About Justin

My name is Justin Watt. This is my personal blog. I write about whatever interests me. Recurring topics include food, travel, technology, and the outdoors. I also enjoy photography, so many of my posts are illustrated with photos I’ve taken.

I’m currently the director of engineering at Sincerely, a subsidiary of FTD. In 2010 I took a year off to travel the world. Before that I spent 4 years at Federated Media as a software engineer (and later, an engineering director). You can find my resume here.

Justin rowing a boat on the Ganges in Varanasi, India
Rowing a boat on the Ganges in Varanasi, April 2011 (photo by Stephanie, my adventure partner—and wife)

Contact Me

I really enjoy getting email: justincwatt at gmail dot com…

Not Me

I am not the Mahmudiyah killings whistleblower. For more info on Pfc. Justin Watt, see: The NY Times, USA Today, and Reddit.

About Justinsomnia

The name, a clever contraction of “justin” and “insomnia” randomly occurred to me in the instant I created the blog in the wee hours of the morning back in June 2002. I do not suffer from insomnia, but I do have a tendency to stay up late on the computer. Justinsomnia is powered by WordPress, hosted by Dreamhost, and has been redesigned repeatedly by yours truly.

QR Code Confusion

If you scanned a QR Code and don’t understand why you ended up on my blog, please read: Why does that QR Code take me to justinsomnia.org? You can still email me about it, but please read that first.

Proudest Posts

Every once in a while I write a post that I’m really proud of. Sometimes it captures the popular attention, sometimes not. Here’s a few from my archives that stand out.

The making of PANAMAX
San Francisco artist Eric Rewitzer used some of the photos I took while traveling by container ship as the basis for several large scale paintings.
Melt-in-the-Mouth Cookies, a brief history
I chased down the origin of a Christmas cookie recipe that I presumed my Grandmother had created from whole cloth.
Golden Gate Bridge at night
My “color-accented” photo of the Golden Gate Bridge attracts far more interest than any other photo I’ve taken.
A Response to Liberty
I received a cease and desist letter for a parody image I posted to my blog. With legal support from the ACLU, we responded en force, eventually receiving coverage in the New York Times and USA Today.

Proto-Justinsomnia

In the early days before I began blogging, I manually updated my webspace at UNC with photos and other doodads to keep in touch with family and friends. Each year I gave it an overhaul, but kept an archive for posterity.