──[ VOL.1 :: SAGD / SAY ]───────────────────────────────────────────────────//──
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[>] SAY Link: https://sayparadiseholiday.online/
[>] SAGD Link: https://sahradaguller.org/
──[ 0x00 heat ]─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────//──
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After the BSOYD Autism NGO website contract,
I hit a brutal, BRUTALL patch.
There was a mountain of undeployed client projects, killed contracts,
sunset builds, a failed custom physics engine,
an unfinished astronomical 3-body problem simulator,
and even a website built as a romantic gift
that crashed and burned (even that failed, damn...).
I was exhausted, broke, and the heat of summer was approaching.
The flame of engineering passion was
flickering under pure financial stress.
I just wanted to do something easy and get money quick.
So "unfortunately" I used AI.
Not vibe coding it blindly, but still... I used AI.
──[ 0x01 constraints ]──────────────────────────────────────────────────────//──
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First off all, I wasn't going to vibe code it.
No, no, no.
I was NOT going to use AI
anywhere I couldnt write the code manually myself.
I was NOT going to use AI for design.
But I had to be fast and efficient.
The "romantic" winter was over,
The summer was approaching,
and I was starting to feel the heat.
The plan? Outsource as much as possible:
|-- CMS: Sanity.io
|-- Design: Tailwind CSS & DaisyUI
|-- Content: Ask the client for text or AI generate it
|-- Images: Use copyrightfree stock media
`-- Analytics: Google Analytics (easiest to integrate)
──[ 0x02 junior ]───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────//──
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How I used AI:
I knew that if I left AI to its own instruments,
the result would be abysmal.
So I treated it like a junior engineer and told it specifically
"Copy this x system from the BSOYD project over to this project."
The systems ported over (nearly fully copied) were:
|-- Routing structures
|-- i18n locale setups
|-- Caching setups
`-- Service Worker registration
Importantly, I did NOT use AI
for CSP configuration or middleware,
since those were flawed in the BSOYD project.
The rest (which wasn't a lot) I wrote by hand.
I felt like I was working with
multiple engineers assisting me.
Engineers that I couldnt fully trust.
Engineers that wouldn't take sick days or sleep.
Engineers without hearts.
I was still deeply involved, but these builds
are kind of a stain on my portfolio, ngl.
Still going to tell the story though
honesty is the best policy.
──[ 0x03 SSR ]──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────//──
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Even though I built these websites
like a pure capitalist, I was still me.
I had to do something different
to learn something new.
SSR! that was it!
I knew Vue and had no time to learn React.
Even though Next.js worked better with Vercel,
it was out of the question for now.
Nuxt.js was the next best option,
but I had little to no time to
learn a whole full-stack framework.
So I built the websites using @vue/server-renderer.
For the CMS, it was still SSR
my server queried Sanity.io using GROQ,
and embedded the data directly into the post component,
rendering the post on the server.
No PWA either even though it was easy to implement,
it seemed completely unnecessary.
The CSP was way more relaxed to decrease
CORS errors and ease CI/CD velocity.
The main architecture was very different now,
but due to how Vue worked,
I didn't need to change the conceptual layers a whole lot.
It was surprisingly smooth this time.
──[ 0x04 two contracts ]────────────────────────────────────────────────────//──
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Additionally, I knew ahead of time
that another contract was coming in,
meaning Id be managing two contracts simultaneously.
So I decided to create a content.json file on the frontend,
put all static content that didnt come from Sanity into it,
and import it directly into the components.
I built the first site in 5 nights.
(Five Nights at Freddies Style)
The second website took 3 hours.
It was tasteless, but necessary.
I got money and survived.
Learned a few things as well especially SSR,
and how developers build under extreme pressure.
This allowed me to play my cards better in the future.
I was supposed to change the design of one website
so the repeated approach wouldnt be obvious,
but I decided to tell the story directly instead.
Maybe I'll change the designs when I have time.
Then again, I didnt have time to change the designs,
because things were about to get a lot more interesting...
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──[ EOF :: vol.1 / SAGD SAY ]───────────────────────────────────────────────//──
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