my blog

Developing a Structure

May 20, 2024

Sometimes, in a moment of brilliance, I come up with ideas that seem awesome and cool. These ideas can occupy my thoughts for what feels like days at a time. During these days, as I walk around at work, cook food, read articles, or do anything, my mind is stuck on these ideas. I feel like I make progress on them and keep building upon them—until I move on. My mind shifts to something else, and all that mental energy feels wasted as these ideas slip through the cracks.

So how do I fix this? I need to write these ideas down and keep them together. I need a list of tasks so that when boredom hits, I have something to work on immediately. I need structure.

To-Do List

  1. This website

    I figure it would probably be a good idea since my new sense of discipline and stream of motivation has led me to finally put together a portfolio site. I should finish this so that it doesn't become one of those projects that sits there half-working and half-finished.

    Of course, the site will never truly be done; there will always be stuff I would like to add to it.

    • [ ] Chess Tracker
    • [ ] Make it more personal
      • I'd like to add a little dice roller like from Baldur's Gate
    • [ ] Add more room in the nav
    • [ ] Finances Guide

  2. Europa Universalis 4 App

    For the most part, I would consider this to be mostly finished, but now there are some aspects that need to be addressed now that the core functionality is done.

    • Lack of clarity regarding sent requests (Loading Bar)
    • Bug when using the search bar, sometimes the requests go through, sometimes it appears like they don't
    • Animations? The site feels clunky

  3. r/NYY Sentiment Analysis

    This project is still really new; I haven't really done much but the frontend.

    • Build Classifier to attach the subject of the comment
    • Analyze the sentiment of threads
    • Scraper to get roster (40 Man or current 26 plus prospects)
    • Add chart to track each individual player's sentiment score alongside winrate graph
      • Maybe add in for each day how the player performed to see if the performance warrants the sentiment
    • Add Cards to track the current highest and lowest sentiment scoring players, and maybe highest uptick or downtick in score

  4. KnowYourPolitician Map

    Still brainstorming ideas.

    • Overhead view of the U.S. Map, showing the current House and Senate splits
    • Toggle between Senate and House Mode
      • House Mode can show the districts overlaid on the Map
        • When clicked, each district will pop up a card that shows the Politician, their party, educational background, election year, when they are up for reelection. Use a LLM to create a small abstract regarding that person's platform and positions.
        • Add color to display what party controls the seat
    • When clicked on each state, list some important information, like electoral votes

  5. Homelab

    There are a lot of things I would like to start with the homelab...

    • Minecraft server
    • PfSense VM
    • Plex
    • AdGuard / PiHole

    This should probably be higher on the list, to be honest, purely based on how long I've put this off.

  6. Whimsy40

    It's been like a year; build the keyboard already.