We Were Just Replacing the Countertops
How reclaimed granite, a leaking dishwasher, and a few “while we’re at it” decisions became an almost full kitchen reno—and some familiar platform engineering lessons.
Writing / Notes
Things I’ve built. Things I’ve learned.
Chasing Gold
Golden Kubestronaut as a calendar, not a trophy — practical exams, a stubborn spreadsheet, and chasing the middle instead of the nod.
The Countdown Is the Curriculum
CKA is Monday. Under a real countdown, deliberate practice stops being a mood and becomes a risk-ordered queue of reps.
The Terminal Was the Gym All Along
How KubeFit became a CLI, the terminal became the gym, and Kubernetes training became a matter of reps.
The Dog Days Are Over
A new job at groundcover, a gap between knowing and doing, and the Kubernetes training system taking shape one repetition at a time.
The Games Still Work. The System Can't Read Them.
A broken Nintendo Switch, a reverse applicant-tracking system, and what the evidence says about where the modern job search is actually failing.
I Built the Same Architecture Three Times. So I'm Open-Sourcing It.
TechBearing, JobArchivist, and Bricktelligence serve different domains—but share one architectural fingerprint. The reusable spine became The Archivist Stack.
Alpha-5: Local AI Is a Platform, Not a GPU
What it takes to turn an RTX 5090 inference box into a dependable local AI system with serving, retrieval, memory, search, and tools.
What 450+ Days of Operating k3s Taught Me
GitOps, storage failure domains, observable networking, and why a healthy homelab includes failure.
Alpha-5
I thought I was remembering Power Rangers. What I actually remembered was a feeling—the feeling that somewhere, somehow, there should be a place that could hold everything together.
Every Platform Has Users You Didn't Plan For
Users don't care about your architecture. Users care about outcomes.
I Build Developer Platforms for a Living. Then I Built One for a Trampoline.
A simple "build some stairs" became a 24×30 adventure zone — and a surprisingly accurate lesson in platform engineering, observability, golden paths, and scope creep.