lennys November 12, 2023

Thinking about what comes next.

I'm done with my Django for APIs book. It was a good introduction to building an API, but left me wanting more. It's a short book - it only took me 3 days to work through it, and I didn't run into any serious issues along the way. I'm thinking about how to make an API that I can use with this blog somehow, for demonstration purposes. I'd like to find a book about Django that builds just one project and fleshes it out more completely than what the Django books I've read so far do. Django for APIs has a section in which you build a small website using Django as the backend and React for the frontend. I'd like to do more of that kind of thing and learn to develop a website start-to-finish. Before I picked up the Django books I've read recently, I worked through a series of YouTube videos about developing Django websites with Vue as the frontend. Those videos were challenging, as they covered material I hadn't seen before (like serializers), and the "author" went through it at a very fast pace. You can find the videos by going to YouTube and searching for "Code with Stein", he has several videos that cover different projects. I especially liked the one that built an e-commerce website and wanted to take it live on the Web, but sadly the video didn't cover deploying it on a server or hosted service. So I'll have to figure that out on my own, like I had to do when I built this blog. Now I'm left wondering what to do next.

lennys November 10, 2023

A small milestone...

I finished up the Django for Professionals book yesterday. My bookstore project is live at https://lennys-bookstore-c5f5989fa0ca.herokuapp.com/ and has the basics - you can sign up for an account, log in, log out etc. Some of the bugs aren't worked out yet - the signup page can successfully sign up a new user, but the site throws a 500 error when you try. It does add the account into the admin section though. Some of the pictures aren't being rendered right either. Since this project was just for practice, I'm thinking of just moving on. I have the Django for APIs book with me and am eager to get started on that one. I'm still waiting on the new engine for my truck to arrive from Wisconsin. While I was at the gym yesterday someone with Midas called and left a voicemail, saying it would be there in 7 to 14 business days. That's going to put the actual engine install either the week before Thanksgiving, or right after. The truck seems to run okay on just 5 cylinders, but I don't trust it any more and I'm not going to go anywhere far away with it until the new engine is installed. I really hope that after all is said and done I have a good running truck, because otherwise this ordeal will just crush my spirits because of the godawful amount of money I've had to spend. Things to do: - build a sitemap for this blog - either fix Summernote, or replace it with a Markdown-enabled text editor - fix the "Projects" URL on lennyshort.com - build a "Contact Us" page on lsenterprises.tech - setup Ansible on my smaller server and Cisco equipment - get a flu shot - do some research on good business ideas at the library There's more to be sure, but that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm looking forward to getting out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday and seeing my brother and his family. I could use a break.

lennys November 05, 2023

Update for the last week or so...

It's been several days since my last post. I've kept myself busy with my Django for Professionals book, which I'm about 2/3 of the way through. One criticism of the book I have so far is that the author doesn't use environment variables from the beginning, to keep sensitive information like passwords safe. I've been pushing my code to GitHub periodically, and I accidentally uploaded a few files that had the Django secret key and the database password in them. So I had to go back and change those after the fact, because of the lack of security in the earlier lessons in the book. Live and learn, I guess. He also doesn't use a .gitignore file. If he had used one, I wouldn't have made that mistake. Overall I'm happy with the book, I just wish the author would've used better security in his code. My truck is on the fritz. This is the other thing that's been keeping me busy these last 6 days, dealing with that. I took it to a Midas shop near my apartment because the check-engine light came on last weekend. I thought it just needed a tune-up, but after I got it in the shop they discovered that there were bigger problems. 3 of the 6 cylinders were misfiring because of a leak in the exhaust gas recirculation system, plus the spark plugs and plug wires needed to be replaced, plus a tune-up, plus some other stuff I can't recall at the moment. So far I've spent about $2500.00 on repairs, and that fixed the misfiring on the left side of the engine, but the number 6 cylinder on the right side is still misfiring even after installing a new fuel injector. So now it looks like we're going to have to replace the engine entirely. I'll find out on Monday what that will cost. The truck is 20 years old and has almost a quarter of a million miles on it, so I'm not surprised that it needed a lot of work done, I just wish I was in a better position to fix some of it myself. I don't have a garage so I can't really do any work on it by myself, even if I did know exactly what to do. So I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, between paying thousands to get this truck fixed, or pay more thousands to buy another, newer truck. I checked online and saw a few trucks I liked, but they were either way too expensive or way too old. If I were to buy a truck, I'd want something that's less than 10 years old, and trucks in that age range still cost anywhere from $15000 to $30000. Meanwhile my poor Dakota isn't worth $2000 at this point. Getting it fixed will be cheaper than getting a replacement, so I'm stuck with that I guess. It's a good thing I've saved my pennies these last few years, because I'm going to need them now.

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