https://passionwavesmedia.com/ One place for the things I can't stop thinking about — the cloud, the road, the kitchen, and everything I'm still figuring out. If a piece here teaches you something or nudges you to start, it did its job. en-us https://passionwavesmedia.com/replacing-claude-code-with-local-llm.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/replacing-claude-code-with-local-llm.html Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 AWS A journey through RAM upgrades, hallucinated tool calls, context windows, and the honest limits of consumer hardware, and where I landed instead. https://passionwavesmedia.com/how-to-be-a-great-customer-success-manager.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/how-to-be-a-great-customer-success-manager.html Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Career What two-plus years as a CSM at a full-service IT consulting company taught me about trust, adaptability, and building the systems nobody hands you. https://passionwavesmedia.com/greece-europe-tour-2026.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/greece-europe-tour-2026.html Sun, 12 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Travel Eleven days, five countries: a group tour through Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Athens, Hydra, Santorini, and London. https://passionwavesmedia.com/western-wonders-road-trip-idaho-oregon-utah.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/western-wonders-road-trip-idaho-oregon-utah.html Sun, 01 Oct 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Travel A seven-day drive through Idaho, Oregon, and Utah: waterfalls, a mountain tramway, kayaking, hikes, and everything eaten along the way. https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-the-story-of.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-the-story-of.html Fri, 22 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Speaking A speech about a friend who lost both parents to cancer before he'd even finished school, and what he taught me about staying calm inside chaos. https://passionwavesmedia.com/navigating-new-york-work-week.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/navigating-new-york-work-week.html Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Travel A work trip to New York that still found room for hot yoga, ice skating at Rockefeller Center, and a lot of very good food. https://passionwavesmedia.com/vegan-eastvale-guide.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/vegan-eastvale-guide.html Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Food Eight Eastvale spots with real vegan orders worth making the trip for, from ramen to a beyond-sausage sandwich. https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-common-feedback-mistakes.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-common-feedback-mistakes.html Thu, 27 Jul 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Speaking The two pieces of feedback that come up again and again, from 15 of my own speeches and watching 50 more. https://passionwavesmedia.com/atlanta-to-tennessee-wedding-trip.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/atlanta-to-tennessee-wedding-trip.html Thu, 06 Jul 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Travel A friend's wedding in the Smokies, bookended by an overnight drive in each direction and more Taco Bell than planned. https://passionwavesmedia.com/vegan-inland-empire-guide.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/vegan-inland-empire-guide.html Tue, 23 May 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Food A cuisine-by-cuisine tour of the Inland Empire's best vegan orders, ramen, falafel, dumplings, and plant-based burgers. https://passionwavesmedia.com/colorado-trip-aug-2022.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/colorado-trip-aug-2022.html Fri, 24 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Travel Four days in Colorado: Rocky Mountain National Park, the summit of Mount Evans, and Red Rocks on the way out. https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-icebreaker-speech.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-icebreaker-speech.html Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Speaking The first speech every Toastmaster gives, an introduction, a name that's been mispronounced in every possible way, and where I am right now. https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-letter-to-my-friend.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-letter-to-my-friend.html Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Speaking A speech written as a letter to an old friend, one who falls constantly and never gets hurt. https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-rocky-rap.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-rocky-rap.html Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Speaking What my dog Rocky has taught me about awareness, presence, and taking a break, delivered as a rap, because a blog post dared me to. https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-self-driving-cars.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-self-driving-cars.html Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Speaking A prepared speech on why autonomous vehicles still make the same kinds of mistakes they were built to eliminate. https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-time.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-time.html Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Speaking A prepared speech on the one resource everyone has an opinion about and almost no one actually understands. https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-valentine.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/toastmasters-valentine.html Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000 Speaking What a relationship that didn't last still managed to teach me about self-care, solitude, and not losing track of everything else. https://passionwavesmedia.com/s3-presigned-urls-cli.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/s3-presigned-urls-cli.html Wed, 18 May 2022 12:00:00 +0000 AWS A walkthrough for sharing a single private S3 object temporarily, no public bucket required. https://passionwavesmedia.com/download-chrome-ie-windows-server-2019.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/download-chrome-ie-windows-server-2019.html Thu, 17 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000 How-To A fresh Windows Server 2019 box only comes with Internet Explorer, here's how to get Chrome onto it without a fight. https://passionwavesmedia.com/imdsv1-to-imdsv2-upgrade.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/imdsv1-to-imdsv2-upgrade.html Wed, 16 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000 AWS Why the original instance metadata service was a security gap, and the exact commands to move every instance to the authenticated version. https://passionwavesmedia.com/jenkins-agents-ec2-spot-instances.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/jenkins-agents-ec2-spot-instances.html Thu, 06 Jan 2022 12:00:00 +0000 AWS A proof of concept for scaling Jenkins agents on spot pricing with the EC2-Fleet plugin: cheaper builds, no idle capacity. https://passionwavesmedia.com/installing-nginx-ec2-user-data.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/installing-nginx-ec2-user-data.html Sun, 02 Jan 2022 12:00:00 +0000 AWS Stand up an Nginx web server on a fresh EC2 instance with nothing but a user-data script, no manual SSH setup required. https://passionwavesmedia.com/session-manager-windows-no-rdp-port.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/session-manager-windows-no-rdp-port.html Sat, 01 Jan 2022 12:00:00 +0000 AWS Get shell and RDP access to a Windows EC2 instance through Systems Manager, then close port 3389 in the security group for good. https://passionwavesmedia.com/starting-out-on-your-aws-journey.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/starting-out-on-your-aws-journey.html Fri, 26 Nov 2021 12:00:00 +0000 AWS Lessons from a few years in the cloud, on learning deliberately, troubleshooting with intent, and treating a career as a process instead of a checklist. https://passionwavesmedia.com/personal-website-on-aws-part-1.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/personal-website-on-aws-part-1.html Mon, 31 May 2021 12:00:00 +0000 AWS Skip Wix and Squarespace, host a real static site on S3 and actually understand what's happening under the hood. https://passionwavesmedia.com/personal-website-on-aws-part-2.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/personal-website-on-aws-part-2.html Mon, 31 May 2021 12:00:00 +0000 AWS Turn the bare S3 site from Part 1 into a real HTTPS site on your own domain, served fast from CloudFront's edge network. https://passionwavesmedia.com/create-aws-account-from-scratch.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/create-aws-account-from-scratch.html Sat, 22 May 2021 12:00:00 +0000 AWS What cloud computing actually buys you, and the exact steps to get a working AWS account and console access. https://passionwavesmedia.com/hashicorp-vault-certification-2021.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/hashicorp-vault-certification-2021.html Thu, 28 Jan 2021 12:00:00 +0000 AWS What Vault actually solves, how I studied for the Vault Associate exam, and the resources that were worth the time. https://passionwavesmedia.com/atlanta-trip-feb-2020.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/atlanta-trip-feb-2020.html Tue, 21 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000 Travel Two days covering Atlanta on foot: the King Center, Centennial Olympic Park, and a lot of the BeltLine. https://passionwavesmedia.com/san-francisco-trip-2019.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/san-francisco-trip-2019.html Sun, 19 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000 Travel Four days in San Francisco and a detour to Yosemite, Lombard Street, the Golden Gate from four different angles, and a lot of walking. https://passionwavesmedia.com/aws-solutions-architect-associate-2019.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/aws-solutions-architect-associate-2019.html Sun, 09 Jun 2019 12:00:00 +0000 AWS A score, a stack of resources, and the study order I'd actually repeat, after two years of AWS and two certifications already behind me. https://passionwavesmedia.com/ubuntu-dev-environment-setup.html https://passionwavesmedia.com/ubuntu-dev-environment-setup.html Sun, 02 Dec 2018 12:00:00 +0000 AWS A copy-paste setup guide for a full cloud dev environment on Ubuntu, editor, IaC, Python, AWS SDK, git, and the Serverless Framework.