Release Notes: Week 51

Week of Dec 16

Hand-drawn sketch of calendar pages turning with highlighted weekly milestones in green

Personal Site Genesis

Started samzoloth.com from create-next-app:

Dec 20: Initial commit. Blank canvas.

Dec 21: Hero video background experiments. Trying to figure out the vibe.

Dec 22: Design overhaul PR merged. Landed on playful hero with hover effects and restructured the work page. Added inline brand elements.

The design direction crystallized: playful but professional, with hover-driven personality.

Client Work

Stakeholder translation: Took ambiguous requests from a key stakeholder and turned them into clear, prioritized backlog items. The challenge: stakeholders know what they want but don't always frame it in ways engineering can act on. My job is bridging that gap, making sure we build the right thing without back-and-forth churn.