My Creations
Photography - Tech & Builds - Kitchen - Art
Moments I’ve caught and things I’ve made.
Through My Lens
Forests and trails, the Oregon coast and Portland after dark. Every photo here is my own work, and many are also available as stock photos. Tap any photo to see it larger.
Tech & Builds
I like building systems that make everyday life run smoother. These are projects I designed and run myself, from my own house to the cloud.
RunningSmart Home on Home Assistant
My whole house runs on Home Assistant: lights, cameras, locks, sensors and network gear, more than 180 devices in one place, with 9 dashboards and 18 automations that keep the day running.
Up next: Moving the last devices off an old SmartThings hub onto local Zigbee and Z-Wave radios.
LiveOrion: My AI Assistant on AWS
Orion is my personal AI assistant, running around the clock on my own AWS cloud server. I reach it by text, Telegram or a desktop app. It keeps my notes and tasks in order and leads a small team of specialist bots: a Researcher, a Librarian for my knowledge base, and an Engineer that writes code. Nothing is open to the public internet; every service sits behind a private, zero-trust connection.
Fun fact: Orion helped rebuild this website.
RebuildingATLAS & MARS: Market Research Bot
ATLAS was a futures-market research journal I built in spring 2026. Every weekday morning it scanned 23 futures contracts, picked the biggest movers and had an AI write up what each chart looked like. Each evening it graded its own morning calls. A chart watcher could read a TradingView screenshot and mark up the key levels. It was for research and learning only and never placed a trade.
Up next: MARS, the rebuild: moving from a Windows PC to a Linux bot that files its notes straight into my knowledge base.
Coming soonFamily Services Server
A second AWS server, set up just for self-hosted apps in Docker. It already keeps my Obsidian notes in sync across my desktop, iPhone and iPad, without a paid sync plan.
Planned: A private family photo archive (Piwigo), my book library (Calibre), a shared cloud drive (Nextcloud) and nightly backups to Amazon S3.
From My Kitchen
Culinary-school trained and still happiest in the kitchen. Baking on one side, dinner on the other.
Baking
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Golden, chewy and flecked with coarse salt, straight from my oven. A quick favorite to make, and they disappear almost as fast as I can twist them. What’s better than that?
Christmas Cookies
Soft, buttery and studded with red and green candies. Every year we bake more than 200 cookies to give away. It’s my biggest family tradition, and if I ever skipped it, someone would definitely notice.
Two-Day Baguettes
A slow, two-day rise builds a crackly crust, an airy crumb and real flavor. When you need the perfect loaf for dipping or bruschetta, you make it yourself.
Focaccia
Dimpled, golden and topped with herbs, Parmesan and flaky salt. In true Italian fashion, it’s a nearly daily staple in our kitchen, because no bread beats focaccia.
Baking photos coming soon.
Dishes
Birria Tacos
Slow-braised beef tucked into chile-dipped tortillas and griddled until the cheese crisps at the edges, with a cup of rich consommé for dunking. My first attempt, and an instant house favorite.
Seafood Boil
Crawfish, shrimp, smoked sausage, sweet corn and baby potatoes simmered in a buttery, Cajun-spiced broth. Grab a fork, or don’t. A forever classic at our house.
Loco Moco
Hawaiian comfort food: steamed rice, savory brown gravy and a peppery fried egg on top. Clearly, our dinner table travels the world most nights.
Creamy Chicken Gnocchi
Pillowy gnocchi in a silky Parmesan cream sauce, crowned with seared, well-seasoned chicken, fresh parsley and a snowfall of Parmesan. At the end of the day, am I even Italian if this doesn’t make the rotation?
Dish photos coming soon.
Art & Design
Original digital drawings and paintings, stickers and prints I design for myself and for friends, plus a few AI art experiments made by Orion, my AI assistant.
Digital Art
Into the Void
I started this drawing when my life felt dark, and I just kept adding to it, line after line, swirl after swirl. Then I found a door: my new career and a new path. Look for it at the top.
Lake at the Mountains (Unfinished)
I started this painting years ago and set it down during my divorce. It will stay unfinished, exactly as it is: a reminder of the storm that was coming, and of the light still breaking through.
3D & 2D Prints
Life Is a Product of the Choices You Make
An original sticker built around an old saying I heard every day growing up, and one my grandpa still says. Bold, simple type for a truth I carry everywhere.
SHIF: Stay Humble, Increase Faith
Custom stickers I designed for a friend’s brand, SHIF, with the red initials spelling out the name in flowing script. He loved the first batch so much he asked me to make more.
3D print photos coming soon.
AI Art by Orion
Like What You See?
Prints, Licensing or a Project
Interested in a print, using one of my photos, or working together on something? Send me a note and I’ll get back to you.