Blog

Seraph by Mas Ysa

Noah Kalina recommended this album when the artist called in to a r...

House

Imagine you were going to make a splatter horror flick but the only...

Rallying Duckworth and Durbin

At a rally in the Loop demanding that Senators Duckworth and Durbin...

Leaning into Perplexity

I had been using Kagi for a while before Perplexity’s popularity re...

Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing: But Not for Me

Someone at work yesterday asked for jazz album recommendations and ...

DÍA by Ela Minus

I highly recommend listening to this while walking, preferably thro...

Eusexua by FKA Twigs

I’m glad she wandered into that rave and discovered the house music...

Desk, January 29th, 2025

I am working from the Shopify Toronto office this morning because I...

Louder, Please by Rose Gray

Kinda like Brat lite. She didn’t commit as hard on the highs and di...

11100011 by Asian Glow

I’ll put this back on when I’m riding through Seoul at night, blear...

Eno

It’s very inspiring to see an older person who has figured out thei...

Nosferatu

There's a scene in beautiful slow-motion snowfall where Ellen r...

Jamie XX at Aragon

We had a large group of us for the Jamie XX In Waves concert. Drink...

My jet lag, visualized

My 2024 Fitbed Flex

I’ve been using Fitbod for strength workout planning for I think 3 ...

The Second

Wonderfully shot.

Mature Optimization by Carlos Bueno

This book was recommended to me by Mike Shaver a couple years ago a...

Uncut Gems

I watched this on the plane ride from L.A. to Chicago as part of ou...

Auckland, New Zealand, Part 2

Returning to enjoy the ocean and the views.

Raglan, New Zealand

A surfer town with a view of the jungle.

Wellington, New Zealand

A city pressed by wind between the hills and the sea.

I’d forgotten how beautiful Monument Valley makes the rest of the w...

Rotorua, New Zealand

A mountain lake town where you can walk between the hot springs and...

Auckland, New Zealand

A modern city built between the volcanoes and the sea.

String Theory by David Foster Wallace

My brother recommended me this book years ago and then again this f...

The Zone of Interest

Constant, cutting contrast.  Vines trained to cover a barbed wire w...

Hacking Life into My Little Counter

And interactive art piece, counting care

Hacked something together yesterday

Prisoners

This was incredibly uncomfortable to watch. But once you start on i...

Cross-posting from Bluesky to Jekyll

Archiving and syndicating Bluesky posts to my site

Parasite

I remember watching this in theaters when it released and remember ...

Phoenix

It’s a jazz duet between a dirtbag and the wife he destroyed that c...

My GitHub Wrapped 2024

In the same line as Apple Music Replay 2024 and Strava Year in Spor...

Planning A Spaced Repetition System for My Site

I think I can build a spaced repetition system on my own site that ...

Cross-posting From Letterboxd to Jekyll

I want to meet the movie-lovers where they are, so I’m going to try...

Strava Year in Sport 2024

Just like my Apple Music year-in-review, Strava wants to give me an...

The First Omen

This review may contain spoilers. I clocked the twist as soon as sh...

Adding Website Card Embeds to my Bluesky Posts

Bluesky’s AT Protocol and client app has some interesting choices. ...

Rules for Syndication on My Site

With all my recent outward posting and inward importing of my writi...

Cross-Posting From Mastodon to Jekyll

Archiving and syndicating Mastodon posts in Jekyll

Apocalypse Now

A man broken by war rides a boat of soldiers up a river to kill ano...

Apple Music Replay 2024

I recommend all this

I set up a custom font on the Boox Palma

This morning I figured out how to set up my preferred font (IBM Ple...

First time ordering through Too Good To Go

A friend of a friend recommended Too Good To Go to me last week and...

I set up Day One on my Boox Palma this morning

And also connected my mechanical keyboard to the device via bluetoo...

Cross-posting to Bluesky from Jekyll

Just like how I set up cross-posting to Mastodon for this site (to ...

Kiki's Delivery Service

A lovely heartfelt self-discovery film for kids. My favorite charac...

I Love micro.blog - Here’s Why I Don’t Use It

I spent last night reactivating my micro.blog account and trying to...

Caribou at The Salt Shed

Another really fun Caribou show.

Desk, November 17, 2024

Switching to basic lights

Christian Mackie’s Photography Zines

Christian Mackie is my coworker at Shopify. He’s also a prolific ph...

Mammoth Cave

John wanted to go to Mammoth Cave for the long weekend and I hadn’t...

New Family in Washington, DC

Scenes from visiting our newest family member

End of The Line

My friend Ned lent me this photo book for the week and I thoroughly...

How to Cross-Post to Mastodon with Jekyll

I publish posts on this site first - Publish On Site Syndicate Else...

Fat Dog at The Empty Bottle

I bought tickets to this show back in June when Bill told me they w...

Justice at Radius

I’ve loved Justice’s music since we would listen to their debut alb...

Speak No Evil (2022)

I thought this was decently unsettling, but ultimately I felt like ...

AIR at Auditorium Theater

We were lucky enough to see AIR play their Moon Safari album at a p...

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child

It was like a teen fan-fiction writer wrote the plot and script and...

Montreal, September 2024

I got to travel to Montreal this fall for a Shopify burst (meeting ...

RL Grime at Radius

We weren’t going to go because I had a flight at 8am the next morni...

2024 Chicago Horror Film Festival

Matt and Brandon and I had a lovely evening of horror short (and a ...

Riot Fest 2024, Saturday

We went along with friends to Riot Fest on Saturday. It was previou...

The Substance

I want to give this movie six stars out of five. I’ve been implorin...

The Master

Nick took me to go see this at a matinee 70mm showing by the Music ...

Vertigo

I thought this movie was about people being afraid of heights. And...

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Who doesn’t love a magical demon playing in a world of ’80s music a...

Alien: Romulus

This was a great horror-movie plus playing-game-levels-adventure pl...

Brothertiger at Schubas Tavern

Paul recommended Brothertiger to us and was very excited to see him...

Romanticism by Hana Vu

The constant chorus of her voice reverberating in every track makes...

Twister (4DX)

I’ve seen this movie so many times growing up, but I’m counting it ...

Glass Animals at Northerly Island

Bill offered me a ticket because someone was sick and couldn’t go. ...

Cirque of The Towers 2024

Backpacking to the Cirque of The Towers in the Wind River Range, Wyoming.

Denver, August 2024

This was our second time in Denver, but the first time actually spe...

Big Wild at Red Rocks

We took a shuttle bus from the train station in Denver out of the c...

F9: The Fast Saga

This isn’t a good movie. It’s a fever dream formed from stacking al...

Desk, August 11, 2024

Working outside in the yard in these summer afternoons is heavenly.

Under Paris

The movie is not good. We know it’s not going to be good. But we kn...

Shopify Keychron K3 Pro

This spring I replaced my Customized Keychron K1 with a customized ...

Home Studio Over Shared Office

I’ve been going back and forth in my head for the last couple years...

The Last of Sheila

I love a murder mystery where everyone is despicable and the charac...

Lollapalooza 2024

It’s always packed and young and hot and fun. Riding the L home we ...

Smile

When I watched the previews for this film a couple years ago, I tho...

Rap World

Seeing this was a blast! Unhinged editing made it aggressive and th...

Deadpool & Wolverine

It’s funny. It’s bloody. It made me say “ew”. It made me laugh out ...

It's Such a Beautiful Day

The next thing you know you’re looking back instead of forward. And...

Still Woozy at Salt Shed Fairgrounds

I have loved Still Woozy since he released Cooks in 2017. I remembe...

Twisters

We went to see this up north of the city so that we could site back...

Longlegs

Matt and Brandon and I were pretty excited to see this movie - the ...

Pitchfork Music Festival 2024

This year’s Pitchfork festival had high highs and low lows. I’ve go...

Cortex at West Fest

I walked over to the last evening of West Fest in sickly humid heat...

Deeper at West Fest

We went with a large group and met still more friends out at West F...

Bully at Empty Bottle

This show was part of the Nothing/Assumed series of sober events fo...

La Casa Lobo

I watched this under its English name: The Wolf House. I’ll have t...

Using an LLM and RAG to Wring Insights From My Posts

I’ve been using large language models - LLMs - and retrieval-augmen...

MaXXXine

I love this trio of movies, but I place this third in line: Pearl w...

Shopify Summit 2024

I spent the week in Toronto’s Enercare Center, talking to hundreds ...

The Roots & Weezer & Girl Talk at Budweiser Stage

On the first night of Shopify Summit 2024, we were treated to a tri...

Analytics Experiment: Switching from Tinylytics to Goatcounter

I haven’t had analytics on this site/blog in many years, but as I’m...

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Statham and The Rock insult each other for a while and then fly lik...

My guestbook is live

Inspired by Manu’s guestbook, I’ve created my own.

Mdou Moctar at The Empty Bottle

I’ve loved each of his albums, reeling guitar licks and melodies th...

Bonobo at Concord

I’ve really enjoyed listening to Bonobo in the past, and so when he...

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Doris Day was not given enough in this one - she is commanding. Is...

The Swimmer

This weirdly was able to capture the sense of a short story (it’s b...

The Fall Guy

Just some fantastic, patient comedy and bombastic, pulsing physical...

Beyond Wonderland 2024

This festival replaced Heatwave - an incredible misnomer that broug...

Anatomy of a Fall

This film does an amazing job at retaining doubt throughout an evol...

LCD Soundsystem at Aragon Ballroom

We got there an hour before the show to get a good view and it was ...

I Saw the TV Glow

I watched this director’s earlier film, We’re All Going to the Worl...

Twenty-Sided Tavern Premiere Trip

We traveled to Brooklyn for the weekend to see our friend Maddie pr...

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

After eating a glorious smoked chicken and pineapple and asparagus ...

Saint Maud

Brandon and Matt came over for scary movie night. I was inspired by...

This Place Rules

I’ve watched videos from Andrew Callaghan for years because I think...

Jeff Rosenstock at The Salt Shed

Sidney Gish opened for the show and said, “let’s go guys” before st...

Hundreds of Beavers

Rob invited us to this movie and we went in knowing nothing. I met...

Colin Stetson at Bohemian National Cemetery

This has to be one of the top five shows in my life. The man was l...

Road House (2024)

We watched this while Becca cut Marybeth’s hair and Stephanie’s hai...

Sting

I wanted to have a scary movie night with Matt and Brandon and they...

The Holdovers

This was a pretty good movie, but I don’t feel like I need to retur...

Bombay Bicycle Club and Mustard Service at Metro

I implored people to get tickets to their show when it was announce...

Re-Animator

With Matt and Brandon over for scary movie night, I wanted ‘a good ...

Dune 2

We watched the second installment with Nick and Stephanie and we al...

Killers of the Flower Moon

Started this too late in the night (it’s soo long) but I enjoyed th...

Steve Reed’s 50th Birthday in Disneyworld

Shea Couleé's Love Ball

We sat too far back at Concord for my liking, but we still had a gr...

Rachel By The Bay

I’ve been reading this blog https://rachelbythebay.com for so many ...

David OReilly

There’s this video game trailer for Everything that I’ve watched ov...

Reading The Power Broker with a podcast book club

I’ve been reading The Power Broker with this podcast/book-club and ...

The Fate of The Furious

We watched this “helluva ride” “sum b**ch” movie with Nick and Step...

Building a Network Graph Site Index

I had a fun time this morning building a network view/graph for thi...

Amtrac & Tourist at Concord

We were supposed to have our nieces staying with us all weekend but...

My exercise journal

I was reading this blog post about how and why this professional ru...

Personal Serial Numbers

I was listening to Van Neistat yesterday and he mentioned a habit o...

Sick

Scary movie night with Matt and Brandon and we watched Sick. It wa...

My favorite fonts

I hate getting an I confused with an l confused with a 1 , so I usu...

The Devils

Brandon and Matt and I had our regular scary movie night at Matt’s ...

Tom Sachs's COLOR Hex Codes

I come back to COLOR by Tom Sachs whenever I want to force myself i...

Walking The Lakefront in Late Winter

I love walking in Chicago, and the lakefront is the best place to d...

Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod

I finished reading Things Become Other Things this morning. I start...

Customized Keychron K1

I use a keyboard for 8+ hours every day, so I need mine to be a hel...

Can You Imagine? A Library of Possibilities for Reimagining the Web by Sublime

I finished reading this recent zine from Sari Azout and Sublime las...

Rossy at Chop Shop

We went to go see Rossy at Chop Shop and she was great as always. I...

Pulling Fun Insights Out of My Apple Music Library

I wrote an Apple Music Library parser for fun

The Beekeeper

I had initially seen the preview for this movie while waiting for G...

Everywhere a calendar

Show me more time-aligned data

Desk, January 14, 2024

I wanted more light on my desk (without having to turn on the video...

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

I had heard this movie was kind of trippy so I was looking forward ...

Bodies Bodies Bodies

We watched this in the deep cold of Winter, so the hurricane aspect...

American Fiction

Jeffrey Wright was great. I really enjoyed this movie more than I ...

Closed Circuit

We went to go see this film with Ned and Jet as part of Gialo Janua...

Predestination

“I am my own grandpa.”

The Meg 2: The Trench

What if someone made a creature feature where nothing happened at a...

Sketching a New Blog

Sketches of my blog and website I drew these on the flight home ...

Zeds Dead at Salt Shed

With Emily and Bill and Kylie and Shannon and Brian and his new gir...

The Beyoncé Renaissance movie

This was my first time seeing a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse and i...

Godzilla Minus One

I liked it, but it was pretty strange! It’s a good human drama, ab...

Braiding Sweetgrass

I finished reading Braiding Sweetgrass tonight and I am filled with...

New KO II Synth from Teenage Engineering

New KO synth arrived today! Putting batteries in it as I sign of...

Confidence Man at Lincoln Hall

Confident eye contact

Desk, November 26, 2023

I got it in my head that I could make my own, wall-mounted, smaller...

Jessy Lanza & Golden Donna at Sleeping Village

I always love going to Sleeping Village and so when I saw Jessy Lan...

Recently

I wanted to throw out a brief update on what I’ve been building, wr...

To Pick a Nectarine

Every spring, I eagerly plant outside as soon as the soil is soft e...

Beyoncé at Soldier Field

You’re pretty sure it’s going to be a fun night when, as you walk u...

After Reading: The Good Citizen

A woven history of violated and reclaimed citizenship in the United States

First Aid Kit at The Salt Shed

The Swedish duo’s ethereal and intertwined voices harmonizing and m...

After Reading: The Creative Act

A call to embrace the creative process: the continuous cycle of sourcing, crafting, and sharing.

After Reading: A Philosophy of Software Design

I had been recommended this book a handful of times by coworkers at...

Kandy Muse and Jimbo at Roscoe's

We braved the storms last night to watch Kandy Muse and Jimbo perfo...

Japanese Breakfast at The Salt Shed

A great evening seeing Japanese Breakfast perform a second time

Grapetooth at West Fest

Grapetooth was a fun, tongue in cheek show on a perfect sticky summer night

Getting Social Online

Examining my options to become a bit more socially engaged online

Smog in Chicago

Chicago had the worst air quality in the nation today. Walking out...

Final Day of Re:SET Chicago

LCD Soundsystem, Jamie XX, and Idles at the last day of the first year of this festival

A Successful Rewrite: Micro-services to Monolith

I was invited onto the Never Rewrite podcast last week to talk about... when and why I think you should rewrite software.

Desk, May 23, 2023

I’ve built a bunch of changes in the last couple weeks. bent an...

100 gecs at Empty Bottle

Just fantastic - though a weird ending. I loved how there was a se...

After Traveling: Joshua Tree

Scrambling around the playground that is Joshua Tree national park

After Traveling: Death Valley

I went through and selected a first edit of my photos from Death Va...

Desk, April 4, 2023

I’ve moved the desk so that I can look out a window into the world,...

Away in California This Week

I'm away, hiking, scrambling, breathing in California

STS9 at The Riviera

With Dan, Paul, and Walters. The concert went sooo long, and had s...

Renting A Cabin With Friends

Highly recommended. Doesn't matter where you go.

After Reading: Kissa By Kissa

Paging through Craig's beautifully tactile travel photobook

After Reading: A Psalm For The Wild-Built

A calm walk through a quiet forest flickering with futuristic light

Desk, March 8, 2023

I’ve slightly rotated the monitor so that I can have a deeper front...

After Reading: The Design of Everyday Things

Notes after finishing the classic 20th century design book.

Good First Issues Are Gifts

Making sure each open project I maintain has at least one 'Good First Issue' available for newcomers to improve the project

Considering Kagi

Kagi tells me I’ve used its search around 200 times in the last month that I’ve been paying for it. What are my impressions? Do I think it’s worth paying $10/month to use its search instead of one of the big search engines?

Opening Up My Notes Garden

I made a site to browse and link to my highlights and notes from around the web. Feel free to browse around.

Tourist at Chop Shop

With Marybeth and Ned, and it was pretty good. We waited forever to...

Who and Why and How I'm Funding

A breakdown of how I'm funding individuals in 2023, who they are, and why I think individual funding is important.

Desk, February 6, 2023

I’ve moved all my tools to custom shelving I built behind me and I ...

The End of Narro

The timeline and reasoning behind why I shut down Narro, the best way to listen to the internet.

YouTube to Apple Music Download Script

Sweep your favorite YouTube concerts into your Apple Music library

Writing a Better Readwise to Day One Importer

Contributing to open-source on the first public holiday of the year.

After Reading: Valuable Humans in Transit

On reading the latest paperback by my favorite internet fiction writer.

After Watching: How Buildings Learn

On watching the deconstruction of high-minded architecture

After Reading: The Americans

On reading the street photography touchstone way past when I should have.

After Re-reading: The Systems Bible

On re-reading one of my earliest introductions to software design.

After Reading: High Output Management

In reading the classic management book of the '90s

Desk, November 10, 2022

I hung up a towel from San Tropez, France to provide some sound dam...

Indigenous Peoples Day Walk

Walking the I&M Canal on a warm fall holiday.

Desk, July 6, 2022

I destroyed the upcycled growing/garden cabinet in favor of a hydro...

Work Trip to Vancouver

Our team went to a Shopify Burst in Vancouver in the beginning of June.

Desk, May 21, 2022

I’ve installed a series of LED grow lights in the old cabinet to su...

Puerto Rico 2022

Marybeth and I flew down to Puerto Rico to celebrate our friend Val being ten years cancer free.

The Wedding of Bill and Emily

We had a blast at our friends’ wedding.

Miami and Key West

Marybeth, Paul, Dan, and I traveled down the keys and back to MIA.

Donny Benét at Lincoln Hall

Ned had an extra ticket so I went with him and it was a lovely show...

What’s Up?

Hey, long time no talk. Once upon a time you visited my website - ...

Memba at Chop Shop

Marybeth and I went with Bill, Emily, Kate, Shannon, Kylie, Grant, ...

Spam Accounts in 2022

I fell down this rabbit hole while trying to investigate some spamm...

Leopold FC660C Review: Shadow Play

The Leopold FC660C keyboard will melt away into your environment. I...

Desk, January 23, 2022

You can see the mouse is back on the table. I have been living in G...

Game and drinks night at Paul and Dan’s

After taking the train back from the suburbs, we went straight to P...

Thinking about Ghost as a website platform

Dumping thoughts about migrating from Jekyll to Ghost

Living image

This leaf fell off the fiddle-leaf fig last week and I kept it arou...

Desk, November 30, 2021

I wanted a bit more green on my desk, so I built a terrarium. I ha...

Caribou and Jessy Lanza at Riviera

One of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. Jessy Lanza was a fanta...

Desk, September 8, 2021

I finally got a proper monitor stand. It was on sale, and came with...

Desk, June 28, 2021

I just received a new keyboard - the Leopold FC660Cwith Topre switc...

Desk, April 2, 2021

I got a new desk surface. I finally have a proper standing desk - w...

Desk, February 24, 2021

Bant was bugging me for attention, so I put her up on top of my cab...

Ergodox Moonlander Week 3

I would not have purchased this machine with my own money. No one n...

An Autumn with Out of Office Hours

Reflecting on what went well and what to improve after a season of mentoring brand new software engineers.

After Reading: Working in Public

I’ve been a distant fan of Nadia Eghbal for years, following her wo...

Desk, September 22, 2020

We rented a cabin with some friends for the week and we all shared ...

Desk, August 2020

Keeping that teapot front and center. I found a cabinet that a nei...

After Reading: The Making of Prince of Persia

Reading The Making of Prince of Persia journals, by Jordan Mechner,...

On Writing Great Product Release Emails

If you release software, you’ll need to communicate new features an...

Desk, March 25, 2020

This is my desk as we start to work from home in the pandemic. An ...

Desk, February 2020

I’ve been using the ‘actual’ desk at OfficeLuv in these dark winter...

After Reading: So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid

I finished So Many Books (Gabriel Zaid) a couple months ago but the...

Tourist & Gilligan Moss at Sleeping Village

I knew both of these performers before going to the show, but damn ...

Desk, August 2018

At OfficeLuv, my desk has been our long bar. I can stand and work t...

Weeknote of 2018-07-30

On repeat: youtube.com/watch?v=cgULtrAfISw I have been in the prac...

Desk, June 2018

Louie decided to hang out at my desk today.

Desk, March 2018

At OfficeLuv, we have a tradition of covering a team member’s desk ...

A Recommendation of Nevzat Cubukcu

We hired Nevzat as our third engineer and Android device expert. Ho...

A Recommendation of Jack Kent

Working with Jack is extremely rewarding, because I know he will al...

A Recommendation of Lauren Polkow

When I sat down with Lauren for the first time, I knew immediately ...

Desk, October 2017

Jane and Nevzat at our desk clump before the Halloween party. My c...

Bad Graphs in the Wild

I recently used this example as a source of interview questions, so...

Desk, May 22, 2015

While we’re (ThreadMeUp) down in Orlando at this online marketer co...

ThreadMeUp Daily Code Reviews

We have daily code reviews at 1pm. Everyone in the engineering team...

Desk, November 30, 2014

We’re on vacation over the holiday, but I still had to work today f...

Desk, September 2014

Since there’s a bunch of space on the Aggrego floor these days, I’v...

Desk, March 2013

I’m sharing a desk with Bruce at the Sun-Times office, which means ...

Desk, March 2011

In Spring of 2011 I’m working as the Photo Editor for The Daily Ill...