Nostalgia on Og Maciel's Journal

Nineteen Years Ago, I Shipped a Reminder

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nineteen Years Ago, I Shipped a Reminder

How BillReminder, Glade, and a stubborn love of simplification shaped my early years in open source.

BillReminder screens

I recently wrote about some of the reasons why I do what I do, especially when it comes to the professional path I’ve taken. It started long before software, back when I wanted to be a scientist—working in genetic recombination and gene therapy, trying to help people overcome genetic conditions as early as possible, ideally before they ever had to live with the consequences of them.

Confessions of a Teenage Emblem Thief

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Confessions of a Teenage Emblem Thief

“The Big Score” by Og Maciel

I was fourteen when I first heard about people who “harvested” car emblems for the thrill of it. Nobody in my small coastal town had even imagined such a thing—which, in my mind, meant I had the advantage of being the first to try. Over the next four or five months, I taught a handful of trusted friends the quiet finesse required to pry an emblem loose without leaving a scratch. I became something of a connoisseur, only going after the really special ones—novelty emblems, rare designs, or the irresistible shield-shaped badge on the Ford Del Rey Ghia. I could never have too many of those.

Who Wrote This? (Spoiler: Apparently Me.)

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Who Wrote This? (Spoiler: Apparently Me.)

Photo by Ali Bakhtiari on Unsplash

I’m not a pack rat. At least, not in the way people usually mean it. But the first memory I have of being interested in collecting anything goes back to when I was around eight or nine, and I first learned about stamp collecting—philately. I was fascinated by the idea that these tiny pieces of paper had traveled through towns, across states, over oceans. They were carried by people, planes, and ships, and each one arrived with a little bit of another place attached to it. Through stamps, I felt like I could glimpse other cultures and countries in a way books hadn’t yet offered me.

The Day in 1997 When the World Went Quiet

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Day in 1997 When the World Went Quiet

Actual correspondence from 1997

Yesterday, when I wrote about the time I used to go fishing with a friend in that very polluted lake in New Jersey as a way to have something to do and hang out after long hours of studying and waiting for my friends to be done with work, it reminded me of another similar story that happened to me. I know the exact date because, while going through some of my old notes and writings from before I was even married, I found a letter I wrote to someone telling this story.

Fishing, 90s Style: Banana Boats and Questionable Lakes

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fishing, 90s Style: Banana Boats and Questionable Lakes

Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

There was a time in the 90s when my favorite hobby—other than playing video games—was fishing. I actually owned several tackle boxes, a multitude of lures and hooks, and all the paraphernalia you’d expect: nets, rods, you name it. I had it.

Back then, most of my friends were working part-time jobs—delivery boys, stockroom helpers—anything to make some cash for gas or to keep up with the car payments for the “fancy” cars they thought they could afford. Meanwhile, I was busy with school, studying hard, and trying to keep my grades up because I thought I wanted to pursue an MD/PhD program. By the time I was done studying and my friends were done working, it was already past 10 or 11 at night.

The Day I Was Rescued by Firefighters

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Day I Was “Rescued” by Firefighters While Learning to Code

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

I guess I must be going through a nostalgic spree or something, because yesterday, as I wrote about keyboards and my experience with Linux — and even the project I’ve been working on, trying to write a few words every night — is also part of a memory from my childhood. And today, I find myself thinking of the day when I had to be, quote-unquote, rescued by the firemen after being stuck in a hotel room once.

The Student in Me Never Left

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Library in the morning hours

This morning I started work late because I had to run a couple of errands. First, I was supposed to pick up my dad and take him to the mechanic so he could get his car, but it turns out the place only opened later and I couldn’t wait for it. So it was on to the second task of the day: taking my 18-year-old daughter to her school for an in-person exam.

Why Christmas Music Gets Me Every Time

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I know it may sound weird to start talking about Christmas when Halloween hasn’t even come up yet. But last night, while my oldest daughter was making dinner, she put on a Christmas station on Pandora—and just like that, I was transported straight into my first Christmas memory.

I must have been maybe five or six. And when I say I “remember” it, I’m not 100% sure if it’s a real memory or something I pieced together from old photos—but it feels real. Someone dressed as Santa Claus came to our house. To this day I don’t know if it was my dad, a friend of his, or someone my parents hired—but “Santa” showed up. And to my absolute shock, I got a G.I. Joe dressed in full camouflage, plus a yellow helicopter and a Jeep with some kind of weapon mounted in the back. This was the early 80s, so getting war-themed toys was totally normal. That’s the first Christmas I can truly recall.

A Book, a Backyard War, and a Lifetime of Friendship

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by Anna Samoylova on Unsplash

Reading has always been part of my family for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of my parents buying books from those traveling salespeople who used to go door to door selling encyclopedias—Brittanica, Barsa, Larousse, you name it. We always had a room dedicated to books, where we kept the dictionaries, classic literature, and those giant encyclopedia volumes that made you feel smarter just by being in the same room with them.