Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For?
It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted anything here–don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you all; it just turns out that the first year as a teacher is extremely time-consuming.
Archive: 2024.
Duplicating a Database Record in Laravel.
As I prepare to take my terrifying leap into hackademia, I’ve been freelancing a lot more lately—both as a way to freshen up some of my more rusty skills (Directing leaves little room for slinging code or technical writing), and as a way to offset some of the lost income...
I Just Quit My Job to Become a Teacher.
I first made this announcement on my LinkedIn, but I felt it was appropriate to post something specific and more detailed here because the amount of support I have received from you, the tens of readers of my blog, has always been overwhelmingly positive.
My Journey into Computing.
The first computer I ever owned was an HP Pavilion 7850 desktop tower that I picked up at a thrift store for $16 at the start of my Junior year of high school in the Fall of 2003.
Batteries Redux.
Back to Basics.
A short while back, I picked up one of those newfangled folding phones so I could (ostensibly) read more. This purchase obviously went against my “single-purpose devices” and “offline-first technology” rules, but I got caught up in a wave of techno-consumerism that ended up inspiring additional purchases of new wireless...
Default Apps — June 2024.
It’s been a little over seven months since I followed a trend and published my default apps, and in that time a few things have changed, so I thought I’d post a quick update:
You Are Not Your Impostor Syndrome.
Give yourself some credit. You’ve come a long way since your first job, and still have a long way to go until your last.
15 Pieces of Advice That Will Make You a Better Leader.
Leadership is a hard job, but it’s not a complicated one. At its core, it’s about communication, honesty, and empathy. It’s about connecting with people, and learning how to work together towards a greater purpose.
Stop Second-Screening at Work.
There’s a modern term called second-screening that, I think at this point, we all engage in in some form or another.
Shameless.
I have a confession to make: I fail a lot.
The Great Outdoors.
Anyone else tired of being shackled to a desk between the hours of 9 and 5 on a beautiful day?
Doggone It.
It’s been about a year since our (extremely elderly) dog passed away and the house has been feeling too quiet for too long (despite the children that also inhabit it). So this past weekend we took a trip to the local animal shelter to “just visit the dogs” and ended...
Batteries Not Included.
To Newsletter, or Not to Newsletter.
I’ve been thinking about starting a newsletter.
Push Off.
Dear Marketing Teams,
Turn of the Century.
Ask anyone over the age of 30 when “the turn of the century” was, and I would wager that you are nearly as likely to get the year 1900 as you are 2000.
Splitting Personalities.
Over the weekend, I helped my wife get her new website set up for her wellness coaching business. She is graduating with her Associate of Science in Integrative Health next month, and the group events she’s been running have been missing an online presence that she can direct people to...
LepreCAUGHT!
I’ve been writing a lot lately about my general mechanical ineptitude, and how I’ve been taking the tiniest of baby steps to overcome it and build a little confidence in myself.
Buy Me a Coffee... or Don't.
I did it. I jumped on a bandwagon.
Batten Down the Hatches.
Whelp, I didn’t have to wait long before that “one last blizzard before spring” prediction actually came through.
Spring Forward.
One day in and I’m already exhausted.
Saved by the Extended Warranty.
Making Better Use of the `Accept` Header.
A while back, I wrote about a Jekyll plugin I created that cross-compiles all of my blog posts in plaintext (you can see it for yourself, just click the txt link at the bottom of this or any other post). It was a fun experiment, and allowed me to not...
Cylinder 3 Misfire Detected.
Just Not a "Math" Person.
How come, when a child struggles with literacy, nobody ever says I guess you’re just not a “Language Arts” person?
"For," Not "To".
This is happening for you, not to you.
Eloquent Interactions Redux.
Eight years ago, I published an open source implementation of the command pattern for Laravel called Eloquent Interactions.
Pulse Check — February 19, 2024.
It’s been a few weeks since I published my last Sunday Reboot. In fact, I’ve published just about nothing in February altogether.
Repositories Are at the Center of Development and Production.
As mentioned in last week’s Sunday Reboot, I’ve recovered a few of my old posts from the Wayback Machine—all from my time at the now shut-down Fixate.io (via their blog, Sweetcode). These are all freelance topics, so the style of writing is a bit different than normal (for me, at...
Working with Serverless Log Data.
As mentioned in last week’s Sunday Reboot, I’ve recovered a few of my old posts from the Wayback Machine—all from my time at the now shut-down Fixate.io (via their blog, Sweetcode). These are all freelance topics, so the style of writing is a bit different than normal (for me, at...
How I Read.
I was at coffee with a close friend on Friday, and the subject of reading came up.
Sunday Reboot — January 28, 2024.
Happy Sunday, friends.
How Cloud9 Kept Me on Track after a Hardware Failure.
As mentioned in this week’s Sunday Reboot, I’ve recovered a few of my old posts from the Wayback Machine—all from my time at the now shut-down Fixate.io (via their blog, Sweetcode). These are all freelance topics, so the style of writing is a bit different than normal (for me, at...
CI/CD/CV: Emphasizing Continuous Visibility.
As mentioned in this week’s Sunday Reboot, I’ve recovered a few of my old posts from the Wayback Machine—all from my time at the now shut-down Fixate.io (via their blog, Sweetcode). These are all freelance topics, so the style of writing is a bit different than normal (for me, at...
Post-Mortem Incident Report Do's and Don'ts.
As mentioned in this week’s Sunday Reboot, I’ve recovered a few of my old posts from the Wayback Machine—all from my time at the now shut-down Fixate.io (via their blog, Sweetcode). This is the first of those posts, which I believe was originally written for VictorOps but ultimately scrapped for...
Techmento Mori.
I’ve written before about my love for thrift stores.
Sunday Reboot — January 21, 2024.
Happy Sunday, friends!
How to Dockerize EnvyMUD.
About 13 years ago, I published a post on my blog titled How to Compile Envy MUD (while my archive page has it listed as the first post, it’s actually just the oldest one I’ve retained after years of prior publishing). While the process of compiling Envy MUD (or EnvyMUD)...
The Old Web Is a Slowly Decaying Corpse.
I recently added a link-checker to the deploy process for this website, and of the ~500 or so external links links I’ve added over my 13-ish years of posts, 10% of them were completely dead, a handful more hit unexpected error states (expired certs, timeouts, etc.), and I can’t even...
Stop Trying to Sell Me Shit.
Lately, it has become increasingly obvious to me that having the word “Director” in your job title—or anything that implies “decider” in an org chart, really—is a curse.
Authentically Speaking.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about authenticity.
Sun...Monday Reboot — January 15, 2024.
I’ve noticed something…
Four, Oh, Four...
I did it.
Sunday Reboot — January 7, 2024.
Well, we’ve officially made it through the first week of the new year, and I’m already celebrating some personal wins.
AlphaSmart 3000.
A few years back, I picked up an AlphaSmart 3000 to try and do some writing without the distraction of an entire computer.
Return to The Gopherverse.
Well, I said I’d figure it out, and I did.
Sun...Monday Reboot — New Year Edition.
Alright, so… I missed my Sunday Reboot again.