Author: Brandon Kraft

  • 26 Years Later

    26 years ago, I was sitting in Mrs. Wilson’s 5th Grade science class when a classmate across the lab bench from me asked if I heard about the bombing in Oklahoma City. At the time, I thought she probably didn’t know what she was talking about or, at least, it was a “small bomb”, whatever…

  • Happy National Beer Day

    Happy National Beer Day

    In the United States, today is National Beer Day! Today in 1933, beer became legal again during the tail end of 18th Amendment prohibition of alcoholic beverages. What’s interesting is that the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th, was not effective until December 1933, so why is today a day? On this date, the Cullen-Harrison Act…

  • Support Rotation

    At Automattic, after being hired, your first two weeks on the job is working with our Happiness teams to directly support customers. For engineers or designers, it gives you a taste of who we’re building this for. For other roles, it is a reminder that we’re all contributing toward the success of our customers in…

  • The Longest Lent

    The Longest Lent

    Holy Saturday is perhaps one of my favorite days of the liturgical year. The cruelty of Good Friday is past us and we’re in this holding pattern. We do have faith that Easter is coming, but it isn’t here yet. Isn’t that where we are now? We have faith that Jesus will return, but not…

  • All Adults Eligible

    All Adults Eligible

    All adults in Texas will be eligible for the COVID vaccine starting on March 29th. In some areas of the state, demand in the priority groups is dropping, but in Austin, we’re still seeing a lot of Phase 1 folks trying to get a vaccine. In other words, just because the state is making everyone…

  • News Only on The iPad

    I’m going to experiment with an attempt of a lifehack to only consume news when I’m using my iPad—not at my regular work computer. Usually, I’ll browse the news sites while waiting for something to build or tests or run, but too often, something will be “breaking” that catches my attention. In reality, it doesn’t…