A Quick Guide to the Blog’s Backroads and Side Trails
When I first started building this blog, I didn’t set out with a map.
I set out with a direction: wander, wonder, and write the results.
Along the way as I started a running list of topics I wanted to write about, certain patterns began to form – loose trails winding through the things I keep coming back to: music, riding, tinkering, photography, and the inevitable detours that happen when you let curiosity take the lead.
Since most readers can’t see the category descriptions tucked behind the scenes, I thought it might help to document them here.
Think of it less as a directory, and more as a field guide to the small corners of this ongoing exploration.
Sound Thoughts
Reflections, memories, and musings on the music that accompanies, shapes, and underscores the journey.
I added this category just this morning and it’s the inspiration for this post.
“Music is what feeling sounds like” – but it’s not always the whole song that stays with you.
Sometimes it’s a single bass line, a drifting lyric, a rhythm tucked just beneath the surface that pulls you somewhere new.
Over time, the pieces rearrange themselves. A familiar track can deepen, fracture, or transform – shaped as much by where you are in life as by the notes themselves.
Here, I follow and share those shifts: tracing the beats, melodies, and echoes that mark the journey in ways words alone never could.
“A picture may be worth a thousand words; music speaks in the ones we haven’t yet learned.”
Bits, Bytes, and Burnt Fingers
Delightfully nerdy dives into Meshtastic, Eurorack, microcontrollers, WLED, and whatever else is blinking (or smoking) on the bench.
This is where I put existing tools to work – building sounds with Eurorack, chasing signals through Meshtastic, lighting up pixels with WLED.
It’s about exploring, combining, and sometimes overclocking the stuff that already exists… at least until something catches fire.
(If it came in a box or had instructions once, odds are it lives here.)
Measure Once, Improvise Twice
Dispatches from the workbench – if it buzzes, blinks, breaks, or involves the generation of man glitter – it probably ends up here.
This is the land of misfit parts and reckless optimism.
Project builds, tool hacks, one-off contraptions, and the occasional miracle pulled from a drawer full of “someday” scraps.
It’s not about using what was meant to work – it’s about making something work anyway.
(If it started life as a random bracket, broken board, or mystery wire, you’ll probably find it here.)
Misfit Toys & Mental Detours
Posts that escaped the filing system – or never stood a chance.
Some stories don’t fit neatly into categories.
This is the catch-all for off-topic rambles, one-off experiments, half-finished thoughts, and general acts of wandering.
File it under ¯\(ツ)/¯ and see what happens.
Shot in the Wild
Field notes from behind the lens – experiments, observations, and the occasional accidental masterpiece.
Photography without the pressure.
Sometimes it’s about chasing a moment; sometimes it’s about noticing one.
This is where those captures, both intentional and accidental, land.
Wandering Between the Lines
Because the best parts of the ride aren’t drawn on a map.
Stories from the road, the trail, and the spaces in between.
These posts aren’t about destinations – they’re about motion, detours, discoveries, and the reflections that come when you stop worrying about getting anywhere at all.
Thanks for Riding Along
Whether you came here for the music, the machines, the misadventures, or just to see what happens next, I’m glad you’re here.
Feel free to explore, follow whatever trails catch your eye, and remember:
Sometimes the best discoveries aren’t the ones you set out to find.
— Mike