Now – Late 2025

After wrapping up the last school year, I officially retired my red pen and stepped away from teaching fourth grade. It was a wild ride that left me with a deep respect for teachers, students, and administrators alike. I’ve always been comfortable finishing one chapter without knowing exactly what comes next, and, as always, the uncertainty has turned into something rewarding.

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Consulting & Technical Partnerships

Right at the end of 2024, I onboarded a client through Upwork and worked with them throughout the spring semester. We’ve since built out CI/CD systems and AI-driven automation to streamline their e-commerce sales and operations. They’re a global async team, which has been a perfect environment to sharpen my collaboration and delivery skills.

I’m also supporting several startups with a mix of software engineering, DevOps, and automation. Many small teams move quickly but lack process, so I’ve been helping introduce workflows and standards that keep growth from turning into chaos. It’s been affirming to hear how valuable that experience is when things start moving fast.

If you’re building something ambitious and need engineering support, I’d love to talk. 👋

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Homelab Adventures

I’ve been running k3s on a tiny one-liter Linux server, originally as an excuse to learn Kubernetes — but it’s become a real part of my workflow. With multiple client projects using different stacks, I’m constantly switching environments. Offloading infrastructure to my homelab has taken major strain off my MacBook and given me room to experiment.

I’ve also built some fun Gitea Actions automation and recently launched homelabweekly.com to start sharing what I’m learning. Updates coming soon!

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Supabase Exploration

One client introduced Supabase into a WordPress project — and despite my MySQL protests, I was quickly convinced it offers much more than “just another Postgres database”:

• Instant CRUD via PostgREST
• Table-level webhooks
• Vector storage for AI workflows

I’ve migrated an older personal project to their free tier, spun up their self-hosted stack on Oracle Cloud, and eventually plan to bring it into my homelab (once I wrangle ~15 containers).

I also reached out to their dev community and — surprise! — I’m hosting a Supabase meetup. It will be the first Supabase developer meetup in China on December 6.

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Mandarin Learning

My wife and I spent July in Beijing in immersive programs, which really reignited my language studies. In Shanghai, I get daily practice chatting with the retirees who work near my gym. One of them, a 75-year-old who could out-talk anyone (see below for a priceless photo bomb), has been especially generous with conversation. It’s been confidence-boosting to feel real improvement through everyday interaction.

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Hosting 2-Hour Parties

We hosted our first structured party using Nick Gray’s 2-Hour Cocktail Party approach: name tags, icebreakers, a clear ending — and it was a huge success. I never pictured myself leading group intros or sending reminder emails… but watching guests swap contact info on their way out was proof that the format works. We’re keen to host again soon!

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Additionally

• Making major upgrades to this site — turning it into a real Business HQ instead of just a personal corner of the internet
• Publishing more on LinkedIn and my blog
• Joining a run club — 5Ks every Sunday with new friends (see below)
• Learning SEO and automating the boring parts
• Working from home with my dog, Scout, as my loyal coworker 🐶
• Planning February travel: Tokyo, San Diego, Atlanta, New York, Hong Kong, Zhuhai 珠海, Shunde 顺德, and the ancient town Furong 芙蓉 in Zhangjiajie 张家界

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