Personal journal

After more than 25 years of doing UX research the traditional way, I tried AI personas with my team. Here's what I did, how it went and why they've earned a spot in my toolkit.

My previous design for this website lasted over 12 years. Last week, I updated the design with Claude AI and now it's different, as is my perspective.

On May 31, 2026 I participated in the 9th annual Cowichan Crusher Gravel Fondo in Lake Cowichan, BC.

With two days' notice, the Yukon government terminated their successful electric transportation rebate program: one of the best in Canada.

My son and I recently spent four days building a custom Windows gaming PC from scratch. After finally getting Microsoft Windows 11 to boot, something unexpected caught my attention during…

I recently registered for a gravel race that I will travel to later this year. To get ready for that race, a few weeks ago I started a new structured training program.

After more than a year of commuting mainly by e-bike, I've not gotten stronger.

After almost nine years as a public servant, I'm leaving government (again) to re-join the private sector.

I've long had a soft spot for grassroots cross-country mountain bike events that take place on or around the same date every year. So much so, that last August I started my own: Yukon Fat…

This past spring, for my birthday I got an e-bike to commute to and from work on.

On Saturday, July 6, I joined a group of 11 Yukon gravel cyclists to try and ride the South Canol Road in one day.

After 124 years in business, the Whitehorse Star will cease operations in May 2024.

I consider myself an environmentalist, and a quiet one at that - I've never chained myself to a tree or waved a sign at a rally - but for most of my life I've made decisions and taken…

It’s the middle of August – almost 3 months after the BWR - and I still haven’t shared how it went. Oops!

BWR Canada (or BWR BC) is less than 14 days away. It's been a long winter and spring of training and preparation and I'm feeling as ready as I'll ever be.

I have friends who raced in the 2017 Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) California which is a cycling event known for its difficult multi-surface course. The winning time is often in the…

A few weeks before snow settled on the Yukon, I started to take notice of soon-to-be ghosts around downtown Whitehorse.

2018 Cervélo R3, 61 cm. Navy blue and red carbon fiber frame, fork and seatpost. Shimano Ultegra 11-speed drivetrain, 52-36 chainrings. Check the Pinkbike listing for more photos.

This summer, on a drive home from our cabin with my boys, we listened to a music playlist they’d created years prior. They’d kept updating it year after year, adding new songs to the…

In November 2020 I bought a new-old-stock 22" 2013 Kona King Kahuna frame as the base for a gravel/XC mountain bike.

On May 2, 2022 a big landslide shut down Whitehorse's Robert Service Way.

I’m excited to announce that I’m going to be taking on a new role at the Government of Yukon. I will be the Manager of Visitor Services in the Department of Tourism and Culture.

My mom's dad and my grandfather, William John Cate was born on December 11, 1911 and passed away on May 7, 2013.

This morning I was updating some stuff on my website and ended up scrolling through the journal archive.

I've been working on government service teams for almost 6 years. For much of this time, the pace has been very high. In the spring of 2019, I paid the price. I burned out.

At work I'm part of an amazing team with the mission to make Yukon government services better for everyone.

Bought new in May 2020. Very well maintained and in excellent condition. Original purchase price was CAD $6,000.

I’ve written several reviews of bikes I’ve owned or been privileged to test from a big guy perspective. These reviews include a mountain bike hardtail, road bike and a gravel bike.

If you work in government or a large organization, you’ll likely have encountered some or all these scenarios when trying to get a new digital service shipped and into the public’s hands.

I'm not a lawyer, so this is not legal advice.

For the past couple of winters, I've run a pair of 45NRTH Vanhelga tires on my fat bike. When conditions are snowy or packed snow, the Vanhelga tires have been great. They are light, grippy…

As a middle-class, middle-aged straight white male, I'm used to privilege.

As I sit here, nursing yet another mountain biking related injury I realize how tired I am of getting hurt.

The ideal bike for big people who are rough on stuff and want a sweet hardtail. I bought the frame in 2019 and had my local bike shop build it up.

Not quite a year after leaving government, I'm returning. Our world is in a crisis and I want to help.

Known as the land of the Midnight Sun, Yukon offers two very different outdoor experiences in summer and winter. During the summer, typically around June 21 the sun never really goes down…

Last weekend (September 28, 2019) I rode in the third annual Gravel Growler, a gravel cycling event that naturally, starts and ends at Winterlong Brewing.

Many of the road bikes I've owned have been at most 62cm in size. That's usually the largest frame size available from mainstream manufacturers. They've fit me pretty well with some…

I'm selling my 2018 Norco Torrent HT 2 XL frame, rear wheel and headset. I recently moved the other parts over to a Kona Explosif which is a taller and longer frame. The Explosif fits me…

Last week, after four years in the public service I resigned from my job.

Sometimes it – life, work, family, health, future – all seems like too much for me to handle. Sometimes I just want to, and do walk away and disappear.

I'm selling my 2005-06 F2 Speedster RS 183cm alpine race snowboard with F2 bindings. I originally purchased this set-up from YYZCANUCK, as it was one of Dave's (the owner's) personal boards.

I live in the Yukon where typically it starts to freeze and begins to snow in October, then progressively gets colder and colder. This weather often lasts until mid-March and then begins to…

I ride my bike to and from work at least three times per week. It's about 8 km per way, depending on the route I choose to follow. In winter, I ride my fat bike. In summer, spring and…

My now-defunct business, Subvert Marketing Inc. used to build a lot of websites. Looking back at our eight-year history of projects, often more than 70% of the company’s annual revenue came…

Government in part exists is to provide services to citizens. These services should be easy as possible to find and use.

My wife and I have three kids. Life is loopy.

In March 2018, I excitedly walked into Icycle Sports to pay a deposit for a brand new, navy blue 2018 Cervélo R3, size 61 cm.

A short time ago, I recognized I take pride in my ability to have "just enough".

I don't have an account on any of the major social media networks, except if you count Linkedin. I guess Linkedin loosely qualifies as a social network, but for me it's really just a place…

As I wrote about in the ideal big guy mountain bike there's now a number of options for strong, sturdy and affordable bikes that suit folks of larger stature.

In April 2015, I became the first employee at eServices for Citizens.

I'm selling my well-maintained Kona Hei Hei Trail mountain bike, size XL. I bought the bike brand new in 2016 and have taken very good care of it. This is a lively, fun and agile trail…

I'm selling my much-loved Kona Zing Supreme road bike, size 61cm. I bought the bike brand new in 2013 and have taken very good care of it since. No crashes, no issues. This is a very…

As a cyclist, even though Whitehorse’s automobile traffic is far from busy compared to a bigger city I still try to stay away from main roads because of how scary distracted drivers can be.

In the past, if you were a big guy and into mountain biking, breaking frames and components was a regular and expensive occurrence no matter which parts you chose. Thankfully this is no…

I've spent most of my adult life on two wheels, whether commuting, racing or just plain riding. I didn't own a car until I was 25 years old and even then I still rode my bike to and from…

Almost two years I was poking around Pinkbike's Buy and Sell, and came across a brand new 2002 Cove Handjob XC frame, size XL for sale by a fellow in Vancouver. The frame had never been…

I think it's important to regularly make choices that you know will result in discomfort, worry and fear.

It seems to have become the common belief of serious cyclists that you should track and report all of your rides with Strava.

After over two years working in the public sector, I’ve had the opportunity to look back and consider what went right, what went wrong and what was missing in our previous company.

As a kid, I had lots of heroes. They started out from the super variety like Batman or Spiderman and as I grew older, they morphed into sports heroes. Posters of superstar baseball, hockey…

I ride my fat bike in winter both on single track trails and to and from work almost every day. I also happen to live in Canada's Yukon. This combination means that I ride in some pretty…

This is something that's been occupying my thoughts as of late.

Across Tagish Lake from our cabin sits a mountain called Jubilee. At one of its peaks is a microwave tower and a fire tower, both of which are easily visible on a clear day.

I've been riding alpine snowboards for nearly 20 years. According to The Carver's Almanac people who purchase carving gear, like me, represent less than 1% of the total snowboard market.

Before I joined the government, I thought that "service design" was mostly related to the realms of customer experience design, user experience design, visual design or interaction design…

In elementary school, I took up skateboarding. I still skate today - mostly to and from meetings on my longboard - but if you asked, I'd no longer consider myself a skateboarder.

I've been employed at Government of Yukon in the eServices for Citizens branch for more than a year and a half.

Like me, if you've been riding higher-end "performance" bikes for a while, you know first-hand how much better they are than they used to be. And by better, I mean way more fun.

I've been working in my new job for about eight months. I've really enjoyed the stuff we've been doing and are about to start shipping. Additionally, I get to work with some pretty awesome…

I started snowboarding during the winter of 1987/88 so this season of 2015/16 will mark my 28-year anniversary. Crazy!

The other day when I left our house and climbed aboard my bike to ride to work, I was feeling extremely overwhelmed. Not only did my shoulders feel heavy (a big backpack full of papers and…

When you choose to follow your dreams - to do something dramatically different than you are - you seek to live out an ideal. An ideal life, an ideal situation or perhaps an ideal…

In case you didn't see it on our website or read about it via email or Twitter...yesterday we announced Subvert is shutting down.

Just like you shouldn't take cooking advice from a skinny chef, you probably shouldn't accept business advice from someone who has never run their own business.

I don't buy much non-essential stuff—that is, everything that isn't groceries, medicine or clothing (okay, and fuel)—online, but when I do, I try NOT to purchase from Amazon.

Even after being on the market for more than four years and making a lot of progress with both the quality and quantity of apps in its store, Microsoft routinely still gets lambasted for…

I first learned about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's flow more than twenty years ago in university (or to be more accurate, 1993; ancient history). Lately I've found myself actively seeking that…

I finally did something I've been wanting to do for years and that's to scrape together and then consolidate content from all of my various personal blogs and websites, right back to the…

My hand span (as pictured below is something that you measure from the outside tip of your thumb to the outside tip of your little finger) is about 22 cm or 8.7 inches. Not especially huge…

Subvert has made and sold a handful of our own different software products over the past few years. All have been mobile phone, tablet or tiny desktop apps.

It's March and that means road cycling's spring classics are in full effect.

I've mainly ridden the same snowboard since 2001, an Option Supercharger 174.

I subscribe to a neat magazine called Offscreen. Inside is a regular feature titled A Day in the Life in which people lay out their typical day, about hour by hour. Most of the interviewees…

Over the past couple of years, I've found myself becoming a more anxious person, whereas growing up and even into my early 30's, I had a fairly mellow personality. It could be my age (I'm…

I've always been a social person, but the effort of socializing exhausts me. I need regular time alone to recharge and have the energy to talk to people once again.

I spent from September 1997 to May 1998 in Whistler, BC and I have only a single photo to show for the entire experience.

Despite my parents' best efforts, I remember it feeling like sometimes I was the only person in the world.I've never suffered from depression, but I certainly recall feeling anxious and…

When your children are very young, it's easy to think that you're going to do everything better than your parents did. When your baby is only a few months old, those ideas are all new and…

Yesterday my friend died. He had brain cancer.

In Whitehorse, you first see road cyclists hitting the pavement in early April. Basically, whenever the Alaska Highway is dry enough to be ridden. Cyclists wave to one another as they pass…

A number of years ago, Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain posted a drawing his daughter made of him, "Grumpy Daddy". That illustration has stuck with me ever since, for various reasons. That's not…

Midnight sun ablaze (photo taken at 10:00 p.m).

Our youngest child is about 18 months old. In other words, a toddler. And boy, is he busy, curious and a little bit mischievous, as toddlers most often are.

Today we returned home from a short family vacation to discover that we had not taken spare house keys with us. Luckily, the friends who were checking on our house were able to return the…

Until tonight, I thought I knew about fear.I've done a lot of dumb stuff in my life, risking my own safety (and others; sorry). I've overcome my personal fears too many times to count and…

The older our kids get, the more moments I have where I think to myself, "I have no idea what I'm doing."

Last night our kids put on their pyjamas early and we sat down as a family to watch some episodes of Little Bear before they went to bed. This is not a regular occurrence, so it was a big…

I've lost count of how many times in the past seven years I've shown up to a meeting wearing a dress shirt that's covered in either food, toothpaste or snot.

On our company page of this website, we talk briefly about the culture of Subvert. From listening to other people's opinions to charity donations and outsourcing tasks to delivering both…

Not particularly complicated, so it's surprising how many guys get these wrong.

I'm very blessed to have had two grandfathers that I knew well and lived near growing up. Both, along with my grandmothers, resided less than 30 minutes from my childhood home located in…

A couple of days ago I bought the newest issue of Snowboard Canada. This is the 20-year celebration of the magazine, which is a remarkable feat.

Riding my bike home from work the other day, I started thinking about my family. About being a husband and a father, and how it is, at once, a blessing, a privilege and a promise.

After two years of running Subvert from the second floor of Horwoods Mall in downtown Whitehorse, we decided some additional room and newer digs were in order.

I want to build an online Yukon campground reservation service.

New social networks launch every day, most with the same basic two features: find/chat with friends and share what interests you. Some of these networks make good money - others make a lot…

I've got both, so I guess it makes me a subject matter expert.

It's been a long-time dream of mine to own an agency.

A local three-day road cycling event, Tour de Whitehorse, held July 25-27, 2008, marked my formal return to bike racing after a three-year hiatus.

November marked the ninth month of Subvert Marketing Inc. being open. Business has been extremely good. So good, in fact, that the company is on track to hire a second employee (besides me…

Today while putting the final touches on a website interface design, I suddenly noticed that something didn't feel right. At first I couldn't pinpoint the issue, but after stepping back…

Since I started Urban Yukon back in March 2006, the basic visual design has stayed intact, with some minor tweaks here and there. As the community has grown and the site audience has…

Most websites I've built over the years have either had the main navigation placed along the left side of the screen or straight across the top. On the rare occasion, I implement a…

I have utilized a technique called epicenter design for most of the website interfaces I've created over the past few years. The methodology encourages me to focus on the most important…

When I first moved to Whitehorse nearly 10 years ago, I did all of my Christmas shopping on Main Street. Stores were lit up with decorations, deals and of course, people looking for deals -…

For blogs, a vibrant comments community is just as, if not, more important than the posts themselves. Comments are where readers talk about the subject matter, share their opinions and get…

I'm heavily involved with the local cycling club, acting in the volunteer role of mountain bike director. I coordinate and run all of the events from April to September. All in all, it's a…

I'm currently part of a tiny start-up developing what we consider to be a game-changing product.

Do you own more than one domain name? Of these domain names, how many are in use today as functioning websites or applications?

Jeff Veen, really big dude and recent appointee to Google via the acquisition of Measure Map, yesterday posted a podcast entitled Designing the Next Generation of Web Apps.

ADI Interactive has at its disposal a custom-built PHP/MySQL Content Management System (CMS) that we use for large websites and web applications: ADI ContentManager.

I've been stoked on YouTube since it first went live in February 2005. It's much like Flickr but instead of static photos, people upload, share and tag videos.

Unless my eyes were fooled by the early morning darkness of this northern November morning, the 4th and Black St. location of Midnight Sun Coffee Roaster here in Whitehorse is currently…

I have a lot of stuff to do, but it's not like I am doing any of it.

Today I am eating kraft dinner for lunch. Our receptionist, Cheryl, told me that you can now buy kd in microwavable pouches, thus making an already easy, low-nutrition value meal even…

Yes that's right. D & G to all you Ontario homies or for those who grew up on the right coast of North America in the seventies.

I have uploaded my mountain bike movie to the server so now you can check out my film work. This was my maiden voyage into the world of digital editing and I've learned a lot since the…

Those blasted snowboarding videos in which some overpaid, underworked professional freerider is ripping down some sick, helicopter-assisted face in Valdez, Alaska, all for the glorious…