After receiving a stage 4 esophageal cancer diagnosis with a 15% survival rate, the author focuses on improving their odds by relocating to Houston for treatment at MD Anderson. They emphasize active participation in their care, maintaining social support, and adopting a positive approach toward…

Sara playing with the puppies in Houston ❤️

I caught up with Oli while I was down here in Houston. The last time that I would’ve see him in person was in 2024 when we were here for Ember’s birthday.

Just over a month ago, I went to San Francisco for a work trip. I had a lingering cough, but after talking with my primary care physician and going to the clinic twice in January, I did not think I was contagious. When I arrived in San Francisco, I noticed I was short of breath […]

I was recently in NYC, from the 5th-16th, for an AI enablement program that our company was doing. I had the weekend free, so we flew the family up to hang out in NYC for a couple of days with me.

I saw this poster at a martial parts business in NOHO.

Sara sent me this photo of Ember the earlier today. Ember had crawled from the kitchen over to the Christmas tree and was getting into the gifts.

Hero and I recently started going for Jiu Jitsu at Dynamic Martial Arts Academy in Wichita Falls. I think that I’ve maybe had 6 classes so far and it’s been fun and challenging. This photo is of Hero and I from this past Thursday night.

I needed to replace a couple of fuses on Christmas lights today, so I had Ember help me.

I went by Great Clips a few days ago and Destiny gave me a haircut for the first time while in an actual place of business.

On the tail end of some recent work travel, I flew Sara and Ember out to meet in San Francisco so that we could spend the day together. We ended up having a really nice Friday together with visiting the Golden Gate Bridge, stopping in Sausalito, and then visiting Muir Woods.

This was Ember’s second Halloween, but I think the first one that she could maybe enjoy. 😄 She was dressed up as a shark and stayed out with us a for a bit while we handed out candy.

I got this photo of Ember while at Terry Black’s BBQ in Austin earlier this week.

Ember got upgraded to business on her way home from Austin earlier this week.

This coming week I’ll be in Austin for work. So, when the opportunity came up to see some of our friends and go to the zoo for World Spina Bifida day, we made a little trip out of it.

We took Ember to the pumpkin patch last weekend to get photos of her. I was told ~30 minutes before that I would also be in the photos. But, that’s how we ended up with this cute photo.

I left the house yesterday at about 5:15am to drive from Wichita Falls, TX to Austin, TX to go hang out and get some BBQ with coworkers that were in Austin for classes. We left shortly after I arrived in Austin, around 10:15am, to go queue at Franklin’s. After 2 hours, we’d successful received our…

In a recent conversation with one of my teams, they shared that they often felt left out when changes were made. Their view was that we needed a culture shift to ensure their functional area was considered. Culture matters. But it’s also big, fuzzy, and not something you “fix” overnight. But, what…

We got a walker for Ember to help teach her how to walk, though we hadn’t got to using it yet since her therapy is focused on the standing frame and electrical stimulation primarily. But, we took a few minutes this weekend and sat her in the walker to see how she did.

Weekends are to catch up on time with the kids. Like this moment where Ember rolled around in her clothes while I hung up mine and Sara’s clothes.

One of my son’s friends messaged me asking how to get started with coding. My answer was to start with AI. Use ChatGPT or Claude, probably the paid versions, and have it help you code something that you actually care about. That’s how I learned to code with WordPress. People wanted features that…

This past week, I was in York, England to see the folks from team Shilling. It was a good meetup for both, with a good mixture of fun and work activities. The biggest takeaway from the meetup was seeing faces light up with joy as Claude Code worked magic. The most fun thing was playing […]

I got this photo of Ember while we were at Bahama Bucks to get a weekend snow cone.

This past week, my family flew to Anaheim to spectate the 2025 Pokemon World Championships. This was Embers’ first flight and our first big trip as a family.

On the way back from our medical appointments in Houston, we needed to stop to catheterize Ember and give her a bottle. We found a nice little coffee shop named The Coffee Nook in Buffalo, TX. While there, I looked up some sheet music and played “The Wheel on the Bus” for Ember and Sara. […]

We were in Houston last week for some medical research appointments Ember. What this really meant is that we spent a few hours at the hospital and then a lot of hours in the hotel room. While waiting around in the hotel room, I decided to deploy some code to WordPress.com. As I was walking […]

Yesterday morning, Ember and I snuck out for a burrito at El Norteno. Ember had pancakes with syrup for the first time. 😄

While I was doing a bit of work this weekend, Sara decided that Embed needed to come spend some time with Dad in the office. ❤

This past week, I was in Lisbon with the Gamma team. It was a great week, filled with discussion about PCI compliance, demos, upcoming work, great food, and a bit of fun. Below are some photos from the meetup.

As I was swapping out laundry yesterday, I sat Embed down in the half-full laundry basket. She liked it for maybe 10 seconds and then wanted to be picked up.

I snuck away for dinner on Tuesday night with Sara and Ember.

Sara went to DFW today, so I got to spend much of the day with Ember. Starting with giving her breakfast. ❤

Earlier this week, I spent a few days in Miami with the Quark team. We did quite a bit of work, but still found some time to head to walk along Muscle Beach and play a game of Pokemon.

We’ve used automatic waterers at home, for our pets, for a while. They refill themselves, which is sweet. They also leak. Constantly. The seals wear out. The fittings are garbage. I’ve bought replacement parts, bowls, adapters. Today, after another new bowl leaked straight out of the box, I gave…

Sara sent me this photo of Ember from their lunch today.

This past Wednesday, I went to the Destined Rivals prerelease at Collector’s Den and won 2 out of 3 matches. 😄

After six months of paternity leave, I returned in January to do a rotation with the team migrating hundreds of millions of Tumblr blogs to WordPress.com. I hadn’t touched code in six months. Had never worked on Tumblr. And I’d spent the last five years in engineering leadership. The prompt I got?…

It’d been a few weeks since I’ve shared some photos of ember. So, picking out a few that I liked when going through photos on my phone.

As a parent, I’ve always been more focused on standards than praise. Participation trophies made me cringe. That poster in the school hallway that said“It’s better to be kind than right,” still makes my eye twitch. Day to day, I’m not cold. I’m affectionate. I joke around. I care deeply. But, I…

After years of using ChatGPT, I thought I knew what it was: smart, polite, helpful. Boring. 🙃 This week I stumbled across an eigenrobot-inspired prompt that rewires how ChatGPT talks. Less hand-holding. More stabby. I tried it. I didn’t ask for anything polite. I asked: “With everything you know…

Just dropped: The new free AI website builder on WordPress.com! Tell AI what you need + get a fully built website in minutes. No coding. No drag-and-drop. No stress. AI handles the layout, images, and text. You can tweak anything—just ask AI!

Took a quick photo with Sara and Ember yesterday after we pulled the hair ties out of Ember’s hair.

I won the Pokemon prerelease tonight with this deck 🎉

Ember’s photo for Saint Patrick’s Day with her WordPress onesie

I’ve sung “You Are My Sunshine” to Ember ever since she was in the NICU. But it’s not just a lullaby for me—it’s also the song I once sang to our first daughter, Scarlett, during her brief time with us. For years, I only ever sang the part I knew by heart: You are my […]

Ember is locked in for her evening coding session.

This is a brilliant use of AI: Tyler realized that publishers were wasting time and money to collect local events. He build an AI-powered Events Calendar that automatically imports events into WordPress and even updates them if the event details change later.

We were singing Happy Birthday to my mom last night. But, all Ember could think about was my cousin Sean. 😂