I have been working obsessively on my website, https://www.aleckornblum.com, since late 2023. The book hypermedia.systems connected many dots of web programming for me. I read it while starting a Common Lisp web application using the Caveman web framework. The framework provides a default web app structure that was helpful in learning the basics of a hypermedia-based MVC web application.

I came across the hypermedia.systems book because I had discovered HTMX in a web programming article on pagination. Once I understood that I could use it to avoid learning JavaScript, I was hooked. I had learned a little bit of JS during COVID but found it quite annoying to use. HTMX is a small JavaScript library that enhances HTML. It faciliates using the server to dynamically update content on the page without a full-page refresh. It can accomplish many common JavaScript-based UI's without any JavaScript. For many applications it can give SPA-comparable interactivity.

I have finished the following UI's:

• Parking Reminders
• Weightlifting
• Restaurant Ranking List
• Bodyweight tracking
• Shared Shopping Lists

Next up is:

• HTTP Data API for alternative client applications than browsers (emacs!)
• A simple dropbox clone
• Some admin UI's to help me spread the site to others

My site also has static pages of documents I've written. I still need to make a useful sitemap. Or I might change to a minimalist blog tool for org-mode (like org-static-blog) to make things easier.

I rediscovered pgAdmin for postgresql. Since I am running postgres in development and production, it's become a useful tool for me. The part I'm enjoying most is using it to graph the relationships in my database, plus for quickly bootstrapping example data when working on CRUD operations. Of course I work on them as RCDU…

Since I am so obsessed with HTMX, of course I listened to every single scrap of content available online from the HTMX creator. I check the HTMX website daily for new content.

Mainly, though, I'm listening through Fr. Schmitz's Bible in a Year to work. I have found the experience enlightening so far. I quite enjoy Fr. Mike's explanations of the Scriptures. However, that is made more powerful by how consistent I can be in listening to these on the way to work. I have made it much farther into the Old Testament than I ever have reading the book normally.

After a while, I also picked up Fr. Schmitz's Catechism in a Year for the way home. These are also quite enlightening. I do not like how much Fr. Mike seems to repeat the words of the Catechism. He seems to say what they're gonna say, then he reads it, then he reviews each line one by one just repeating it's meaning. Unfortunately it's a far cry from the Bible in a Year, but of course the Scriptures and Catechism have a different feel to them. Despite my criticism, listening to the podcast has helped me understand much of Catholic belief already, and I look forward to continuing.

I have made myself a reading plan based on Mortimer J. Adler's list of Great Books of the West. I am splitting up the Old Testament into sections so that I get some variety. These books should be the main source of reference and permanent notes for my zettelkasten.

On top of these I do have some leisure reading books. I've almost read the Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion intertwined. I finished Leviathan Wakes this year and am moving on to Caliban's War.

I am not making a superb amount of progress on any particular writing project right now. However, writing zettelkasten notes is the precursor to writing excellence. I am writing reference notes and recording unique, atomic ideas in my electronic zettelkasten.

I took a promotion this year to become a Production Superintendent at the Lubrizol Bayport, TX plant. It has been quite the learning experience and a bump in responsibility. I'm looking forward to rising to the challenge!

We've been getting results and making improvements. We completed a turnaround and that was a great learning experience. We implemented an operator-centric daily tiered meeting schedule to solve problems encountered in the control room. I led the Standard Work reorganization and implementation as Asset Operations Champion leader. I am most excited about the improvements we made in filtration. It is quite fun to see results when you apply a good working principle for a piece of equipment.

Another interesting fact is that I have taken to using the Lubrizol-provided low-code solution: Microsoft Power Apps. If you had told me this years ago I would probably have puked. However, the experience has taught me the benefits of using a technology the company truly supports (for a "citizen developer" like myself). I've also learned some of the benefits of a low-code solution. In particular, the low-code nature of it implies that it abstracts away boilerplate code into visual pieces. In particular, I think this means many aspects of the CRUD of an app are quite easy in low-code development. This is nice! Low-code development (oddly enough) seems to focus all coding that is necessary to be business-logic development. Again, I never thought I would write or utter something like that when I started coding for my hobby!!

It has been a time of great change at Lubrizol. The leadership of our new CEO has required all of us to become change agents. My boss knew as much would be true when he hired me. I am open minded in many things, and also quite conservative in temperament. I believe I can balance these things at work. It seems this has been a crucible for these two aspects of my personality, and does take its toll on me.

I have always wanted to learn another language. It's something I can not at all imagine without doing it myself. Since I married the most wonderful woman in the world, Claudia Maria Krah (now Kornblum), and she speaks German, I've decided to take the dive into Deutsch. I started 150+ days ago with Duolingo and have added some other grammar studies in addition. Claudia and I try to speak German to one another just a little each day. Ich habe noch langen reise gehen.

In the recent past I've practiced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai, but I have put that on pause for the moment. I need to find a better schedule for myself if I'm going to pick that back up.

Right now, I'm focused quite a lot on weightlifting. I built my own website, in part, to give myself a nice UI for tracking my weightlifting. Another thing I've focused on is sticking to my program. After completing , I realized the desire to keep a "streak" ongoing was fairly useful to reinforce daily action. So I programmed that into my website! Since then I've had an 80 day streak of workouts! Know, of course, that I allow myself one day of stretching (Sunday) to count towards streaks, as well as some Active Rest Days as needed for longevity. I can't control when I get sick!!

I'm following Mark Rippetoe's book Practical Programming for Strength Training, in particular the section for intermediates called The Texas Method. It's been a difficult program, but the longer my streak the stronger I'm getting. It's effective!