Hi, and welcome to my site! It’s a blog about personal finance and careers, told through the lens of my search for happiness and mindfulness in life. Why those things? Well, because most people view them as a necessarily evil to use in their pursuit of happiness in life… and I think they can be more than that!


This is the third post in a series in which I pick some really cool photos and break down the elements about them that I like best. They’re designed to help you (and I) improve your photography. In case you missed the last one, you can check it out here.

I promised last time that the next post in this series would focus on a wide-angle landscape shot, and I think we’ve got a beauty to work with today. This fantastic shot was taken by Frank Köhntopp, and it’s got a lot going for it. Let’s dive in, shall we? (more…)


I wake up rubbing my eyes, groggy and irritated by the sound of my alarm. Five more minutes. Then I remember: it’s grading day today. Shit, I slept in. Get up, get up!!

My wife and I both have our pre-black belt grading today. It’s more intense than the black belt grading itself, because we represent our sensei’s dojo there. Since our performance is a reflection of his, and we’ll be compared to students from other dojos, he tends to… uh, let’s say make sure… his students are ready to handle the challenges of the day. (more…)


“There has got to be more to life than the 9-5.” This is the thought that started it all. Without it, this site wouldn’t exist. I didn’t know what I’d get out of starting a blog, I just knew I wanted to write. I hoped it would teach me a thing or two about myself, and what makes me happy. I hoped my writing would inspire others who were asking themselves the same questions I am.

It’s been three months and 25 posts up to now, and as it turns out, it’s done both of those and more. In the short time this site’s been live, I’ve has some personal wins, fallen flat on my face a few times, and learned some hard lessons along the way. Some of them were expected, while others… I just never saw coming.

I’m thinkin’ maybe I should share those with you so that you stand a fighting chance of dealing with them better than I did at first. (more…)


This is the second post in a series in which I pick some really cool photos and break down the technical elements about them that I like best. They’re designed to help you (and I) improve your photography. You can check out the first post here.

In my first post in this photo review series, I took a look at an HDR photo of a beautiful boat. (If you don’t know what HDR is, you can read more about that in another post I wrote.) In today’s post, I’m changing it up. This time, we’re going macro, getting up close and personal with a drop of water. (more…)