So I ran into some new techknow issues yesterday.

I was planning to just post these two lengthy rambles, but realized on the post screen that I couldn't add the dream tag to one of the posts, and so I started looking for the solution; went down a rabbithole of what seems to be pretty bad planning/development in regards to one particular; supposedly somewhat problematic script library that at this point has been used by WP developers a long long time. But back to my WP-related story...

I'd noticed earlier I couldn't collapse the accordion boxes on the main admin panel, but didn't pay it much mind then. Thought it was a temporary thing. But after not being able to edit the post tag I noticed they didn't work on the edit screen either.

I recalled there'd been a WP update recently, and so I searched for possible issues with it. Others did have the same issue with the post editor, but no solutions.

Surely more people had this problem? It seemed to be directly related to the Classic Editor. Maintained by WP staff. If any plugin should be thoroughly tested and absolutely compatible with a new release it should be that, right? Plus it's a plugin currently relied on by five million active users.

Almost seems like they're trying to move people over to Gutenburg while they're at it hmm. That can't be can it?

I kept looking, and as it turns out this is the issue. Few more links.

Basically an old version of jQuery's being deprecated. As WordFence note the timeline's been as follows:

5.5: Remove the jQuery Migrate 1.x script. (August 2020)
5.6: Update to the latest jQuery, jQuery UI, and jQuery Migrate scripts. (December 2020)
5.7: Remove the jQuery Migrate script. (March 2021)

The migration helper plugin came early, to let developers start preparing their plugins and themes for the change, then 5.5 came with a temporary workaround that still ran the old jQuery library where it was needed, and now with 5.6 it's removed entirely. Without notice!

I read through the update notes each time there is a major update, but I did not see anything about this. If it was there it was a minor and not particularly well-highlighted item, yet it's an item that's apparently broken plenty of sites with the latest update. Just search for 'WordPress 5.6 breaks' and you'll get roughly a million results on Google.

Not all relevant probably, but at least the first few pages.

Upon searching the plugin database I found the plugin I should have apparently been aware of two versions ago: this one. I installed it as a temporary fix; hoping to in time sort out any potential issues, but the plugin displays a big notice on every page of the dashboard that can't be removed, a red box in the admin bar, and logs errors automatically no matter how much you try to mute or hide those notifications.

No way I can write these things in peace with this thing doing it's thing, and especially when it throws out errors related to core files, not just the tidbits of code I've personally included. It doesn't feel like they prepared for this at all. The obligatory log unnecessarily bogs down the site too.

Temporarily reverting to the old jQuery library via the helper plugin did fix my post editing issue though - and accordion menu issue - and maybe other similar issues I wasn't even aware of yet.

I just needed to find a way to hide those notices, but StackOverflow didn't seem to have the ideal fix, nor did this CSS thing work. Editing the theme files worked partially, until my site didn't load at all. Fatal Error.

So I deleted that migrate helper nuisance and tried this.

Only problem: It didn't work properly without the migrate helper plugin.

...

If you're looking for alternative plugins don't confuse the jquery migrate helper plugin with the ones that actually remove the migration functionality entirely btw, like this. That'll just make the situation worse if your site isn't already 100% up-to-standard.

This was all turning into a bigger headache than I wanted though, so I decided to simply downgrade the site, and thus I found this. Fantastic. I reverted back a version, and I think I'll stay there a while until at least official WP staff manage to fix the compatibility issues with their own plugins. You might find this useful too btw.

Problem solved.

I don't mean to crack down on WP too much here. I know security keeps improving, and all code is meant to be actively developed and maintained, so eventually the old jQuery shall have to go. But I do believe they could've handled this a bit more smoothly. Like: let me know somehow. Give me a notice on compatibility issues before things just stop working.

And I really hope they're not planning to drop the Classic Editor. I gave the new a chance and did not like it. Not everyone wants to join the revolution after all, and Gutenberg - as it currently is - unfortunately does not at all suit my palette when it comes to a good usability revolution.

You know, classics are usually classics for a reason.

When this pandemic thing first started I was really more excited than I was bothered by it.

Maybe I'd just been waiting for a life-changing event for so long, and it seemed like this might be it. And not just for me personally, but for the world. A happening with the potential to turn the very foundation of our so very archaic social order on its head and force us onto a wave of positive change and development.

No longer would commerce steer the way, but more so comradery. Our want to help each other and get back on track. Our want to live in a world where everyone's alright; where we care for our families, shield our elders from disease and help out where he can.

The sense of community and unity felt strong then, and a lot of people volunteered to go shopping for those who couldn't locally - among other things. How many of those were simply scammers looking to make a little extra on less legit transactions or trades though...? Who knows.

But disregard that scam potential. Times were good.

Except for those who really suffered the disease - at times mistreated and hooked on morphine by incompetent hospital staff - people generally seemed to actually appreciate the variation. Something was going down. Nobody knew what exactly, but we were all in it together.

Even the company I work at experienced a boost, as people had more time on their hands to buy stuff, and e-commerce felt like the right business to be in at this time.

Pandemic or no it felt like better times were on the horizon.

I started working from home, and saved in on both travel times and costs (well maybe not costs, but more on that later), and life took a turn for the better. Less travel time. More family time. More walks in the sun - which was plentiful at this time.

The pandemic arrived at such an ideal post-winter moment. The perfect time to focus on health and betterment - both for self and for the world.

There was definitely a certain element of hypochondria or paranoia in how every time I felt a little sniffle coming on I feared I might be getting sick; imagined getting breathing problems; tensed up so I almost did... but that was a minor thing. Those moment passed, and life overall was mostly enjoyable and somewhat exciting.

Following the statistics on daily cases was like following the scores in a game, and hearing people talk about their ordeals in catching the 'rona were equally intriguing.

It didn't seem that bad then, not even for the elderly. I watched an interview with an old man who'd been home a week. He was doing better.

But time moved on.

Travel plans didn't pan out like they were supposed to. But that was alright. That meant more time left for other things - just like with those trips to work I was saving in on.

Gröna Lund closed their concert scene, and that was a shame, but alright.

They extended pre-bought 'green cards' (the name of their entry ticket for a few months worth of concerts) with half a year then. It's a full year now.

They're kickstarting a brand new rollercoaster next year too, that they sped up development of during this downtime. 2021? Think that'll happen?

Waiting on refunds was a little nerve-wracking.

For a moment it seemed like Norwegian - the airline carrier I'd booked all my flights for a foreseeable future with - swayed in financial uncertainty, as did all airline carrier futures, and people speculated widely about their potential bankruptcy; the demise of the entire airline business.

Buddy Bear took a trip to Italy last weekend though. I believe. If that didn't get cancelled. He believes it's important to travel now more than ever, since if we don't then airline travel will soon be available only to the rich, and there is definitely some truth to that, and I wouldn't mind a few weekend trips right about now, but at the same time I don't like the idea of possibly getting stuck in another country, or maybe bringing the disease to my aging parents. That'd be just plain irresponsible of me - noble travel cause in incrementally sustaining the airline industry or no.

It's possibly we've all had the 'rona at this point too but that's a story for another time.

Times were alright though. The refunds went alright but for one hotel in Poland - Hotel Karmel. I don't reccomend Hotel Karmel! But it was just a night, and it was cheap, so it wasn't a huge monetary loss.

I've been sending them occasional refund reminders for the past seven months though.

I kept working from home, life rolled on, the walks may have started getting somewhat monotone, and the happy people we met on them a bit more sparse, but at least I was feeling energetic and hopeful, and eventually came summer.

I wasn't sure how plans would fare then, but we managed.

My first early-summerhouse-preparation flight got cancelled, so I hitched a ride with my parents a while later instead, spent a week there prepping the farm, flew back for more work in Stockholm, and then eventually back again for a full month of summer.

My second flight didn't get cancelled! Norwegian resumed their schedules in July, and it seemed like things were maybe getting back on track again.

So summer it was!

We didn't get as many visits as usual. My big bro and co didn't travel up at all. And I did a lot of the shopping, as I'd done in Stockholm previously, so aforementioned aging parents didn't need to huddle together with possibly diseased peeps in the local community, and time moved on...

I managed to hang out with a local buddy a few times.

We talked to the neighbors. We farmed the land, and picked berries (less competition on those this year - and favorable weather no less - we picked more than could fit in our freezer), swam around and lapped the sunshine and really thrived for a while, and then that season was over, and it was back to business.

But first a stubborn cold I really thought must be corona.

I even had some difficulty breathing for a week or so, and a lingering itch to cough that still lingered a month later. But I tested negative. It lasted two weeks though, despite intensive supplementation and rest.

Wonder how long it would've lasted without? Can you trust a test anyway?

C-vitamin, D-vitamin, Zinc and Quercetin seem like the essential supplements if you ever need 'em btw. Good to have at home. Good to take D-vitamin proactively too - in particular during this darker season.

But it went alright. I battled it out and then I bought a car. A second-hand black SAAB 9-3 produced that same year the Woodstock festivals were at their most awesome and Kid Rock played his particularly epic performance on the main stage! 1999.

My boss was apparently getting tired of me working from home at this point, and carefully suggested that maybe I could start getting back on the commuter train again? It didn't seem to be as crowded as earlier to him - though it most definitely was. Fortunately this suggestion coincided with my car purchase, and I'd just sold my commuter card for the few months left of it that it was then worth.

Wish I'd thought of selling it before summer.

For a long time I was hoping SL would give out refunds on yearly commuter cards, but they never did. Yearly commuter cards = the cards people buy if they really want to save money, if they need to commute on a regular basis. So though the card's hella expensive (9,800 SEK this year - ca 1000 USD - finna be higher next year) the people who suffered the most from this were possibly poor people. A lot of elderly in particular, who tend to plan ahead and make the most of their budget. Paradoxically these were thus in large part people who couldn't afford more short-term cards.

So fuck you SL. Don't think I'll ever ride your shit again if I can avoid it.

At this point I hadn't taken a commuter train in... well I'd just taken a train back from the airport, but apart from that no trains since the last one to the airport, and the one back from the airport before that, and a couple short trips to celebrate socially-distanced Midsummer with some nearby relatives and to buy that car. But after this and apart from those none, and no more. I haven't commuted in half a year as of this month.

I started driving to work twice a week instead now.

I'm not accustomed to city driving at all but studied the maps and found my way without major hiccups. I soon settled into this new routine and life once again went on as usual...

After a while I started driving in just once a week. Corona case numbers started rising.

My parents came back from their slightly longer stay up North - with a years worth of potatoes and berries that wouldn't fit in the freezer this time so we rapidly ate through a few kilos - and the house was suddenly so much smaller again, but I'd started playing frisbee golf with a cousin about once a week at this time, and have been out on short trips to fix various things with the car pretty frequently, and that aforementioned day-long trip to the office each week was a welcome one-day stay away from home, so I didn't feel totally boxed in at the time.

This week I haven't been to the office at all.

Come last Friday the boss mentioned that if I didn't want to drive in at all for a while then that'd be OK, considering that now again 'rona cases are rising more rapidly than ever before. The government's about to send out 22,000,000 text messages asking people to distance themselves better, and I thought that taking this week off the office would be a good idea. I worked from home all week.

I'm driving in one last time before Christmas next Friday to fix backups before the big winter vacation sets in for real, and who knows, maybe there's some kind of gift prepared there? As there have been past years.
A bottle of wine and a box of chocolate mayhaps? It's almost become tradition, as has the yearly Christmas dinner, but that's definitely not happening now, and so I wonder if this secondary tradition is.

Can't take it for granted.

But regarding working home all week this week: I suddenly realize that maybe I don't realize how much these trips really mean. Even when they're less common I've taken them for granted, and part of me is currently almost loathing this upcoming Christmas break.

Usually I love this time off. I love the freedom it entails. I love catching up with whatever projects I might have in queue, and aim to start the New Year FRESH, but this year a part of me is stuck on imagining spending a full three weeks (this year's vacation just so happens to be longer than usual) holed up at home, with my familiar (and awesome but oh so limited) current social circle, and possibly just climbing up the walls.

I noticed it today, on this day that I'm usually away somewhere, in that I currently feel more stuck here than ever, and there really isn't much I can do about it.

It doesn't help that I have more projects on queue than I know what to do with, or that I tried to drop one recently but didn't succeed - my co-collaborator convinced me to keep going. And it definitely doesn't help that it's winter, the time when you are just - no matter how much coffee you drink or how many glasses of L-ascorbic acid you buffer with a little bicarbonate and a drop of essential orange oil and swallow - still feel tired. Tired and slightly depressed. Somewhat sullen. Somewhat sad. Not currently in the best of moods.

I thought I was getting enough D-vitamin to avoid this winter weariness.

Is this Christmas just going to worsen that sensation, or is it about to peter out entirely as vacation comes a waltzing in, and certain projects clear out, and the road is once again bright and hopeful and great things come to fruition?

Maybe the pandemic's still not really affecting me at all. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm affecting myself. I take on too much. I prioritize badly. I refuse to recognize my limitations. Maybe I've just been hitting more roadblocks than usual recently.

Regarding the 'rona it doesn't seem like certain entities want it to end until 2025, but you can't believe all they tell you can you?

Vaccines or no, if we really want it to end we can probably clear things up way before then. By next summer preferably. An array of UV spotlights spread out on public spaces maybe? A little more consensus and public broadcast on what nutrients you really need to stay healthy? And a little community effort and unity once again!

It doesn't seem impossible.

Maybe if we do something about our clearly incompetent leaders - it seems to be a worldwide phenomenon at this point - and take care of this ourselves? I'm just brainstorming here. This'll sort itself out hopefully.
With awareness. The one thing this pandemic does seem to be continually contributing, apart from bleak thoughts, unhealthy ruts and apathy.

And maybe this little ramble might clear some of the air on this whole situation.

Now off to write a character bio and revise some posts... I'll do that tomorrow.

Time to get some sleep. In addition to the vitamins: that's the tweak.

Had a weird dream earlier - though aren't they all? Typed it out before I forgot it...

It started by the commuter train in Bro, the residential area I currently reside in. Right before the train station there's a slope down towards the entrance, with a small parking area for bikes, and some trees and shrubbery on a side piece lawn.

In my dream that lawn was much wider, and on it: a jungle gym. The kind that looks like a netted dome, with thick metal bars that let you climb around easily.

It strikes me now that here in Sweden this type is really remarkably rare.

Though maybe they're rare everywhere now. Maybe they started switching out those metal bars with chain and plastic or cloth-based ones - and usually just a horizontal square embedded in a wooden frame - so I assume there's less risk of falling down and hurting yourself as you sometimes would with/or on those metal bars.

When I grew up abroad that metal dome was all the more common though. So anyway: that was the one in my dream. Nostalgia maybe.

There were a couple of younger kids there, but I decided to play around anyway, and probably did some stunts to impress them because they looked at me with respect and awe.

The sun was shining. It was a nice summery day - in great contrast to the present time real-life gray and dreary.

After a while I looked over at the board counting down the time to the next train - a relatively large black display with bright green numerals, right beside the sloping path down to the station entrance - and I realized I had just three minutes to go! Checking my pockets I realized I didn't have neither phone nor commuter card on me, and just three minutes... would it be enough to sprint home and back and catch that train?

I processed the thought as the seconds trickled away, and though my thought process started optimistic (in reality it'd take at least ten minutes home and back) I eventually resigned myself to the fact that I probably wouldn't make it after all.

At this point I'd started slowly walking towards the station entrance anyway though, and when I looked back: there was my card/wallet! On the ground. I'd left them there before I started hanging around on the jungle gym!

Time was of the essence now, so I bolted faster than I maybe ever have towards the station, so fast my feet barely touched the ground, yet suddenly the so very short slope down to the entrance started to stretch further and further away, as if to make room for my inhumanely speedy sprint which would otherwise probably not have been spatially possible.

To make things interesting a train was pulling up on each side of the platform when I rushed onto it - each one going in a different direction - and one was leaving, and the other just arriving, and I didn't know which I was supposed to catch! Both of them looked more like freight trains than commuter trains too. And that's where this particular bit of the dream ended.

Skip to Buddy Bear.

I was chilling at his place, participating in activities I do not in detail recall (but most probably food or movie related), and we started talking about housing, and his plans to maybe move.

We walked over to the door and looked out at the palm trees that swayed outside in a cool night breeze.

The entrance was level to the ground. His house looked a bit like a one-story apartment or bungalow at some tourist resort, and I reminisced over the views. Those palm trees...

Wouldn't he miss those? And that beach within walking distance? Nah, he said, he didn't get to see the sea after all. But then I looked a little to the left and you could clearly see the sea there. So close. I pointed this out and we both looked at it with fascination, the moon reflected upon the calm azure surface of the cove...

He actually lives in a pretty normal-looking apartment. Third floor. No water. No palm trees.

Next thing I know I'm in a similar apartment - if not the same one - but with a bunch of other people. The hostess, a neighbor up North we're all very fond of, comes over and we start talking about the Corona situation.

She feels like it's pretty odd that people don't really take social distancing seriously. Nobody's wearing a mask at the party, and nobody's really distancing either. The place is packed. When everyone arrived they were a bit more cautious but now it really is a full-on party, and nobody seems to mind. People done stopped caring.

I agree. We talk a bundle and have a great time.

In the middle of our conversation I get a video notification from @S3C, of this woman from what seems like an oddly civilized jungle tribe, going through some kind of ritual where she's submerged under water and learning to breath.

She's lying on her back in a shallow pool of clear water in a sandy excavation, with a group of tribesmen gathered around; witnessing the miracle.

They aren't forcing her. She's willingly submerged and actually seems to be breathing water.

The video starts a bit more ASMR-like though. You see only her lips, as she gives voice to the wisdoms of life... and I really wish I remembered the exact words here because at least in the dream they felt incredibly enlightening. The secret to life and all, uncovered in this brief very stylishly initiated red lipped ritual video...

Turns out this ritual is going on not too far off, so I head down this long sandy road that cuts through faraway plains and seems to never end...

On the way, on the mountainous plateau of what is now a far-off tropical island, a gang of criminals or pirates are fighting some unknown enemy.

It's a bit chaotic.

This one guy's trying to fence off a tiger with some weapon that really doesn't seem powerful enough to scare it (or no weapon at all? Not sure), but it does keep its distance... until he suddenly gets submerged in a sinkhole, with only his hands left above the ground. The tiger closes in for the kill... but somehow he manages to bring his upper body over the ground again, and is stabbing himself in the side. Not the tiger. Himself.

The tiger's gone.

Not sure what happened to everyone else, but a gathering of rich people are heading off in a helicopter. White-suit clad and suspicious-looking.

White, suit-clad and suspicious looking too, btw. As rich folks often are.

The long road is now gone, the tribe is forgotten, the guys who didn't embark on the chopper are nowhere to be seen, and the world is suddenly just that one tropical island again, with no roads or plains anywhere near, just endless sea on all sides and lush palm trees/shrubbery around me.

At the top of this high rounded island plateau there's a house, similar to Buddy Bear's unreal dreamy apartment bungalow, and the guesthouse I was just in, but the guests have changed again.

I'm not sure I know any of them now.

I realize there are large yellow plastic tanks roped to the side of a wall that runs around the property - the house surrounded by a small but very evenly distributed short-cut lawn before the wall, and though I don't think I ever say this out loud in the dream I realize they've rigged the whole island to blow, and all of us with it. Just so we don't reveal their plans!

What plans? I don't know. I'm not sure I ever did.

We need to get off the island though.

I find a kayak just hanging over a cliff - or more so the edge of a small ravine that digs into the island - which we start getting into; aiming to drop down from the cliff with and make it away safely.

I say "Wait! Shouldn't we rope ourselves down a bit?".

So we don't just fall out and all over the place, of course.

We start (or I start?) taking some of the surplus ropes that are wound around the tanks to tie us all in. I start thinking maybe we could even partially lower the kayak somewhat with the ropes before we let go. Now that I'm awake it dawns on me it would've been way better to just climb down the ropes. No kayak. Dream logic huh.

In the dream my mind does adjust the drop to the water a bit.

At first it's so incredibly high there's no way we'd realistically survive! You can barely see the bottom. The more I look the better it both seems and gets, and after a while it's just a short drop and we're home free! Rapid scale global warming.

But before this: We've gotta eat, so we gather all the food we can find.

There's a lot of packaged stuff, stashed away in all kinds of colorful bags and plastic coolers, and we've gathered this by the kayak, initially planning to take it with us. But there's no way we'll fit both us and this stuff in the kayak. There's maybe ten or twelve of us. So we have a snack, then remember the bombs and how we better really get a move on...

I just have to go take a piss, so I go within those walls that surround the house (both building and lawn are now empty - everybody else is by the kayak) and do my thing. It all seems so eerie and silent though, I get spooked and turn around, and there's a wolf there, silently creeping up on me along the side of the house, staring right at me...

I have no weapons. There's nothing I can do to protect myself. But in my dream I suppose I felt it was getting a bit too serious, so I turn around and attempt to piss on the wolf - with moderate success - and it runs away, apparently disgusted. Almost too easy to be true.

There's a little seal too btw. I don't know where I found it, but I carry it around since of course I have to take it off the island too, and it's great. I feed it rice cakes and some strange kind of blue Rice Krispies kind of snack that I wouldn't ever eat myself considering it's probably just packed chock-full of Azo dyes and those usually give me allergic reactions... but the seal doesn't seem to mind. It appreciates everything I give it.

Don't know how we get off the island but moments later we're home free, and I'm in my local bathtub hanging out with my seal.

Now that's a dream.

Cyberdevil seal of approval.

It's hard to assess the weight of wisdom when it spins within the void of your mind.

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