Morgan's Site

Instant Pot Corn on the Cob

You're not going to believe me that this is the best corn you've ever had. You're not going to believe me that it's good because it's so easy. Despite all of those misgivings, you should still try it because it's the best corn and it's worth trying. * 1C water * 6

Smart is a Good Start

When I'm looking for good phrases to tell to my kids, they have to be short and meaningful, and if they rhyme, it's a huge bonus. "Smart's a good start" is one of my favorites because it captures much of what I feel was missing from the teachings of my

Recipes

Instant Pot Smashed Yukon Gold Potatoes

Some recipes are too good not to share. My family complains when I don't make potatoes this way. • 2 cups water • 2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes • 1 stick butter • 3 sprigs rosemary • Salt & pepper to taste Add 2C water to the instant pot. Pressure cook the potatoes on high for

Vue 3 CLI Awesomeness

How cool is it that I can just type vue create newproject cd newproject vue use pug vue use element-plus and I have a working vue 3 system, complete with pub, fully integrated with webpack and a UI component library that's ready for development? There's a few minor tweaks needed

Coding

Vue.js CLI 3 API URL Environment Variables

I recently converted a project to use vue cli version 3. This change has helped with consistency across my app, but a few things that used to work don't anymore. Specifically, the API urls I used to include in my webpack js are no longer updating during the production build.

Thoughts

Everything is a Sandwich, Probably

There's constant debate about the definition of sandwiches. Questions around hot dogs, tacos, sushi, etc. are all valid, but I've come to believe that based on most people's definition of what makes a sandwich, everything is probably a sandwich. Evidence: Types of Sandwiches There's a lot of sandwiches out there.

Coding

Nginx Docker Reverse Proxy

I've been working on a basic setup to host a number of sites through docker on a local machine. The theory goes: 1. Port 80 traffic hits my router and is forwarded to my computer with Docker on it 2. An nginx docker image handles the request and, based on

Thoughts

Square Parents Community Newsletter

I’m writing to you from a desk in my house that has fruit snack wrappers, hand-made cards from my kids, and more empty yerba mate cans than I care to admit. When my camera faces one direction, I only need to clean one direction. When my priorities shift, things

Featured

How to get an interview with me

I've been in tech for more than 20 years, and I've seen any variety of techniques trying to get me to interview with companies. Ultimately, I want to know that I was chosen based on understanding who I am, not what metrics you know about me. If you want an

Thoughts Featured

A Brief Message for Recruiters

I'm very selective with writing back or paying attention to recruiting messages. I believe finding a job is similar to dating, and that we should have compatibility before it's worth moving forward. Here's a few things you might want to know before writing: * I have a passion for personal finance

Polyphasic Sleeping

Slow Polyphasic Adaptation

It’s become tradition that when the due date of a child approaches, I start going Polyphasic again. It’s been about a week since I started acclimating, and I’m trying a very non-committal method. It’s been reasonably effective, so far, and I figured I’d share the

Polyphasic Sleeping

Day Two: The Reckoning

The feeling is intoxicating. The knowledge that even though your day is packed and that you’ve spent 1:20 sleeping through the course of it, you have at least an extra 4 hours in the day when everyone else is asleep. It’s not that I get to be

Travel

Arizona!

Over the river and through the woods to Grandma Gale and Grandpa Richard! The trip read mostly uneventful, though Malcolm thought it would be fun to extra poop at one of our stops resulting in 4 diapers and a new outfit, hooray. No changing table in the men's room meant

Travel

New Mexico

Charlie had a lot of fun running to and away from Roscoe. He's a nervous about all that dog coming at him for kisses, but first thing in the morning he tried to go directly from bed to share his writing board with "Wosco". Later a few of us went

Travel

Made It To Laughlin!

Not much to add here..  Had too much of a nice steak dinner, Chuck and Macs are asleep in the room with mom, while Aunt Cat gets a tutorial on gambling!

Travel

First Trip With Malcolm!

... And it's a doozy! 4 states in 2 weeks.  We are starting from home heading to Nevada and New  Mexico, then over to Arizona, and back to California to hit 29 palms and Orange County.  So far our little guys are being troopers. Charlie has been playing with cars,  coloring,

Parenting

Engel Family Update 2014

For a couple years now, our family has produced a little update letter around the close of the year. For those of you who didn't receive a physical copy, here's a PDF you can read to learn more about what happened to us and how we're all doing. I hope

Life Hacks

Inbox -1

I’ve read about how keeping your inbox at 0 is a major life accomplishment and that many people have a daily struggle with it. Having had my email well in hand for more than 10 years, I’ll share with you my secrets for how to keep things in

Thoughts

State of the Morgan 2014

I loved having birthdays when I was a kid. I’m pretty sure this doesn’t make me unique, but I carried this a bit too far into my adulthood. I held dear the idea that a birthday was going to be the best day ever. This lasted until I

Parenting

Waiting for Malcolm

Today we had our 20ish week ultrasound. Everything looked great: two arms, two legs, brain, face and heart. All there and working as expected. All we need now is a middle name. Current options include: Tiberius, Sebastian, Oliver, and Maximus-Julius-Valhalla. The baby is kicking like crazy, Especially when Elizabeth bends

Travel

The Wedding

The point of the trip was to come out and join Alyson and Matt as they got hitched out here near Torch Lake, Michigan, and we were finally settled in at the cabin, we had a glimpse of the wedding location, a taste of what the food would be like,

Travel

Rehearsal Dinner

The first stop after arriving in the beautiful rural town of Torch Lake, Michigan was the rehearsal dinner. We freshened up at the cabin, then Matt and Alyson's family and friends all gathered at a local resort to meet each other, hang out, and in general make merry. The dinner

Travel

Road Trip

We arrived in Chicago around 4pm and got a ride from Steve and his family at the airport. We decided to brave the cross-town rush hour traffic to go visit Justin and see his place in Chicago while we had the chance. His place was fantastic, all open and natural

Travel

Chicago Bound!

The family and I have crammed into the tiniest airline seats known to man. Spirit Airlines, your prices are amazing, but the quality you provide is crap. The flight was a little trying. The boy got tired about 2 hours in and whined and cried for half an hour till

Life Hacks

The Smallest, Easiest Life Hack is the Best Life Hack

I’m a sucker for life hacks that save time and effort, and I consider this one of the easiest to implement. When I use the microwave, I prioritize my button presses based on * Number of Buttons Pressed * Number of Different buttons pressed An example: My microwave has an “Add