Damned In Blue

I just put down "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin a few days ago, and it's stuck with me in a way books rarely do. It's actually the first novel I've read in about two years - the last one was "Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters back in 2023. As someone who's played video games since the '90s, this book hit differently. It gets into the nitty-gritty of how games work, how they're made, and how they're sold. Most books don't touch this stuff, which made it feel real to me right away. The heart of the story is Sam Masur and Sadie Green's relationship. These two game developers build their entire lives around gaming - creating together, fighting over their work, and letting games shape pretty much everything about them. Their collaborator Marx plays a role too, but it's really about Sam and Sadie. What really got me was how the book uses dying in video games as this running theme. Any gamer knows that dying ...

I started 2024 with a simple idea - writing down three things I'm grateful for each week. After a rough 2023 that hit my business hard, I needed to find my footing again. It seemed like a good way to reset and appreciate what I had. At first, it was easy. My kids topped the list every time - they're my world, after all. I wrote about my job, the chances life gave me, the small wins along the way. But something weird started happening as the weeks went by. The same things kept showing up in my journal.  Don't get me wrong - I love my kids just as much as ever, but writing it down week after week started feeling like going through the motions. You know how when you say a word over and over, it starts losing its meaning? That's what happened with my gratitude practice. The feelings were still there, but the words felt empty. I was stuck in a loop, grateful for the same things every week, and it started to feel pointless. Then a few weeks ago, it clicked. The problem wasn...

I used to hide behind labels. You know the type - those neat little boxes we put ourselves in to make sense of who we are. For me, it was being "introverted." Sure, I prefer my own space and don't naturally gravitate toward big social gatherings. But I've learned that clinging to these labels can hold us back from experiencing life fully. Let me tell you about a turning point in my journey. It was November 2019, and I found myself in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for an SEO conference. I didn't choose to go - as part of the sponsoring team, I had to be there. My first instinct? Pure resistance. The thought of networking with hundreds of strangers made my stomach churn. But here's the thing about comfort zones - they're more like prisons when we let them control our choices. Standing in that conference hall, surrounded by people I'd only known through usernames and forum posts, something unexpected happened. I started talking. First to one person, then another...

L et me tell you about the hardest lesson I've learned as a freelancer: stopping the endless cycle of comparing myself to others.  It's not the late-night client emails or the feast-or-famine income that keeps me up at night. It's those moments when I'm scrolling through LinkedIn or chatting in freelancer groups, seeing others land massive clients or post about their six-figure months. I catch myself doing it almost automatically. Sarah just landed that dream client I pitched to last month. Mike's posting about his best quarter ever. And here I am, staring at my own modest wins, feeling like they're suddenly not enough. The thoughts creep in: "I know I'm good at what I do. So why aren't I there yet?" Last week, I found myself spiraling after seeing a freelancer with half my experience charging double my rates. I started questioning everything - my skills, my pricing, my entire approach to freelancing. The worst part? I was actually having a goo...

I never expected to find life lessons while watching cartoons with my 7-year-old daughter. Yet here I am, completely blown away by "Wander Over Yonder," a show she insisted I watch after we finished her other favorites like "Steven Universe" and "Gravity Falls." I'll admit, I was skeptical at first - how good could another kids' show really be? But my daughter hasn't steered me wrong yet with her recommendations, and this time was no different. Finding Joy in Unexpected Places You know those moments when you catch yourself laughing out loud at something you're supposedly watching just for your kid? That's what happened with "Wander Over Yonder." The show follows this eternally optimistic orange fellow named Wander and his best friend Sylvia as they travel through space, helping others and regularly running into a hilariously inept villain called Lord Hater. It sounds simple, but there's something special happening beneath...

  D uring the 2020 pandemic lockdown , like many others, I found myself with an abundance of time after work hours. This led me down a path to catch up on anime series I'd missed, and somehow, I landed on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. People had recommended it as "good" and "different from the usual anime." Well, they weren't wrong about it being different, but "good"? That's where things get complicated. Let me be brutally honest: the first season of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is one of the worst anime experiences I've ever had. The artwork looks like a low-effort production from the '80s, the animation is subpar, and the story is, well, stupid. There's no other word for it. I nearly dropped it after two episodes, but two things kept me going: my principle of finishing what I start and the hilarious progressive rock references in character names that had me laughing out loud. These references were so absurd that they perfectly ma...