So. You found me.

I’m Nathan Pralle — a husband, father, IT director, maker, musician, playwright, tuba player, organ builder, and devoted enthusiast of things that most people would describe as “a lot.” I live in north-central Iowa with my wife Yolanda (who hails from the other side of the planet and somehow ended up here, which is a story worth reading), our sons, and whatever foreign exchange student we’re hosting this season.

By day I run software systems for a global manufacturing company. By night — and on weekends, and on holidays, and during the fifteen minutes I carved out on a Tuesday — I build things. Right now that means a pipe organ. From scratch. Out of PVC pipe and 3D-printed parts and wood. Because nobody had done it that way before, which I took as an invitation rather than a warning.

That’s probably the most important thing to understand about me.

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What you’ll find here

These pages are not exhaustive. A comprehensive account of my interests would be longer than anyone would want to read and would take me longer to write than I have left on this earth. Instead, think of this as a curated sampler — brief nibbles into the things I surround myself with, the people I love, and the projects that keep me from ever being bored.

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A note on expertise

I do not claim to be an expert in any of these fields. I claim to be deeply, stubbornly, enthusiastically interested in them — which I’ve found is often more useful anyway.

Welcome to the corner of the internet that is, improbably, me.