Homemade Chai Recipe
This season I prepared a gift for many of my family members: the path to homemade Chai. If you enjoy Chai, give it a shot!
January 2018
Sorchetti - A Gnocchumentary
In my family, we always referred to Gnocchi as Sorchetti or "Little Mice". The term, along with the recipe, was my Grandma's who grew up in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. I've yet to find a restaurant that serves a similar version of the dish.
December 2016
“Kondo-ing” - Takeaways and absurd quotes on tidying
At times you might think she’s crazy but the book is a passionate read and full of useful ideas to help get and keep things in order – whatever they may be.
December 2016
A personality is a feature, not a bug
Over the past several months I’ve been exploring my role in my business and trying to figure out where I fit in best. In the process, I decided to check out a few personality tests to see what they had to say.
February 2016
Burnout and renewal
In May 2015, I took a two week vacation. Not to go dancing with my wife. Not for a trip with friends. To try to escape burnout – a slowly creeping manifestation of many hard to define and even harder to accept symptoms. Taking a vacation to escape burnout is roughly equivalent to placing a cone on your dog's head so it doesn't bite it's body while it's wounds heal.
January 2016
Notes on how to create a Language Grammar and Custom Theme for a Textmate Bundle
Over the past couple of years I've been working a lot with Craft CMS and Twig. There was an existing PHP-Twig Textmate bundle which was a good starting point but there were several Craft-specific improvements I wanted to make. Certain keywords were not recognized or highlighted incorrectly and a number of handy tab shortcuts and key bindings were not available. On top of this, I wanted to customize a theme to my preferences and struggled to get the themes I had working with the grammar in a way that made me happy.
July 2015
Sequoia National Park
A few highlights from my three day retreat to Sequoia National Park.
June 2015
Introduction To Content Strategy And Building Websites With Craft CMS
A Workshop on Content Strategy with Craft CMS at Peers Conference, Philadelphia, PA in 2015
April 2015
Refine or Reboot: Pushing The Limits of EE and When to Consider Craft CMS
A Presentation on choosing the right Content Management System at the ExpressionEngine Meetup group, Los Angeles, CA
May 2014
From Barter to Bitcoin: How we think about money and how it affects our business relationships
A Presentation about business relationships at Peers Conference, Washington, DC in 2014
April 2014
Craft CMS: Taking Content Management to the Next Level
A Workshop on Craft CMS at Peers Conference, Washington, DC in 2014
April 2014
Craft Plugins
Discussing Craft Plugins and related topics on CTRL+CLICK CAST
February 2014
Choosing The Right CMS For The Job
A Panel Discussion on Choosing The Right CMS For The Job at Peers Conference, Chicago, IL, 2013
June 2013
Git (version control) and ExpressionEngine
A Presentation on using Git version control for the ExpressionEngine Meetup group, Los Angeles, CA
July 2012
Understanding .htaccess, Regular Expressions, and URL Rewrite Rules, with Examples
The .htaccess file has probably cost unexperienced and experienced web developers more time than any other file on the internet. But understanding it has a lot of benefits – improving SEO, usability, workflow, and your health (too much swearing is hard on your morale!).
February 2012
Customizing ExpressionEngine
A Presentation on making ExpressionEngine more user friendly for clients and easier to use during development at the ExpressionEngine Meetup group, Los Angeles, CA
November 2011
Barrel Strength Design Business Cards - October 2011
An exploration in printing multiple versions of the same business card.
October 2011
An Onslaught of Caterpillars to an Air Conditioned Building in Florida
An Italian Sonnet about a particular group of caterpillars who really, really want to cool off.
October 2011
Animal Songs for Strong Children - Album Cover
The first draft of the album cover for Animal Songs for Strong Children by Benghis Khan & the Band Wagon
June 2011
Student Friendly Presentation Resources
A list of resources to help design and build more visual, compelling, and memorable presentations.
February 2011
The Bourbon Supremacy: Aperitif and Appetizer Gathering
October 2010
Handmade Engagement Ring for Libby!
September 2010
Restringing
July 2010
One Philosophy on Philanthropy: Kiva, ROI, and solving the knowledge problem
For some time I have been struggling to come up with a personal philosophy toward donations and philanthropy. Growing up, I always felt some sense of social obligation to be donating to the guy on the corner, the Red Cross, poverty in developing countries, or one of a million things. But how does one choose?
April 2010
Swirlie Ring, Prong Setting
March 2010
Chubby Birdie Ring
March 2010
Garnet Cabuchon, Handmade Ring
March 2010
Handmade Ring, Dented for Texture!
March 2010
Handmade Flower Ring
March 2010
Handmade Wire Pendant
March 2010
My First Handmade Ring
March 2010
Lessons from Buffett: Investing
Buffett's actions draw a strong distinction between a speculator and an investor — the former trying to cash in on short-term fluctuations and emotional movements of stock price, the latter interested in the underlying quality and long-term prospects of a company. These observations are drawn from the book Buffett, by Roger Lowenstein.
March 2009
Lessons from Buffett: Running a Business
While their businesses face a host of different incentives — Berkshire Hathaway a publicly owned company and Koch Industries privately held — their principled approach to business echoes many similarities.
November 2008
Improving the Design of Tax Forms: Identifying the Problem
If information design has a golden challenge, it is to redesign the U.S. tax forms. These behemoths ooze the opportunity for improvement. Not only do they clothe a complex tax in a dismal plaid, but every year they encourage thousands of diligent, hardworking citizens (unable to understand their own tax returns) to tempt hordes of labor away from other value-creating activities.
November 2008
Tools for Web Development
A few tools I've found quite useful in my (mac-based) workflow.
October 2008
Gorehorn, the Adventure Pony
If you're looking for an activity to soften a long drive, I recommend an extravagant Mix CD Challenge! Our trip was from Arlington, Virginia to Durham, North Carolina. The challenge was simple: invent two album names and assign them to other people on the trip.
June 2008
On Composition and Communication
Words, and the Placement Of is not about words. It is about understanding the relationship between human nature and effective communication, and exploring the universal elements of composition.
May 2008
Update: April 2008
A re-posting of a letter that I sent to family and friends.
April 2008
Economic Freedom and GDP per capita - Gapminder-style
For a while now I've shared common hopes to have the Economic Freedom data take new forms. The relationship between Economic Freedom and GDP per capita for example is not hard to imagine, however there is always something a bit more compelling about a nice visualization.
April 2008
Dinosaurlandia
Deep in the heart of Virginia, six friends find themselves in a land unfamiliar and rare... Their task: 1) Shoot a bunch of video, 2) Share that video amongst everyone, and 3) Let each person tell the story as it was. Here's my take on the fiction-enhanced memories.
February 2008
Book Review: Fooled by Randomness
"Reality is far more vicious than Russian roulette. First, it delivers the fatal bullet rather infrequently, like a revolver that would have hundreds, even thousands, of chambers instead of six. After a few dozen tries, one forgets about the existence of a bullet, under numbing false sense of security," says Nassim Nicholas Taleb. He refers to this as the black swan problem.
January 2008
Book Review: Why Wages Rise
At a talk this Fall, Charles Koch mentioned that the book Why Wages Rise by F.A. Harper was an influential book in his career. Curious of the subject and the inspirations of such a successful man, I decided I best read it myself.
February 2007
My Flourescent Persona
A Narrative Verse about a man who used to walk by the International House at San Jose State University.
November 2006
Temporal to the White Sea (As told by a critter to his kind)
A Blank Verse about the telling of an old story around a campfire.
November 2006
Much Thanks to Wild Boars
A poem about three friends who stayed up all night to write down the colors they saw during the sunrise.
November 2006
The Valiant Turtle Metaphor
A non-metrical split couplet about a turtle and how a turtle could possibly relate to foreign aid.
November 2006
Casual Tunes (Lauren's Closet Poem)
A song about chance, days that define themselves, and the details we remember.
November 2006