Dev Log 07.21.2026: A Third-Party Punt, Automated Scryfall Images, and Dad's Steaks

Random Thoughts from a Restless Mind

Category: Dev Logs

Published On: July 21, 2026

🤓 The Technical: Day job first: I'd been sitting on a ticket that needed to integrate with a third-party team's API, and since I hadn't heard back on what the response payload would even look like, I stubbed it out yesterday just to keep moving. Turns out that patience paid off in a weird way — the third-party team came back today and basically said "just do everything except our part," so the stub I already had in place is the implementation now. There's a clean interface sitting there if they ever get their act together, and I can leave it alone until then. Also got pulled in to help another dev get the Amasty custom forms module installed after he hit a wall — I'd already fought through it (and had to patch some of Amasty's own code to get Magento to compile), so my boss asked me to walk him through it. Feels good to be the one who's already been through the fire. Capped the day off getting handed a database backup issue to look into for a client.

On the personal side, I'm wrapping up the Accumulated Knowledge release — mostly visual polish this time, plus a genuinely good backend win: the Scryfall image sync is now automated via a cron instead of me manually assigning card art deck by deck. Preliminary testing knocked the "needs manual fix" rate down from 100% of decks to about 10%. The stragglers are mostly decks named after archetypes rather than key cards (a "Burn" deck has no obvious card to auto-match to), so those were never going to solve themselves. Twitch bot's got a small release queued too — just the Node app this time, no dashboard changes.

😎 The Atmosphere: Reaction-video kind of day — Hot Tub Time Machine, a bit of Shrek during a meeting I only half needed to watch, and Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley later on. Also got sucked into some Doctor Doom trailer discourse after it dropped — not sold on it, and I've got feelings about reusing Iron Man specifically, even though I know full well I've accepted way more recastings than that in other franchises.

🐶 The Coworker: Hubert got real sun time today now that the air quality cleared up, plus a couple rounds of couch invasion — every time I got up he claimed my spot. He's nine now, and the longer walks that used to be easy are turning into shorter loops around the block instead. He seems fine with the downgrade.

😡 The Rant: Shipping estimates are a scam and I will die on this hill. Companies have the exact data to know how often they miss their own promised windows and keep making them anyway, with zero consequence, while I'd get hit with a late fee for being an hour behind on a bill. Estimate or don't. Just stop lying to me about it.

🙂🙂🙂 The Smiles: Cooked steaks for my mom tonight — ones my dad had vacuum-sealed in the freezer before he passed. Getting to use them instead of letting them go to waste, and having dinner turn out well, felt like a genuinely good way to close out the day. Bonus: one of three Magic card packages I've been waiting on actually showed up today, so I'm halfway to having a rebuilt Bracket 3 deck ready for this weekend.