Blog
Automated Fixes for My Failures
Using automated scripts to avoid remembering to use tools correctly.
2026-05-19
Rooting around in .local/bin
Claude Code’s /doctor command told me ~/.local/bin wasn’t in my PATH. That’s where it installs its native binary. Simple fix, right?
2026-05-12
Two Hours of NixOS Config I Didn't Need
A dead external monitor, three wrong hypotheses, and the five-seconds of work I should have done first.
2026-05-04
Monitoring my HVAC
When I want to know how well my HVAC system is working, smart thermostats and ad-hoc checks don’t get me as far as I’d like. That means it’s time to create an entire system to monitor that information and present it graphically. This is normal, right? Requirements Overall, I didn’t want to spend much money on this. Yes, time is money, blah blah blah. Learning new tech offsets the cost of time, and it’s a better use of late-night chill time than playing a game anyway. Plus, spoilers… there are graphs. That broad overview gave me the following criteria:
2022-11-27
SRI: Fixing Security Warnings
Running some static code scanning on my rendered site with Sonarcloud, I found some potential security concerns with how I was loading the mermaid javascript.
2022-07-17
Obsidian: Daily Notes
I love Bullet Journaling. It has added a much-needed structure to my days and helped prevent essential things from falling through the cracks. However, it’s not always easy to switch back and forth to a written journal when my work is all digital. I also wanted a way to track script snippets in my journal so that I could easily copy-pasta later on when I needed to repeat actions from a previous day. I needed a way to digitize some of my daily journal entries without the arduous task of completely duplicating my writing.
2022-07-03
Obsidian Configuration
Here is the setup I’ve been using in Obsidian since late March 2022. The default plugins and configuration would provide most of the functionality I want. However, I tweaked a few things to add more value than my Bullet Journal could provide.
2022-07-03
Mermaid + Hugo v2: Better, Faster
It took three days after finishing the work to display Mermaid diagrams (using shortcodes) to discover an easier method. Let’s talk a bit about custom markdown rendering!
2022-06-26
Mermaid + Hugo
I learned about Mermaid in 2021 while trying to find a way to better see changes in diagrams at work. Being able to look through a revision history of images was tolerable but only slightly better than the proverbial needle and the unexplained presence of a nearby haystack. But Mermaid resolves my complaints by rendering text/code into fairly nice-looking diagrams and visualizations. Some are too plain for my liking (looking at you, state diagram), but they convey information graphically. That’s all I’m really looking to get here.
2022-06-23
Designing a Side Project: Wherehouse
Time for a new project. Design before development; new territory for a non-work effort...
2022-06-22