// FIELD NOTES FROM THE BLIND
Strongly Opinionated,
Weakly Typed.
Engineering write-ups from a guy who hunts ducks, dives caves, and ships side projects. If it runs like a duck and deploys like a duck — ship it.
$ python duck.py if walks_like(duck) and quacks_like(duck): ship_it() # it's a duck. don't overthink it. $
$ ls -lt ~/posts see all → /blog
ARMORY // SECURED
-rw-r--r-- aug 24 esphome-irrigation-controller.md Replacing an Orbit B-hyve with an ESP32 and a relay board — the wiring, the YAML, and why the sprinklers keep running even if the server rack doesn't. -rw-r--r-- aug 12 wled-permanent-house-lights.md The build log for my permanent holiday lighting — three runs, 961 individually-addressable LEDs, one Dig-Quad, and every obsessive detail from J-channel to the data cables. -rw-r--r-- jul 15 standards-in-any-language.md The concepts behind the .NET gates, generalized. Scars become checks, checks become a ratchet that only turns one way — and that's the whole trick to coding with LLMs. -rw-r--r-- jul 05 bbs-suite-fidonet-model.md A whole arc: decompiling TriBBS 5.01 with free tooling, rebuilding it in Go as TresBBS, running a colony of simulated 90s callers with carrier, and fine-tuning an 8B model on 57,000 real FidoNet messages to give them a voice — for seventy-seven cents. -rw-r--r-- jul 03 first-app-with-claude-code.md A calm, step-by-step walkthrough for building a real working web app on your own computer in about ten minutes — a durable project folder, two easy stacks to choose from, the exact prompt to paste, and what's safe to say yes to.
$ ls -la ~/projects # freshest first see all → /projects
DECOYS // READY
aug 24 · esphome-configs ESPHome YAML for the devices running my house — real as-flashed configs, not demos aug 24 · rill Go Fast, MCP-native memory server. One database for documents, graph, and vector search. Built for multi-agent teams. aug 18 · agent-web-api Python Self-hosted web search + fetch for coding agents — SearXNG + trafilatura, zero API quotas aug 17 ★1 clawducky C++ A rubber duck with claws — ESP32 desk companion that shows your Claude Code context and quota usage jul 07 · tresbbs Go tresbbs — A faithful modern Go recreation of TriBBS. jul 06 · carrier Go An engine that generates BBS traffic: it decides the actions of the personas - and a model of your choice writes the words.
# newest 6 of 29 — see all → /projects
$ whoami
Engineering leader by day. By night: homelabber, cave diver, duck hunter, 3D printer wrangler, and serial side-project starter (and — occasionally — finisher).
The name? Duck typing is how dynamic languages decide what a thing is: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. I just happen to also sit in a blind at 5 a.m. with a shotgun and a thermos.
GOOD GIRL // FIND THE BIRD