I’ve mentioned in here that I’ve started a podcast. This week it dawned on me why I enjoy it so much. It’s the one place where my main concern is creating content. Everywhere else I’m helping my clients with their content. My On This Day Podcast is my one place where I can focus on creating, writing, and producing. It gets me back to my roots as an English major in undergrad followed by my postgraduate studies in Digital Media.

Speaking of creating and writing, today’s links are all about WordPress. With the recent introduction of the new Block Editor (i.e. Gutenberg), the WordPress ecosystem is blooming with all kinds of new tools that are built upon this new writing/content creation interface.

  • CoBlocks is a suite of page builder blocks for Gutenberg. It includes blocks for easy column layouts and various other content like social icons, pricing tables, GIFs, and more. In addition, you can use the CoBlock WordPress Theme to take full advantage of Gutenberg and WordPress.
  • The Gatsby WordPress Themes project is porting popular WordPress themes to work with GatsbyJS. This will certainly lower the friction in setting up your own WordPress + GatsbyJS site.
  • Atomic Blocks is another set of Gutenberg page builder blocks. Partner them with the Atomic Blocks theme, and you’ve got another Gutenberg-enabled WordPress site.
  • The Stencil for WordPress plugin brings image creation capabilities directly to the “Add Media” interface. Need a feature image for your latest post, create it directly inside WordPress using this plugin.

To conclude today’s links, we’ll break from the WordPress themed resources and check out some other things I’ve enjoyed on the Internets:

  • instant.page is a JavaScript drop-in that adds just-in-time preloading to your site. I recently added it to a client’s site, and the difference in page load times was immediately apparent.
  • Make your own map background for your mobile. Alvar Carto’s web app lets you enter your location and generate a great looking map background for your phone.
  • Speaking of backgrounds, I’m using this 81 Megapixel image of the moon as mine.
  • “Magic Lantern is a free software add-on that runs from the SD/CF card and adds a host of new features to Canon EOS cameras that weren’t included from the factory by Canon.”