Life is Beautiful

blogging visual design

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:22:34 -0400

I run a personal static blog built with Hugo, deploying through an automated GitHub Actions pipeline. The text publishing part is frictionless. Writing in Obsidian, pushing to the repository, and triggering the build is a solved problem. The visual part was the annoyance. Every time I needed a header image, I would ask an AI generator, and it always spat out a hyper-polished, mathematically perfect render. It looked like cheap stock photography.

Hardcore DIY Friday: AI and My Plumbing Repair

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:06:43 -0400

It happened on a Friday night, which is exactly when plumbing problems always decide to strike. The shower handle had been stiff for days, feeling like turning a rusty steering wheel. Then, right as I was trying to turn it off, something inside gave way. The water kept running. Not a drip, but a steady stream. A weekend emergency call to a plumber was going to cost a fortune. I pulled out my phone and opened Gemini, figuring I had nothing to lose by asking an artificial intelligence how to shut off a broken Moen shower. That kicked off a weekend of guided hardware debugging.

My First Post

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 05:45:56 -0400

Life is beautiful, let’s hugo!