I designed and 3D printed a 16-inch parabolic sound dish for an elk trip to Cataloochee Valley. Then I measured what it actually did: about 14 dB louder than a bare mic, with the charts, spectrograms, and science to show why.
What can a swamp-soaked piece of wood teach us about resilience? Between 40 bug bites and a sinus infection, here is why feeling unproductive is sometimes the first step to growing something beautiful.
This is my first summer break as a middle school teacher, and I feel like I’ve been dropped into a strangely quiet writer’s limbo. My current daily routine looks something like this: I set goals each day, and I write. Then I edit, then I write. I go down a massive research rabbit hole for…
Just when you think things are going well… bam. The water splashes, the boat rocks, and you’re suddenly scrambling to figure out what to do next. That is what writing a novel is like. Honestly, it is what life is like, too. We all love a good schedule. But today’s reflection is about what happens…
Last week, my mother-in-law came to town and treated my little family to a beach vacation in Myrtle Beach. We spent plenty of time enjoying the waves, but my favorite moments happened when I got my kayak and camera out. After doing some research, I quickly identified a salt marsh where I could paddle around…
As the weather warms up, my family and I have been spending more and more time outside. Last week, we went to a different park or hiking path every day after my long days teaching. We’ve been in South Carolina now for about 9 months, and I finally feel like we’re starting to get a…
One of the biggest traps a writer can fall into is believing that their work needs to be incredible the first time around. That’s the kind of thinking where writer’s block is born. Today I officially started a full week off of work, and boy, did I hit the ground running. Yesterday, I sat down…
Do you ever mix up the sounds and letters in words while you’re talking? Because I do. And it feels like I do it a lot. It’s actually become a running joke in my inner circles because I also write a lot, and words are my thing. You know? Indiana Jones has a hat, Popeye…
There are about seven hundred sixty-two moments a day where I stop and think, “hey, that would make a good blog. I should write about it.” Of course, seven hundred sixty of them get fizzled out within a minute or two, but a couple remain by the end of the day. Lately, I take those…
Worry not! I’m still alive. 😉 Words are getting written, too. It’s been a massive adjustment over the last six months—starting a job teaching, moving to South Carolina, raising my little baby boy. It adds up. Life gets busy. Fortunately, I feel like writing has already become a core piece of who I am. Even…