I Didn't Need a Task App. I Needed a Coach.
Todoist, Asana...these task manager apps worked well but ... What finally stuck was no app at all: markdown files in a git repo, with AI doing the part every app left to me. Self-hosting, part 5.
Everything
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26 entries
Serving God or Serving Mammon? A Book, Revisited at Midlife
A 2007 book review I never finished, reread at a different stage of life — on money, family, retirement planning, and the discipline of staying aligned rather than becoming a saint.
First Post- 20 years later
Why I started this blog, and what I hoped to write about.
From WordPress to Astro, on My Own NAS
Why I moved twenty years of blog posts off WordPress onto a static Astro site served from my own NAS, and what AI did and could not do along the way.
Goodbye Imgur — Images on My Own NAS with MinIO
Images were swelling my Obsidian vault. How they moved from Imgur to a self-hosted MinIO server on a Synology NAS, including the two failed attempts before it.
Mac or Windows?
I became a Mac user by accident in 2005 and mostly stayed. After an iPad, a Chromebook, a Surface and some Linux-only tools, the question is no longer which is better. It is what the work needs.
Why My Folders Are Numbered 00 to 99
Every folder in my notes vault starts with a number: 00Hub, 01Family, 02Work, 11Timeline, 99Guide. The system behind it, what it borrows from Johnny.Decimal and Zettelkasten, and what five years of real life did to it.
Why Obsidian Won: Fifteen Years of Note Apps
I tried Evernote, OneNote, Notion, Bear, Joplin and Logseq over fifteen years. Why Obsidian finally stuck — and why the tool mattered less than the habit it forced me to change.
Building a Home AI Stack with the Help of AI
A local AI platform on a mini PC: ollama on an AMD GPU, chat over my own notes, a daily investment-news digest. Built by someone who couldn't have built it alone, with AI as both builder and tutor. Self-hosting, part 4.
Books I Read in 2025
A list of the books I read in 2025, with a line or two on each.
Half a Year
A prayer note on returning to a long-missed place.
I Believe.......
After reading God Is Red by Liao Yiwu: the faith of Chinese believers, and the comfortable dimness of ours.
Reading and...
On reading Sum by David Eagleman: a captivating book, and a Christian reader's caution.
Prayer
Half a year of trying to learn to pray quietly, and still stuck on the first ten days.
Serving
First time serving in the main Sunday service: on the habits and inertia of serving, and the pride that creeps in.
The Tongue
A colleagues' wedding, a sermon on the tongue, and an uncomfortable look at my own gossip.
Workplace Gossip 2
Gossip is a bit like a drug. A few more thoughts, and a prayer.
Workplace Gossip
Colleagues talk shop everywhere, and work turns into people. A Christian's place in workplace gossip.
Sales and Bargaining
Buying a flat and wedding packages: on feeling foolish, and on haggling that benefits no one.
Cambodia Trip - after a Short-term Mission
Looking back on a mission trip to Cambodia: God's provision, a heart reopened, and grief that came home with me.
Happy Chance
An unexpected chance to share the gospel with my aunt and cousins over dinner.
Switching from blogger to livejournal
a record of change from blogger
struggling-with-exam
worried about an exam
A Year Ago Today
The last day of my first working year, and the many first times it held.
An Old Story
A story I had heard many times, and the two things it finally taught me.
First Post
Why I started this blog, and what I hoped to write about.
