Vacation Productivity and HEB Plans

make this much shorter: Well I had a great vacation, 5 days off. Going back to work was not that bad. I have new shoes now which put a spring in my step. Things are getting easier at work for now as well. All the hard work we have been doing is paying off and now the wareroom is in good shape. Right after Valentine’s day we put out all the Easter stuff and that is all up so hopefully we don’t have to change much until after Easter. I held another “hackathon” or software competition on my days off. I was yet again the only competitor. I did create a chrome extension though in one day that was well received and actually got stars on my repo, meaning other developers liked it, and I also published it to the Chrome Web Store, something I have tried to do in the past and been rejected, and thankfully it was approved: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ai-filename-generator/eocbkbnabbmclgneeakdbglicbhbimbj?utm_source=item-share-cp The extension requires you to run Ollama in the background and understand something about LLMs in order to use so it is not the most user friendly and is geared more towards developers rather than a general audience, which is part of the reason why I made it free, the other part is that it is a simple application so I did not see it being worth charging people for. But it is a great piece of my resume. I also did an entire reworking of my website and better organized it, making it seem more professional. I also thought of how I could apply what I have learned to HEB and wrote the following: https://danielkliewer.com/2025/02/26/heb It is just some ideas but it is part of my plan to work for HEB digital. Their office is not that much further of a walk from my current HEB so it would be a great job. Unfortunately the market right now is horrible for developers with no one hiring right now. They want someone with over 10 years experience and a PHD in computer science right now. While I do have over 10 years experience in technology roles, not in programming like I am now. My other plan with doing development work is to just work for myself. The crazy Russian hacker at the AirBNB house who was a former marine with a cat was a developer who lived off doing Upwork, freelance online. So it is possible and I did learn a lot from him, but I am still not there yet in skills. I have grown a following online though in the world of artificial intelligence. I have written many guides on how to do things which are fairly popular on Google when you search to do certain things. I have also solved small problems which come up so when people search for the solution on google they are directed to my page. I get around 75 users a day from all over the world. Even Burkina Faso. Right now my website is entirely non-monetized, which makes it easier to promote, but if it ever gets popular I can monetize it and earn some income from it. Turns out that I know more than the average person about artificial intelligence. More even than recent graduates with a BS in computer science and sometimes more than a MS. I did plot out my education on the topic and studied for years on my own. I still study each day and try to learn something new in the field. Why I am different is my experience with frontend/backend programming, web design but mostly because of my work grading large language models for the big companies over the years. I have worked for Apple, Google, and Meta on their large language models and they all have similarities in how they develop things. Turns out that a lot of programming is fairly standardized in a lot of ways. Things like APIs and RLHF. So I had a good “vacation” and feel like I got a lot done. Oh I also got a $0.60 raise at work. We get a raise every 6 months and this was a “good” raise. So I know what to expect from this department manager.

Had a great 5-day vacation—going back to work wasn’t bad. New shoes gave me a boost, and work is getting easier as our efforts paid off. Easter stock is up, so fewer changes ahead. Held another solo hackathon and built a Chrome extension in a day, which got stars on my repo and was approved for the Chrome Web Store: [AI Filename Generator](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ai-filename-generator/eocbkbnabbmclgneeakdbglicbhbimbj?utm_source=item-share-cp) It’s for developers, requires Ollama, and is free since it's simple. Also revamped my website for a more professional look and wrote about applying my skills to HEB: [HEB Digital Plans](https://danielkliewer.com/2025/02/26/heb) The job market is tough, but I’m considering freelance work. I’ve built an AI-focused following, written guides, and solved niche problems—my site gets ~75 daily visitors globally. It’s non-monetized now but has potential. I know more about AI than many CS grads due to years of self-study and experience grading LLMs for Apple, Google, and Meta. Standardized programming concepts like APIs and RLHF give me an edge. Overall, a productive "vacation," and I got a $0.60 raise—expected but solid.