Life Lived

As you might’ve observed from my homepage marquee, I’m into a lot of things! I wear a lot of hats, that’s for sure. While some overlap and others are different facets of a similar coin, let me give you a quick tour of what I’m into. Maybe you’ll discover a bit of who I am along the way.

I’m a bondservant. First and foremost, I live my life in recognition of Jesus as both my Lord and my Savior. And while ‘bondservant’ isn’t traditionally associated with joy, it’s been the joy of my life to seek first The Kingdom, share the good news of salvation, and have my world radically changed around me along the way. My foundational scripture is Matthew 6:33.

I’m a husband. Closely followed after my faith is my marriage. I’m blessed to have found the partner I always prayed for, Kalika. Luckily we share a number of passions and she puts up with all of my hobbies and shenanigans (and those nights when my brain is background-processing dev concepts). This life just wouldn’t be the same without her.

I’m a father. Well, technically, as I write this, not quite yet! But we anticipate baby Sully in just a few days and I have a feeling I won’t be updating this website all too quickly after that! We’re both very excited and can’t wait to see what our new life ahead holds.

I’m a digital ultra-minimalist. I’ve done my best to document my journey into this world on my blog over the last several years, but this has radically changed my universe. I sort of wrap the deep work, digital minimalism, slow productivity, ultra-focused time, etc. topics up into this “digital ultra-minimalist” moniker. There are just a lot of facets to the system. In work, in life, in technology, in spirit… but it’s done incredible things for my life since I began.

I’m an engineer. The easiest way to describe this is that I just love knowing how things work. Cars, bicycles, houses, software, the list goes on and on. I want to know how all of these things work, down to the smallest detail. Sometimes because I intend to do some building myself, sometimes because I just desire to know the mechanics behind our modern world. While software became my primary domain, it certainly doesn’t mean my engineering brain doesn’t think any less about other fields!

I’m an advisor. I tend to avoid big corporate hand-wavy talk, so really all this means is that I work with a few different businesses locally (Ohio represent!) and advise them in business operations, technical / software systems, and general company directions. Generally I vie toward small businesses and startups; I find I can have the greatest impact there.

I’m a writer. Though I truly never would’ve thought that would ever be in my future if you’d asked me in college. The very same college student that graduated having only written four or five papers (mathematical proofs notwithstanding) in their four year tenure. I’m not exactly sure where along the way things changed, but I found my voice. And I found a passion for writing in the topics I care about. You can find many of my articles here on my blog. I occasionally guest-write for others.

I’m a reader. And I don’t know many writers who aren’t! I feel they are yin and yang — those who produce compelling thoughts with their words are fluent and well-exercised in receiving compelling thoughts by word. We’re dealers of a different currency in that way. I do try to keep a reasonably updated list of books here on this site (along with a few thoughts for each) over on the books page.

I’m a photographer. Though, I don’t like that title very much. I strongly prefer to say simply, “I take pictures.” Photography is one of my hobbies that I safeguard deeply. It’s not something I ever want to receive money for — I know how dollars can poison the enjoyment and fulfillment of something which was otherwise done purely out of love. “Photographer” is so “I get paid to take pictures”. Kalika does that! I don’t want to do that. While most of my images stay private, some of my favorite landscape and wildlife shots are publicly viewable on my Flickr account.

I’m an audio engineer. I spent all of my years in college, where I was a computer science major and music performance minor, learning audio on the side. It felt like the perfect cross between CS and music — the literal combination of the two. After then running the audio company for a number of years (including mixing shows for T-Pain and Aaron Carter) I decided to take audio into my own hands and consult independently. These days I operate several shows per year for a number of churches, colleges, and other organizations throughout the Columbus metro area.

I’m a bike builder. And even occasionally a bike rider! Though, sadly, I haven’t really logged any serious road miles in a couple of years. I’m hoping to return soon. In the meantime, I’ve been building electric bikes, writing software for them, and enjoying them so very much. Especially our mini-van of a cargo bike — the Yuba Mundo Lux (converted to electric). It can carry the whole family.

I’m a musician. That music performance minor didn’t go to waste! I studied jazz and blues electric-guitar in college and have enjoyed playing music in various capacities all my life. Singing, playing, listening, writing. I enjoy all of it. I’m 100% Kemper, generally play Taylor (acoustic) or PRS (electric), and still rock a drumset! You can find me playing Sunday mornings at Faith Life Church and, occasionally, out with Beyond Wildwood.

I’m full of joy. This list is getting really long but I’ll close it with joy. It’s a tremendous honor to be able to do all of these things. I’m not trying to give a platitude here; I really am blessed to wear these hats. My life is full of joy, laughter, challenging puzzles that bring great accomplishment, and happiness. Like I said, Matthew 6:33.