I talked about setting up your blog from scratch from a totally non-technical perspective. The absolute last thing I want to do is do technical stuff. I barely remember how to code HTML, and have no desire to do a refresher course.
I did some online website speed tests last night and found that my blog was slow. Which is bad.
So, I did a little bit of research how to speed things up. I ended up adding two WordPress plugins – Smush and WP-Optimize.
Smush shrinks your pictures’ sizes without ruining the quality. WP-Optimize does three things, including what Smush does. However, I got the image compression feature on WP-Optimize turned off because it crashed my site. The other two features it has though seemed to work pretty well. So I’m keeping Smush for image compression and WP-Optimize for the other two.
Then, I deleted several widgets that probably slowed the site down. I had a video on the main site that nobody ever clicked. I also had a really nice image that linked to the store that nobody clicked either.
Afterwards, I did several speed tests on several different sites and got considerably better results. One of the main sites also gave me my first A.
Note that I use the free versions for both plugins. I’m not making enough money on this website yet to justify spending money on WordPress plugins other than Vaultpress, which is my backup and recovery plugin, and Akismet, which automatically stops spam comments.
Now when I’m actually making decent money with this blog, I may purchase one or both plugins.
My wife got a personal trainer
I haven’t worked with a personal trainer since that Vegas trip last year. We went to see Rod Stewart but the shows were cancelled due to coronavirus.
Really a bummer. I’ll regret not seeing Ronnie James Dio and Prince to the day I die. I had opportunities to see them both. I didn’t. Then they died.
Rod isn’t even one of my favorites. But he’s Rod Stewart. And he’s not getting any younger.
The year before, we went to Vegas to see Billy Idol. Now Billy Idol on the other hand is my wife’s favorite living singer. No way in hell we’re gonna miss him.
Billy Idol still has it! They put on a hell of a show. And Steve Stevens is back in the band.
We saw the drummer eating lunch alone in our hotel. We knew he was a musician, but didn’t know who he was until we saw the show.
“Whoa! The drummer is that guy who was sitting a few tables down from us at lunch!” It’s a bummer I didn’t at least say hi.
Anyways, so the Mrs is working out with a personal trainer. She’s got her goals. I got mine.
I might get my own trainer down the road but right now most of my focus is on piano.
Potato chips
And speaking of health, I’m going back to 13 meals a week. That means no more breakfast and one day a week, a 24-hour fast.
I also gave up potato chips. I was eating an entire bag of potato chips and wondering why I’m not losing weight. Hmm…
Yeah, as I’ve said many, many times – I’m far from perfect. We’re all just works in progress though, right?
We’d be playing some games and I’d open up a bag of Kettle’s Jalapeño chips, then after an hour, I’d find the entire bag of chips would be gone. I don’t even know I’m doing it.
So how to quit? Cold turkey. No more buying potato chips.
I got at least six more pounds to lose. Hopefully the 13 meals a week thing will work again. I’ve done that before and weighed exactly what I wanted to weigh.