Favorites
A big list of places, people, and things I love. If you enjoy any of the same stuff, feel free to get in touch. I’d love to nerd out with you about it!
Hobbies
- RV/Caravan Travel
- In 2022, we bought a tiny ass camper and started taking long road trips around the US. I thought I was going to hate it, but I’m hooked. I don’t like camping, but I love exploring. My dream is to build my own living habitat on the back of a flatbed truck.
- Hiking · Biking · Snowboarding
- I feel at home in the woods. Hiking in the forest is my happy place. I also enjoy mountain biking on my red and yellow old-school hardtail Gary Fisher mountain bike, and snowboard in the winter.
- D&D · MTG · TTRPGs
- I’m a giant nerd. I play a nautical Firbolg Moon Druid named Fin in D&D, run Merfolk in a variety of Magic formats, and run TTRPG games with my own rules-lite system.
- Reading
- I don’t read as much as I’d like to, but I’m partial to fantasy and hard sci-fi. The Expanse may be my favorite book series of all time. It’s ruined all other books for me.
- Music
- I play acoustic guitar, and love a wide range of genres, from country to punk to hip-hop.
Movies & Shows
- Altered Carbon on Netflix
- West World on HBO (season 1 only)
- The Expanse on Prime TV
- The Witcher on Netflix
- Wheel of Time on Prime TV
- Upload on Prime TV
- The Man in the High Castle on Prime TV
- The Office
- Parks & Rec
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross
- Literally everything Pixar (except for the the Good Dinosaur)
Books
- The Expanse Series by James S. A. Corey
- Company of One by Paul Jarvis
- Zen to Done by Leo Barbauta
- Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds (also a talk)
Tech Blogs
- Zach Leatherman - fonts, web performance, SSGs
- Dave Rupert - a11y, web components, css, and more
- Nicole Sullivan - UX, CSS, JS, and more
- Ethan Marcotte - UX, ethics
- CloudFour - HTML, CSS, JS, UX, and more
- Filament Group - a11y, UX, web performance, and more
- Sara Soueidan - HTML, CSS, SVG, a11y
- Modern CSS by Stephanie Eckles - CSS
- Manuel Matuzović - HTML, CSS, a11y
- Evan Sheehan - all things front end
- Eric Bailey - a11y
- Baldur Bjarnason - web dev, ethics
- Ben Myers - a11y
- Olu - a11y, JS, social justice
- Ryan Trimble - CSS
- Anil Dash - tech and more
Non-Tech Blogs
- Kottke - art, science, humanities
- Swiss Miss - art, design, humanities
- The Oatmeal - comics about life
Software
- Microsoft Todo. The ultimate digital todo app because of just how little it does (and how much it does right).
- 1Password. Essential for the digital age, in my opinion.
- Alfred. I mostly use it for launching things and snippets.
- Moom. Because native window management on macOS sucks.
- Sketch. I’m still rocking a years-old version with an expired license because it works and I know how to use it.
- Sublime Text. It does almost nothing out-of-the-box, which is exactly what I want from a text editor.
- Filezilla. Because I still like to FTP like it’s 2005.
- ImageOptim. The easy way to optimize images.
- Screenflow. The best screen recording software for macOS.
- Oh-My-Zsh. Makes working in the terminal a lot easier, especially when paired with autojump and git-open.
- Spotify. I’ve tried other services, but they do such a great job of recommending random artists I’ve never heard of based on stuff I already like.
- Keynote. I know all of the cool kids use HTML-based slideware now, but Keynote makes the kind of visual slides I do easy to create.
- MS Edge. Once my favorite browser, the Bing team is ruining it.
- DigitalOcean. Fast, affordable SSD hosting with automated backups. Sold!
- ServerPilot. They automate software and security management on DO Droplets, and let me run nearly two dozen sites on a single droplet.
Hardware
- M1 Macbook Pro 14”
- Logitech M705 Mouse
- Logitech K811 Keyboard (newer alternative)
- Shure MV7 USB Microphone
- RØDE PSA1 Boom Arm
Places
- Rhode Island. My home state. Amazing beaches. Unrivaled food. Awful drivers.
- Walt Disney World. I’m a Disney Adult. It’s my happy place. If you’ve never been, I wrote a guide for first-timers.
- Blowing Rock Preserve, FL. After a nice walk through the woods, you get to experience amazing sea water plumes.
- Tybee Island, GA. A delightful beach town. In particular, the Marine Science Center is a must-see.
- Shenandoah Valley, VA. Stunning, scenic drives. A campground overrun with friendly bunnies. An amazing cave system. This region is awesome.
- Wellington, New Zealand. Friendly people. Great museums, bars, and cafes. Beautiful architecture. Maybe my favorite place on earth.
- Rome, Italy. The most amazing art, buildings, and food I’ve ever experienced. The best way to see it is by just wandering the city, in my opinion.