Brooks Groves

Brooks Groves

✍️ Writing

Everything I write, gathered in one place β€” technical posts, field notes, memoir, hospitality-era stories, and a restored corner of the early web. Each collection lives in its own section; this is the front door. Most are password protected; the technical blog is open to everyone.

The Collections
A Sierra road at sunset under data traces and contour lines, Half Dome and Mount Rainier in the distance
Technical Β· Open Open to all

πŸ“‘ Blog

Project builds and technical writing β€” geospatial dashboards, environmental monitoring bots, Python and GitHub Actions pipelines, data tools. How things were made and what they taught me. The Sierra Nevada Alert Bot, AFTERSHOCK, the recipe pipeline, and more.

Read the blog β†’ A field notebook on a dashboard on the Icefields Parkway in autumn
Field Notes Β· Travel Β· Fiction πŸ”’ Gated

🌲 Journal

Field notes, travel dispatches, race reports, and things worth remembering β€” Hawaii, Vancouver, Cannon Beach, a state-playoff soccer night. Also home to the long-form fiction, including Myles, the rubber-duck odyssey across the American West.

Enter the journal β†’
The Blinn College Stories: Memorial Hall in Brenham, Texas The Sierra Foothills: a baby-blue Datsun outside the Iron Door Saloon Travel Stories: Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
Literary Β· Personal Essays πŸ”’ Gated

πŸ“– Memoir & Essays

Longer literary nonfiction β€” the pieces that take their time. A Gold Rush childhood, Reno in my twenties, the bottom of the world, places that left a mark. Including An Island Below an Island, a two-crossing memoir of Tasmania, the Blinn College Stories β€” two years at a Texas junior college in the late eighties β€” and The Sierra Foothills, growing up in Gold Rush country near Yosemite.

Enter the archive β†’ The round twin towers of the Westin Seattle at night in the rain
Hospitality Era Β· 1990s πŸ”’ Gated

πŸ›ŽοΈ Westin Stories

Tales from a life in hotels β€” the bell captain years, the graveyard shift, the characters who passed through the lobby of a 1990s Seattle grand hotel. Cantina wrestling, the gator in a box, Tolstoy at 3 a.m., and a New Year's Eve or two.

Enter the stories β†’ A runner on the Seattle waterfront at dawn around 2000
Web Archive Β· Digital Preservation πŸ”’ Gated

πŸ’Ύ Y2K Journal

A time capsule of the early web β€” personal sites and journal entries from the Y2K era, recovered from the Wayback Machine and restored on Netlify. Digital archaeology: the internet the way it looked when it was still figuring out what it wanted to be.

Enter the archive β†’
Start Here

New to all this? A few pieces that are a good way in.

🏝️ An Island Below an Island Memoir Β· ~30 min Β· πŸ”’ Two trips to Tasmania, five years apart β€” once by accident, once on foot across the Overland Track. A trail family, a tiger snake under the deck, and the long pull south. πŸ¦† Myles Fiction Β· ~25 min Β· πŸ”’ One rubber duck, the American West, and every duck telling the same story. A lyric meditation on movement and impermanence from Death Valley to the Canadian Rockies. πŸŒͺ️ Sierra Nevada Alert Bot Blog Β· Build Post Β· Open Seven federal data streams on one free runner. The vision-quest project that became near-real-time intel for an entire mountain range. πŸ›ŽοΈ Cantina Wrestling Westin Stories Β· πŸ”’ One of the hospitality-era stories β€” a good window into the world of the lobby, the graveyard shift, and the people who passed through.

Looking for something specific? Every piece across every collection is cross-indexed by topic.

Browse by tag β†’
A pint of amber beer on a wooden bar rail, Mount Rainier and the Port of Tacoma at dusk through the window

If You've Read This Far

Beer money for the writer

These stories are free and always will be. But if one of them made you smile, remember something, or miss a place you'd half-forgotten — you're welcome to buy me a beer down at Peaks & Pints. No pressure, no paywall, just gratitude.

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