Michael Barrett @ Abouthalf.com

When I got started in my career I called myself a web designer.

I started tinkering with computers pretty late.

The 2026 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial is up at Oregon Contemporary through July 5th, 2026.

I am two months into wearing grown-ass-man braces.

On the day I drove away from Greensboro, North Carolina in my white 1993 Toyota Camry towing a U-Haul trailer to start my new life in Portland, I snagged the bedraggled, worn out band of my department store wristwatch on a metal flange in the doorway of t…

When I was really getting started as a developer, in the early 2000s, the internet was all about blogs.

When I shared my 90 notes to self project with my wife she gave me a great suggestion: Have all of the images printed and bound as a book.

I am wrapping up a silly little Instagram piece I am calling “90 notes to self”.

I work for a tech-forward creative agency and we build a lot of websites and therefore I think a lot about websites.

Minimalism.club is a silly little conceptual art joke of a website that I released into the world over the weekend.

I hope this is becoming a tradition.

This painting began with two failed experiments.

In August, the 4-year anniversary of my adopting a mostly plant-based diet passed without my noticing.

Last summer I listened to season 3 of Articles of Interest all the way through for a second time.

A crow and his twin observe a post-it-note sunset over the open mouth of the grand canal.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving my wife and the poodle went on a long run.

I have a calendar hobby.

We arrived in Pittsburgh on a Saturday; I’m flying home alone on a Monday.

I slipped away to Charlotte, NC the week before Memorial Day to have a quick visit with my family.

Back in February I wrote about Instagram changed the visual design of their profile pages, breaking years of multi-post collages.

The Portland Art Museum is undergoing a massive renovation projection, creating a new “Rothko Pavilion” which spans an existing courtyard and connects the original museum building to an annex next door.Rothko’s connection to Portland seems a bit tenuous.

A young man emerges from a calendar to let you know his sweater and cap are available in two spring-forward colors and also that it is too early for tomatoes.

About two weeks ago, on a Zoom call for work, I listened in as our creative team and our client had a spirited debate about buttons.

We arrived by taxi at the Hotel Indigo about 9 o’clock at night.

Back in January, Instagram changed the format of their profile pages from a 3-wide grid of squares to a 3-wide grid of 4 x 5 rectangles.

The hotel looked cute on Expedia.

The Frigidaire over-the-range microwave, model number FGMV176NTF, has a critical design flaw.

When we landed in Venice, the smartly dressed and well pressed young man who escorted us to our water taxi asked what our plans were for Venice, what would we see?

"Nightcap" began with a snapshot of my kitchen window, taken from outside at just past dusk when the sky was dark, but weirdly illuminated by city lights.

As we walked all over Florence, I kept seeing these faces looking out at me.

Our hotel is right nearby Palazzo Strozzi.

She wants to listen to the vespri at a cathedral we passed while walking through Florence.

I left my wife sleeping deeply in the hotel room.

Our little wooden speedboat left the dock at the airport behind and churned down a channel marked by wooden pylons.

Leaving Portland was easy.

Here is a small photo-dump from the backyard, on a Saturday, during an unsasonably warm October.

I recalled an anecdote about the sculptor Tony Smith I read or heard in undergraduate school.

When I visited the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, CO this month, I learned that Still sent a fan letter to Jackson Pollock.

This trip to Mexico has been two things.

After checking in at the Hotel Morales we were shown to our room.

We dropped off the poodle at the wife’s parents place.

I think Eggs Benedict is one of the best low-brow fancy meals.

Snowy, winter weather in Portland reminds me a lot of where I grew up.

A bit of a warning up front - this is more than a little bit technical and nerdy.

The internet is closing in on Glenwood, Washington.

I don’t assume that everyone is as hopelessly online as I am, but perhaps you’ve heard: Substack has a Nazi problem.

I recently finished Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami.

We woke very early to catch a 6am train to the tiny mountain village of Aguas Calientes , also known as Machupicchu Pueblo.

Our guide, Juan, and our driver, Carlos, collect us at the hotel in Cusco to drive us West towards Machu Picchu.

After our harried departure from Lima, landed and were collected by our local fixer, Alejandro, and our driver Carlos.