The Renaissance Catalog

The domains I explore and how they connect.

I don’t believe in specializing in one thing. I believe in going deep across many things and finding the patterns between them. Every domain below informs the others. I started a project called 52 Skills in January 2025: learn 52 skills, one at a time. I made it 13 weeks before realizing that rigid weekly sprints don’t work for my brain. The project didn’t die. It evolved. The number is the goal. Not the timeline.


The Domains

AI & Knowledge Systems

Core Domain

Building a personal knowledge system that integrates analog notebooks, AI collaboration with Claude and Gemini, and an Obsidian digital vault. More on this in the Scriptorium section below.

Self-Hosted Infrastructure

Core Domain

A homelab called the Athenaeum: Proxmox hypervisor running virtual machines for network storage, Docker services, and monitoring. Eight named devices across the network, 40TB of storage, all connected through Tailscale. The second wall of sovereignty.

Photography & Videography

Core Domain

Capturing moments that matter and telling stories through a lens. Shooting on a Lumix S5II full-frame with Sirui VP-1 cine primes and editing in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Photo and video work as both personal archive and creative expression.

Making & Fabrication

Core Domain

Working with hands. 3D printing, parametric CAD, and soon Arduino and soldering. The maker trilogy: fabricate, electrify, fuse. Physical proof that thinking and making belong together.

Classical Drawing

Active Study

Learning to observe before learning to render. Cast drawing from the atelier tradition. The same progression artists have followed for centuries, because it works.

Philosophy & Literature

Ongoing

350+ books collected across 50+ domains. Reading across Seneca, Cain, Tolle, Holiday, Carnegie, Isaacson, Sennett, and Borges. The library grows faster than I read, and that's the point.

Gaming & Challenge Runs

Creative Outlet

OSRS and Minecraft as mediums for constraint-based storytelling. Self-imposed rules, long-form narratives, patience as content. The Vellumere channel, when it launches.

Faith & Theology

Foundation

Christian faith as a quiet foundation underneath everything else. Reading Scripture, attending church with Holly, and trying to figure out what it means to steward the gifts and curiosity I've been given.


52 Skills — Progress Tracker

52 Skills — Progress Tracker

The number is the goal. Not the timeline.
1. Filmmaking 2. Front-End Dev 3. Sketching 4. Blender 5. Reading 6. Japanese 7. Notes 8. Meditation 9. Typing 10. Pixel Art 11. Animation 12. Cars 13. Lockpicking 14. PC Building 15. Linux 16. Homelab 17. AI / Claude 18. 3D Printing 19. Arduino 20. Soldering

Reading

Currently Reading

The Poetics of Space
Gaston Bachelard
Babel
R.F. Kuang
How to Hide an Empire
Daniel Immerwahr
Just for Fun
Linus Torvalds and David Diamond

Read This Year

The Craftsman
Richard Sennett
Range
David Epstein
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke