TCM’s are well-timed-explosions that engineers apply to spacecraft in ways that a bowler wishes he could apply to a ball after it’s released from his hands. They are also what fathers do with their daughters.
Essayons — Cultivating an Expeditionary Mindset for Problem Solving
An expeditionary mindset is a frame of thinking I attribute to my time as an Army Combat Engineer — a kind of problem-solving posture shared amongst light infantry units that says: when you’re in a jam, you can’t wait for the cavalry to arrive and save the day. You are the cavalry. Essayons is the Combat Engineer regimental motto, and is taken from the French verb essayer. It literally means… Let us try.
The Masters Part 11: JTF Alpha
SHSAT App Update (May 2023)
The Parable of the 2x4s
Steve was a super likable guy who recently got out of the Navy, so naturally, had a ton of excellent drinking stories involving far-off ports of call and exotic locales in the south Pacific. While he wasn’t super skilled when it came to the trades, Steve could handle a saw and a t-square, so he worked as a kind of floater—going back and forth from area to area where there was need for roughing in.
The Masters Part 3: The Memories of Trees and Men
Part 3 of The Masters—we peek into the interrogation facility at Ramey Air Force Base, and learn about two of its occupants: a 460 year old ceiba tree and Captain Cristian Monserrate Sepulveda. This project is hosted on Substack.
Chicago & the Sandwich Deliveryman Hypothesis
I lived in Chicago for 14 years, and during that time, before going into tech, worked as a grocery bagger, a cashier, a caddy, a lifeguard, an elevator operator, a landscaper, a knife salesman, an adult literacy advocate, a portrait framer, a shirt steamer, a forklift driver, and an usher at Soldier Field. Eleven of those years were spent working in the restaurant business—as a line cook, dishwasher, busboy, waiter, barback, bartender, and shithouse sommelier. I learned how to size people up based on their accents, cuff links, shoes, conversation topics, and the kind and quality of bullshit coming out of their mouths. The time I spent in Chicago, working these weird jobs makes me (I think) a crackerjack spotter of a whole range of put-ons, bullshit, ass-puffery, and weasel wording.
20,000 Words Into “The Masters” + a Video
A sample of the first chapter of “The Masters”—a story I’m writing, and now roughly 20,000 words into. For the whole ball of wax, check out: https://roughmasters.substack.com.