January 10, 2025

For the past eight weeks, members of my extended family have faced serious health issues, and attending to them and supporting the rest of my family has been my top priority.

These developments have shown that Valise is a stable, viable, and increasingly successful project. Despite not being able to invest as much time in it toward the end of last year, its user base is growing, people are active on the platform, and it has proven both reliable and robust (all thanks to my business partner, Ross). We began 2024 with five users; we ended it with hundreds, a significant proportion of whom upgraded to a paid account. Together they’ve added over ten thousand artwork records. I’m excited to develop Valise further in the coming months, and to open it up to general sign-ups.

The rest of my work life is varied and stimulating. I remain a member of Notion’s comms & content team, and have begun writing for other technology companies and the design agencies that serve them. I’m editing books for MIT Press and the Antithykera Institute, the Clark Art Institute, and the Image Centre, among other organizations. I’m writing and editing for Art21, the Teiger Foundation, and other arts nonprofits. I’m doing case-study and other marketing writing for architects and real-estate developers. As I said: varied and stimulating. I’m fully freelance and open to new projects.

I earned my Canadian citizenship about a year ago. Walker, my oldest kid joined a hockey team this fall. Packing their bag and dragging them to practices and games has made me feel really Canadian. Following their interest, I’ve begun delving into the NHL, and together we’ve begun cheering for the Maple Leafs. Now I have teams in Toronto, Boston, and Chicago—three of the four cities where I’ve spent the most of my life.