ravensweald

Me no likey the block likey
25Feb26 | 11.27 CST
© 2026
michael raven
c: 260225.1127
Some days, you can’t win for the losing.
In trying something out for WordPress on a test site, I saw a new block that I thought would solve a frustration of mine about the .org version of WordPress, where you have to force folks to click on the post title to “like” a post when they visit outside of Reader. I finally had a block to add to my front page for likes (on those short poems).
Which is fantastic. Except… It doesn’t appear to be registering likes in the notifications on either of the versions of Reader (web or Jetpack App), which is where I keep track of such things. Which means the functionality is broken and I need to rework the site design to get back that functionality to where it should be.
TARNATION!
This is a consistent problem with the Jetpack plugin for WordPress. They push out a feature without really testing it prior to launch and it breaks things. Last year, it was the commenting system until an update. Other times, features don’t do what they are functionally designed to do. Reader regularly gets web updates that are headscratchers at best, and breaks Reader until someone can hotpatch it at worst.
I love the folks at WordPress, but they really need to do a better job of testing their incremental updates before something goes live.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming. I just needed a quick vent.
tagged:
/rant, broke AF, venting
filed under:
junk drawer
5 comments on Me no likey the block likey
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Me no likey the block likey
Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #2: Copper on the Take
25Feb26 | 09.07 CST
© 2026
michael raven
c: 260225.0907
AI generated image at Michael Raven’s direction
The first installment in this serialized story can be read here.
Whatever happened down the street had a sound that scraped against the soul, even for this blighted patch of the city. More than my exposed skin prickled in the charged rain, thick with the scent of ozone and something fouler. Even a magically-disinclined Hollow like me didn’t need a gifted psychic to tell them that shriek was tied to the recent bagboy, not someone thrilled to be boosting a sports car. For one thing, no rubber burned to drown out the wee-hour drone. For another, the sound was less ‘joyride’ and more ‘soul-flaying’. Had that same sound clawed its way out of some window over The Red Door down in The Tenderloin District, my assessment might have shifted. I might have even paused long enough to offer a slow, dark clap of appreciation.
(more…)
tagged:
hardboiled, noir, occult noir, prompted fiction, vivian locke, writing challenge
filed under:
fiction from prompts
3 comments on Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #2: Copper on the Take
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Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #2: Copper on the Take
casting runes — 24feb26
24Feb26 | 10.39 CST
© 2026
michael raven
c: 260224.1039
sowilo
```
though skies still cast iron &
ice still lies scattered
across winter soil
butter spread on doorposts
grows softer each morn
```
A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.
Today’s rune is sowilo, the sun. Sowilo is the source of enlightenment, for lighting the way and illumination. It is also called the “icebreaker” and gives power to an “attack”, ensuring success and/or prosperity. This rune also represents hope, the light at the end of a long darkness.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
tagged:
poetry, rewilding, rune, sowilo
filed under:
poetry
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casting runes — 24feb26

c: 260223.1951

i read the night braille
a chill breeze raises on skin
all fingertip & firefly slow
with a burning below
while your fingernail
stole away my breath
whisper in crushed velvet
while crickets fiddle
under full moons

tagged:

betwixt and between, poetry

filed under:

prose

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night braille

sharp

23Feb26 | 14.33 CST

michael raven

c: 260223.1433

all these sharp objects tempting
of the thorn words piercing lips
to suture and to bind and to seal
away razor cantrips in sting

dawnblade dancing broken wrists
to pirouette to pain and thrust
for scarlet upon the snowdrops
at least, they will say, he had good cause