in chaos

when the circles break
they are quickly replaced
the universe is a kind place

so much fits within each circle
infinite possibilities surround them
go inward and become whole

March 22, 2024

Custom Code is the Biggest Vulnerability of a WordPress Site

I am in the middle of fixing custom code that caused a fatal error with processing Woo Commerce orders on a client website. It took several days to find enough patterns that allowed diagnosis of the issue. This was followed by examining the error logs and code base to find what was causing the problem and creating a solution to test.

Experience has taught me that the more features (and code) a site has, the greater the chance of a vulnerability. This is doubly true for code written by fellow developers. Greater attention to resources for testing, documentation and QA is essential for keeping a site with custom code stable.

As a consequence, I’ve become frugal with any type of site features that isn’t supported by a third party. Not only does this approach cut down on maintenance, it also makes WordPress websites more stable. Plugins authors spend ample resources on both testing and security, as there are many customers depending on the stability of their software. With custom software, all this must be handled exclusively by the client…

March 21, 2024

Rebuilding the Search Index is much faster with SearchWP4

The annoying part of working with SearchWP on a large site was waiting for the search index to rebuilt. Working on a site with over a thousand Woo Commerce products with often lead to a multi-day rebuilt time for the search index. This made troubleshooting and debugging a slow and expensive process.

After upgrading to SearchWP 4 from SearchWP 3, index rebuilds on the same site takes less than ten minutes. This allows me to make modifications and changes for clients much less frustrating. I expected improvements with the new version though my expectations have really been exceeded.

Along with making work easier, the SearchWP interface has been updated giving a more intuitive layout. Still my whole approach to website creation is to avoid the need for a plugin like SearchWP in the first place. However, with this major update, websites using this SearchWP 4 will see some major improvements.

March 12, 2024

We are Universal

March 9, 2024

Gender bias is Expensive

Throughout my work I’ve repeatedly seen gender biases negatively effect web development teams. The subtle rules of gender socialization creep in quick and suddenly like an ever-present fog. Yet, this subject is rarely discussed openly.

Often men take a default position of authority even when a woman holds a higher organizational position. Women respond by huddling together in a defensive place, fawning towards the men to improve their positioning, or embracing the very same callouness. Invisible cues take over and every one plays their assigned roles with little direction.

In the past, software programming was seen as women’s work while men did the more “serious” jobs of building and maintaining hardware. Development teams can’t really be successful unless they spend ample time on addressing gender and racial bias. And by success, I mean creating safe and equitable working spaces rather than maximizing the profitability of the products and services.

March 8, 2024

10 important checks for your WordPress site

Is your site running regular backups?
Are all your website themes and plugins maintained and updated regularly?
Is your website login page protected with multi-factor authentication?
Is the loading time of your home page under 3 seconds?
Does your site have any browser console errors?
Do you have a notifications set up for when your site is offline or experiencing a critical error?
Are your contact forms sending out emails after submission?
Is your site using a secure web host running the latest stable version of PHP?
Is your site usable on mobile devices?
Is your site using HTTPS with a current SSL certificate?

March 8, 2024

Moment of Resolution

August 1, 2012

Drone Tones

Drone Tones is a collection of ambient drone music in each pitch of the chromatic scale tuned to A = 440 Hz. The collection of sounds are intended as an intonation practice aid for woodwinds, brass , strings, vocalists, fiddlers and any other musician looking to practice ear training, interval analysis on the road to perfect pitch.

September 1, 2011

Life on the Underground

August 1, 2011