Ah here I am again, staring at a blank post. I sort of know the story I want to tell, maybe? I know I should write more often about the updates I’m making to Street Source but usually what ends up happening is I say I’ll do it tomorrow, then I’ll do it this weekend. Eventually it turns into, I don’t need to do that.
I came across this photo shared by Jocko Willink, and it perfectly captures where I’ve been. I’ll get a spark of motivation that might last a few days or weeks, but then it gradually fades away. At least I’ve come to realize—though not without struggle—that I need more discipline (see the bottom of the image). Easier said than done, right?
Over the past year, especially after the birth of my second child, I’ve been striving for more discipline in sharing updates and working towards my vision for Street Source. This experience has been a wake-up call, reminding me how limited time truly is and how essential it is to stay laser-focused on my goals. Almost a year has passed since then, and while I’ve made some changes and put things into motion, there's still a lot to work on. I’ve even invested in a stack of self-help (about seven to be exact) and have nearly finished the first…baby steps, right?
What you see here is the result of numerous strong starts that haven’t yet reached the finish line. In many ways, this post serves as a reintroduction to the blog and a glimpse into this ongoing journey. I’m excited to share what’s next as I work toward making my vision of Street Source a reality.
Blog About A Blog 2015
Since this post reflects on my past attempts to blog about updates more regularly, let’s take a look at those earlier efforts.
The original “Blog about a Blog” began in 2015, after I acquired the Street Source data from Kris and Bob in 2013.
(1 of 7) July 5, 2015 – Quite Site Update
I’d been wanting to start blogging for a while, and finally, I wrote my first post! This came after completing a massive project, and honestly, I often feel too mentally drained to write about what I’ve done.
In this case, I consolidated data from over seven sites—each running different software like Phpbb, WordPress, and more—into a single, unified data model and platform. But there’s more to share on that later!
(2 of 7) June 29, 2016 – Blog about a Blog
Almost a year later, I finally wrote another post! It's interesting to look back on these and see how things have changed. In that post, I talked about my hectic work schedule, and I’m so grateful to have a new job now. Unfortunately, Street Source isn’t my full-time job—if it were, I’d be able to accomplish so much more. That’s one of my ultimate goals: to work on Street Source full-time.
Reflecting on that time, my schedule was intense. I'd work from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., then pick back up from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., and continue like this on and off from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. some days.
Work always finds the path of least resistance. If you know your stuff and set clear boundaries, you might feel like a hero, but be mindful—others may start taking advantage of it.
(3 of 7) July 10, 2016 – Getting Full On My Own Words
Not bad, I actually was hitting my goal, this reminds me that I originally set out to write an update once a month. In this post I discuss my original views of smart phones and my resistance to trends.
(4 of 7) Jan 09, 2017 – Happy New Year!
I pretty much had failed but I knew this would be a quick and easy post to write so I went for it!
(5 of 7) July 22, 2017 – Quick Update – Updated Gallery Interface
I’ve started gradually making Street Source responsive, so it automatically adjusts to fit any device. For instance, a mobile phone screen doesn’t have the space to display the full desktop view, so the layout will adapt for easier viewing on smaller screens.
(6 of 7) November 8, 2017 – Security Update SSL
In this post, I vent a bit about working as an engineer. No matter how much effort you put into empowering others with knowledge, they often still rely on you instead of stepping up themselves.
From a business standpoint, it doesn’t matter who solves the problem as long as operations continue smoothly. But thankfully, this was around the time I landed a new job, allowing me to say goodbye to that hectic schedule.
It was one of the best decisions I ever made. If you’re feeling stuck in a job, my advice is: don’t wait for a raise or “promotion.” Go find a position that values and pays you for what you’re worth!
(7 of 7) November 3, 2018 – Experimenting with Dynamic Watermarks
Around this time I was moving into a new house, I thought the housing market was crazy even then! After this update, I knew it was time that I needed to change directions but I still needed a way to post updates.
That concludes the original Blog About A Blog posts. So if we add those up, over roughly 3 years I made 7 posts (waa waa).
Since I needed a way to manage the workload of selling merchandise, I set up a WordPress site at shop.streetsource.com.
Let’s take a look at some of that content. The WordPress site is long gone, but I didn’t want to lose everything. There wasn’t much, but I wanted to save a few funny pictures to look back on.
Raw Blog Posts
My idea was to get into the habit of posting regularly, with the plan to improve and refine my posts as I built momentum. I thought, why not aim for one post a week? Even if it’s just a few sentences or a couple of words—as long as I posted, it counted. Well, here’s the result!
(1 of 12) Raw Blog Intro - November 17, 2021
I’m really excited to kick this off! This is just one of many posts as I try to get in the habit of doing this once a week. Will I succeed? Who knows, but it should be fun to look back on.
I’m actually trying to write this post while watching Teen Wolf on a Tuesday night in my living room. So right there is an example of a random thought that may be included in my posts. This blog will be messy, random and raw.
Once a week in 500 words or less, I’ll write about Street Source development. The goal is to keep the time I spend on these blog posts to less than 30minutes. Time is a commodity I don’t have but I refuse to give up on my vision of what Street Source can be and the underlying platform that powers it. Even if the post is more or less a “yeah nothing really happened this week”, I’m still planning to post.
If you come across this blog and you are a human, good find!
Until next time!
(2 of 12) I Did It - November 26, 2021
Well, I did it, I’m two for two (one blog post for each week), let’s see if I can keep this up! Nothing really tangible to talk about this week, just have been doing a lot of research and thinking.
At this time, I’m leaning more towards a full rewrite of the application that powers Street Source. I started writing the code almost 10 years ago, surely it has some tech debt and I can probably move faster with a complete rewrite. What I may do to get updates out sooner is to have the legacy application power some functions of Street Source while the new application powers others.
In fact, this approach has been working for awhile. I kick myself when I think about the investment I made to learn Polymer. At the time, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the pace of new JavaScript framework development. What drew me in, was the concept of web components and I still think they are an important part of future web development but I could be wrong.
Any who, that is all for this week, hope you had a good Thanksgiving in 2021!
(3 of 12) Slipped - December 5, 2021
Well, I seem to have slipped a little. Nothing really tangible this week except getting more familiar with GraphQL development to prepare for the rewrite!
I believe I will need to set up a reminder so I stay on track with these posts.
(4 of 12) And Another - December 16, 2021
Still another week with nothing really tangible, just more in depth thinking. I’m looking into ways to make life more manageable and easier to be more productive. Like most people, I have a full time job, family, house etc. There is just not enough time in the day, er week!
(5 of 12) Almost - December 23, 2021
It’s a struggle to muster energy by the time I have free time at night! I made a recent job change that just overall is a better fit for me. I don’t mind teaching others, after all, I consider myself a lifelong learner. Something I have learned this year about myself is that providing constant help to people who don’t really want to learn, burns me out more than anything.
A What we do in the Shadows reference above, great show! It’s taken about a month but I can feel my energy coming back! Starting to make some decisions on direction moving forward. Hopefully a more significant update next week!
(6 of 12) Happy New Year 2022 - January 2, 2022
Welp, it is now 2022! The last two years have really been a blur. I’m so close to doing something tangible, at least more now than probably all of last year. I think I need to spend some time to break up the work into really small tasks so it continues to feel like I’m making progress. It is a big undertaking to do alone and especially only being able to cram in about 1hr a day but it is going to be fun. Next steps, do a full code audit and identify features that aren’t unique to the software that powers Street Source and remove them from the code base, for example a bug tracker. More on that to come, if you find this post, Happy New Year!
(7 of 12) I Touched The Code - January 14, 2022
Woa, I touched the code and I liked it.
Things are picking up, spent some time to plan out goals for this year and get my local dev environment set up again. Definitely some tech debt to remove but the important thing is it definitely feels like progress! I’ll share some random details in the coming weeks.
(8 of 12) Getting The Order Right - January 31, 2022
Almost seems like I’m slacking again but a lot of progress has been made recently. It’s long overdue but I finally updated the code base to run on a modern version of the core language and supported version of the framework.
It was a pretty big update but just about done with testing. In the next couple of days I should get the updates pushed and the CICD pipeline updated.
I’ve been meaning to post for a bit but I’ve learned, it’s best to do the blog post first! Usually what happens to me is I get to a stopping point and then my laptop battery that lasts for about an hr gives out so here we are. I did it, until next time!
(9 of 12) Finally - February 10, 2022
It’s been a productive week, making really good progress. This past week I completed updating the compatibility with an updated version of the core language and also the framework to a supported version. This work was long overdue!
Now it’s time to do more enjoyable work, I did a small POC with React and felt that it is a better fit for my use case than Angular. Now it’s time to start designing again and work towards making Street Source a full pwa!
I think I finally have a process down that won’t be so mind warping. Over the years, I’ve found that I have trouble switching back and forth from artistic brain thinking about colors and gradients to data and structure. A night rest in between should make it better.
(10 of 12) Ooops - April 18, 2022
I figured this would happen eventually. You ever get to the end of the night after work and chores and the kid(s) are in bed where you are just done? The struggle is real, sometimes it feels like finding the time and energy is like waiting for the planets to align.
Making progress, dedicating 100% towards design for a night and coding on a separate night seems to be working well. I really like Figma, just wish the desktop application was more performant. I really like that Adobe XD doesn’t seem dependent on an internet connection but that is a no go for Figma.
Awhile back I was implementing Angular but overtime it felt to opinionated and more like I was writing another full-blown application instead of a client but you could argue that a client is an application in itself. I’ve been moving more towards React and enjoying the flexibility, to be fair I’m more experienced with java script frameworks now than I was when I started with Angular. More to come!
(11 of 12) Another May Post - May 12, 2022
I am really starting to slip on these, I just looked and it’s been almost a month since my last post, and that is ok. I was really struggling to find energy at the end of the day when I finally had time to sit down and relax and do these posts or work on Street Source.
I am trying a new schedule and so far it seems to be working. I’ve been going into work about 2hrs later than normal so I can spend this time on Street Source while I have energy and my family is still sleeping. I am also working on my home office set up and I think this will pay off too. So we will see!
(12 of 12) Geez - November 9, 2022
Just looked and the last entry I made was in May. Wow, the struggle is real, that is all!
Present Day
This brings me to where I am now, in what I’m calling my latest iteration. I have to thank my wife and kids for helping me realize that time is the most limited resource I have. Caring for an infant keeps you constantly busy, but just like when my first child was born, I found moments to think and reflect. Although my hands were full—feeding, changing diapers, or holding the baby—those quiet times gave me space to just pause and reflect. It made me wonder if intentionally setting aside time to think could be a game-changer.
I’m the kind of person who doesn’t shy away from projects I know nothing about; it’s one of the best ways to learn. There’s no better motivation than having to fix something yourself when hiring help isn’t an option. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot this way.
But after spending the past decade investing most of my free time on home projects, I’ve come to realize that I’ll never truly “finish” my house. With young kids, there’s always something to fix, pests to deal with, or the constant wear from the elements. So, I developed what I call a “time budget.” Just like budgeting money, I plan how much time I’ll commit to each project. This approach has reduced my stress and made it easier to return to home repairs later, freeing up time for projects that truly matter to me.
However, the last year of sleepless nights with a baby has definitely taken a toll on my free time. Through all this reflection, I’ve realized I need to invest more time in marketing efforts instead of just coding. To kick things off, I’ve started focusing on social media marketing for Street Source. Here’s a list of Street Source’s social media accounts.
Twitter or X https://x.com/streetsourcecom
YouTube - coming soon, just random videos of me working in my home garage
I’m off to my strongest start yet! My goal was to revamp the blog section to make it easy to write posts and share them directly on social media. Did you find this post through a social media link? Let me know!
Here’s a look at the posts I’ve shared over the last two months.
Not bad eh? This is the current schedule
Instagram - Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays
Twitter – Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays
Facebook – Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays
Right now, I’m experimenting with different types of content—including links—and testing various times of day to post. If there’s anything specific you’d like to see, let me know!
Alright, that’s all for this post. If you made it to the end, good job! I’ll keep posting and see if I can keep the momentum going. It's kind of fitting, as I try to wrap this up, my youngest has just woken up screaming....parent life.
My goal is to get the next post up in November (I need to get quicker at these, I started writing this in October but yes, still goal set for November).
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