This Week:
- The results of the big software refactor I’ve been working on.
- Moving camp spots to another beautiful part of Colorado.
- Unexpected Indian food in the mountains and life back in Denver.
October 2024
| Su | M | T | W | Th | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 10/1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 11/1 | 2 |
Where In The World Was I?
- 🌲 The mountains of Colorado, U.S.
- 🌲 More mountains of Colorado, U.S.
- Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Metrics From The Week
I got back to Denver (down to 5,280ft/1,609m from ~9,850ft/3,002m) and immediately the next day my HRV was up 20%. I guess there’s somethin’ to elevation training!
Business Progress Update
THE Refactor
Last Sunday I was about 2/3 of the way through this big database refactor. Well this week, I finished! I have officially moved from using JSON files to using a database (well not quite officially). It’s like finally taking the training wheels off your bike and learning to ride in the real world 😂
I had chosen a framework that’s database-agnostic and SQLite as my database to keep things simple and straightforward.
By mid-week I deployed my code to my server and started migrating all my data to the new database. However, I had started to run into some issues here and there with the amount of data I was migrating. I had about 200,000 channels and 9.8 million video records… and I wasn’t even done migrating all the videos.
Well let’s just say SQLite didn’t exactly like sifting through 9.8 million video records frequently. My web server kept timing out and it was taking forever to query anything (even with indices).
So about 3/4 of the way through migrating all my data I decided to bite the bullet and switch to a more scalable-friendly database, PostgreSQL. Thankfully the framework I’m using made it incredibly easy to switch.
By today (Sunday), I’ve got my PostgreSQL database up and running on my server and pretty much all my data migrated. It’s MUCH better, none of the same issues, but I’m still having some long running queries that I’m fixing. So currently, my site uh, doesn’t work 😅, but I’ve more or less locked everyone out while I work on fixing it.
Ain’t nothin’ like debugging your software in production 😅
Other Scaling Work
Aside from deploying the database refactor, I’ve been working on a lot of little efficiencies around the software, like always fetching the latest data, not re-fetching existing data and conditionally re-analyzing videos. This should (and already has) speed things up a lot, make the UX a lot better, AND help to reduce API quota usage.
So again like last week, nothing much to show from the UI.
Aside from the minor issue of queries timing out, breaking my web server, and thus not showing any data (a super minor issue, I know), the UI is a lot more zippy!
Everything is fine 🫠
The Battery Struggle
Last Sunday I was getting dangerously low on my van’s house batteries… I ended up driving ~45 minutes north (in the direction I was planning on heading anyway) to find a new camp spot and recharge my batteries with the B2B (battery-to-battery) charger.
I found this fantastic spot WITH cell signal! There was no one out there, which I was surprised by, because there were so many great camp spots.
All those grey-ish trees are aspens so I can only imagine maybe 3 weeks ago this entire area just lit up yellow and orange.
Fortunately I had cell signal so I could hotspot from my phone to relieve some battery drain from using my starlink. That combined with some partly cloudy days, I hovered between a max of 35-41% battery but never ended up charging more than that.
I ended up driving down to Denver for a couple days, and to get around this cold front moving through Colorado (highs of 35ºF/1.6ºC didn’t sound that fun).
You Had Great Indian Food where??
I stopped in Evergreen, CO (about 30 minutes outside Denver, in the mountains) for an evening shower and saw this restaurant with glowing reviews right next door. With no other good place to stop to make dinner and wanting to switch up my usual rotation of a couple meals, I went for it.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to find Indian food this good seemingly in the middle of nowhere! (An unexpected find in a Colorado mountain town)
Back To Civilization
Got some errands done, but more importantly got back into some great coffee shops.
At Queen City I closed my laptop (~11:45am) and this guy next to me sparked a little conversation. He asked if I were a software engineer and if I knew anything about “AI” 😄
I said “AI? Never heard of it!”
😂 Okay kidding, I asked him some questions and told him about the software I’m building. He shared some projects he’s working on and asked to connect! It was a great little moment and reminded me of so many moments in SE Asia. Can’t wait to be back.
Fall In Denver
Thoughts From The Week
The balancing of chaos and order in this lifestyle: Riding the push and pull of life
Why I continue to like this lifestyle, the biggest advantage: The interesting duality of having a routine with van life
I got into some honest thoughts towards the end of this video Wanting to make it to the other side. I’ve been pushing really hard lately and frequently finding that everything else is taking a back seat. This day I had a list of todo-list tasks I wanted to get done, go to the gym, and make some salmon tikka masala, but I did none of them and spent most of the day migrating data for my software.
This phase for me has been the most “serious” grind/build phase I’ve had and I’m beginning to desire making it to the other side, the side where my life is more balanced, where I’m not pushing my brain at 110%, exercising takes more of a priority, and I can actually have some more interesting ideas and thoughts to talk about on my YouTube videos. For now it’s been all focus on building this software, but for good reason. I chose this.
Back in Kuala Lumpur (January 2024) I had defined the criteria I was looking for in a business (The Week I Reassessed The Direction Of My Business Venture, January 14th, 2024) and listed them in the middle (~31:00) of this long video I made navigating this decision to pivot I made:
Point being, this CURRENT version of life is not what I want, but the difference is, I believe this current version is what is required to build something that fits that vision I laid out.
So again, I can’t remember which video I mentioned this in, but the focus right now is building for the future and not on the present.
And doubly again… The work doesn’t care how you feel
Food From The Week
Switching up my usual rotation of salads, tofu scramble, pasta with chicken and grain bowls with CHICKEN QUESADILLAS babyyyy *crowd oohs and ahhhss*
