About Rogue Wayfarer
I’m James Nerlinger. I live in Cincinnati and spend as much time as I can somewhere else.
In November 2024 a surgeon removed my heart and replaced it with someone else’s. I’d spent 22 years managing congestive heart failure to reach that point—a software career, a marriage, a house, all of it built around a condition I expected to manage for the rest of my life. What came after took most of the rest of it. What I didn’t expect was that I’d start writing.
Now I go places and write down what was actually there. A Trappist monastery in central Kentucky. A state park an hour from the house. A town I’d driven past for thirty years without once stopping. I’m not in a hurry and I’m not working from a map.
What You’ll Find Here
Rogue Wayfarer runs on four beats. The Road is places and the people who turn up in them. The Gear is equipment reviewed on its own terms—what works, what doesn’t, what I’d buy again. The Life is the operational layer: managing complex health needs away from home, and solving problems nobody wrote a guide for. The Reckoning is the interior work, which is the part I can’t outline in advance.
More of My Work
Rogue Wayfarer is one of several things I write and build.
The Blogs…
Many Lamps, One Flame—Torah, philosophy, and the contemplative work. Interfaith writing without a denomination to defend.
One More Beat—Living with a transplanted heart. The medical account, told candidly.
At Ground Level—Technology, organizations, and what happens when they meet real pressure. Thirty years of enterprise experience, written from inside it.
Rooted Hearth—Real food, practical living, and the quiet work of keeping a house in order. Coming soon.
The Software…
Deep Dark Abyss Productions—Independent software for iOS and macOS. No ads, no subscriptions, no nonsense.
Everything Else…
Infobin — General bio, background, and the full picture of what I do.
Getting in Touch
Thoughts, questions, corrections, or a place I ought to see: jnj@roguewayfarer.com. I read everything. I answer most of it.