About

It’s always disappointing to read the about page on a personal site that’s little more than a list of professional accomplishments. For that, head over to my portfolio.

My background is eclectic. I grew up in the United States, have lived the majority of my adult life in Ukraine with stops in Kyrgyzstan, China and Saudi Arabia along the way. I’ve been living in Amsterdam with my wife and cat since 2021.

English is my first language although these days I speak Russian mixed with Ukrainian at home. I’ve always loved language and linguistics, which is what prompted my first career as an English teacher.

I love books, especially paper ones. Lately I’ve been reading a lot more fiction than I used to and really getting into sci-fi and fantasy. But I still read a lot of non-fiction, especially spirituality, history and philosophy.

I’ve alway been fascinated by religion and spirituality, even though I’m not really part of any organized religion today. For the past ten years or so, this has been a slow and steady Buddhist practice, silent retreats with an on-off meditation practice.

Being typography obsessed is a double edge sword. I notice every incorrect dash, poor font choice and layout fail.

I like older internet tech like RSS and personal blogs but with modern touches like responsive sites, accessibility features and semantic HTML.

Design and urban planning fascinate me. I’m a Not just bikes evangelist. Incidentally, I’ve been cycling my whole life, love spending a weekend afternoon exploring but I’ve never worn lycra.

I use overly complex note taking systems for personal knowledge management. I still haven’t found The Perfect™ system, but I fiddle with a personalized take on zettelkasten and building a second brain in iA Writer.

If you like the layout and design of this site, I’ve made an open source template called seredyna on GitHub. Please feel free to copy it, fork it and give feedback.