Stories, notes, and practical writing from Derek Gembus.
Essays about Ohio places, observations from the water and woods, practical pieces on work and local projects, and the occasional tech post when it earns its keep.
Featured piece: Field notes from the Ohio & Erie Canal towpath on how writing things down prevents downstream surprises in data work.
Read the featured piece →Latest from the blog
Essays, field notes, and practical pieces rooted in OhioRiver Patience and React Performance
Waiting on a Lake Erie pier taught me to watch for slow currents; the same mindset cut TTI by 32% on a Rust-backed app.
Lake Effect and Long-Form Writing
Borrowing newsroom habits and lake-effect patience to keep docs and essays alive instead of frozen in place.
Small Town Wi-Fi and SEO That Respects Readers
Lessons from writing for Ohio businesses: keep pages fast, honest, and readable for people on shaky connections.
Campground Checklists and Lightweight Architecture
Packing for Mohican camping trips is the same discipline we used to split a civic app into three steady services.
Topics
Where the writing focusesEditorial Note
I grew up in Northeast Ohio, splitting time between creeks, Lake Erie piers, and small projects that needed to get finished before dinner. That mix of watching water, people, and systems move still shapes how I write — about place, the outdoors, local work, and the tech decisions that actually help.
If you’re here for the longer reads, try the field-note essays. If you want proof of how I build, the blog archive has plenty of practical breakdowns.