I've been having a blast in Reno all summer. I rode a whole lot while I have been here. I've met a whole bunch of really cool new people. It's been a blast.

Recently I got back into Programming. Got tired of manual labor work. Got tired of not having any money ever. So back to work I go.

I guess I'm a vibe coder now. I started using Claude Code and Codex to help get things done. And get things done I've been doing. Things that I had planned to do 20 years ago. I'm absolutely blown away by these new tools. I'm almost not even touching the code anymore.

Anyway, I'm back at it. Making applications. Posting web sites. Building tools. I guess I'll never not be a programmer.

Heading back to Reno!

On the trip we had such a good time on the west coast that we decided to move back to Reno, NV. It’s the perfect location for west coast living. Got a place lined up for the bus and everything.

Now we are working on fixing up the bus for good on the road living. New roof sealant, walls, ceiling, and floors. Getting insulation all in. Then all new cabinets and counters. Building out a new seating area and computer workstation areas.

Finally going to get the garage cleaned up for our bikes to fit in the back. That area has been neglected for a while now.

Hopefully we can be on the road before winter. Probably will spend some time on the road in the warmer states until Reno warms up a bit.

Another adventure!

What a good time.

We took a trip around the country for vaca this year. Left Florida on June 1st and got back on the 9th of July.

We headed out along the gulf coast up into Alabama. Then into up to Houston, TX. From there we went to Roswell, NM and then to Sedona, AZ for a short stay. Road to Reno, NV after that for week stay with friends. Then to Portland, OR for a few days with other friends. Then we headed off across the country to Licoln, NE for another week of chilling. Then back home.

We were wanting to go into BC, Canada and down to Yellowstone, but it was way too cold for all that. Snowing in Yellowstone when we were in Portland. It got really cold on the West Coast.

We had a lot of fun at our stopping points. Saw a whole lot of great stuff. We really missed the West Coast and I really missed the mountains and my friends in Reno. So we are finishing the bus build out and heading West. Moving to Reno to hand with my friend. So long Florida.

Nope, didn’t like Tailwind. Not one bit. I’m not too fond of creating web pages in Rails either.

I’m back on Vue/Vuetify. I love how easy it is to build web applications with it. I’m still using Rails as my API backend for now. I really want to switch to Go for that, but Rails makes it so easy. So… Rails and Vuetify.

Now I have to rewrite all my stuff into Javascript and JSON from the server. Shouldn’t be too hard. My best work was on this stack. I still have the old code to reference.

Can’t wait to get this all going. After this private project is done I’ll be ready for building my E-Mail client. Not sure if I want to do it TUI, GUI, or WebUI. I’ll figure it out later.

After weeks of fighting with deploying a new Rails app to Linode I finally got it. I remember it being hard back in the day, but after Phusion Passenger came out it got pretty easy.

I tried Cap and Passenger on Nginx first, but that was having issues. I just could not remember what I needed to do.

So I tried out the new Kamal deployment for Rails 8. First the instructions and the video doesn’t tell you everything. It’s missing quite a lot actually. Then you have to have a docker account to use the thing. Another service hosting your content. No really my deal. Then finally it doesn’t even work.

I kept fixing missing things, then I got to the point where it just would not compile the assets and I gave up.

I logged into an old server I used to manage with a rails setup. I copied the nginx setup and looked how it was configured with cap. Finally after getting all the missing dependencies in place it started working.

So that’s up and I just need a cap prod deploy to deploy it when needed. Wish I was using Caddy for the web server, but I can’t have everything…yet.

It’s new bike day!

I picked this frameset up a while back but it was missing the seatpost clamp. I wasn’t able to ride it until I could find one. This was impossible. I did find one for $150 on the west coast, but I didn’t want to pay that much.

I was thinking that I could print one. I heard that the originals were plastic. Just when I was getting ready to do it another Mataro popped up on Marketplace. I got the price down to what I wanted for the parts and got it.

Finally put this frame together. At 18lbs. it’s pretty light for me. I’ve rode it a few times now. Once Alleycat race. It feels really nice.

Will be riding it again tonight. Hope it’s not going to be too cold.

Things are going great. The weather is warming up. Work is steady. I’m doing well.

I’ve been working in Ruby on Rails again. That’s going well. I’m not as fast as I used to be. I have to take regular breaks to keep my hands from hurting too much. But, it’s going well.

I’m back on my bicycle getting regular exercise. Push up challenge coming again next month. Eating much better these days. Kicked the ice cream problem.

I purchased a 3D printer and I’ve been printing all the things. I should have bought one years ago. It’s so cool to build my own things. I’m learning CAD now so I can build even more custom hardware.

The farm work is going well now that it’s warming up. I can work longer outside and get things done. Doing work at the neighbors house now too. Saving up for vacay.

More to come.

Why do we need to have an account for everything now?

One of my security cameras died yesterday. So I’ve been looking for a new one. It seems like every cam on the market requires you to download a phone app and sign up for an account to set up the camera. This is completely unacceptable.

Not only is it security cams, it seems everything requires an account to use. I’m over it. I’m refusing to buy anything more that requires an account to use. I’m just going to build my own devices for now on.

I’ll 3D print my cases, use micro SBC’s for the guts, and solder my own components.

I’m going to build a security cam to replace the old dead one. I’m going to build all the devices I need. I’m going to look for open source or privacy protecting software. No longer giving my personal info out to corporations.

I really don’t want to lose the nice features of my phone, but I’ve decided to replace my OS with a privacy OS on my phone. Either Grapheneos or Lineageos.

It’s time to take my privacy and identity away from big corporate monopolies.

Rebooting thee ol brain!

Starting to get back into the swing of things. First I started swimming in programming on YouTube. Then I started reading everything about programming and code. Next I got my old VIM back up to par. Got my system utilities reinstalled. Tweaked my desktop for coding.

Built my new home page in Hugo. It’s not as easy as people say on the internet. It seems really complicated actually. But, I’m getting used to it I guess. I really want to redo all my hosted web sites in Hugo and get them off WordPress. So I guess I’ll have to keep up with it. It’s easier than straight HTML/CSS in a way. PHP might actually be easier.

I was learning Go to do my next big project in. It was taking too long so I just booted up Rails 8. It’s all coming back to me now and I have a MVP already in two days. So I’m just going to keep on keeping on this trail.

OK, I’m back again. Finally decided to get my life back together. Stop the struggle. Get back to my roots. Back on the computer. Back into the programmer life again. Back to making some money and maybe being able to retire at some point.

Florida has treated me well. The people are great! The weather is always good. Lots of things to do. Living on this farm has been pretty great also. Working outside everyday with my hands. Building and fixing things that I’ve never done before. I’ve learned a whole lot over the last five years.

I still love it, but I’m going to need to get my own place at some point. The plan is to get some land and build everything myself. I really miss the mountains also. So I’ll probably move north a bit so I can get back into the forests. Back into the twisties.

To do what I want I need money. I’m not getting retirement funds by working on this farm. So I need to jump back on the computer and do something that will get me the funds. I have a few projects lined up and underway. I have one opensource project that I’m going to start soon.

Right now I’m getting my hosting platform fixed up and working better. I’m trying to get away from WordPress. So this is the first site that will use Hugo.

Well, here we go…