A collection of ramblings and stories from Derek Brooks
I'd been itching to get back across an ocean since the pandemic, so last winter we decided to finally make it happen and hired a travel agent to plan a trip to the Mediterranean. She suggested Croatia, we provided rough parameters and waited for a plan. After months of no response, we gave a nudge, and I'm pretty sure she just copied and pasted someone else's Game of Thrones themed itinerary and…
In the Spring of 2019, my hometown buddy, Mitch told me his friend was opening a restaurant in Des Moines and that it was going to be done well. That Summer, signage started to go up in the East Village and by fall we got a look at the beautifully designed bar. It was clear that Mitch's friend was both experienced and meticulous, and we were excited to give it a shot. As soon as Clyde's Fine Diner…
She was born on Valentine's Day in Southern Missouri, and had clear Southern Missouri roots . I was her first grandchild , and we always had a special bond because of it. She often called me her "number 1,” which always made me feel a little awkward - especially around my sister and cousins ... but she wasn't exactly known her social awareness, haha. As a toddler, she and Grandpa John took me…
My friend, Kaylee recently invited me to be on the Iowa Tech Podcast and I almost turned it down because I didn’t think I had any relevant content. I clarified that I've not been involved with an Iowa-based company in over 15 years and have been remote for so long that I’m not used to chopping it up about tech IRL. The invitation honestly made me a bit anxious. But I agreed, did the interview, had…
Big ups. Big downs. Took some risks. Continued to go with the flow... Thinking. Learning. Growing. The year ended with the heartbreaking loss of our "nephew," Elias ... which is part of the reason its taken so long to write this retrospective. He was an incredibly special kid with an incomprehensible diagnosis that he and his family fought as hard as possible to overcome... The loss has taken a…
A couple weeks ago, my buddy Judson asked if I'd be willing to "stealthily take some photos" of him proposing to his amazing partner, Katie . I immediately told him how I stoked I was for them, but I'm not even close to a professional photographer and didn't wanna fuck up capturing their moment. He said it'd be super casual, in a remote park, and just wanted a couple mementos, so I agreed to scout…
I've been dealing with some minor, intermittent skin issues for years. It's been treatable, but last year the eczema came hard, spread further and was a little gnarlier... so I started seeing a dermatologist and allergist. They tested for chemical allergies, environmental allergies, had me change everything that I put on my skin or clothes and none of it helped. I suspected a food allergy or…
This site is almost 24 years old now. TWENTY FOUR. When I think about myself at 24... man. What an ignorant, overconfident punk, this site must be. So, this all started as a work study project in college - a monolithic PHP+MySQL app that evolved into a multi-service, server side rendered javascript front end that hits a REST API (with an integration layer, various caching strategies, standalone…
You know those Christmas cards that folks send that include a little 1-pager about what they've been up to for the year? I really like those... So, here's my 1-pager for 2024. Travel I stuck around North America again this year, visiting... San Francisco to hang with my team @ Panther Montana to snowboard and kick it with Kirps, Mason , and Ryan Moab for the Bronco Off-Roadeo and national parks…
My biography on social media for the past 20 years has been: Builder. Fixer. Thinker. Rocker. I thrive in creative environments and have a real need to be designing, producing and moving to stay happy. My therapist recently pointed out that my self-esteem is directly tied to my productivity, which was something that I needed to hear. Over the past few years, I found myself laying in bed before I…