Posts in "articles"

The little things matter

The following post is based on an audio recording from April 9, 2025. The little things matter. Maybe even more than the big things. Today, my email inbox got flooded with probably about 20 different messages from co-workers thanking me and appreciating a little thing that I did. I even had one guy call me just out of the blue. This was a gentleman I had never talked to before. He said something like, “Hey man, I really appreciated what you did.

I want the itty bitty nitty gritty

The following post was transcribed from an audio during my commute to work on April 8, 2025. It’s been a long time since I’ve been involved on social media outside of LinkedIn. With LinkedIn being really my only source of social media, I find myself longing for more personal, nitty-gritty, really in-depth content from individuals. The Depth I’m Missing I think there’s the news and news stories that might go deep on a specific subject that a journalist is looking into, or on LinkedIn, someone might go deep on some technical thing they’re trying to explain.

Weeknotes Vol. 4

My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation. It’s been a while! It feels good to be writing a weeknote again! 3 Highlights 1. 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel and SLOPE Lab Tours I coordinated tours for my team to visit the 10x10 Supersonic Wind Tunnel and SLOPE Lab at NASA Glenn Research Center. The wind tunnel was incredible. It’s the largest wind tunnel capable of supersonic speeds in the country, and can push close to Mach 5.

How I Got Into This Line of Work

A new blogging format was experimented with during a morning commute, focusing on personal career stories and reflecting on the journey that led to working as a product manager at NASA.

My Current Work Routine

A colleague asked me yesterday what routines and practices I’ve been using to manage our new normal of working onsite every day. I typed up this response, and decided it was worth turning into a blog post so I could share it more broadly in case others were interested. I’ve had all of three days to figure out this new routine, so it’s ill-defined in its current iteration. I’m sure it will get crisper over time, but here’s what I have been doing the past few days.

Targeted by Trump and Musk - On Being a Federal Employee

In my weeknotes post from January 20, 2025, hours before the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump, I wrote about being uncertain about what a Trump presidency would hold for me as a federal employee. While government efficiency sounds good (who wouldn’t want that?), it seems like part of the plan is to make things tougher for federal employees. Including return to office mandates, layoffs, worse retirement/insurance benefits, and more. As a federal employee, that does not sound appealing.

Weeknotes Vol. 3

My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation. 3 Highlights The Office - I went into the office on Tuesday this week, which was a highlight for two reasons. First, I got an InBody scan as part of a twelve-week fitness challenge I am doing through NASA. The results were what I expected, and I have some work to do to get my body composition to where I want it!

Weeknotes Vol. 2

My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation. 3 Highlights Eating in My wife and I have a chronic problem with being unprepared when dinner time rolls around, so we often end up ordering food or going out. My belt and my bank statements would attest that this is not a good practice. But this week we did much better eating in for most of our meals. I found the Tasty app and have been using that to plan our meals each Saturday so we can pick up groceries on Sunday.

Weeknotes Vol. 1

I’m on the couch, coffee in hand, excited to try a new format. I actually have no idea what the true format will be, but I know that I am going to write weekly. The plan is to have a consistent format for these weeknotes, but I’m more concerned with actually doing the thing, so I’m starting without the format. Jump first, find a parachute later, right? Bear with me while I sort things out for the first 5, 10, or 50 of these.

2024 Blog in Review

My first full year of blogging is in the books! Or should I say, in the internet archive? Check out this neat sitemap graph of my blog generated by the internet archive. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for over a year! One thing that has become clear is I write more like a geyser than a waterfall. I spend most of my time dormant, and then have a sudden flurry of activity before going quiet again.