Avalonstar

Eighteen years ago, Jen found a flea-ridden kitten hiding beside a trailer wheel.

A tribute to my late mother-in-law, Leony.

After the collapse of VShojo, I'm here to share my story—one of betrayal, resilience, and ultimately finding meaning in the work I did for the talent and fans who deserved better.

On legacy, being forgotten, and what happens when someone else stakes your claim to history.

John Cena's heel turn brought me back to wrestling, but it was his WrestleMania entrance that truly blew this designer's mind—proving that sometimes the absence of spectacle creates the most powerful moment of all.

Being back on LinkedIn has reconnected me with old friends, but also reminded me why I left in the first place—the presumptuous narratives that claim to know your struggle while knowing nothing at all.

While stumbling onto Dribbble, I saw a post (and its... expected comment section) that served as a microcosm of the current state of a once beloved service.

Twenty-five years of avalonstar.com got me thinking: what does a personal blog truly represent?

Twenty years wasn't enough time with our beloved Ravyn, who left us this afternoon after a life filled with love, memories, and an unending quest for food.

Designing a convention booth for a group of VTubers was an opportunity I never imagined I'd have, but my time at VShojo made it a reality.

The end of an era.

Altair's launch plans were shaken by unexpected changes, but we have a story of resilience and hope to share.

After a whirlwind week of soul-searching, I've embarked on a new journey to build altair.tv—a content creation platform founded on principles that put people over metrics.

A sheltered upbringing and a college experience that shattered my worldview.

I've been an avid follower of Bungie's work since the early Halo days, and Destiny 2 has managed to grab me in a way few games do.

A reflection on being a "big brother" figure and the transition to being called "dad" by my online community, for better or worse.

How my journey of self-discovery led to a startling realization about the way my mind works—and how it shaped my entire career as a designer.

After 6 years of dormancy, Avalonstar reboots once again—albeit unfinished.

Anxiety is a constant battle when you're a content creator, but subscriber streams have been a game-changer for me—providing a safe, comfortable space to connect with my community on my own terms.

Three months in, I'm finally feeling like I'm hitting my stride at Twitch.

When creating slides for PyCon, I left the bottom third blank for the benefit of the people in the back—a decision that surprised me with the positive reactions it garnered.

I'm starting a new job with an employee number higher than 30 for the first time, and I'm terrified that I won't fit in with the established culture.

Data shame and streak phobia fuel my GitHub obsession, motivating me to commit daily for over a year.

I reflect on the dreams that were and the harsh realities that followed.

After a year and a half of ignoring Avalonstar because of self-doubt, I'm going to attempt writing for myself again, in a vacuum.

I've been on a mounting spree lately, and my iMac was the last piece of the puzzle.

I'm moving off Harmony and onto GitHub Pages—an experiment to see if I can bring blogging to the same level as my development process.

The web's stuck between a rock and a hard place, with vendors and developers playing the blame game.

When you're sitting down between tasks with pizza and soda, weird ideas happen.

After years of dabbling in everything from Cocoa to Puppet, I've come to associate myself with the concept of a hybrid—and found some surprising parallels with Mega Man along the way.

After a year of avoiding it, I finally took the plunge into the world of Z Shell and crafted a prompt that made me giggle with geeky satisfaction.

It's a sad reality that our tweets are lost to time, but there's hope on the horizon.

A whole year at GitHub—a personal milestone and my first startup anniversary.

Foreman is my new find of the day.

2011 was a year that felt like five, and it's quite unbelievable how much we managed to fit in.

On the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy, I'm embarking on an epic quest to marathon every game in the series on their original Japanese release dates—all for charity.

Arin's video on MegaMan X gave me a new perspective on one of my favorite childhood games, but more importantly, it spoke to the designer in me and confirmed my belief that user experiences should encourage exploration and discovery rather than forcefully…

Asking questions is a skill that's been crucial in my journey as a programmer.

My design process is like a drunken walk down a circular path, full of "eureka" moments and stumbles.

After 840 days, I'm finally dusting off Avalonstar again.

After losing my way, I'm attempting to rekindle my love for writing—not just blogging, but writing about anything and everything.

After 8 years of engagement, Jen and I are finally tying the knot.

After 8 years of being engaged, I'm finally tying the knot in 24 days—and designing our own wedding website, ren.ai, has been the ultimate challenge.

For the first time, I was able to connect the two worlds that were the definition of mutually exclusive--my love for Japanese idols and my new life at GitHub.

It's my first day at GitHub and I've got a lot to learn, but I couldn't be more excited to get started making awesome with this incredible team.

Have you ever had an unconscious tendency that turned into a freaky pattern?

A decade of memories and a barrage of nostalgia-inducing blows as Avalonstar turns 10.

I'm experimenting with a new way of doing client work: trading my services for stuff instead of money.

I'm trying this alternate blog thing again.

I want to make Flash-like "rich media experiences" without using Flash.