Stuff on the Internet

Moving this blog from Ghost to Hugo

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 19:17:52 -0700

This blog needed some attention. The old setup was Ghost running on a DigitalOcean Droplet, with a database, nginx, and a CentOS 7 installation that was well past its useful life. The bill was about $12 a month. Not terrible, but keeping an entire server around for some articles and pictures was becoming more work than I wanted.

Triumph Cyclops LED Headlight Upgrade

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 01:15:48 +0000

I recently ended up with a Triumph motorcycle and one thing I thought odd bout this bike, a 2022 model, was that it still had an old school halogen headlight. The headlight does have LEDs already installed in the lower half, but the main bulb remains halogen. So to remedy this issue, albeit minor and nitpicky, I decided to install a Cyclops 10.0 H4 LED headlight with the "Ultra" option. I had previously became aware of this LED light for a recent dual-sport install and I was pleased with the outcome. Indeed Cyclops gears it's hardware more towards the dirt-orientated crowd so I hadn't seen anyone stuff one of these bulbs into a Triumph modern classic motorcycle. Here's a bit of a how-to for this job.

Owner Review: Floyd Shelving System

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 23:04:18 +0000

Overview

I had been looking for a media console and bookshelf combination for some time, for probably over a year and nothing really stood out. Some stuff I liked was hyper expensive while other cheaper items weren't exactly what I wanted. I was familiar with Floyd as I have their table so I decided to shop them. Floyd's shelving system is very modular and fits many decors. I had decided I'd give them a go again. I planned what items I would want and what would fit my space via their website and then waited until they had one of their many annual sales and received %15 off my order. In the end, I went with the following:

Review: Factor75 Pre-made Meals

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 06:20:40 +0000

About

Factor75 is a pre-made meal delivery service. They specialize in ready-to-eat meals rather than sending you a bunch of ingredients you have to concoct yourself. We had previously tried Hello Fresh before and weren't fans of making it yourself and the immense amount of packaging and waste involved. Here's a quick review of the Factor meal service and some notes you might be interested in as my girlfriend and I just completed a one month stint. Lastly, as with my other stuff, I wasn't paid to write any of this and only hope someone out in the wild finds this information useful.

Terraform AWS Account Bootstrap

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 19:08:42 +0000

Our goal with this article is to provision a brand new AWS account with a Terraform state backend and a Terraform user, and/or role(s), that can be used to manage AWS resources. In the past, I've done terrible things like give full AWS admin access for a single IAM user. From a best practices standpoint, it's better to user IAM assumable roles and a basic user that can assume roles to establish Terraform access to the AWS environment.

Egypt

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 04:29:06 +0000

Pi-hole: 0 to 100

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 04:23:50 +0000

We're going to setup a Raspberry Pi 4B computer as a Pi-hole device. The goal is to minimize annoying ad traffic, especially as Proposition 24 in California has passed. Since I'm not up for paying for quality-of-service or "play-to-play," I've decided to try rid myself of the annoyances in another way.

Replacing Brake Pads on Sondors Fold X

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 05:55:22 +0000

At about 650 miles of riding, it was time for new brake pads on my Sondors Fold X. I had completely worn out the rear brake pads to the point where there was nearly zero stopping power. It was a little dangerous to ride like that to be honest. Moreover, the front pads were squealing loud enough to wake up the entire neighborhood. They both needed replacement. Unfortunately that was more difficult than it needed to be.

Owner Review - Floyd Table

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 05:46:58 +0000

As with all my owner reviews, I bought this item on my own volition. I want other real people to stumble upon this page and make their own conclusions. Here's what I discovered.

Owner Review: Vuori Transit Jogger Pants

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 05:34:02 +0000

About Vuori

Vuoris is pretty new on the scene. They make higher margin products and have a strong presence in San Diego's brick-and-mortar stores. The first product I bought from them were a pair of Meta pants from REI as I needed some casual but stylish pants for a trip. I didn't know what Vuori was at that time or that were based out of Encinitas which is just a stone's throw away from San Diego proper. Being a So Cal native myself, I decided to keep supporting their product offering and buy more items. One of those recent buys was the Vuori Transit Jogger in black.

Adding Hour Meter to a Honda EU2200i Generator

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 05:22:17 +0000

I like to camp a few times a year and one item I've never had was a portable generator. With everything happening in the world currently, what better time to sink some money into portable power. Out of the box, the Honda EU2200i does not come with an easy to use hour meter. Moreover, all maintenance schedules are predicated on hour intervals. What gives? Granted, it does have an LED indicator that will display hour ranges, but nothing in any detail. Being a new generator I wanted some more granularity for the hour reading moving forward. Enter the Hardline hour meter. This device works on all sorts of motors and is right at home working with the Honda. Here's what you will need to get started.

Owner Review: Sondors Fold X (2019) Review

Sun, 15 Sep 2019 07:52:42 +0000

Note: This is a product I actually researched and purchased with my own money. No one paid me to say these things. Look for other "Owner Reviews" on this page.

Background

I spent a significant amount of time wading the mid-level electronic bike realm pool. Since this niche is relatively new and ever expanding, it was difficult to figure out which products were worth a look. Let's start with the appearance of the bike itself.

Kwon Alexander and the 49ers Linebacker Legacy

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 23:58:43 +0000

From 2011 to 2013 the San Francisco 49ers had the most dominant linebacker corps in the NFL. Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman highlighted a squad that also featured a now disgraced Aldon Smith and wily veteran Ahmad Brooks. This squad decided games, helping the 49ers go 36-11-1 over that three season span. To boot, San Francisco was a top three defense by DVOA in 2011 and 2012 with only Chicago and Seattle doin better [1]. This squad, however, was only assembled for a very short time and they never the snagged the sport's highest pinnacle.

Contact

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 05:23:12 +0000

bradsturkie at gmail.com

Owner Review: Thuma Bed

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 05:19:13 +0000

Quickly before I get started, I like to qualify these reviews as owner reviews. They are meant to be honest reviews of products I actually own – no paid advertisements and no marketing fluff. I also like to do these because real reviews of these products can be hard to find, especially with how curated everything on the Internet is becoming. Let's get going.

Owner Review: Bellroy Shift Backpack (2019)

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 00:33:16 +0000

Bellroy first caught my eye a couple years ago while shopping for a wallet. I never ended up with a wallet from them but they remained in my mind. Since that search, Bellroy has expanded their product offering to include most common daily carry items. A new search of mine had arrived as I broke the main zipper of my North Face Surge backpack. After lots of looking around, I settled on the Bellroy Shift. The style is the primary factor that drew me in. Also, I wanted a bag that could carry some clothes as I had small gym bag that I also carried around. Let's take a look at some of the details of this new daily pack.

Using CertBot to Automatically Secure Your Nginx Site

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 05:10:52 +0000

CertBot is a nifty tool created by the EFF the help leverage the power of free certificate authorities like Let's Encrypt. Its primary goal is to help configure popular web servers to use a SSL/TLS certificate. There's really no excuse this day and age to have an insecure site. Here, we're going to secure a site running behind Nginx on the CentOS 7 platform.

Are Chris Taylor and Joe Flacco the Same Person?

Mon, 22 Oct 2018 06:17:08 +0000

Being a Dodgers fan for the last 25 years, I follow the team rather closely. Chris Taylor has been an under appreciated piece of the Dave Roberts led lineup puzzle. Taylor made the catch of the game (and maybe all of the postseason) in last night's Game 7 versus the Brewers. Today I had the opportunity to watch some NFL games, with the Saints vs. Ravens being nationally televised. Then I noticed something. These guys look very similar. Too similar. Regardless if Flacco and Taylor are the same person...go Dodgers!

Review: Cave Shake (2018)

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 03:59:00 +0000

Cave Shake is an upstart brand likely gaining traction by being mentioned on Joe Rogan's JRE podcast. The Cave Shake company hails from Los Angeles. L.A. and California in general seem to be epicenter for alternative, health-conscious drinks. Cave Shake is no exception. It boasts the following tagline: "The original keto, paleo, vegan, ready-to-drink coconut milk shake." That's a lot. Cave Shake is all the things apparently. This is a look at the 8 ounce jar so let's break it down a bit.

Search

Tue, 04 Sep 2018 04:06:37 +0000

Jerrick McKinnon and the uphill struggle for the 49ers

Sun, 02 Sep 2018 07:49:31 +0000

The news any football team fan dreads right before the season opener happened. Knee...ACL..out for the season. The casual fan shouldn't be surprised as this happens often enough, but when it happens to the team you root for it's a reality check.

Hello world...

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 03:53:42 +0000

First post on this platform. More to come!