We’ll return to the regularly scheduled GameDev programming in January. Most of December was spent on a detour. The detour was to help make my life a bit easier. Actually…a lot easier.

Website Design in the Age of Agentic AI

My original thesis for creating a custom 2D game engine (Zixel) from scratch was simple: agentic AI development will become the norm. To that end – it will be beneficial to have a codebase built around the agentic development workflow.
....but what about some of my side-hustles? I host websites for friends, family, and local small businesses. To date, I’ve used Wordpress along with Elementor to design and host the sites. I’m not the worlds best design, but good enough to make lightweight landing pages for these small businesses.
As I write this post, Claude is busy porting the last of my clients’ websites from WordPress to a custom Django application.
AI is incredibly good at designing websites. Especially ones in clean HTML, using clean CSS, and minimal (if any) JavaScript. Claude very easily will convert an existing site in disarray or poorly designed into a clean, modern website. By using Django, I’m able to leverage some common functionality, such as a contact form, and image galleries. If need be, I can easily create a custom app for the customer as well (which is what I’m currently working on).
Going forward, regardless of when a potential client asks for a new site or a refreshed one, I can leverage the latest agentic development and design tools – quickly putting together examples for customers.

Year In Review

2025 was a grind. It started with a quasi-career pivot and has been a whirlwind the entire way.

Tales from the Dark Side (management)

2025 saw a bit of a career shift. No, I haven’t hung up the split mechanical keyboard for a Thinkpad and a tie. I’m still doing a bit of software development, but the primary focus has been on managing multiple development teams. Shifting from an individual contributor (IC) to a leadership role has been hard. Really hard. Given the choice, I’d talk to about two people in any given week and be perfectly fine with it.
Now, I’m talking to 10+ a day for 6+ hours. It’s exhausting.
Trying to keep my energy levels throughout the day is the biggest challenge. By 2PM, I’m salty, snippy, and tired.
The nagging voice in the back of my head wants to create and solve problems via code. Creating teams and solving people’s problems is close to the same…but not. People are far less malleable than code. In fact, my initial experience has been that people are quite inelastic. It’s not my job to change them, but rather to use their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
Lucky for me - I’ve got an incredible team of people. They all (and I’m not blowing smoke here) are great humans. Everyone has been a pleasure to work with, and I genuinely appreciate their trust in me to lead, given my relative inexperience.

Bulgaria Trip

Had the pleasure of traveling to Bulgaria to meet some colleagues. The entire trip was spent in the capital city of Sofia. The food and architecture are a mix between Mediterranean and Eastern European styles. A local grape varietal “Melnik” was delicious. Overall, the food and wine were very affordable as compared to restaurants in the United States.
It’s always fun to experience a new culture. The people of Bulgaria didn’t disappoint.

San Francisco Trip

Work also managed to take me to San Francisco for a week. Most of the time was spent in an office discussing a new project, but I did get to spend some time down by the water. Iconic views. Downtown San Francisco was an eclectic mix. The homeless and drug problems were a sharp juxtaposition to the beautiful views and architecture. Fun side-note: experienced a Waymo for the first time. The future is weeeeiiirrrrd!

Family

The kids keep getting bigger. It’s crazy. Time truly does fly by. I find myself enjoying the little moments and being much more present when they happen.
Son graduated from the University of Hartford. Big moment for the entire family. We’re all proud. He’s currently pursuing a master’s degree and working in marketing for a golf startup company (queue the proud dad vibes).
Daughters are both currently in high school and forging their paths forward. It isn’t easy to be a teenager in today’s world. It never has been – but it’s especially getting hard with a hyper-connected society.
My wife (my rock) continues to be the light in the dark. She’s absolutely killing it in her field of work. I was lucky enough to attend an award ceremony where she was honored. Watching a room full of people celebrate your partner is a great feeling. Shared happiness is happiness multiplied.

Side Hustles

The side hustles never stop. In 2025, they were a source of inspiration and motivation, given the limited creative outlets at the nine-to-five.

Pin Sheet Pro

Really excited to launch Pin Sheet Pro. Getting back into the golf business has been on my radar for a while. Pin Sheet Pro solves some of the problems I’ve had with pin location sheets. We worked with a design partner, NHGolf, to fine-tune and optimize the product. It was a successful season with good feedback from players and tournament organizers.
At the end of 2025, we also are going to partner with a college golf team on a new feature: player statistics. More to come on this after we launch the feature and get some player feedback.
For 2026, I’m looking to greatly expand our userbase.

Nashua City Championship

The City Championship rolls on! We had a great tournament in 2025 and are looking forward to some fun changes in 2026. To start, I’ve revamped the website – another AI-port from the old one.

3 Up Golf

3 Up Golf continues to run on autopilot. I get a few signups a month and the occasional question from a fellow yardage book enthusiast. It really could use some cleaning up, but for now I’m going to leave it alone.

Zixel

As noted in previous posts, I’ve been working on a new game engine. The bulk of work has been done with GitHub Copilot agent up to this point. In January, I’m going to start working on the project using Claude Code.

Sports

Despite being incredibly short on free time, there was some spare time available to compete! Curling (winter) and golf (every other season) continue to be the competitive outlets of choice.

Curling 🥌

2025 was the first opportunity I’ve had to compete in a curling tournament – known as a bonspiel. Teams traveled quite far to participate. The level of competition was much higher than I’d previously experienced in our weekly men’s league. Several ends were “blanked” a term meaning neither team scored a point – on purpose. In the end, we didn’t make it to the finals (one game away) but we learned a lot and made some memories. 🍻
Speaking of the weekly men’s league – we won the 2025 season! Nobody saw it coming. Our team went from last place in the first half of the season to marching through the playoffs to the final match. To be fair, I’m not sure if anyone on our team expected to be in the finals either. We all received our “Presidents Cup” winners pins at the closing banquet. There were a lot of smiles, laughs, and stories.

Golf ⛳

What a crazy year on the links.

• Started the season with a missed cut at the State-Am qualifier: woops.
• Son & I took down our fifth (!) New Hampshire Parent-Child title
• Low round of the season (-2) during the final round of the NH Stroke Play Championship
• Finished Top-15 in the stroke play: gets an exemption into the 2026 NH State-Am
• Made the cut in the NH mid-am championship in BRUTAL conditions. Crazy grind.
• Ended the season as a 0.8 handicap

Game really felt good this year. Made a concerted effort to stay healthy before big events (no yardwork) and to limit practice time at the range. The total round-count for the year was down significantly due to work and life.
2026’s goals remain the same: have fun, stay healthy, and play well.

Zimlawn

Landscaping projects continued to evolve in 2025. The turf health was mostly healthy, although in the fall there were several areas that were taken over by moss. I’ll need to reseed those in the spring. In addition, a new area of weeping lovegrass (a fescue) was planned. It took root in the fall, and I look forward to seeing what next year brings for it.
The big project was the addition of a front walkway. Yes…the curves are inspired by golf courses.

Books

Some excellent reads this year. Told myself I’d get out of the self-help category, but a good motivational tale is a shot in the arm for productivity.

• The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
• This is Strategy by Seth Godin
• Breath by James Nestor
• Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers (re-read)
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey (re-read)
• Several Short Sentences about Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg
• Make the Adjustment by Chris Mader
• The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin

In 2026, more reading will be focused on design and philosophy.

2026

Resolutions are for suckers.
If you’re inclined to make one – commit to the process.
The results will take care of themselves.
Good luck, have fun!