I Didn’t Build the CMS
cmskeystatic
A year ago I wrote a plan for a custom CMS with auth, passkeys, and a database. This is the note about why I didn’t build it, and what I did instead.
I build prototypes, write about tech and life, and share what I learn along the way.
Building to learn and learning to build. This is my journal, my experiment, my resume? Check it out, have a look around and get to know me a little. This place is an ever-evolving collection of my thoughts on technology, life, faith, and work, along with case studies of projects I've built and research notes I've compiled.
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Mission
Mission
Build useful things, tell honest stories, and show up for people.
Share what I’m learning so others can move with more courage, clarity, and hope. I want this work to be more than output. I’m learning to be the kind of person who shows up, steady at home and useful in the world. That looks like working hard, seeking peace, and making things that genuinely help.
Latest Writing
Browse allA practical walkthrough of Git branching strategies. From the simple feature-branch flow I use on my personal site to the multi-environment promotion chains I've seen in enterprise. When to keep it simple, when to add gates, and why your branching model should match your team, not your ambition.
Rails, Not a Cage: A Rule of Life for Work, Love, and Calling
faithrule-of-life
A weeknight field report on ambition, faithful striving, and the hour where my life splits. I am building a rule of life that protects my marriage, my rest, and my calling without worshiping stability.
Projects
Browse all180 Life Church: Digital Renovation
next.jschurch
A ground-up site for 180 Life Church in Bloomfield, Connecticut: sermons synced from YouTube, giving, leadership pages, and a CMS the staff edit themselves. Built; now in hardening and hand-off.
This website - the living workshop
next.jsmdx
v0.8 adds a Keystatic editor over the existing MDX files, global search with a command palette, a trust index, and a round of SEO plumbing. Still a folder of files underneath.
Research Notes
Browse allPsychology of Persuasion for Winning Proposals (Commercial + Government) and What NLP Actually Adds
proposal-writingpersuasion
An evidence-weighted guide to persuasion in proposal writing, tailored to commercial buying and FAR-based government source selections. Covers fluency, trust, narrative, anchoring, risk framing, and an honest assessment of NLP: what holds up, what doesn’t, and how to use the valid parts ethically.
From Jekyll Island to Now: The Dollar’s Century of Debasement
federal reservejekyll island
How a secret 1910 meeting at Jekyll Island set the stage for the Federal Reserve, how Bretton Woods made the dollar the world’s anchor, why the end of gold convertibility accelerated long-run debasement, and why Rome’s monetary collapse offers cautionary parallels as crypto matures. New policies like the Strategic Reserve, GENIUS Act, and Japan’s XRP adoption hint at the next monetary order, but the U.S. fiat system’s reliance on deficits makes collapse increasingly inevitable.