Dark, abstract 16:9 digital illustration of a person working at a desk, facing glowing screens while a stream of floating interface panels, code fragments, sketches, and geometric forms expands outward into a moody retro-futurist landscape. Subtle magenta, violet, and deep blue light cut through the darkness, suggesting focused momentum, rapid building, and ideas turning into finished work.

I don’t miss not writing code

Five years ago, I was so burnt out, I didn’t think I had a future being a software engineer. Five years ago, I thought I couldn’t cut it. I didn’t have the chops. I couldn’t keep up. Coding was not fun. I began to wonder if it ever was fun. One of the arguments against […]

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Dark abstract digital artwork of a glowing layered server-like structure on a neon grid with floating panels, purple mountains, and a retro sunset; subtle retrowave style

The CMS is dead. Long live the CMS.

I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day from a self-proclaimed 20 year agency veteran of WordPress saying that was it, they’re moving the entire agency off of WordPress and onto AI. Now, because I, too, am a 20 year veteran of WordPress, this kind of story catches my attention. He posted that they […]

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Things I’ve learned from a year of doing circus

Things I’ve learned from a year of doing circus

It’s just about a full year since I finally gathered up the courage to don short shorts and tights, expose parts of my body that are so white you’d need sunglasses against the glare, and flip myself upside down using only the power of my actual human muscles. And I’m still here, still doing it. […]

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Person working at a laptop in a neon-lit synthwave room, seen from behind, with purple headphones, a cluttered desk, and a glowing retro sunset cityscape outside the window — image created by DALL·E via ChatGPT

Disclosing AI use

This is based on a thread that I posted to Bluesky that I decided to keep here for posterity. If you want to discuss on Bluesky, follow me at @jazzsequence.com and let’s chat. Let’s talk about AI. I’ve been using it a lot recently. It’s not that I don’t see or care about the environmental […]

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Futuristic digital illustration of a friendly AI assistant connected to a glowing Model Context Protocol interface, analyzing and interacting with a WordPress-powered website dashboard filled with code snippets, UI components, and data panels, with neon data streams linking the AI to the site against a nighttime cityscape of servers and networks — image created by DALL·E via ChatGPT.

Teaching an AI to Read My Website (Over MCP)

For the last couple weeks, I’ve been building a headless Next.js frontend for this site — a project I’ve been calling jazz-nextjs. The idea is straightforward enough: keep WordPress as the content management layer (where I actually like writing) while serving the public-facing site through a modern React frontend hosted on Pantheon’s Next.js infrastructure. What’s […]

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Chris Reynolds holding and speaking into a microphone from a seated position taken at DrupalCon Atlanta 2025

Yes, I am the (interim) President of The WPCC

The cat is finally out of the bag. I was officially named Interim President of The WP Community Collective this week. When I joined The WPCC as a member last year, it was not too long after going to my first DrupalCon. DrupalCon Atlanta was enlightening for a lot of reasons. But most relevant to […]

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Gene

Gene

I apologize in advance for this post which is going to be all over the place. Yesterday, the latest major version of WordPress was released. WordPress names each version after a jazz musician and this release was named after Gene Harris. Gene. But naming a piece of software that I have worked in and around […]

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WCEH large block letters in front of a WC Canada moose poster

WordCamp Canada, eh?

Last week, I took my first trip to Canada for WordCamp Canada 2025 (WCEH). Anyone who follows me on social media, may have seen the video I recorded in anticipation of the trip. While sadly I didn’t do a lot of exploring, I had a number of takeaways from the event. Organization There have been […]

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This vibrant digital illustration shows Wapuu, the cheerful WordPress mascot, fending off critique in the form of arrows and shadowy figures, with an expression of determination. Gripping a blue WordPress logo sphere tightly, Wapuu stands strong amidst the swirling defensive motions, enhanced by bold colors and dynamic design elements that emphasize its playful yet resilient nature.

In defense of Wapuu

Since WordCamp US this year, I’ve been making some cute shorts with the Wapuu I brought back home from Portland. I’ve made two so far to promote me going to BADCamp and WordCamp Canada. My thought is that, in my role as Developer Advocate, I kind of need a “personal brand” and be doing things […]

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Gemini AI-generated image of an arcane gate under an ancient house that opens into a weird cosmic abyss

The Lovecraft Test, Gemini 2.5-pro

At the same time as I was fighting with GPT-5 to give me the thing I actually wanted, I also used the Gemini app and the access I have to pro-level Gemini models to do the Lovecraft test with 2.5-pro. Previously, I had only tested with Flash-2.0, so, not only should this be a more […]

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In this atmospheric painting, a pale man with hollowed cheeks and dark, wavy hair holds a woman with glowing sea-green eyes on a misty shore at night. While the moonlit scene is shadowed by turbulent waves and looming monstrous figures, their intense connection stands out, as the couple's contrasting emotions add a layer of mystery to the eerily luminous coastline.

The Lovecraft Test, GPT-5

GPT-5 is out now and I’ve only had a couple occasions to interact with it directly. So, I thought it was time to run it through the Lovecraft test. ChatGPT has adopted this quirk of late where, when it’s done answering your question or responding to your prompt, it says something to the effect of […]

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