Whenever Dr. Wife and I travel, I like to catch little moments on film, usually whispering into my phone so as not to a.) annoy other people and b.) embarrass Dr. Wife. Today I have some short videos of an angry sea and puffy clouds:
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TBT^256: Big News: TPP is Going to the Dogs
With Murphy’s passing, I figured I’d reblog this series of posts, dating back to before I picked her up for the first time. Yesterday would have been five years (I believe) since I first picked her up—her “gotcha” day. I was blessed to have that much time with this wonderful, loving dog.
I won’t say more at this point, as her passing is still very raw, but I hope you’ll enjoy this celebration of Murphy’s life. The way the old girl was doing even six months ago, I figured she’d probably keep ticking, but time caught up with her, as it will all of us. It just goes to show that we don’t know when Death will come knocking on our door; better make the most of the time we have with our loved ones, even the furry ones.
With that, here is “TBT^16: Big News: TPP is Going to the Dogs“:
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WordCamp US 2026: E-Commerce Idea Percolator
Note: the following post contains affiliate links. I receive a portion of any purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you. Additionally, Automattic is (hopefully) compensating me for promoting WordCamp US 2026; you can get $20 off a general admission ticket with promo code AF26. —TPP
Thank you to everyone who left such sweet comments about Murphy. I am so thankful for the five years I had with the old girl, and hearing how she touched your lives brought me a great deal of joy (and some more tears). She was such a good, sweet, sassy girl, and I miss her so much. —TPP
Two weeks ago I wrote a post about WordCamp US 2026 (WCUS 2026), which is coming to Phoenix, Arizona Sunday, 16 through Wednesday, 19 August 2026 at the Phoenix Convention Center. It’s only $80 for a general admission ticket with promo code AF26. You can purchase tickets here.
I’ve been using WordPress.com as my main platform for blogging daily since 2019, but I’ve never been to one of these conferences. I took a look at the list of speakers and their topics for WordCamp US 2026, and it looks like the kind of thing that would be really useful not just for writers, but also business owners.
Right now, Dr. Wife and I have a number of little projects to get done around the house. One of the downsides of living in a rural area is that it can be difficult to find contractors. You have two options: search online, which has limited results at best (and, increasingly, I just ask AI, which I use as a glorified search engine); or ask people locally. Everybody “knows a guy”—or knows a guy who “knows a guy.”
The problem I run into is when I’m looking for some niche specialty. For example, right now we’re trying to get a garage door repaired. The door works, but it won’t close unless someone stands there and holds the button down until the door is completely closed. It’s one of those things that isn’t urgent, but it’s enough of a nuisance that I’d like to get it fixed. Well, searching for “garage door repair” pulls up all sorts of entities that may or may not exist, and may or may not be willing to come to us for service. They often barely have a website, or are just an unreliable floating in the ether.
[A quick aside: while writing this piece, one of the garage door repair dudes called me back; it turns out I just needed to adjust the sensors so that align better—and to dust the cobwebs off of them. There’s a reason I’m a teacher and not a skilled technician.]
It’s kind of crazy that it has to be said, but in 2026, you need a website; if you’re in business, you need an active, updated website. Even if you’re not conducting business, having a website is worthwhile (and WordPress.com makes it super easy to build one); it’s almost like a living résumé.
So what does all of this winging about websites have to do with WordCamp US 2026? Well, if I were looking to maintain a strong web presence using the easiest tools available (and WordPress.com currently has the easiest and most robust tools for public-facing entrepreneurial endeavors), I’d love to hear from people who are using and experimenting with WordPress.com every single day.
Indeed, of the many talks at WordCamp US 2026, there’s an entire talk about using WordPress.com as a operating system. It’s a concept that I can immediately visualize, but never thought of on my own (for which I am kicking myself now). If you’re a small business owner establishing an online presence with WordPress.com, to which many people already have some kind of account, being able to create an entire e-commerce ecosystem that functions a la an operating system is a pretty clever concept that, I imagine, removes many of the headaches of maintaining multiple logins, etc.
Maybe I’m reading too much into the promise or the purpose of the talk, but just the idea has my mind percolating. Imagine being awash in new ideas and conferencing and networking at WordCamp US 2026 for four days (and, again for only $80 with promo code AF26 here).
It’s also worth noting that, while you can use and learn WordPress.com just fine without flying to Phoenix, Arizona, the folks behind Automattic products and services (like WordPress.com, Jetpack, and Akismet) will be there, it’s the perfect opportunity to learn how to use these services from the very people that program and maintain them.
Again, yours portly just uses the $8/month (when paid annually) “Premium” plan, which isn’t built for large-scale e-commerce, but if I were an entrepreneur with a more robust online business and/or a brick-and-mortar business, I’d likely use the WordPress.com “Business” plan ($25/month, when paid annually). Before I made such a leap, I’d do a good bit of research. Talking to folks at WordCamp US 2026 who make these products would be a fast-track to learning, I’d imagine.
Sure, we can learn a great deal now with AI and other resources, but I find that a conference helps me think about things I’d never consider searching for on my own. I get the impression that WordPress.com, while accessible to users, also holds depths of functionality that I’ve only begun to uncover. Seeing how other folks who have plumbed those depths would be a real education.
And for $80 (with promo code AF26), WordCamp US 2026 is the best deal in education.
To attend, get your tickets here.
Now, back to my to-do list—and hunting for contractors.
The Portly Politico is me, Tyler James Cook. I’ve been blogging on WordPress since 2018, and daily since 2019. I love to write about politics, culture, and music, and frequently feature my original music. Check out my musical creations here on the blog or on Bandcamp. —TPP
RIP, Murphy Cook (6/15/2013-7/20/2026)
After a fairly rapid decline over the past couple of months, Dr. Wife and I made the difficult decision to put Murphy to sleep. I took her yesterday (Monday, 20 July 2026) to our new vet—Murphy’s first visit, and last—and she passed around 1:11 PM EST.
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Cruise Haiku I
On the last night of our cruise I cracked open a beautiful, leather-bound journal Dr. Wife got me on one of her discount shopping excursions. I’d been meaning to do some writing about our trip in it, or to jot down some haiku (my preferred poetic form when composing verse). I came up with a few haiku while sitting in the Solarium while a group of rambunctious kids played ping pong just outside (I heard an adult chide them for “crawling around on the floor like animals”). I guess I’m used to writing while kids are being noisy from years of creating from my classroom right next to the gym.
Anyway, here is the first of a few installments of cruise haiku.
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Lazy Sunday CCCXCVII: Reedy Chorales
Yours portly is squeezing in a quick, post-cruise Lazy Sunday with some recent posts featuring reedy chorales:
- “New Music Tuesday XVII: ‘Three Geometric Chorales’” – this set of three chorales is for a traditional wind trio of flute, oboe, and bassoon.
- “New Music Tuesday XVIII: ‘Two Chorales for High Reeds’” – this set of two chorales, however, is for a non-traditional wind trio of soprano saxophone, English horn, and oboe.
Enjoy!
—TPP
SubscribeStar Saturday: Western Caribbean Cruise Review
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Today Dr. Wife and I will be returning from a week-long Royal Caribbean cruise through the Western Caribbean. The cruise left from Tampa on Saturday, 11 July 2026 and returns this morning (Saturday, 18 July 2026). Along the way, we made stops in Costa Playa, Mexico; Roatán, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; and Cozumel, Mexico. It was a jam-packed itinerary with plenty of time for rest—and celebratory gluttony.
Before diving into the details, here were my favorite stops, from most favorite to least favorite:
1.) Roatán, Honduras – they have Bojangle’s! It’s also just a beautiful place with super friendly people.
2.) Cozumel, Mexico – we only saw the touristy area just off of the cruise ship, but you can buy stuff like azithromycin over-the-counter, which is wild.
3.) Puerto Costa Maya, Mexico – we saw Mayan ruins here and drove through a village called “Pineapple Town.”
4.) Belize City – I really wanted to like Belize City, hoping it’d be some kind of Anglo-Caribbean wonderland nestled in Central American. Instead, it was like the rest of Central America and the Caribbean, but somehow worse. I thought British imperialism would have left a bit more of a positive mark on this damp, effluvial city.
This cruise was only my second, but it cemented for me that I am a cruise person.
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Phone it in Friday CXXXVIII: YouTube Roundup CXCVIII: Sloths, Iguanas, Birds, and Boomers in Roatán, Honduras
Dr. Wife and I are on the penultimate day of our cruise, one last day at sea before we get back to Tampa, and then Charlotte, and then South Carolina. It’s been a really enjoyable trip before she starts her “big girl” job post-residency.
We’ve had several stops on this cruise, including two in Mexico and one in Belize City. Our favorite stop, however, was at Roatán, Honduras.
Roatán is an island off the coast of Honduras. It has the feel of both an island and the mountains, as it’s essentially a forty-ish-mile long mountain range with a width of only four-ish miles, so you’re pretty much in the “mountains” when you set foot on shore.
The day we landed in Roatán, the weather was overcast, but quickly turned rainy. The rain then morphed into a torrential downpour mere minutes after got out of our little Hyundai tour bus at a place called “AJ’s Monkeys and Sloths“; it’s the kind of place where I’m pretty sure the owner and his family live on the premises and charge admission for people to see guinea pigs, spider monkeys, and sloths.
It was pretty awesome. The rain was intense, not unlike the sudden downpours we’ll get in South Carolina on a really hot, humid afternoon in late summer. The soaking rain gave the whole visit something of a festive and adventurous feel. At one point, a gust of wind knocked loose a tarp, which fell upon Dr. Wife and me, which was humorous and only hastened our steps into a cage with a large parrot.
The staff was amazing. They spoke the best English of any of our various tour guides on the trip. Apparently, Roatán has a large English-speaking population. Lots of places had English names attached to them, and Dr. Wife and I cracked up to learn that Bojangle’s—yes, the Southern fried chicken franchise—was ubiquitous on the island. I did a little research (talked to AI), and learned that Bojangle’s experimented with international franchises, and the only one that worked was the initial one in Roatán, where the English-speaking population, coupled with the popularity of spicy fried chicken in the Caribbean and Central America, made it an instant hit.
We also visited an iguana farm, but because the rain cooled things down so much (Dr. Wife actually had the heat running in our stateroom when we returned), they largely stayed in the trees. On a hot day, they apparently descend from the trees and bask and feed on the shore. Also, they are a delicacy, and our tour guide told us that, if prepared properly, they taste “better than chicken.” The owners of this particular iguana farm raise them to protect them from the cook’s pot, so it functions as a sanctuary. They also protect tarpan and some other local fish species that are popular with Honduran cooks.
There was one really obnoxious Boomer grandma on the trip with her two young grandchildren. She kept asking annoying questions in that voice that George Costanza’s mom has, but even more irritating. The cruise line indicated the tour was about four hours, but the actual tour was around three-and-a-half. The lady piped up and asked if we were going to lunch. You could almost hear a mental groan from everyone on the bus. I actually said, “no” from the back of the bus. I’d like to think I was something a a hero that day.
Regardless, here’s a little video about all the stuff we saw in Roatán (including the Boomer lady):
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TBT: Phone it in Friday CXIV: YouTube Roundup CLXXIV: Cruise Art
I’m writing today’s post the morning that we head out for our flight before our current cruise (that’s a lot of clauses). I’m excited to see what kinds of modern art adorn our current ship, as it’s a different one (I think) than the one from our honeymoon.
As such, it seemed like a fun time to look back at the art from that honeymoon cruise. Some of it was quite odd.
With that, here is 19 December 2025’s “Phone it in Friday CXIV: YouTube Roundup CLXXIV: Cruise Art“:
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Wayback Wednesday^2: Gnostic Mysteries
One of the enduring temptations for Christians of a more intellectual or theological bent is to take pride in their knowledge of Scripture. It’s scarily easy to fall into that trap, but it’s one that must be avoided, lest we either a.) fall into the heresy of Gnosticism or b.) are so proud in our knowledge, we sin against God. Really, both are likely outcomes, and “b.” includes “a.” Furthermore, no one is an effective witness if they come across as a boastful know-it-all.
The danger of that pride is very, very real. Consider that it was the pride of the Pharisees that condemned Jesus to the Cross. The pride of the Athenian elites condemned Socrates to hemlock. In both cases, the condemned poked at and exposed the foolish pride of their tormentors.
The appeal to know some “secret” knowledge, or to have the real answers, is one that those of an intellectual stripe must constantly guard against. I speak from experience (and that’s not me giving myself a very roundabout, backhanded compliment, but acknowledging that I have struggled with this sin). Ultimately, Jesus Is the Source of all Truth.
With that, here is 26 November 2025’s “Wayback Wednesday: Gnostic Mysteries“:
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