Hi! I’m June… “like the month,” and I think I speak louder than I do.

This has led to so many mislabeled coffee orders.^[1] Since discovering that adding the three syllables “like the month” means my cup will actually arrive with my name on it, and not “Julie” or “Jules” or “Joo,” it’s just how I introduce myself when I see that telltale sign of confusion.

By day… 🔗

I am a project manager, editor, designer, and copywriter.^[2] I have over 10 years of experience working on small teams, and being on small teams means that team members can wear many hats. …And I will wear as many hats as I’m allowed.

By night… 🔗

I am asleep by 9 p.m. if all goes according to plan.^[3] The lights at home begin to dim to red around 8:30 p.m.—few friends have survived the rising tide of sleepiness that comes when blue light is slowly pulled from the surroundings. They have all scurried home like rats abandoning ship.

Values that attract me 🔗

Above nearly all else, the following qualities in friends, family, companies, and products alike matter most to me:

• responsibility (doing what you say, when you say)
• accountability (owning the mistakes you will inevitably make)
• respect for boundaries (your own and others’)
• striving to be indistractible (investing willpower into focus)
• awareness (being as present as you can in the moment)

What I invest in 🔗

I don’t believe in having free (or spare) time. I invest my time in the following things (not in any particular order):

• reading (for pleasure and to learn)
• writing (for pleasure and to learn)
• doing good work (typically design, editing, fact-checking, and/or proofreading)
• fitness (with an eye on many quality years)
• bouldering
• good conversation
• daydreams
• unplugged leisure

Principles that guide my work^[4] 🔗

1. Be as clear and friendly as you can be. 🔗

When we make anything for people, we want to foster long-term relationships. These relationships can only be built upon mutual trust and respect. This isn’t the time and place to show off your editorial or design prowess. This is the time to be inclusive and authentic.

2. Share knowledge freely. The harder it was to learn, the more important it is to share. 🔗

When we share stuff we’ve learned, we can stand out from the wealth of available information by sharing the hardest-to-learn and hardest-to-master stuff. Useful information always answers these two questions: “why does this matter to me?” and “what should I do with that information?”

3. Make stuff for people. What you make should be simple and functional. 🔗

When we create anything, we want to offer it in its most appropriate visual form. Visual materials—anything that’s been written, photographed, or filmed—are meant for “an audience.” Remember that audiences are (mostly) made up of people. Make stuff for people (and for yourself, but you’re a person, too). Make only what’s necessary, and make sure it works.

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About the site 🔗

This site exists because I want to become an expert on who I am. I’m sharing it because I want to believe in a more personal web that cultivates personal expression and authentic connection.^[5]

Writing to learn 🔗

I write primarily to reflect, to get to know and understand who I am. I recently began reading David C. Baker’s The Business of Expertise, and he put it more beautifully than I can.

The primary beneficiary of every book is the author because—for me, anyway—clarity comes in the articulation and not after it. If I didn’t write I’d never know what I actually believe, and I hope reading this will inspire you to write for the same reason.
David C. Baker

Thanks, David, it did.

The inspiration, briefly 🔗

This project has been on-going for most of my life, although I didn’t know what I was doing when I was starting and abandoning journals.

What I do know is that this project began with my father’s bedtime stories of his childhood. He grew up in rural Taiwan, where dogs handle your pest problems and you can catch frogs in the rice fields for dinner. I remember loving his stories and telling him to write them down. He continued to talk endlessly about writing his book for years to come.

He’s still working on his book to this day. Because he was the person I most looked up to, I also adopted the notion that I too would one day write a book. So, I’ve been writing in fits and starts for over a decade now. Many of my writings died with the computers they were written on or are locked away—probably for the best!—behind lost passwords and inaccessible email accounts. Throughout that time, I wrote primarily for expression. I yelled through my writing because my voice was so timid and uncertain, and to this day, I still struggle to project my voice.

Changelog 🔗

• 2023-09-29: Added principles, values, and investments from another version of an about page. Making a note to myself that this site seems to have doubled in length, and am considering separating “about me” and “about this site.” Does “about this site” fit into the “colophon”?
• 2023-09-20: Migrated content to new website.
• 2021-03-14: Edits. Re-ordered (what I think now at the top, history at the bottom). Supporting quote from my current read, The Business of Expertise.

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1. …when I go out for coffee—Bay Area coffee shops put a pretty big dent into my discretionary budget, and my husband brews phenomenal coffee at home. His current obsession is co-fermented coffee. Our favorite roastery is Brandywine Coffee. ↩︎

2. Which hat I wear depends on the day. ↩︎

3. All usually does go according to plan. I am a creature of habit and firm boundaries. ↩︎

4. These principles probably also apply to how I live my life, too. ↩︎

5. I’ve been drinking the refreshing water of the IndieWeb. It’s felt like an oasis in the punishing desert of monoculture, where everything looks like the same (because it’s often built with the same stuff). ↩︎