The Workshop
Product thinking, platforms and AI, and the things I build to test them: a home lab, self-hosted tools, and the occasional experiment that didn't work.
Digital Christin, In Progress.
Engineer, Founder, Product Leader. Also Lego, F1, and more books than shelves can hold.
The Library
Books, sci-fi and fantasy, films and TV, with ratings. Mostly things I'd hand you, a few I'd warn you off, and far too much about The Expanse.
The Collection
Collectibles, Lego, and books kept as objects rather than just read. The same pieces show up on my YouTube and Instagram.
Not planted yet.
- pageChristin's Bookshelves
- pageDiecast Cars
Price note and affiliate note
Check the price on Amazon before you buy: sale prices move fast. The Buy on Amazon buttons are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
All sets, A to Z
- 1:32 Scale Die Cast Car Model Skyline GT-R R34 Toy Car with Openable
- Bburago 1:43 McLaren MCL38 Lando Norris Senna Tribute F1 Diecast
- Bburago 1:43 Red Bull RB20 F1 Die-Cast Car
- Bburago 1:43 Scale Die-Cast Metal Ferrari SF-25 F1 2025 Formula 1
- Bburago 1:43 Scale Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W14
- Bburago 1:64 Scale Ferrari Series Model Collection Race Diecast Metal
- Bburago 1:64 Scale Ferrari Series Model Collection Race Diecast Metal
- Bburago 1:64 Scale Ferrari Series Model Collection Race Diecast Metal
- Bburago 1:64 Scale Ferrari Series Model Collection Race Diecast Metal
- Bburago 1/43 Racing - Ferrari SF-25 2 PK Collectible Models for 14+
- Bburago 1/43 Racing - Red Bull RB21 2PK Collectible Models for 14+ Age
- Bburago 1/43 Racing Mercedes AMG W16 E Performance 2PK Models
- Bburago 1/64 Ferrari Daytona SP3 Collectible Models for 14+ Age
- Bburago 1/64 Scale 2025 Mercedes-AMG F1 W16 E Performance Model #63
- Bburago Racing 1/43 Car Compatible with 2025 Race F1 Ferrari SF-25 F1
- Hot Wheels 1:64 Scale Premium Race Team Mercedes-Benz - Driver 1
- Invite 1:22 Ferrari Daytona SP3 Diecast Model Car with Light & Sound,
- Invite 1:32 Diecast Model Alloy B-M-W M4 Metal Pull Back Car with
- Okean Exclusive Alloy Metal Pull Back Die-cast Car 1:32 Roll Royce
- Okean Lamborghni Toy Die-Cast Metal Car Model Car Pull Back Super
- Sky Tech® Bugatti Chiron 1:32 Exclusive Alloy Metal Pull Back
- Sky Tech® Pagani Huayra 1:32 Model Car Exclusive Alloy Metal Pull
- Umadiya 1:24 Scale Big Size Land Rover Defender Model Car Exclusive
- pageLego
Price rules and affiliate note
A Must Buy is at least a quarter under the price a set usually sells at; Fair Price is 15% or more under it. Many sets already sell well below MRP, so a big percentage off MRP is often just the normal price.
Check the price on Amazon before you buy: sale prices move fast. The Buy on Amazon buttons are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
All sets, A to Z
- 42223 1966 Ford GT40 MKII
- 42210 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R
- 42154 2022 Ford GT
- 31160 Aircraft: Race Plane
- 10325 Alpine Lodge
- 76300 Arkham Asylum
- 75429 AT-AT Driver Helmet
- 75417 AT-ST Walker
- 76269 Avengers Tower
- 76188 Batman Classic TV Series Batmobile
- 76182 Batman Cowl
- 76330 Batman Logo
- 30726 Batman: Bruce Wayne and the Batsuit
- 76271 Batman: The Animated Series Gotham City
- 76239 Batmobile Tumbler: Scarecrow Showdown
- 75277 Boba Fett
- 77253 Bugatti Vision GT Hyper Sports Car
- 42198 Bush Plane
- 75398 C-3PO
- 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Ship
- 10368 Chrysanthemum
- 71854 Cole's Mission Mech & Dragon Zane
- 10318 Concorde
- 75419 Death Star
- 75329 Death Star Trench Run Diorama
- 10327 Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter
- 60443 F1 Pit Stop with Ferrari car
- 11375 Ferrari F2004 & Michael Schumacher
- 42212 Ferrari FXX K
- 42207 Ferrari SF-24 F1 Car
- 77242 Ferrari SF-24 F1 Race Car
- 77254 Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale Sports Car
- 42213 Ford Bronco
- 11376 Ford Model T
- 72046 Game Boy
- 75403 Grogu with Hover Pram
- 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds
- 11382 Hubble Space Telescope
- 21321 International Space Station
- 76344 Iron Man Mark 3
- 76327 Iron Man MK4 Bust
- 71830 Kai's Mech Storm Rider
- 75406 Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle
- 77255 Lightning McQueen
- 21034 London
- 31214 LOVE
- 75327 Luke Skywalker (Red Five) Helmet
- 76313 MARVEL Logo
- 77251 McLaren F1 Team MCL38 Race Car
- 43023 McLaren Mastercard F1 Team Lando Norris Helmet
- 10330 McLaren MP4/4 & Ayrton Senna
- 42172 McLaren P1
- 77257 McLaren W1
- 10696 Medium Creative Brick Box
- 42171 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance
- 77244 Mercedes-AMG F1 W15 Race Car
- 10341 NASA Artemis Space Launch System
- 42221 NASA Artemis Space Launch System
- 10341 NASA Artemis Space Launch System (reseller listing)
- 42158 NASA Mars Rover Perseverance
- 21063 Neuschwanstein Castle
- 21066 New York City
- 77243 Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20
- 21064 Paris: City of Love
- 11389 Project Hail Mary
- 11380 Road Bike
- 43014 Scuderia Ferrari HP Charles Leclerc Helmet
- 43022 Scuderia Ferrari Lewis Hamilton helmet
- 31134 Space Shuttle
- 10356 Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise
- 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr
- 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell
- 11373 The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet
- 75328 The Mandalorian Helmet
- 31212 The Milky Way Galaxy
- 21351 The Nightmare Before Christmas
- 76294 The X-Mansion
- 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future
- 21051 Tokyo
- 76187 Venom
- 43279 WALL-E and EVE
- 77249 Williams Racing FW46 F1 Race Car
- 43300 Winnie the Pooh
Must Buy: May the 4th is in October now!
The Music
What I listen to and why it stuck, from the songs that found me in a small Kerala town to whatever's on repeat now.
The Pit Wall
F1, Hamilton, and driving for the love of it.
The Road
Places I've been and how I got there: treks, road trips, and the detours that turned out to be the point.
Not planted yet.
Everything, newest first
Dumbledore Should Have Been the Villain
Part two of my Harry Potter series, on the adults who fail the children in their care and why Dumbledore works better as the villain.
I Replaced the Heart With a Library Stamp
How the like button on my Ghost theme became a red SEEN stamp that readers can sign, running on a Cloudflare Worker and a D1 database.
Asking Is Cheap
How I ask opinionated product managers to test their ideas with customers before arguing for them, and how interviews became part of judging a release.
I Over-Engineered the Sticky Note
I turned comments off on my Ghost blog and built a 200-character sticky note in their place, with no brief and nobody to stop me.
I Wanted to Retire at 40
I dug up the blog I started in 2009 and checked its first post, a list of worries, against where each one stands seventeen years later.
Nobody Was Building for AI
Why AI-first usually means data-first, told through a news CMS, a B2B sales database and an automotive publisher.
I Put My Bookshelves on the Internet
I photographed three bookcases, had Claude read 535 spines, and rebuilt them as a library page where visitors can rearrange my books.
97 to 83.9, One Morning at a Time
Part two of my weight-loss log: daily weigh-ins from March to July, a US holiday, and a week the scale refused to move.
Tolkien's Saddest Scene Has No Villain in It
How the scene Tolkien called his most tragic taught me to read for people, and led me from The Lord of the Rings to Malazan and Stormlight.
The Two Kids I Finished Harry Potter For
Why I read all seven Harry Potter books after losing faith by the fourth, and why I still read fanfiction about Harry and Hermione.
Sonny Hayes Would Never Pass the Medical
A Formula 1 fan's review of F1 the movie, whose hero would fail an FIA medical on day one and whose young Black driver deserved far better.
The Physics of Coffee Brewing
I grew up on coffee boiled in a pan. Then I watched Hiran treat an AeroPress like an engineering experiment.
From less than 2,900 Steps a Day to 20,000
February: 81,744 steps in the whole month. April: 339,601. In between, a walk after every meal, a friend named Anusha, and no willpower worth reporting.
What Story Points Were Hired To Do
In 2022 I coached my team into story points with LEGO. AI has changed what makes software expensive, and I'd now lead teams out of them, carefully.
Breaking the Habit
B2B users live inside our decisions. Seven years after a newsroom roadshow, this is how I weigh a product change against what it asks people to relearn.
The Dungeon Has a Look Now
A personal site should look personal. Every post here is now a tilted index card, and the light switch is a lightsaber.
Probably the Cat
My blog lives on a NAS in a cabinet at home. Now, when the house goes dark, the site doesn't.
Pages Per Rupee
As a kid I bought books by the page count, because that was the only way I could afford them. A school library and a best friend since LKG did the rest.
32GB RAM in a NAS Rated for 16
ASUSTOR rates this NAS for 16GB of memory, and mine has run on 32GB without complaint. Here is the rest of what's inside, and how lucky my timing was.
My Home Lab Started With a Borrowed Raspberry Pi
A borrowed Raspberry Pi, a NAS that mostly sat there, and AI as the way in. How my home lab actually started.
Letting Claude Log My Meals and Watch Data Into NutriTrace
I've logged every meal by chatting with Claude for months. Now the same chat writes straight into my own server.
Self-Hosting My Food Diary and Health Data
I have tracked food, steps and weight since April, first in an AI chat. This is how I moved it onto my own NAS with NutriTrace, and what broke on the way.
The Long Way to the Barricade
I found Linkin Park in 2004, in a small Kerala town. In 2026 I was the first person through the gate at their first ever show in India.
Self-Ghosting this blog runs on self-hosted Ghost
Hiran said Hugo would be simpler. He was right. I went with self-hosted Ghost anyway, for reasons that have nothing to do with the software.