The Dispatch

Self-care, work-life balance, and sustaining the whole operation. · View all

Work From Home Ergonomics: The Office I've Built Over Time

I didn't build my home office all at once. It evolved piece by piece over a few years, driven by actual pain points rather than aspirational Pinterest boards. Here's what I'm running, what I'd buy again, and what I'm still evaluating.

remote-work self-care infrastructure projects

The Homelab as Creative Outlet: Why I Keep Building Things Nobody Asked For

The homelab isn't about saving money on cloud hosting. It's about having a space where I can build, break, and iterate without a ticket, a timeline, or a stakeholder.

homelab creative self-care infrastructure

The Transition Home: It's OK to Need a Moment

Without a commute to decompress, the transition from 'engineering manager' to 'dad' happens in the time it takes to walk down a hallway. That's not enough, and pretending it is helps no one.

work-life-balance remote-work parenting self-regulation

Keep Your Hobbies Unmonetized

The moment you start thinking about ROI on a hobby, you've turned something you love into something you owe. I've watched it happen with photography, copywriting, and smoking meat, and the pattern is always the same.

self-care creative growth

Finding Time for Self-Care When the Calendar Says No

You can't pour from an empty cup, but nobody tells you that the cup has a slow leak and the only time to refill it is 5:30 AM or never.

work-life-balance self-care parenting personal-energy

Fishing with Kids: Shore to Boat, Rocks to Reels

It started on shore with grandparents, tangled lines, and thrown rocks. Eventually the kids wanted to try the boat. Fishing turned out to be one of the better family reset buttons we've found.

parenting family self-care outdoors