Engineering, agentic systems, home infrastructure, and the occasional adventure.https://www.davidmerrick.me/en-ushttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/06/25/kinshasa-old-ideas-new-era/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/06/25/kinshasa-old-ideas-new-era/Rope-a-dope for distributed systems — event-driven patterns that don't just survive autonomous agents, but get stronger under the beating.Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/06/01/hello-distributed-system-my-old-friend/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/06/01/hello-distributed-system-my-old-friend/How my personal AI went from a flat-file monorepo to a Kafka microservice architecture in my basement.Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/05/21/agentic-fundamentals/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/05/21/agentic-fundamentals/Five rules for working agentically: plan first, test upfront, manage cognitive overhead, verify continuously, and keep the work human-readable.Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/05/12/fellowship-of-the-smart-things/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/05/12/fellowship-of-the-smart-things/A new house, an appliance dragon named Smaug, 200 sensors, and the eighteen-agent Fellowship I built to keep them all under control.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/04/25/wiring-up-the-house/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/04/25/wiring-up-the-house/Dead zones, Comcast outages during the workday, a coworker with spare gear, and a full enterprise-grade rebuild of my home network.Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/03/29/luke-and-leia/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/03/29/luke-and-leia/I adopted two cats this spring — a brother-and-sister pair from Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood. Here they are.Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/03/07/first-ascent-agentic-mountain/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2026/03/07/first-ascent-agentic-mountain/One route up Agentic Mountain: what I learned coding with AI agents, and why it's good for humans.Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2025/11/12/eleven-batteries-from-idaho/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2025/11/12/eleven-batteries-from-idaho/From a small Panel-1 install to a whole-home battery system: 11 EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultras hauled back from Idaho, $15k cash on ~$42k of MSRP, $15,926 back from the IRS, and a Death Star joke that named the whole thing.Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2024/07/22/apple-passwords/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2024/07/22/apple-passwords/Apple Passwords is great, but lacking several key features that 1Password hasMon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2024/07/22/notion-printing/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2024/07/22/notion-printing/Notion printing is awful. Here's a workaround.Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/10/01/europe-trip/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/10/01/europe-trip/Cycling trip with my dad and sister along the Danube from Germany to AustriaSun, 01 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/07/21/wallowas-weekend/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/07/21/wallowas-weekend/A weekend backpacking trip to Ice Lake, in the WallowasFri, 21 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/05/21/sabbatical-week-4/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/05/21/sabbatical-week-4/A chill last week of sabbatical in Vietnam and South KoreaSun, 21 May 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/05/14/sabbatical-week-3/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/05/14/sabbatical-week-3/I spent the third week of my sabbatical exploring northern Vietnam and on a cruise in Ha Long BaySun, 14 May 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/05/07/sabbatical-week-2/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/05/07/sabbatical-week-2/A week of exploring central VietnamSun, 07 May 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/05/01/sabbatical-week-1/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/05/01/sabbatical-week-1/My Vietnam visa was denied at the gate, but I managed to salvage the trip and spend a few days in Japan and Taiwan while waiting for a new one to get processed.Mon, 01 May 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/04/21/revisiting-vietnam-after-23-years/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/04/21/revisiting-vietnam-after-23-years/Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/04/04/upscaling-video-with-ai/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/04/04/upscaling-video-with-ai/Upscaling old 480p video to 4k using Topaz Labs Video AI.Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/03/23/text-in-intellij/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/03/23/text-in-intellij/Some useful tips for working with text in IntelliJ. Bulk-editing, alphabetizing, text-substitution, text expansion, etc.Thu, 23 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/03/08/digitizing-minidv/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/03/08/digitizing-minidv/I returned home from a recent trip to my parents' place with a box full of old tapes. Here's how I digitized them.Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/03/01/how-i-m-doing-backups-in-2023/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/03/01/how-i-m-doing-backups-in-2023/I decided to create a more robust data backup strategy for my family in early 2023. Here's what I put into place.Wed, 01 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/01/31/convert-heic-to-jpeg/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/01/31/convert-heic-to-jpeg/Use macOS's quick right-click action to convert HEIC to JPEG.Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/01/23/google-photos-boolean-searches/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/01/23/google-photos-boolean-searches/Google Photos's web UI isn't always great for people searches, but there are hidden parameters you can pass to make it behave more like it does on mobile.Mon, 23 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/01/11/state-of-my-smarthome/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/01/11/state-of-my-smarthome/Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/01/02/how-to-digitize-old-photos/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2023/01/02/how-to-digitize-old-photos/The Epson FastFoto is a blazing-fast scanner for digitizing your family's memories. Here's why I recommend it.Mon, 02 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/12/26/best-of-2022/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/12/26/best-of-2022/A few favorite travels, books, movies, podcasts, and games from 2022, in no particular order 🙂Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/12/16/advent-of-code-2022-in-kotlin/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/12/16/advent-of-code-2022-in-kotlin/Fri, 16 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/12/08/costa-rica-2022/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/12/08/costa-rica-2022/Highlights from a December 2022 trip to Costa Rica with my girlfriend. We stayed in Ojochal, Quepos, and La Fortuna.Thu, 08 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/09/13/trail-of-the-couer-d-alenes-ride-september-2022/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/09/13/trail-of-the-couer-d-alenes-ride-september-2022/In September 2022, my dad and I did rode the length of the Trail of the Couer d'Alenes, in Idaho.Tue, 13 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/01/24/san-juan-islands-bike-trip-2021/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/01/24/san-juan-islands-bike-trip-2021/Mon, 24 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/01/18/a-look-back-on-2021/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2022/01/18/a-look-back-on-2021/Tue, 18 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/07/05/review-java-concurrency-in-practice/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/07/05/review-java-concurrency-in-practice/Sun, 05 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/07/04/q2-review/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/07/04/q2-review/Sat, 04 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/06/24/bowflex-c6-ideal-quarantine-spin-bike/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/06/24/bowflex-c6-ideal-quarantine-spin-bike/Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/03/31/the-corona-chronicles-week-4/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/03/31/the-corona-chronicles-week-4/Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/03/28/the-corona-cles-of-narnia-week-3/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/03/28/the-corona-cles-of-narnia-week-3/Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/03/22/the-corona-diaries-week-2/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/03/22/the-corona-diaries-week-2/Sun, 22 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/02/17/-working-effectively-with-legacy-code-book-review/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/02/17/-working-effectively-with-legacy-code-book-review/Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/02/08/useful-git-hooks/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2020/02/08/useful-git-hooks/Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/11/14/fix-for-trash-option-greyed-out-on-hazel/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/11/14/fix-for-trash-option-greyed-out-on-hazel/Thu, 14 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/10/28/the-information-diet/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/10/28/the-information-diet/Mon, 28 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/10/27/hiking-the-entire-wildwood-trail-in-one-day/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/10/27/hiking-the-entire-wildwood-trail-in-one-day/Sun, 27 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/10/26/the-perks-of-solo-travel/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/10/26/the-perks-of-solo-travel/Sat, 26 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/10/24/a-quick-intro-to-github-actions/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/10/24/a-quick-intro-to-github-actions/Thu, 24 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/06/15/digital-minimalism-review/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/06/15/digital-minimalism-review/Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/01/28/how-to-make-a-repository-read-only-in-sonatype-nexus-2/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/01/28/how-to-make-a-repository-read-only-in-sonatype-nexus-2/Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/01/27/favorite-podcasts-2019/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2019/01/27/favorite-podcasts-2019/Sun, 27 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2018/09/24/enchantments-backpacking-trip/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2018/09/24/enchantments-backpacking-trip/Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2018/09/06/running-mysql-in-docker-with-automatic-restart/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2018/09/06/running-mysql-in-docker-with-automatic-restart/Thu, 06 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.davidmerrick.me/2018/09/05/mckenzie-river-trip-2018/https://www.davidmerrick.me/2018/09/05/mckenzie-river-trip-2018/Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT