Personal
26 posts tagged “Personal”.
2025
- Questions for a Happier 2026
Questions for a Happier 2026
- Nineteen Years Ago, I Shipped a Reminder
Nineteen Years Ago, I Shipped a Reminder
- Confessions of a Teenage Emblem Thief
Confessions of a Teenage Emblem Thief
- The Day in 1997 When the World Went Quiet
The Day in 1997 When the World Went Quiet
- Fishing, 90s Style: Banana Boats and Questionable Lakes
Fishing, 90s Style: Banana Boats and Questionable Lakes
- Confessions of a Horror Lover Who’s Scared of Horror
Confessions of a Horror Lover Who’s Scared of Horror
- Sorting Through a Hard Week
Sorting Through a Hard Week
- Trying to Read While Life Happens
Trying to Read While Life Happens
- Finding My Feet Again
Finding My Feet Again
- When the Armor Slips
When the Armor Slips
- Locked Out of the Kitchen: A Software Engineer’s Tale
Locked Out of the Kitchen: A Software Engineer’s Tale
- My Origin Story: The Job That Broke Me
My Origin Story: The Job That Broke Me
- The Day I Was Rescued by Firefighters
The Day I Was Rescued by Firefighters
- A Writer’s Best Friend: A Proper Keyboard
A Writer’s Best Friend: A Proper Keyboard
- I Asked AI to Analyze My Reading Habits. My Wallet Almost Didn’t Survive.
I Asked AI to Analyze My Reading
- No Is a Complete Sentence
Google Calendar says I spend an average of 20 hours a week in meetings. Add to that the fact that I have to block my own lunch just to prevent people from scheduling over it, and suddenly 25 hours of a 40-hour week are already spoken for. Then there are the ad-hoc calls that pop up out of nowhere and don’t even show up on the calendar. So I’m pretty convinced I actually spend
- October Reading Wrap-Up: A Month of Chaos, Comics & Quiet Pages
This month of October has been… a very busy one at work, and as a result, I didn’t spend nearly as much time reading as I usually do.
- The Student in Me Never Left
This morning I started work late because I had to run a couple of errands.
- Why Christmas Music Gets Me Every Time
I know it may sound weird to start talking about Christmas when Halloween hasn’t even come up yet.
- My Origin Story: Baptism by Fire
When I walked into Synaptic Pharmaceuticals for my first official software developer job interview, I had never written a line of professional code.
- Week in Review — Week 43 of 2025
Another week in the books, and this one was a reminder that life is a balancing act between chaos and comfort—between AWS meltdowns and Japanese takeout, between one-on-one meetings and long overdue naps.
- Planning My Escape (Sort of)
Today I stumbled across an article claiming that the magic number you need to save for a “comfortable” retirement is $1.5 million. I only skimmed the article, but I’m pretty sure it was written for people living in the U.S. who plan to retire around 67. And by “comfortable,” I’m guessing they mean having a roof that doesn’t leak, food that isn’t ramen, and health insurance that doesn’t send you straight into bankruptcy.
- If You Want to Grow, Get on the Bull
I can’t remember exactly when I first heard the advice about taking ownership of your own career and destiny instead of leaving it up to chance. Maybe it came from a book, maybe a talk—I can’t remember. But I do know the exact day when it finally hit me
- The Great Couch Debate (and Why My Office Survived)
Over the weekend, my wife and I were talking about how good it would be to finally replace our old, beat-up couch in the living room.
- My Origin Story: From Syringes to Software
Sometimes the path finds you long before you recognize you’re walking it - my journey from biochemistry to software engineering