justinlillico.com

A New Direction

A Shift in Focus

Okay, so I'm deviating a bit—making a bit of a life change. For the last several years, programming has been a huge part of my life. It’s a very reason-heavy task, requiring abstraction and pulling yourself away from the real world.

There are many ways to look at the world, and one way is to think of people as operating in two modes: as individuals or as parts of a larger machine. Of course, we are both, but some people tend to lean more one way than the other.

My Journey in Tech

I’ve taken a deep dive into the world of tech, AI, gizmos, and gadgets—connecting this to that, making things work in new ways. And I absolutely love it. I couldn’t be happier with the direction I’ve taken in my career. I love tinkering with new things, playing with possibilities, and seeing what these innovations can bring to the world.

But I’ve decided to make a bit of a change. I’ll still continue my career in tech, but for now, I won’t be doing any extracurricular programming. Instead, I’m reconnecting with a part of myself that I left behind a while ago—my musical side.

Returning to Music

I used to write songs, play music, and perform, and I loved it. When I played, I felt connected to humanity in a way that’s hard to explain—like I was a conduit for creativity. Not that programming isn’t creative, but it’s a different kind of creativity. With music, I can share it with anyone. Sure, programmers can share code, but that’s a rare breed. Music, though—it speaks to everyone.

The Plan Moving Forward

So yeah, that’s a little update on where I’m at. My plan is to open up my YouTube channel, get some decent recording gear, and maybe, once a fortnight, put something out there. At the same time, I’ll work on writing music that really speaks to me.

For the first time in a long time, I feel genuinely excited about this. Not that there’s anything wrong with the life I live—I love it. But variety is the spice of life, as they say. So here’s to what’s next.

A dull, but productive day

What did I do today? I spent a great deal of time getting some software to work for customers which isn't entirely uncommon.

I spent a lot of time getting an automation that I am working on for my full time gig to reliably determine how to output some text based on answers provided in a questionnaire by clients. That was fun.

I also exposed the energy end point from the integration I made for home assistant called Local Daikin to my home assistant energy monitoring section and can now reliably track the kilowatt cost so that's very exciting.

Fires and Data

Client over the weekend needed to do their stock-take. I built the stock keeping system they use. It's an extension of the inventory system they are forced to use by the eCommerce platform they use. It allows them to run their business in the way they want to. The catch is though, they need to sync it up with the IMS they are using in the paid platform.

So every EOFY, I do an export of their inventory which is tracked my software for them to import into the IMS. They should be pretty similar, but they often aren't. The IMS tracks sales and incoming stock, but my system tracks actual placed items in locations on shelves in the warehouse. So there is a small difference.

Anyway, we did that and all seems well.

In other news, I attended a fire and drank beer. It felt nice. Note to self: do more of that some time.