Tag: Arizona

Bloggers, Unite: WordCamp US 2026

The Portly Politico2 Comments

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

Last month I wrote four posts about WordPress.com and its various features. I’ve been using WordPress.com as my main platform for blogging and shameless self-promotion since 2018, and daily since 2019, so I’ve had eight years of experience working within its ecosystem.

A major part of that ecosystem is the community of writers and readers who share their stories and perspectives on their own WordPress.com sites (or at least in the comments section). It’s been pretty cool to develop links to great writers like Erin over at Existential Ergonomics; Audre Myers at Words on the Word; and Dave at Nebraska Energy Observer (not to mention frequent commenter and contributor Ponty, to whom I owe a deep debt of gratitude for his dedication to yours portly’s scribblings). It’s a sincere joy to exchange ideas with these and other writers, and to create our own little “blogosphere-within-the-blogosphere,” as it were.

An idea that gets floated from time to time is the blogger get-together. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we all met someday?” Surely it would, but the realities of travel, age, family commitments, and the fact that we’re all relative strangers (even if it feels like we’re not on the Internet) makes that dream more elusive than Audre’s beloved Bigfoot.

But what if there was a way to hang out with your favorite bloggers—and meet a lot of other writers, developers, designers, online retailers, and so on—in a safe setting under the auspices of WordPress.com/Automattic?

Well—you probably saw this coming—good news: WordCamp US 2026 (WCUS 2026) is coming to Phoenix, Arizona, for four days of networking, learning, and connecting. The event runs from Sunday, 16 through Wednesday, 19 August 2026 at the Phoenix Convention Center, and it’s only $100!

Actually, it’s only $80 for a general admission ticket with promo code AF26. You can purchase tickets here.

The folks behind Automattic products and services like WordPress.com,  Jetpack, and Akismet (I love Akismet; I would be buried beneath an avalanche of juicy spam if it weren’t for that service) will be there, so I imagine it would be a good opportunity to give in-person feedback (and/or to complain bitterly to the Happiness Engineers—pick your poison) to the people who make this ecosystem possible. Indeed, Sunday, 16 August 2026 is “Contributor Day,” which specifically is about collaborating “with fellow WordPress enthusiasts” to “help build the future of the platform” per the conference’s website.

I’ve never attended a WordPress.com event, but WordCamp US 2026 is the kind of event I’d like to attend if possible (and if airfare from the nearest airport to Phoenix is reasonable). The fact that it’s so affordable (again, just $80 with promo code AF26) makes it tantalizing. I’ve been blogging long enough that getting out to Arizona for a few days to learn more about it from the pros (and the people that make real money doing it) could be a worthwhile investment.

If nothing else, I could maybe write a sequel to my highly unsuccessful collection of travel essays, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures.

But I digress. For those of you with a professional development budget, the $80 ticket price (again, with promo code AF26) is insane for four days of conferencing. If you use any Automattic services for your employer, this conference would be great to attend—your employer only shells out eighty bucks for the conference itself, and you get to go to Phoenix, Arizona for four days and rub elbows with your fellow nerds. Other than the location being in Phoenix in August (imagine the sweat by late afternoon, although I’m assured that the convention center is “fully air-conditioned”), it’d be an easy sell to your boss.

If you had an opportunity to attend WordCamp US 2026, what would you most like to learn? Should yours portly take the plunge, book the flight, and cover this conference in absorbing detail for the blog? Leave a comment and let me know!

Oh, and keep writing!

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

Lazy Sunday CXCV: Arizonan Sojourn, Part II

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A quick blurb before today’s post:  I’ve released my second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures.  It’s a collection of travel essays I’ve accumulated over the last four years, and it’s available now on Amazon.

Here’s where you can pick it up:

Pick up a copy today!  Even sharing the above links is a huge help.

Thank you for your support!

—TPP

***

With the release of my second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures, it seemed like the ideal time to post the second half of the six essays that make up the first section of the book (apologies for that confusing sentence of numbers and ordinals).  These three essays are Chapters 4-6 in the book, and were originally published on my SubscribeStar page, and cover my trip to Arizona with my older brother:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Phone it in Friday XXXV: My Second Book is Live on Kindle!

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In case the daily reminders at the top of every post this week weren’t reminder enough, I’ve released my second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures.  It’s a collection of travel essays I’ve accumulated over the last four years, and it’s available now on Amazon.  The Kindle version went live today, so if you pre-ordered, you can now read the book!

I’ve been eager to release a second book ever since I published The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot back in March 2021, but various time constraints always seemed to interfere.  Ironically, maintaining the blog—even with help from good friends—is one such hinderance, while also serving as the source material for this book!

Blogging daily (today marks the 1545th consecutive day of blogging) is great fun, but it takes time.  Longtime readers will probably have noticed the increase in guest posts (especially from Audre Myers and Ponty), as well as lighter posts from yours portly.  Those lighter posts are partially out of necessity—in order to maintain my busy work and private music lessons schedule, I have to write some fluffier posts here from time to time.

No worries—I have not given up on political writing entirely, nor have I abandoned writing seriously about music, faith, art, etc.  Sometimes, I just need to upload some pictures of a LEGO set I built and call it a day.

That said, blogging daily is also the source of Arizonan Sojourn, as blogging daily will likely be the source of my next book (topic to be determined).  Pulled from four years of travel essays, with a particular focus on the six-part trip my older brother and I took to Arizona in December 2022, the book regales readers with tales of my not-so-outrageous exploits.

So, I found myself last week with a modicum of extra time because Middle School students were taking some horrendous standardized test, after which they were dismissed for the day.  That removed my duty to teach Middle Music Ensemble for a few days, and that extra fifty-six minutes each day, along with the lack of private music lessons with Middle Schoolers, enabled me to complete the compiling, organizing, and edition of Arizonan Sojourn.

Unlike Inspector Gerard, I also made sure to proofread and revise Arizonan Sojourn much more carefully this time.  I cannot guarantee it is free of grammatical errors—I found one as soon as I published the book (it is now fixed)—but it should be substantially less embarrassing in this regard than Gerard was.

That’s all to say that you should buy it.  I’ll also be uploading a PDF manuscript of the entire work to my Subscribe Star page for $5 and up subscribers tomorrow.

Of course, it’s much better to have a physical copy, no?

Here’s where you can pick it up:

Happy Reading!

—TPP

SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Break Travels, Part V: Snowbound

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

As my older brother and I enjoyed our visit to Arizona, a massive polar vortex was making its way ominously towards the United States.  We had some cool weather in Arizona, but reports were coming from back East that temperatures were dangerously low.  My brother and his wife live in Indianapolis, so they were facing subzero temperatures, but even back in South Carolina, family and friends were reporting busted pipes and bitterly cold conditions.

There was some discussion between us about whether or not we should extend our trip another day or two, but the lure of Christmas and family was strong.  We decided to head to the airport as planned to take our chances.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

Lazy Sunday CLXXXIX: Arizonan Sojourn, Part I

The Portly Politico6 Comments

The week before Christmas 2022 my older brother and I flew out to Arizona for a few days of adventure.  My trip to Disney World derailed my Saturday posts for a couple of weekends, and I took a Saturday away from Arizonan reminiscences to do a (brief) rundown of that Disney excursion.

I should be back on the Christmas Break Travels train now, though, and I thought I’d look back at the first three SubscribeStar posts in the series.  Right now they’re subscriber-only posts, but I might collect these short, self-indulgent travelogues into a small eBook or the like with a catchy, misleading title:  My Erotic Desert Adventures or something (disclaimer:  there was nothing erotic about the trip. unless you count the lust I developed for massive burritos).

Regardless, here are the first three, detailing the trip to Indiana, then our first day in Arizona at the Grand Canyon, finishing off with finding my destiny in a Western wear store:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Break Travels, Part IV: Scottsdale and The Whale (2022)

The Portly Politico14 Comments

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

After our trip to Grand Canyon National Park and Prescott, my brother and I indulged in a more leisurely start to our second day in Arizona.  His idea of leisure is a ten-mile run; while he did that, I walked further into downtown Phoenix to pick up some sundries at a local CVS.

Downtown Phoenix feels a great deal like most mid-major American cities:  some tall buildings, often with scaffolding; a few historic sites; and a general sense that public transportation is the preferred method of travel, even if everyone still drives.  There was also an ubiquitous homeless population, which makes sense:  why spend your winters in North Dakota if you don’t have shelter?

Like most mid-major American cities, Phoenix also had its commercialized outdoor shopping mall area, with the kinds of higher-end chain stores that one tends to see in more tourist-y areas.  This zone held the CVS, but it felt like a scaled-down version of City Walk at Universal Studios.  I picked up our vittles and stopped in at Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii, which has apparently colonized the mainland, and picked up a beautiful souvenir tin for my mom (it did not featuring a braying jackass, but rather a woman in a sun hat tending to her coffee plants).

Resupplied and refreshed from our morning, we set out for Scottsdale, the tony, artistic suburb of Phoenix, for more Southwestern culture.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Break Travels, Part III: The Shirt in Prescott

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

On our way back from visiting the Grand Canyon, my brother and I stopped in Prescott, Arizona.  Despite it’s spelling, “Prescott” is pronounced almost like “press kit.”  For my Central Savannah River Area readers, it’s akin to Martinez, Georgia, which is not pronounced like a Mexican’s surname, but as “Martin-ez.”

Anyway, Prescott is an Old West town—it used to be the territorial capital of Arizona, from 1864-1867—that has now turned into something like a yuppie outdoor shopping mall.  That sounds facetious, yes, but it’s actually a pretty cool little town.  The entire town square was bedecked in Christmas lights, and as it was unseasonably cold for Arizona in late December, it actually felt like Christmas in a cowboy town.

Prescott really plays up its heritage as a bustling town of the Old West:  Western wear stores line the main shopping area, and bars and restaurants play up the legendary Western folk heroes and villains who frequented the establishments (or the spots where those establishments now stand).

It was in one of those Western wear stores that I came face to face with sartorial destiny.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Break Travels, Part II: Grand Canyon

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

As our plane took off from Indianapolis in dead silence—everyone was quiet, and the only sound was that of the jets roaring—my older brother loudly exclaimed, “my wallet!,” which elicited some stifled chuckles from yours portly, and I think I heard one other person react. Otherwise, no one bit on his hilarious joke about leaving his wallet in the airport.

After a very brief layover in Detroit, which saw us running to the next gate for our flight to Phoenix, we enjoyed a quiet flight to Phoenix. I’ve grown accustomed to airlines abusing passengers, but Delta is a great airline and my older brother has achieved a status where he gets some actual respect from the flight crew, so it was a welcome change. The snacks and soft drinks flowed freely, and I discovered that the chess app in the Delta entertainment console is impossible to beat, even on “Easy” mode—something that people who are actually good at chess have discussed at length online.

We landed in Phoenix and made it to the rental car area, where we managed to score a sweet Kia Niro, a car so laden with technology, it was difficult to figure out how to turn on the heat. Yes, despite being in Arizona, it was unseasonably cold, with temperatures comparable to those in South Carolina at the time (we arrived the evening of Monday, 19 December 2022).

Our AirBnB was a cool little duplex in downtown Phoenix, decorated in the Southwestern style. It sported an impressive fireplace, though we didn’t mess with it. The interior reminded me of smaller homes built in the 1920s, although I don’t know how old this home was. It had a cute (if tight) breakfast nook, where my brother and I were able to get some writing done during our stay, and a good, powerful shower. The host left us some coffee from a local roaster, which we tore through in a couple of days.

One of our major goals for the week was to visit Grand Canyon National Park. I’ve always wanted to see Grand Canyon, and this trip was the perfect opportunity to do so. We decided to knock out the visit—which took the entire day, as it’s roughly four hours to the north of Phoenix—on Tuesday, 20 December 2022, our first full day in Arizona.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Break Travels, Part I

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

One of the perks—as I often point out—of teaching is all of the glorious break time that we get. Other than summer vacation, my favorite time break of the year is the two weeks we get at Christmas.

Sure, it’s nowhere near as decadent as the full month that college professors and students get off, but it’s just the right amount of time to unwind and refresh—and to get in some travel.

My older brother, a well-traveled college professor residing in Indianapolis, flies so frequently that he’s ascended to one of the lower tiers of godhood in the Delta Airlines rewards pantheon. One of the divine gifts his apotheosis bestows is a free companion ticket each year.

Unfortunately, the ticket was due to expire, and his hardworking attorney wife could not take time to travel anywhere with him before it expired. As such, we concocted a trip to the American Southwest for the week before Christmas.

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Arizona and Christmas Travels Preview

The Portly Politico8 Comments

My (perhaps disappointed) readers will know that I fell woefully behind on posts earlier this week, delaying both my Monday Morning Movie Review of 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life (which should be live by the time you read this post) and my Tuesday post.  My intent Tuesday was to write a bit of an overview of my travels the week before Christmas into the Christmas weekend.  Ironically, those travels, as well as family get-togethers and being a hardworking (if grumpy—from lack of rest, I promise!) uncle created delays in my writing.

That said, I want to make good on my daily posting commitment, so consider this short preview of my recent travels a make-up post for Tuesday.  After starving earlier this week for portly content, you might find yourselves soon o’er-engorged with the meaty, chubby goodness of my self-indulgent, navel-gazing posts.

Before launching into the preview, I’ll note that I’ll be dedicating the next two or three editions of SubscribeStar Saturday to more extensive overviews of my travels, complete with loads of pictures and other goodies.  If you want to read all about my adventures in Arizona and beyond, subscribe today!

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