Sometimes I write

Another year, another update. This turning into a cadence.

I’m a year older, a year (hopefully) wiser, and a few traumas richer since I the last time I wrote. I did not expect to find myself at this place at this point in my life, but—to be honest—I didn’t really imagine much at all. The strife of recent years in my personal and professional life has made me incapable of projecting and planning long term, and my life has been reduced to that of survival of a yet another day. It was not a life for a while now, it was living.

Now, at the tail-end of this turmoil, as the healing continues and the things feel like they are settling into place, I have hope that it does—indeed—get better. One of my biggest concerns is how all of this affects my child as she’s in the middle of it all without any choice of her own. Kids do tend to be resilient, or so people say, but as parents we want to eliminate all the pain and hurt from our kids’ lives. It is hard to admit that some of this harder experiences shape the beautiful people we hope help raise.

My child is already my favorite artist of all times. Inspired by her creativity, I’ve noticed my own drive to create. It has fizzled out over the decade plus that I’ve spend in the corporate software development for “performance advertising” businesses (real-time ad space bidding.) To say it was soul-crushing would be an understatement. All the things I cared about, like honing the craft and creative problem solving, simplicity and elegance over ease, were sacrificed chasing the all-mighty OKRs. Creativity was killed by timelines that didn’t allow it.

I’m excited to create again, after what feels like a lifetime hiatus. I remember having a great response back when I was doing it back in Croatia, and I feel like I have even more to offer these days. I don’t have a label for what I do now. Artist, maybe? Maker? Designer? Creative? Artisan? In an effort to provide some info to those who don’t know me yet, I’m billing the whole effort as a “transdisciplinary artisanal practice.”

I have many project in various stages of development, of varying complexity and timelines, and seeing them finally moving forward, no matter how slowly, is encouraging. There are things I’m excited to share with you, things that I’m excited to learn, and interesting people that I’m yet to meet and/or collaborate with.

I feel fortunate to be in this place at this time in some ways. Detroit has become my hometown, and I’m glad to be here, despite (or maybe even because) all the horrors that are happening in this country. The city makes me feel like the better future not only possible, but there for the taking.

Stay safe 💜

This is very significant date in my life. It’s the founding date of Filmaktiv, a non-profit co-founded in 2004 by Marin Lukanović and Morana Komljenović, and me. The two of them ran it as a workshop under that name, but the non-profit laws in Croatia required a minimum of three people. They invited me to join, which began a very fruitful and exciting period of my life. I love that the organization is still going strong, that it’s doing amazing work and being an useful resource to many, long after I’ve stopped contributing. The fact that the idea was interesting enough for others to keep carrying it forward is extremely flattering.

Thank you, everyone involved, and Happy 21st Birthday!

(This logo is still one of my favorite designs ever.)

Happy April Fools Day to all who celebrate.

I have been neglecting this place, and so much has happened in the meantime that I feel like I should put some of it into words. For posterity sake and such.

But not today, lol. (early April Fools, I guess)

Happy April Fools Day.

You might have expected a post, but there is none.

I've been neglecting this space lately as my work took over for a while. Coming back to the blog I realized that it looks a bit hard to navigate without titles. From now on I intend to include them with every post. I'll probably go back and add them to the past posts.

This has so far been a place of personal musings, not focused on tech as I originally intended, but that might change in the future. I don't expect it to stop being deeply personal at times, though.

We've experienced our first COVID infection, which messed up some important plans and family trips, but the fear of it has definitely lessened. I've also changed jobs. I've left the predatory “ad-tech” space and the embattled content-farm-backed-by-venture-capital to help a journalism non-profit up their game. It's going to be a challenge, as there is much to be done and I'm the sole engineer at the organization, but the fact that my values closely align with the organization's make it more than worthwhile. ✍🏻

It seems to be strongly influenced by our well-being and optimism. The last four months have been full of struggle. Events outside of my control conspired to make life hard, which left me with very little time to think about creative work. I wanted a project that will make me excited, something that I can have fun exploring, and something I can return as a sort of a mental sanctuary. I wanted something beyond the daily existence to preoccupy me.

Then, a few of days ago I had an idea for a short film. The idea kept growing and more details emerged as if I was channeling something. I spent the next days scribbling the incoming thoughts and now I have a rough draft. I spent a lot of time musing about details like sound design and production, background movements and their effect on viewers, acceptable and superfluous tropes, etc. The idea has taken a life of its own.

I will share more details here as they reify.

And, yes, of course—it's science fiction. 🪐

My mother-in-law passed away last week after a protracted illness. She lived a hard but full life, and she was a huge source of inspiration for many people that had the opportunity to meet her. I feel lucky to have known her for a bit over a decade.

If you'd like to read more about her past, her obituary is available here: https://www.freep.com/obituaries/det117766

Good bye, sweet Kay. You will forever be missed.

From the moment we landed, in a slow evolving sequence, all three of us became sick with stomach flu. And then COVID came into our orbit. We are all relatively well at the moment, though.

The biggest challenge to work has been the lack of established routine. Our tiny one feels insecure at this new place, and we've had many (many) very late nights. Her usual bedtime of ~7 P.M. has shifted to anywhere between 10 P.M. – 4 A.M., and that has rendered any day-planning completely futile. We are at her whim, trying to squeeze in whatever work we can. Relaxing in the sun and reading sounds like a fever dream right now. The vacation part of this vacation can't come soon enough. 🐚

I'm about to test my company's ability to support remote work, as well as my own capacity to execute asynchronously: my family is taking a 2-month trip to Europe in a couple of days, and I'll work with 6-8 hours of difference between me and the rest of the team for the first month. As much as I'm looking forward to it, I'd be lying if I said it was not making me a bit nervous. Though, spending that second month at the beach as a reward should make it worthwhile.