What I'm currently up to
Doing
- Pursuing an MS in Humanitarian Engineering at Colorado School of Mines. Humanitarian engineering is quite niche but it’s exactly what I want to spend my career doing—serving others with technical skills and expertise. I joined this program because I want to combine what I learned about community development from my Peace Corps experience with my engineering background. I am also a Coverdell fellow and a TA for Fall 2026.
Learning
- Spanish. I’ve now proven to myself that I can, in fact, learn other languages. Spanish has always been something I’ve wanted to learn because of all the Spanish speakers that are in the US. Not to mention that it opens up many countries to travel to and lots of content on the internet. I do flashcards daily and listen to Radio Ambulante for new words.
Reading
- These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore. I’ve never really been interested in history. I have been enjoying 99% Invisible’s Breakdown of the Constitution podcast series. Jill Lepore was a guest to talk about Article V. Incredible writing and not dense at all despite being a whirlwind of American history.
Last updated
Recent links
- Why I’m Learning Sumerian, and What It Taught Me About Hard Work, Burnout, and the Joy of Doing Useless Things by Ed Nite.
Because the point isn’t to master Sumerian. It’s remembering that not every pursuit needs external justification.
- The Complete Guide to Secure Communications with the One Time Pad Cipher by Dirk Rijmenants. If properly applied, you can make completely safe encrypted messages with pen and paper.
- The Exploding Whale. Way more resources and information than you want about a quirky bit of Oregon history (and more).
- The (lazy) Git UI You Didn’t Know You Need by Bartek Płotka. I’ve been using lazygit for a while and absolutely love it. I do pretty basic git transactions but it
lgmakes it so much easier. - Your URL Is Your State by Ahmad Alfy. I appreciate when sites store state in the URL. I find it particularly helpful for job boards—I can click a link and it’s automatically filtered to my area and sorted by date.
- Little Character font by Astrid Bin. A cool font with a story.
- public.monster by Dmytri Kleiner. Web hosting ’90s style.
- Fallen Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Project. A collection of some of the PCVs who have died during service.
- Game design is simple, actually by Raph Koster. Twelve tips for designing better games.
- Types of Barcodes: Choosing the Right Barcode by Scandit. Way more information than you want about barcodes.
What I'm about
And what is the purpose of existence…but to discover truth and beauty and share…it with others?Brenda Ueland
Serving others and learning are my purpose in life. I try to live my life with integrity by committing to these core values, even when it's difficult and uncomfortable:
- Learning humbly. Pursuing and practicing new skills and knowledge that serve my goals, my interests, and other people. Doing it humbly means embracing a beginner's mindset, admitting when I am wrong or don't know, and understanding that I can always learn something from others.
- Serving others compassionately and reliably. Helping others, supporting them and nurturing their growth when and how they need it. Doing it compassionately means leading with empathy, taking care of myself, and remaining other-focused rather than transactional. Being reliable is continually building trust with myself and others that I will do what I say I'm going to do.
/uses
- Obsidian Notes
- Tweek Tasks
- VSCode IDE
- Helix Text editor
- Ergodox EZ Keyboard
- Kensington Expert Trackball
- Dell XPS 15 Laptop
- OfficeMax Legal Pad Notes
