chaosplay
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Starting a Portrait Photography Business
For the past few months, I’ve been trying to get my photography side hustle off the ground. My initial assumption was simple: people are always …
Photography vs Programming: a Minimalist Perspective
As I build my photography side hustle while working full-time as a software engineer, I keep returning to one idea: minimalism. Both fields pull me in …
What Would You Do When You Retire?
We’ve all heard the classic question: “What would you do if you won a million dollars?” It’s a fun daydream, but let’s be honest, most of us know …
LLMs and an old dev
A lot of developers seem to be afraid of generative AI and LLMs because it may replace their jobs. But as an older developer who sometimes has a hard …
Photography in the age of Generative AI
Generative AI has made my job as a software engineer much easier, but it’s also a bit scary. The question everyone is asking is whether AI will …
Parenting is hard
Only when you have the wrong expectations. It is so easy to know what the right action is, but sometimes so hard to do it. Ayden is having a rough …
Digital Minimalism
Just the other day, I happened to skim a blog post, “My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span.” It struck a …
It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario
“It’s What I Do” by Lynsey Addario is probably in my top 10 favorite books. As someone who always wanted to be a serious …
Be the people that Evan's be
Last year, Ayden got into Minecraft thanks to Evan Storm’s channel. So we bought Minecraft on PS4 and started to play. I preferred to play in …
Can you bring toys back home?
Tonight, I was reading the Puss in Boots bedtime story to Ayden. The story begins with the Old Miller dying. Ayden asked me if people die in real …
Wheels and Engine Sound
Last year, we took Ayden to a monster truck show. We didn’t know how loud these trucks could be. So we bought ear protection headphones for him. …
ROI when using your primary residence as rental too
Calculating rough ROI on rentals is easy: For example, let’s say one buys a $500,000 single-family home and rents it out for $3000 per month. …
think hard
The other day while putting Ayden to sleep, he looked as if he was intensely thinking. I asked him, “Are you thinking something?” …
Oculus Quest 2 Review
I was debating between PS5 and Quest 2 (Affiliate link), and yes it is like comparing apples and oranges, but in the end Quest 2 won. I will likely …
New Career Direction
Today Ayden said, “Jack (his friend) wants to be firetruck driver and I will be ambulance driver. Jack will put out fires. I will take people to …
What do you want to be when you grow up
Yesterday, after I picked up Ayden from his daycare, he said he didn’t know what he wanted to be. I guess they asked him this question in his …