Maker's Log: 001

Installed an outlet into this cabinet in the garage for the new garage fridge. (a.k.a. the protector of the cold ones…)

Making

I really enjoy making. I get deep satisfaction out of it.

I still struggle to make, something internally gets stuck in my head. I am constantly looking for someone else design or idea to solve my problem instead coming up with it myself. I miss having people to discuss, collaborate and be excited about these things.

I need to keep forcing myself to make. Use my hands, use my brain.

This post is part of that today…

Hey Siri, what's the Flavor of the Day? (Apple Shortcuts and Culver's API)

I decided to mix a little computer nerdery with my family’s love of ice cream.

I created an Apple Shortcut that grabs your current location, finds the three closest Culver’s, and shows their Flavor of the Day.

Cut to the chase—the Shortcut can be downloaded here.

The secret sauce behind this is the Culver’s API. Hats off to Joe Steinbring, who first brought it to my attention. Earlier versions of this Shortcut scraped the webpage of my local Culver’s, but this is much cleaner.

How it works

  1. Decide how many local Culver’s to return (radius = 3).
  2. Get current location.
  3. Save latitude and longitude from Current Location into separate variables.
  4. Fetch the Culver’s API using those values:
    http://www.culvers.com/api/locator/getlocations?lat=[Latitude]&long=[Longitude]&limit=[radius]
  5. Convert the response into a dictionary.
  6. Loop through each item; the key you want is metadata.flavorOfDayName.

By default, the radius is set to 3, so it returns the three closest Culver’s to your GPS coordinates. Change the radius variable if you want more (or fewer) results.

And since it’s a Shortcut, you can just ask Siri, “What’s the Flavor of the Day?”

This was a fun little project, and I’ll admit—it gets used multiple times a week in our house.

If you try it out, I’d love to hear what you think!

Gear Page

I have converted my gear page over from my old site!

I plan to update this page with new items that I enjoy or use.

I care a lot (probably too much) about the objects in my life. When I find something that works for me I can guarantee someone else can benefit from that information.

"Wherever You Ask The Question, That’s Where The Answer Should Be"

Over the last couple of years I have fallen down the lean rabbit hole.

Mainly I have gained insights from Paul Akers of FastCap.

His Youtube Channels and his books: 2 Second Lean and Lean Life.

While I can’t say I am a direct practitioner of lean. Something resonates extremely well with my brain 🧠.

It’s one of the few books that is exactly my jam. Same with It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh. (That one will need to wait for another blog post)

One of the best phrases I stumbled on was “Wherever You Ask The Question, That’s Where The Answer Should Be”

So simple. So dumb. So brilliant. KISS

Example:

When a garbage bag is full and you pull it out to throw it away. What is the next question?

“Where are the replacement garage bags?”

Taking “Wherever You Ask The Question, That’s Where The Answer Should Be” to heart. I propose 2 solutions:

  1. Put a label on the inside of the can that says “Replacement bags are located under the sink”
  2. Put a roll of extra garbage bags at the bottom of the garbage cans

If you take this statement to heart, you can have a profound impact on your life. It makes for a more pleasant house, work environment. Less frustration = greater joy.

Thanks for reading this one! It was a longer and tougher one to write. If you enjoyed it, feel free to drop me an email!

Portable Solding Iron: Powering Pinecil with M18 Batteries

Last year I was gifted a Pinecil Soldering Iron. This is the best soldering iron I have ever owned. Super light weight, easy to handle and gets up to temperature extremely quickly.

I don’t solder very often so I don’t have a dedicated soldering station. Often it’s easier to bring the soldering iron to the work, rather than the other way around.

I don’t think the M18 Power Source puts out enough juice to power the Pinecil to the full capacity. However, the couple of times I used it, the Pinecil got to a high enough temperature for my work.

A simple, but extremely useful project!

Parts Needed:

Deep Pocket Sheets

I suppose this could be considered another life hack post.

Do have the issue of your bed sheet corners popping off? Especially when you’re trying to get a solid night’s sleep?

Deep Pocket Sheets are what you need. They have extra depth in the corners (pockets) to keep the fitted sheet in place.

My favorites are the store brand from target.

Get a set and remove one more annoyance from your life :)

Life Hack: Laundry Detergent Cup

Here is a little tip that I learned waaaaaaaaay too late in life. My girlfriend, now wife, showed me this one :)

**Put the laundry detergent cup in the washing machine load after measuring. **

The cup with always come out clean!

My Home Screen (January 2024)

I like to keep only 1 home screen and everything else lives in the App Library.

Apps are placed in the lower right hand side of the screen for easy thumb access

Hi Bob

In the first season of [For All Mankind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_(TV_series) three of the main characters are stuck longer on the moon than any of them ever expected.

The only TV entertainment that was provided was a few episodes of the Bob Newhart Show.

In true good friend fashion, it became a “thing” on the base. When someone would say “Hi Bob” the rest would have to say “Hi Bob” back.

I’ve latched onto it and it has been become a thing I say.

So being a computer engineer, I naturally wrote a little script!

hi_bob.sh

echo "hi bob"

You type ./hi.bob.sh and you get “hi bob” back!

It’s the simplest script you can write, it is basically Hello World.

But every time I run it, my face cracks a smile. :)

Git "add" and "commit" in One Command

I wanted a way to add everything changed into my git commit and make the comment at the same time.

I found the command below:

git commit -am "[COMMIT_MESSAGE_HERE]"

Hi There!

Thanks for stopping by! This site is just getting off the ground.

Migrating data from my old manually created website. Please hold…