In Such Times
We're having a lot of conversations right now about infrastructure. Where fences are going to go, where the chickens are going to move to, what gets planted where in the gardens. As part of those conversations, it's been brought up a few times by the family
Chess
Sometimes called a decoy, attraction is one of the most satisfying tactics in chess because when you pull it off, you're not just making your move, you're making your opponent's move too. Think of it as creating a black hole on the board. A
Thinking Like a Photographer
I'm going to be using a rather simple set of subjects today. It's a rainy day, quite stormy. I'm coming out here and noticing that the garden decorations, the dried-up vines that are just barely coming back to life, and all of these freshly
It's been a busy winter here at the farm as we settle in to the familiar routines of the cold weather: Room re-arrangement and oh, so much cooking. With all of the holiday family photos flooding my phone, I've been struggling to keep all my pictures
Workshop Recap and Review Guide Thank you again to everyone who joined me for the Learn to Use Your Tools workshop. I truly enjoyed joining all of you to explore the essential composition and focus techniques needed to capture the real beauty in your gardens. Your questions were fantastic! This
Hey there folks! We are just a few hours away from our live Garden Photography Workshop! I just recorded this quick video for you from my (very autumnal) garden to talk about what we'll be covering today. We'll be focusing on finding the beauty in the
9 February 2026 at 1:00 pm (Meeting Over) Zoom Meeting ID: 81174855875 Learn to edit the story of a photo both after and before snapping the shutter. This interactive workshop explores how simple edits and thoughtful composition can transform an image. You'll learn to see your garden
You might be thinking, "Why would I want to do garden photography now?" Halloween's already passed, Thanksgiving is racing towards us, and the stores are already playing Christmas music. In the garden, the big show of spring and summer is long over and the few remaining
It's easy to get lost in the weeds of a creative project. Running as fast as you can towards the next pulsing map marker, you don't realize that the camera has pulled back to reveal the full extent of the moonlit field through which you run.
Narrative Systems and Creative Learning
I've been doing a lot of planning, a lot of editing of gameplay footage, and a lot of the composing of world lore the last few days. And it's one of those funny situations where the more you do, the more you want to do. I
Just about every piece of technology I usually rely on for my work has had some significant glitch in the last two or three days. It's probably because I'm actually doing the work at a decent pace now instead of planning for it, putting the pieces
I don't quite know why I got fish. They were a little bit of an impulse buy, and by impulse I mean I thought about it a lot. And I talked to people about it a lot. One day when I happened to be at the pet store
I'm feeling a lot better today than I did yesterday. Physically at least. I always find that a side effect of getting sick is that when I start feeling better, I get that rubber band of all of these things I didn't do and I don&
There's an old joke in America about mattress tags. You buy a new mattress or a new pillow and it's got a tag on it that says "This must not be removed except by consumer." And pretty much everyone I know has at some
Storms rolled in yesterday and oh, it's chilly this morning. What do they say? March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, so that April showers can bring Mayflowers and Pilgrims. Storms are sometimes... transformative. Storms bring a difference. Storms harrow us and make change
I'm a little scattered as I sit down this morning because yesterday was one of those days that was going absolutely perfectly... and then I had too many cups of coffee or some food that had sat in the fridge for too long and my entire evening turned
There are some days when you're not quite sure where to start. There's an aspect of narrative alchemy that I feel is important: Calibrating for yourself where that line may fall, where that gray area path may be, between telling your own truth, acknowledging the truth
My goal with Narrative Eversion is to look at complex works of media and try to understand the motivations behind the creative choices which make them tick. These themes truly come to life when studying video games because of the complex interplay between creator intent and play choice which is
One of my favorite memories of camping is a night from our big RV trip to Tennessee, the one that got extended thanks to COVID lockdowns. From where the RV was parked in the lot of a state park campground, we could hear the kids snoring up front and the
The Scotch Gambit is one of those irregular opening patterns that probably won't give you an immediate, clear advantage, but it’s incredibly useful for throwing off your opponent's confidence and pulling them right out of their usual line of preparation. One strong path to consider
I've backed off from fandoms over the years because the vociferous love or hatred, the intense dislike or like of any particular fandom's niches... both turn me off massively. And that can be a challenge, especially given my own interests and line of work. I'