I thought this was a great song for the first #lifeupdate of the new year. In an interview, Lipa stated the new “rules” are essentially friends, who are her new rules.

Dishwasher and flood update

We got a new dishwasher last weekend! Hand-washing the dishes started to take a toll on my energy levels and carpal tunnel syndrome, and I surmise the grandmother was equally over not having one. It’s easy at first, but then it becomes this hassle because going all out and making dinner, and having to hand-wash dishes? It’s a lot of work.

Shampooing the carpet seems to have made it like new again; we were worried we’d have to replace it, too. The mold and funky smell is no more.

The vacuum is also going to have to be replaced, though, because we did vacuum the floor when it was moldyish, and the sponge filter reeks of sweaty gym socks left in a bag for three weeks. I know, because I vacuumed part of my room with it before I couldn’t take anymore. I sprayed the floor with Febreze, vacuumed it up with the older vacuum, and topped the ordeal with a small oscillating fan to clear the air. 🤧😤

Behind the scenes

I did a lot of work on my blog. I tried putting it into posts, but it just seems like a complete waste, so I’ve compiled it all up in this.~

Reorganizing categories/tags

I DID IT. IT TOOK SEVERAL HOURS, BUT I DID IT. 👊 My dilemma was in my wanting to maintain a nicheless blog, but focus on some specific topics.

The new category hierarchy goal (and result):

1. Behind the scenes
2. Blogging
3. Cool People
4. Entertainment
5. Food
6. Gardening
7. Life
   1. Health
   2. Jane Lately
8. Style
9. Writing

Former categories converted to tags:

DIY
books
internet
kitchen basics
memes
movies
rants
recipes
subscription boxes
TV

Janepedia is still nicheless, but for my own sanity, my blog needed better organization. I feel like I have matured in this area, in that I used to think I needed categories for everything. Instead, I needed to stop worrying over whether I was defining a topic to please someone else. I’d rather have broad, but specific categories filled with many posts than specific categories for each little thing.

Two years ago, I changed my default category to “Life”. This year, I deleted my “General” category. FEELS PRETTY GREAT.

Since my theme displays category and tag descriptions, I’m not losing much.

I redid my FAQ page.

Though I’m starting to feel like it’s obsolete considering the amount of emails I receive from people who have clearly not read it, I redid it to only include questions I’ve been asked in the last couple of years. I don’t feel like Q&As about my allergies are super relevant anymore since I don’t blog about them much anymore. I’d also rather have the answers in posts, because I feel like FAQ pages kinda remove the ability to have some conversation about things?? And I don’t have a comments section available because I don’t want discussion (sarcasm).

One day I’d like to redo it with collapsible accordions instead of listing it all out, but the JavaScript didn’t interact so well with the search bar script, so I surmised I need to learn JavaScript to fix (which I’m not too enthusiastic about, because have you seen JavaScript? It makes me wanna cry, TBH).

Full-text RSS

Either last year or the year before, I started making RSS only show summaries instead of the full post, mainly because there was a website that kept scraping my content by using RSS to create new posts (IFTTT-style). The website seems not to exist anymore, or I don’t remember it. Whatever the case, I changed it back to display the full posts instead, so please let me know if you have any problems!

Another reason I changed it to summaries instead was because it’s against Amazon Associate’s TOS to include their links in email (ugh, so many rules), but I installed a plugin that automatically removes these links. I’m too lazy to go through and fix it all right now, sooo #notgonna.

If you read on Feedly, make sure you’re subscribed to https://lemonandlively.com/feed and not 6birds.net…it’s doing some weird things, but 6birds no longer equals hej.gay. (And SSL, just ’cause I CARE ABOUT YOUR SECURITY, OKAY.) I need to email them about how it’s being weird…

Mostly, my year has felt rather groggy. I’ve been consuming a lot of fiction to stay grounded and keep my anxiety levels low. Everywhere I look feels like a political mess is brewing, and I feel caught in the middle because I’m an independent. The overwhelm is too much, and the ridiculous arguments from people too far outside the matter hit too close to home.

Hope your year is going alright so far!