Blog / Progress
October 19, 2025
This Sunday evening finds me reflecting on an eventful month. Hayden celebrated his 25th birthday in Jackson Hole, and we spent the weekend watching football at Max's place, followed by some excellent Thai food. The Utes unfortunately lost to BYU for the second year in a row—the team didn't look particularly inspired, but that's football for you.
I can't remember exactly where we left off from the last blog post, but I've been spending significant time developing a Beer Club app that finally got approved. I've been building in a cloud database, which has been super interesting—I haven't done much cloud development before.
The app now includes:
I'm pretty happy with where the app is now that the main structure is built and the bugs are ironed out. I'll probably start trying to market it more. It's free for now, and I think there's definitely a market for it—the other beer club apps I've seen in the App Store aren't as clean or user-friendly.
I've put decent work into Book Social this week. Originally called "Book Quizzes," I added forums and now have about 102 books in the library, each with a custom three-question quiz and an outline that covers the book's key points.
The elevator pitch: "Get more from your library." So often I struggle to recall a book I read three years ago, and this is a great refresher for remembering the key points and doing a little quiz to help retain that information better.
I'm using APIs to pull in book covers, and I'm selecting different covers that I think look good. Ideally, I'll do a big data collection day to gather higher quality JPEGs for all the book covers. When I get more time, I'd like to build more custom quizzes that go deeper—maybe offering 6 or 9-question quizzes as a premium feature if the app gains traction.
This week I'll probably focus on Simple Takeoff, enhancing the measurement tool and adding polygon measurements. Instead of having to click new measurements for separate lines, you'll be able to measure a continuous line with different angles and points just by clicking—which I think will be really cool.
Yesterday marked one year since my Type 1 diabetes diagnosis—quite the accomplishment. Management has gotten easier and more under control. There's definitely less anxiety connected to going low or high, and I think I know how to manage it better. I've dealt with the constant vigilance, and it's somewhat become second nature managing blood sugar levels with insulin therapy.
I don't know if I mentioned this in the last update, but I got a British Shorthair cat named Nimbus. He's been loving to lay on the counter lately and is obsessed with water and the sink, which is very funny. You can check out Nimbus in the Moments tab on my website.
I used the Proposal Generator at work this week, generating a proposal for Northrop Grumman for Tyson, which was really cool. I've got a big work week coming up at Tempest Construction, prepping for the Thatcher job. There's a lot of permitting for the sewer line replacement that has to go in—setting up permits and fees with the City of Salt Lake to get that job going.
The Wasatch project is going well—we got the vault and manifold placed, the bench poured, and we're going to be trenching and taking out the rest of the trees and installing the water services now.
Ruby and Collin were at the Parcels concert this weekend and bumped into Max, Lily, and Freddie, which created a fun memory. It's been really enjoyable going into fall and getting together with Emma's family and my family, going to different events and connecting with people.
One interesting area we've been discussing is how easy it is now to build the tools you want—at least if you're someone like me. It can sometimes be hard to keep a balance in life between your relationships and connecting with people, as well as innovating and building tools and trying to make something happen. But it's always good to connect with people.
I'm still working through the books I mentioned in the last blog post from Stripe Press. Emma and I are getting through The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue—it's a great book. I think I'll have to update that in my book section of the website.
I'm also working through the Carl Sagan audiobook and reading The Art of Science and Engineering. I picked up Scaling People from Stripe Press, written by the COO of Stripe. She's brilliant and has really good insights into how to lead a team and build companies the right way, which is inspiring to read.
Can't believe my brother is 25 now. Can't wait to see how Nimbus grows up—he's turning into a big boy, my little cat. There's always more to build, more to learn, and more connections to make.
Thanks for reading, and here's to another year of growth, both personally and professionally.
Written on Sunday, October 19, 2025