Welcome!

Somehow, you have stumbled upon a weird mess of random content by yours truly. For a sampling of the somtimes silly and often weird projects I’ve done, check out the couple collections on the navigation along the side.

But wait, who am I?

Professionally, that’s a bit hard to answer; I’ve been a software developer, an operations engineer, an architect, a process engineer. The closest easy answer these days is Site Reliability Engineer, but even that career tends to have a more straight line than I’ve had. At the core of it all, though, is my passion for quality, stability, observability, and above all else, quality of life for myself & my peers.

On a personal front, I’m a maker through and through. My media ranges across crochet, cross stitch, 3d printing, photography, baking, graphic design, and many others. I’m also a parent, a partner, a daughter, and a friend to many. When I’m not making something, relaxation comes in the form of movies, books, and especially video games.

What’s with the name?

If you aren’t familiar with crochet or knitting, tension is how tight your work is, and gauge is a number of stitches for a specific size. There’s some play on themes here, however, as gauges are also common visualizations on observability dashboards. (Check the title of the site if you aren’t sure what I mean by the latter.) To add a third meaning to it, there is, of course, the tension caused by the stress of the day to day. Optimally, this place is hopefully free of the majority of that.