Weekly Notes 2025.35

• This week turned out to be an interesting mix of holiday productivity, server upgrades, good food, and diving deeper into some AI tools (a phrase I never thought I’d write).
• Since Monday was Labor Day here in the US, I had the day off, and spent it doing some small personal projects around the house, plus working on another work-related project that I’ve not had time for in the office (see the next point - and yes, I know it was a holiday, but it was a project that I both needed to spend time with and that I was enjoying experimenting on). Nothing too exciting, but it felt good to catch up on things I’d been putting off.
• While I’m not going to go into detail on the work project, I did find it as an interesting excuse to attempt some “vibe coding” on a little one-off Java app to manipulate Excel files (reformatting columns, adding new data fields, combining data from other files into a final export, etc). I got the first part working with Apache POI, though I still need to finish the combination logic. I do appreciate how quickly I was able to get to a functional solution, and the code is readable/modifiable, but I’m not entirely sure how comfortable I am with the overall vibe-coding concept. It still feels potentially perilous to me.
• Tuesday through Friday, I was back in the office for what felt like an endless series of meetings, largely due to the condensed week. No complaints though, and not much to report otherwise… it was the usual mix of project & vendor discussions, along with some team coordination.
• Wednesday evening brought a fun diversion though. After dinner, a couple coworkers and I went out for drinks at Dac’s Smokehouse in Morton. It’s a barbecue joint that I’ve mentioned before, and that I am fond of. Dac’s has a nice atmosphere, and it was enjoyable to catch up over some locally-brewed beers.
• Thursday I made another trip to Yasakani Ramen with coworkers for lunch. I think I’m risking becoming a regular there… the ramen is consistently delicious, and it’s fast enough for a work lunch. It’s a bit further away than I really prefer, but once every couple of weeks isn’t too bad.

Weekly Notes 2025.34

• It’s been another week already? Well, I guess that means it’s time for another blog post!
• Monday was fairly routine – nothing particularly noteworthy to report. Just the typical start-of-week meetings and catching up on projects.
• However, Tuesday brought a fun change of pace as I headed down to the Farm Progress Show in Decatur with some coworkers. For those not familiar, it’s the nation’s largest outdoor agricultural event, and this year marked its 20th anniversary at the permanent Decatur site. The scale of the show is always impressive, and it’s fascinating to see all the latest innovations in farming technology, both from our company and competitors.
• Wednesday was probably the highlight of my week from a learning perspective. Our team has a standing monthly lunch & learn, where we either discuss ongoing projects, or a special topic that would be of interest to the team. This month we invited the data science team, who presented a deep dive into how LLMs actually work under the hood, and some of the science and terminology behind them. I’ve been aware of these tools for a while, and have used them lightly, but hadn’t really taken the time to fully understand the underlying mechanics. The discussion covered everything from training processes to how they generate responses, and I found myself genuinely fascinated by the whole thing. It’s one of those topics where the more you learn, the more questions you have…
• Thursday and Friday were back to the standard mix of meetings and project work. Nothing too exciting to report there. 🤷‍♂️
• Saturday started with the inevitable yard work – yes, more mowing. I think this might be the last time I need to mow my full lawn until we get more rain. It’s a bit annoying, but hey, at least I’m getting my steps in!
• Throughout the week, with some extra time on Saturday, I continued working on digitizing and cleaning up/editing more family photos. My goal is to knock out 5 or so a day, which seems really slow, but keeps me making forward progress!
• This weekend also brought a major decision point I’ve been wrestling with: how to rebuild my home server that recently had a few hard drive failures (within the last ~2 months). After much deliberation, I’ve decided to stick with my current chassis (an R710) and source some used enterprise SAS drives off eBay. It’s amazing what you can find in the enterprise surplus market if you’re willing to do a bit of hunting.
• With the rebuild, I’m also tentatively planning to make the jump to TrueNAS instead of going back to Ubuntu. I’ve been wanting to experiment with ZFS for a while now, and this seems like the perfect opportunity. The data integrity features and snapshot capabilities have me intrigued, even if there’s going to be a learning curve involved.
• Before I made the decision to begin a server rebuild & migration to TrueNAS, I spun up a temporary Plex server on an old computer that I’ve had sitting around. I realized that without a functioning home server I’ve not been listening to audiobooks, and therefore my yearly reading has been slipping. I had tried to come up with an alternate solution previously, but nothing had the same simple workflow as Plex + Prologue, and I didn’t want to switch back to the Audible app (partially on principle). As soon as I had a functional audiobook server again, I started in on a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while: Making It So by Patrick Stewart (narrated by the author)!
• Sunday morning started with a combined Divine Service (which we do on 5th Sundays of the month), with a guest pastor (Rev. Dr. Chad Kendall) visiting from Concordia University - Chicago. It’s always interesting to hear different perspectives and preaching styles, and I appreciated his message.
• Throughout the weekend, I also continued working with Dorico on that project I mentioned last week involving my sister. I’m still learning how the software works, but it’s beginning to feel more natural!
• And that’s a wrap on this week’s post! I’ll be enjoying my long weekend (thanks to Labor Day), and look forward to seeing what happens in the week ahead!

Weekly Notes 2025.33

• This week was mostly back to my normal routine, with a few bright spots that made it memorable.
• Monday started off on a high note when one of my coworkers brought in homemade blueberry pie to celebrate a team member’s birthday. There’s something about unexpected office treats that just makes the whole day better – and this pie was no exception!

• Tuesday through Thursday were pretty standard fare – the usual mix of meetings, project work, and catching up on things that had accumulated from the previous week. Nothing particularly noteworthy to report.
• Thursday evening, however, was a nice change of pace. Instead of our yearly camping trip (which got cancelled this year due to scheduling conflicts), a few friends and I decided to meet up at The 208 House for dinner. It had been way too long since we’d all gotten together, so it was great to catch up!

Weekly Notes 2025.32

• After a week away, this week it was back to the office, and a semi-normal schedule. Well… okay, half-normal. I had a coworker from Fargo visiting this week, which meant a few extra meetings, and a few extra meals out!
• Monday was pretty standard, preparing for the week ahead and catching up on a few things I’d missed while out.
• Tuesday we had multiple vendors meeting in for meetings, so I was barely at my desk all day. In the evening we took our coworker out to La Fiesta for dinner and drinks.

Weekly Notes 2025.31

• The past week was both more and less eventful than normal. How’s that possible, you ask? Let me explain…
• Sunday afternoon I packed up and drove to visit family for the week, doing a remote work/vacation hybrid.
• Monday through Friday I spent working during the morning/afternoon, with lunches and dinners with family.
• Monday evening my mom, sister, and I baked pizzas for the family, and experimented with a few different flavors. The traditional/meat lover’s was my favorite, but everything turned out well.