What I was doing then

Ongoing big projects

So, let's talk about the website: all I did, really, was switch the font to "Inter", make the text bigger (and adjust the line heights), then water down the light-mode/dark-mode background color a bit, and it drastically improved how every element on the site looks. It's incredible!

I had told myself I would finish the site in July. Technically I met the deadlines, but a big chunk is still sitting on my hard drive waiting for the text to be polished. I think I can put it all online within a week.

Following my last update, the book Refactoring UI really helped me identify the levers for improving the look, like I just said. It's still a very simple site though. Colors, animations and interactivity probably won't show up until next year, but I'm already happy with what I have.

Otherwise, still on my GCP training. And still hoping to be done with it towards the end of the summer.

My tinkering

I built 3 Telegram bots whose back-end is hosted at Hetzner. I now have a fitness coach bot, an accountant bot to manage my money and a job interview coach bot.

The idea came to me when I was thinking about building a mobile app. Why maintain an app if I can use someone else's interface (Telegram)? That way, I only have to worry about the back-end and about refining the prompts.

One topic to close here: I have now gone full Claude Code pro everywhere, both professionally and personally. A funny anecdote: Claude Code helped me recover 10 GB of media lost during a bad copy. And it did it with commands that, I admit, I didn't know. Since it was a personal context and I had nothing to lose, I was ok with it. And it turned out for the best.

Still no room to learn the systems language I wanted (Zig). I was thinking of picking it back up this winter, but given what's coming in the next few months, it's going to be pushed back to next spring.

For relaxation and culture

Good news: I managed to get back into drawing. And I have a project in the works, half drawing half tech, planned before the end of the year. My social life is almost non-existent at the moment. I go to 1 or 2 tech meetups a month. I don't think it's healthy to be focused on tech all the time. I'm trying to find myself something else for balance.

Aside from that

Getting ready for my parents' visit this winter. But aside from that it's quiet. I'm trying not to get too worked up about AI topics and the market going off the rails with them.

Spoiler alert: the first part will be very long

Ongoing big projects

Nothing really new on the day job. On the website however, I finally found a very simple design idea to implement (thanks to Josh W Comeau's inspiration). I built this website with NextJS and Tailwind CSS. Two technologies I literally had zero prior experience with. So, since all my brain energy was on building the thing, I had no brain juice left for the design. lol

Now, I'll take the "good is better than perfect" approach and actually make a design that's worth reading even if it did not get the style I wished to convey (My initial goal being very GSAP-filled animation and interaction).

Also on the topic of improving the website, I finally found Sanity and I'm planning to use it for the blog section (Note: yeup, this is not the blog section. I just promoted it to the menu to avoid making the website too hollow). At work, we use Strapi. So why didn't I use Strapi too? Well, separation of church and state. lol. But also, I find Strapi to be quite old and very enterprise-y. Sanity seems more modern and "geeky" to me.

I will really really try to complete the website redesign and blog setup by early July.

Related to the ongoing projects, I acquired the book "Refactoring UI" by Adam Wathan and I'm reading through it. I work with designers at work and we integrate pixel-perfect designs. But coming up with the design myself is honestly hard. Design is difficult to get right!

And yeah, I'm still working on the GCP certification. I hope to get it before the end of the summer. I have been going on and off about it but I'm still holding on.

What I actually put on hold is my NestJS learning. I have been more focused on getting more proficient in Typescript. I qualify myself as already being very proficient with it. But it's weird how using a piece of technology every day doesn't make you an expert in it. This is why I decided to be more intentional with it. If I can be very good at Typescript, the rest will follow.

My tinkering

I now have a dual use of both Claude Code and Copilot at work. Both as pro subscription. At home I'm more modest. I use Claude Code but with GLM-5 instead of Anthropic models. Results are pretty good though not on par with Sonnet and Opus.

All I did until now is AI assisted engineering, at most. I haven't had the courage to try full vibe coding; the little I did was a bit catastrophic. Well, now I'm going to try again but with a better structural approach. I'm planning to create a fully vibe coded Marketing project with it. I already outlined the project and all the features. I'll try to adopt a TDD approach to it which I think is the most sensible way to go with vibe coding while maintaining quality. Opinions may change depending on the results.

I actually froze my Zig ambition for now. (Do you even see how much I have on my plate already? Jeez!).

For relaxation and culture

Could not cold start drawing yet. Especially with all the side projects going on right now. We don't see it but drawing really takes a huge chunk of my time when I'm at it. I may need to recalibrate this activity. I'd want to have something outside of tech.

Aside from that

Nothing much. From here to the end of June, I'll be fully packed. And maybe chill a little for the summer.

Happy new year! (very late... on Valentine's day)

Ongoing big projects

We finally achieved the big migration of our frontend stack at work and the results are outstanding. So much so that our CTO had to make a LinkedIn post and a blog post about it. You can check it out here.

My last 3 years were mostly specializing in frontend development. It's cool and all, but I want to get back in shape with backend.

I'm preparing for my first GCP certification right now. I hope I get it before the summer.

I'm pumped to get very much in shape with NestJS. I want to upgrade my system design skills and build large-scale applications even if opportunities at this level are pretty scarce. If you didn't get it yet: this is my software architect upskilling year.

My tinkering

Using Claude Code in full force now. I'm trying to find the best workflow to use to ensure quality output while delivering fast results.

Zig programming language is the new kid on the block. I didn't dig deep into it yet but it's potentially my redemption arc since I skipped Rust. I need a very low level language in my stack and Zig seems to be the best choice for that. I'll keep you updated on that.

For relaxation and culture

My drawing is paused due to the heavy workload I've had lately. Mental energy completely depleted after work. But I'm getting back at it after my Guangzhou trip.

Aside from that

My website is now almost stable. The design will stay minimalistic. Since everything is manual (no Wordpress here), I kinda underestimated the amount of work it takes to make it even half good. (please don't check the 404 page yet! it's broken but I will fix it soon)

I'm taking a 3-week trip to Guangzhou next week. Got invited to an English-speaking networking event at Morning, in Paris, but it clashes with my trip so, too bad but I won't be able to attend.

Ongoing big projects

We're doing a major front-end technology migration at the client company where I work. I've put everything else on pause to focus on this. We should be ready for the Winter Olympics.

My tinkering

My personal projects are on the back burner for now, but I was still able to try Claude Code and it boosted my productivity in some areas tenfold. The only issue is that it generates code that works, but architecturally, it's not quite there yet. That will be the subject of an upcoming blog post.

For relaxation and culture

I've started getting serious about drawing. I'm starting with the basics but I have a drawing-related project for later. Another potential blog topic too. There will be a pretty interesting tech side to it.

Aside from that

I'm heading to China in February for a vacation, then I'll get a bit more up to date on my technical skills. I have a lot to say for this coming year but for now, life is holding me hostage and I'm not making progress on the site.

Ongoing big projects

The creation of this website to begin with. I'm keeping it very basic for now and updating it regularly.

I'm not planning to add any personal design or flashy features until the end of the year.

My next big goal is to separate French and English.

My tinkering

I'm currently experimenting with creating an online diagramming tool that would be more stylish by default than tools like Lucidchart.

This would be useful for long-term integration into the site. I'm exploring React Flow for this.

I'm also looking into Gemini CLI. I'm too cheap to pay for Claude subscriptions but too anxious to miss out on the latest AI developments, especially in programming.

For relaxation and culture

I spent the whole month of August on vacation. I've been eating and sleeping a lot. Not much room for coding. I'm starting slowly now in September by working on this website.

I haven't been watching many series lately. Nothing on the gaming side either. However, I visited my uncle in Annecy, he is an author and gave me one of his books. I'll start reading it soon. ;)

Family side

My parents were able to obtain their visas to come to France (after 2 failed attempts). I saw them for the first time in 3 years. I was very happy to see them again. We drove almost all over France during the whole month of August.

Aside from that

I'm slowly trying to build a stronger online presence.

I'm on X at the moment but I'm not yet as invested as I would like to be.