Nathaniel Caauwe's Blurbs

Blurb

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Holy crap, this thing is working. Writing this as an excuse to test out my deployment through Cloudflare. Welcome to my new personal site, built on Astro! 🚀

Blurb

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Hannah and I spent some time at the water park yesterday and today. It’s just a few blocks from our house so it’s a brisk little walk, and we have a season pass. Mostly we just float around, but Hannah bought some goggles which we took out for the first time. We like to just see how far we can swim underwater (she smokes me every time). I call my underwater swims “salmon runs.”

When we were done tonight and the park was closing, we decided to just order a pizza and have it delivered there, and eat on the picnic tables out front. The driver arrived and handed me the pizza, but realized he forgot the drink. He ran back to the store and returned very quickly, but again apologized profusely because they didn’t have any Cherry Coke like we ordered, so he thought Mr. Pibb would be sufficient since it’s also cherry. I said “honestly this is an upgrade, thanks!” Had they listed Pibb on the menu I would’ve ordered it.

Blurb

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Well well well… back to Zoic today 😄

Pretty sure I’m getting real close to making this site live. I had Claude do a check over of everything and other than lots of pages that need content filled out, I’m nearly ready. I just keep getting busy with VFX work.

Blurb

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

One of the perks of modern computing is the fact that you may have one default web browser selected on your operating system. You may then be subjected to incessant banners and popups from every single other browser you have to make them your default.

I hate it here.

Blurb

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Bit of a mental reset day. I wrapped my latest Zoic booking on Friday. I have a project in hand I need to get started on as well as two clients I need to get back to about prospective work. But I also needed to change the catbox and clean up the litter he tracked around the basement.

I experimented with Glaze this weekend and built a nifty little project management app, and started drafting an in-depth blog post about that last night. But I really want my site to launch with Yet Another New Website on the homepage, so now I definitely have a ticking clock to get this whole thing out there.

Since I’ll likely go live before my endless portfoloio and resume pages are fully filled out, content-wise, I recently added an updates page to track what’s been edited recently.

R.I.P. Sam Neill ❤️

Blurb

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Listening to The Talk Show with John Gruber Episode 451, and around the 14:30 mark, guest John Moltz talks about “moving your purchasing down” in light of Apple’s price increases. He said he has the iPhone 17 and might look at the e-series for his next phone. Or don’t get the Pro iPhone.

This is something Hannah and I already did. Last year, she and I went from our respective iPhones 13 Pro and 14 Pro, to the regular iPhone 16. Part of that decision was the lineup of colors; she got pink and I got blue. But I also was making a deliberate decision that I no longer needed a Pro phone. I’m also composing this on a MacBook Neo, Apple’s most affordable Mac laptop to date.

I’m feeling the need to have the top of the line option less and less.

Blurb

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Feast-or-Famine™ nature of freelance VFX life plows forward.

Yesterday, I secured a brief booking back at Zoic starting this coming Monday.
Today, I helped my brother with a network and home automation install; helping him finish that tomorrow.
Also today, I got an email from a friend about a short film that needs VFX and has a respectable budget.
This evening, I got a text from another friend who needed some 911 roto and light comp work, which I’m working on right now.

It was a long seven weeks of famine. Here’s hoping things are picking up for the summer.

Blurb

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Spent part of yesterday and today helping my brother Jeffrey do some color grading in Resolve. We shot the annual dance recital for the studio our cousins run. Using my BlackMagic and Jeffrey’s iPhone 15 Pro shooting LOG, we actually have quite a bit of success matching the two cameras to each other.

The process isn’t too shabby either. After he’s done with the editing, I log into his computer via Parsec while we hang out on Discord. I poke through and make adjustments while bouncing ideas off him or generally complaining when I’m struggling with something. He had fun sending a video to a friend of his joking that he has an AI agent color grading for him… NateCowGPT 😜

Blurb

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Continuing the neverending quest to fill out this website with content. Still in the process of just creating markdowns and shoving basic information everywhere.

Blurb

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Holy fuck

I’m not sure my VFX Portfolio or Resume page will ever be complete. The sheer number of stuff over the last… 18 years ( ! ) is simply too much to quantify in the form of markdown files. Nor would I necessarily want a record of every single little thing someone has paid me to paint, roto, or merge over something else.

July 13 update: Added an updates page.

Blurb

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Out running errands all day. Left Claude with a styling to-do list and came back to find the site mostly built out. Verdict TBD.

This was an example post Claude created when I let it do some basic work while I was out. I’m leaving it here for posterity. There was like a solid week of design work after this, but it was adorably confident in what it did.

Blurb

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

[Taps mic]

Check check. Is this thing on? Looks to be working.

This is sort of where my little life page started, somewhere in the later stages of developing this site. Anything prior was ported over from my Micro.blog.

Blurb

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The MacBook Neo might be one of my favorite Macs ever. Equally important in my computing setup as my Mac Studio. But this thing is everything I wanted it to be. Held out for over a year. Totally worth it.