Twin boys. Toddler daughter. Hospital Tech Support. Writer. Runner. Gamer. Creating in public again.*

EMAIL // TRIBUNE // BACKSTAGE // RSS


Meta

The Artifact is Alive

My website came alive yesterday, the result of an experiment spanning over 100 interactions with the machine. I created the code and backstory of a broken starship, abandoned but still operating…barely. That code became a layer on top of the site — its active theme, now called ARTIFACT — which will continue to be monitored and upgraded over time.

I told the machine to summarize what we created, using all the interactions, requests, and backstory:

In one day, we built nine major code blocks through 23 revisions, shaping the site into a broken ship still breathing — a dialogue between me, the machine, and the Artifact. It didn’t just show content; it glitched, breathed, and transmitted, struggling to survive.

The Red Dot

I built a simple button the top right of my website. Best part about it, when I’m offline, nothing at all shows up there. Business as usual. But if you’re ever on my site and you see the red dot that says “LIVE”, click it. That means I’m streaming on Twitch. Could be gaming, could be recording a song. While writing this, I’m cleaning up code on the site.

Backstage and Tribune

I spent some time yesterday building out foundational features for the website. Things I’ve been preparing for months. There are now four links at the top of my site. Two of them are new. Let me explain.

  • EMAIL: The simplest way to get in touch.

  • TRIBUNE: For readers of my work. If you’re here for the daily writing, the Tribune is a discreet, super simple pay-what-you-want link — a modern coin in the hat that helps keep things running. The services that help the site operate add up, so if you value what you’re reading, that’s where you can show support.

  • BACKSTAGE: For listeners of my music. A space with archived albums and hundreds of unreleased songs. For the first time, all of my public albums are also blog posts with their original release dates. You can scroll them all by using the Albums tag. But if you want all the songs that were recorded around those albums, that’s where Backstage comes in.

  • RSS: Add the link to your reader app and follow along daily. (I haven’t missed a day since the twins were born).

Under the Hood

Looks good! What are you using under the hood?

The website is running on Blot:

A tool that turns a folder into a website. A simple way to publish to the internet— just drag and drop your files. Designed to work with the tools you already use, like your favorite text editor. For over a decade, people have used Blot to share their ideas and projects online.

Even though Blot is handling the backend of the website, that side of what’s happening is invisible to me. The only thing I see are my folders in Ulysses. These two paired together have been my workflow for about a decade now. It’s seamless and allows me to create on the fly from my phone.

Other than knowing that the folders in Ulysses are pointing to an iCloud Drive folder that Blot connects to, and the template I’m running on Blot is heavily customized by me and my friend Jay Ray (we’re still doing adjustments on the fly as I start building again), it really is that simple.

Featured

I’m looking forward to using tags with the new blog. Being able to connect different posts together will be helpful. Like the new Featured tag I’ve added today, which highlights some of my favorite writings. This tag will be a great place to see my most important posts.

First Ten Newsletters

I spent the last 24 hours backdating older posts on the website. From the homepage, you can scroll down to the bottom and it’ll load up another batch of posts.

Just getting started, but so far, I have the first ten newsletters broken up into their own individual posts. This allows all those ideas to live on their own and have their own little page. And thanks to tags, I’ll be able to connect all the topics together in one place. Feels good to give older writings a home again.

Backdating

As I rebuild this blog, I plan to slowly go through all my old content and find ways to add it back to the site. Anything older than this post, was added back after the fact.

(This was written August 4th, but added to the day before my first post for the new site.)

I Have Died Many Times

A new year. A new way to approach my writing. I hope you enjoy this new format. Going back to my roots. Blogging instead of weekly newsletters. This will remove the pressure of deadlines, which will also give me the freedom to create again, instead of fitting thoughts into a defined package due at the end of every week. Expect a more stream of conscious type of approach here now.

At the beginning of the last few years, I have enjoyed rereading I Have Died Many Times, by CGP Grey. Let’s start my return here with that.

My weekly newsletter that showed up in inboxes every Monday morning and lasted 137 weeks in a row is now over. When closing out last year, at first I only wanted to take a break during December, but as Christmas rolled around, and the new year approached, I knew that chapter of my life was over.

I’m ready for something new, and I think getting back to blogging (and microblogging) will scratch that itch for me. I’ll be able to build faster, with fresher ideas, and ultimately be more nimble with creating than those newsletters allowed me to be.

With no deadlines, you’ll now see more thoughts from me, or sometimes less, depending on the flow of that week. I can post immediately or not post at all for days or weeks. Only showing up when I have something to share.