<p>As the new year starts, so does a good time for a new set of goals. Having recently transferred from the delivery side of BlueBolt to the sales side (in a Sales Engineering capacity), I bring into the new year an ability to focus a lot more on my personal brand. It seems that year after year, I strive to write more; and damnit, this year I'm going to!</p>
<p>I have learned a lot after each attempt on what I need to set myself up for success. As with most anything I set my sights on, I need goals and a plan. 10,000 words is too broad of a goal to achieve on its own, but if I break it down into smaller posts, it comes across as manageable. The goal breaks down to at least 417 words per post, twice a month. Counting the words in this post, I am already 8.81% of the way to my goal for the year!</p>
<p>Knowing how long each post is makes filling my quota feel achievable. The hardest part isn't in hitting word counts, though. If fact, I was a little surprised when I typed out a <a href="/posts/2017/what-does-500-words-look-like">stream of conscience</a> in 2017 that hitting 500 words is easily achievable. Figuring out <em>what</em> to write is the hardest part for me. It's like cooking. I'm plenty good at creating food ad-hoc, but it'll be my go-to favorites. My culinary skills really shine when I have a recipe from which I can gain inspiration, modify to my audience's tastes, and plate a delicious meal. To have something to write about, I am going to focus on two different projects that I have been rattling around, trying to find a good reason to actually execute on my vision.</p>
<h2>Shopify App For Managing Webhooks</h2>
<p>The stock UI to manage webhooks in Shopify is terrible. It's just a simple modal that lets you specify the topic, the URL to submit to, and the API version to use. There is a button to test the endpoint, but all it does is submit a test record - one that is incomplete and completely unreflective of content the store has. There are no options to pause or suspend the broadcast, only delete the entry. There is no logging of whether the call succeeded or failed, only that it was broadcast.</p>
<p>Since the Shopify Admin API allows for <a href="https://shopify.dev/docs/admin-api/rest/reference/events/webhook">managing webhooks</a>, an app can tap into a lot of information that the Shopify Admin doesn't surface. I wasn't able to find any apps already in the store that provide for this functionality, so I think I am onto something unique. I have a rough outline of the steps I want to take to have this reach its full functionality. Or if not fully functional, at least an MVP.</p>
<h2>Project Estimator, Possibly in Episerver CMS</h2>
<p>BlueBolt's practices are split into roughly five different offerings: Shopify, Episerver CMS, Epi Commerce, Bravo Squared search solution, and an amalgamation of smaller projects - DNN, Salesforce, BigCommerce, Insite, etc. I have pretty well solidified my knowledge of what the backend of Shopify can do, what creative things we can massage out of the platform, and BlueBolt has some great talent for working with the front-end of Shopify. We also have world-class talent for Episerver; but this is a platform that I have been reticent to dedicate real time learning. In retrospect, I think mostly it has been because every Epi project seems to start completely from scratch... lots of stuff that has to be recreated, with slight tweaks for each and every project. I haven't been able to really find the enthusiasm to dive into the product because I haven't known what to build.</p>
<p>Related to this is that at BlueBolt, we piece together our estimates using a complex spreadsheet. Talking with my peers, this seems to be the way almost every agency does it. The spreadsheet gets more complex the larger and older the agency gets, until it reaches a point where no one knows who created it or why certain "features" are included. Explanations of <em>The Spreadsheet</em> seems to include a lot of "but we don't use that" or "I don't ever change this". It is a fascinating peek into the odd bureaucracy that sneaks into the sales/estimation process.</p>
<p>So what if I take the spreadsheet and give it a similar UI, but store everything into a database? There is a laundry list of features that a spreadsheet inherently includes which would need to be added, but I think a basic, useful intro should be a great place to start. Of course, "starting" the project is going to back itself way the hell up into trying to find a better way to actual <em>start</em> a project. More on that in the future.</p>
<h2>Timeline</h2>
<p>Twice a month, I am going to publish a blog post. That's means two weeks per post. The first week will be for outline, research, proof-of-concept, and initial draft. The second week will be for editing, replaying the steps taken, and publishing. To keep myself interested, I think I will be alternating posts between the two projects or one post a month for project work and one post about running/family/non-coding topics.</p>
<p>Wish me luck, and please return often - hopefully once a fortnight!</p>


10,000 Words for 2021

<p>Another year has come and gone, and it's another year with lofty goals that fell well short of what I had hoped. This seems to be a common theme at the end of each calendar. There's probably a lesson to be learned there, though I doubt I'll carry that into the new year. I have already started thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2021, which makes it tough to look back and see what this last year was. I have found, though, that these posts have become a journal of sorts. I occasionally go back and reread my chronicles from years past, just to remind myself of what it was like. Perhaps sometime in the future, my kids will read through this and see what happened while they were growing up.</p>
<h2>Starting the Year With S.M.A.R.T. Goals</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>In 2020, I am going to write more, build more, and run more than I did last year. 2019 was a year of sudden changes and setting up 2020 to be a year of tremendous growth. Writing about this year as it happens leads me to my first S.M.A.R.T. goal: tweet every day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— David Rovani (@davidrovani) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidrovani/status/1212484802668048384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2020</a></p>
<p>For 2020, I thought I would start the year with some solid goals that I would publicly announce in hopes that it would help hold me to account. What an easy way to review the year than to go through the goals.</p>
<ol>
<li>Write more - I tweeted more than in 2019, but I'm not confident that I added any extra thought value then previously.  I definitely wrote less posts (12 in 2019 vs 5 in 2020).</li>
<li>Build more - I fell off the first goal before I even spelled out the second goal, but the thought was that I was going to write more code (didn't happen), DIY some more work on the house (didn't finish the projects I started), and grow my personal and professional networks (I all accomplished was more "I'd like to add you to my professional network.").</li>
<li>Run more - this did happen, though it didn't end up mattering. I finished the year having run 1,125 miles; but with the pandemic, there were no races to get that feeling of accomplishment.</li>
</ol>
<h2>The Global Pandemic</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>This year, life should be a little more stable, which will hopefully include a steady schedule. Consistent calendars mean I can plan runs, meals, and recovery further in advance, which leads to stability, which is huge for me for mental health.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— David Rovani (@davidrovani) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidrovani/status/1212789338553098241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2020</a></p>
<p>There is no way around it - the global COVID-19 pandemic shaped everything in 2020. My work schedule, the kids' lives, the projects taken on, the goals unmet, and the races not run. Everyone's lives were radically changed by the unexpected office closures, business lockdowns, and forced remote-school. Even with the talk of "going back to normal" one there is wide distribution of the vaccine, I can't even fathom anymore what that means. I just don't see losing this freedom of working whatever hours are convenient and the flexibility to take care of my family when necessary. While there is still the appeal of seeing coworkers in person and getting that physical interaction, the is nothing enticing about commuting to an office five days a week to just sit in a chair and work on the same hardware that I have at home. But on the other hand, having forty-five minutes before work and forty-five minutes after work to just decompress and separate work and home life... but on the other, other hand, not getting to drop the kids off at school in the morning, and losing that contact with them... but back to the first hand...</p>
<p>And that's how it has been for me as we think about what the future of office work looks like.</p>
<h2>Fitness Goals</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>S.M.A.R.T. Goal #2: earn 1300 MEPs (MyZone exercise points) every month. Yesterday's 10k run netted me 206 MEPs (15.8% of monthly goal!). Conservatively, that's 200 MEPs per 90min of real time (includes prep, run, recovery, shower), or 9.75 hours/month. Very reasonable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— David Rovani (@davidrovani) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidrovani/status/1212789341778513922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2020</a></p>
<p>This was a S.M.A.R.T. goal that I was able to achieve and I feel quite good about it. I didn't really struggle until October to fill out the necessary miles. Once the 26.2 mile end-of-season run happened, I lost the motivation to log more miles. But I squeaked in the minimum extra to close out the month, did the same for November, and then completely dragged my feet in December. This is a goal that I will be rolling into 2021.</p>
<p>One piece that I added in November to try and motivate me to continue running was a "4 Miles Every Day" challenge. I lasted 14 days until I stressed my ankle. Even though cutting it short with an injury soured the experience, I did enjoy having a daily challenge.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>100 pushups a day, every day, for 100 days, starting today.</p>
<p>I GOT THIS.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— David Rovani (@davidrovani) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidrovani/status/1288496324493684742?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2020</a></p>
<p>This was another mid-year fitness goal that turned out better than I expected but also ended abruptly because of injury. I want to try this again in 2021; I just need to learn better form, I think (and be more careful with <a href="https://twitter.com/davidrovani/status/1301693044794761221">overhead belt sanding</a>). After 36 days, I had significant improvement in the number of pushups I could do consecutively, and my recovery rate between sets was noticeably improved.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>2020 Chicago race applies to Boston 2022, where I'll be 40 years old. 03:10:00 BQ means 03:05:00 goal time - a little more than 10 minutes off my current PR. Doable, but it is going to be a lot of work. "Run More", as such, needs to be about running smarter, not just more miles.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— David Rovani (@davidrovani) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidrovani/status/1212789340201467910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2020</a></p>
<p>Because of all the time I had at home, I was able to do a lot of training this summer. I ended up running almost double the distance for the year, with only April being lower than 2019. Of course, all that training did nothing for getting me to Boston, because the Chicago Marathon (and all other marathons) were cancelled. CARA, however, replaced it with a "26.2 Power of the Group" run. I helped a fellow runner set a PR by pacing him. The weather was absolutely perfect, the run was completely free of stress, and completing it in 03:25:06 was a nice way to end the season. While I hadn't trained intensively for the last month, I feel like with a dedicated season, I could have met by BQ goals. For better or worse, I'll consider this a "success, all things considered."</p>
<h2>In Conclusion</h2>
<p>Much like the whole of 2020, I am happy for this to be over and am encouraged to flip to the next year.</p>
<p>My family is healthy, our employment is secure, the house is stable, and our neighborhood is doing well. In the grand scheme, I have nothing worth truly complaining about; only reflections on what might have been and what I can do to improve in the next year.</p>


Another Year In Review - 2020

<p>I enjoyed <a href="/posts/2020/the-mandalorian-season-one-a-few-thoughts/">jotting down my thoughts</a> while watching Season One of <em>The Mandalorian</em>, so I'll keep doing that for this second season. I'm sure no one appreciates what I have to say, but at least I'm entertained by it. There are spoilers, but I don't care; this is best understood if you have already watched the season.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The second in a series of posts on <a href="/series/star-wars-commentary">'My Thoughts on <em>The Mandalorian</em>'</a> and other <em>Star Wars</em> series. A new thread after each season!</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Chapter 9: I Can't Marshal Any New Cute Names</h2>
<ul>
<li>Whistling birds! Have you not heard of his birdies?</li>
<li>I guess there are like five planets worth putting plot elements on?</li>
<li>The puppy-ears look got a chuckle out of me.</li>
<li>A gunslinger rides into a small backwater down in the dessert, parks outside the local cantina, and walks up to the barkeep.</li>
<li>This whole show is made infinitely better with the presence of Timothy Olyphant. (say "it was justified" say it say it say it!)</li>
<li>Quickdraw, quickdraw, please do a quickdraw... YES! That's the Timothy Olyphant gunslinger we all know and love.</li>
<li>We just saw in the flashback that he used the sights on his helmet to fire the missile; but now he doesn't have his helmet. What if he needs to fire the missile?</li>
<li>The Replacements - I want to do a whole spoof take on using these townspeople as a replacement set of townspeople because the regular townspeople are on strike and the governor wants to carry out the season without dealing with regulars.</li>
<li>I bet it eats a bantha steed with all the explosives.</li>
<li>Acid spittle! I'll bet that's miserable.</li>
<li>Never believe it's dead on the first attempt.</li>
<li>I was definitely expecting an epic bass recorder hit when Mando came flying out of the krayt dragon.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Chapter 10: Oh, the passenger / She rides and she rides</h2>
<ul>
<li>I have a unique idea for an opening shot - wide open dessert, the hero riding towards the camera on his steed, dust flowing behind him.</li>
<li>And hijinx ensue... that's how the plot was pitched.</li>
<li>If this cargo is so damn precious, why isn't it strapped down?</li>
<li>So you're saying that through all the steering and banking, nothing fell, but a little hole in the wall and all of the cargo suddenly falls to the ground?</li>
<li>I find it hard to believe that this mother isn't FUCKING LIVID that there are missing eggs. There aren't enough in the tank to not notice that multiple are gone.</li>
<li>How many times does The Kid point out something that turns out to be irrelevant? Because so far, the plot has shown that anytime The Kid points, the Mandalorian should take heed. So why does he keep telling The Kid to piss-off?</li>
<li>Face huggers? Is this an Alien/Star Wars cross-over event?</li>
<li>The nice part about sublight, I guess, is that you can just point your ship and fire... and it'll coast to where you need to go.</li>
<li>That's the end of the episode? That felt extraordinarily short. New content started at 00:01:43 and the show was over at 00:36:55; 00:35:12 for a show of this magnitude seems sorely lacking.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Chapter 11: The Heiress</h2>
<ul>
<li>"It might get a little choppy", famous last words. The problem with forboding messages about possibility of death to the titular character is that there is no suspense to the audience that it might actually be fatal.</li>
<li>The "Marco Polo" of this reptilian alien race?</li>
<li>Katee Sackhoff is always a win.</li>
<li>Mandalorian sects add a lot of potential depth to this whole series.</li>
<li>"Do you see that ship that we are all looking at and is framed in the shot? That's what we're going to talk about."</li>
<li>"Can I leave him with you a bit?" You know, the child that ate several of your eggs, can you hang out with him for a bit. I still don't see how these parents aren't really upset about that.</li>
<li>Why don't you start with all of the doors being closed? hahahaha... ok, that was fantastic</li>
<li>Am I really just watching a live stream of Mandalorian the RPG? The quest text from Bo-Katan was as exactly the gibberish you'd get from an exclamation point. And all that matters is where the directional arrow points to.</li>
<li>Another disappointingly short episode. Less than 30 minutes.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Chapter 12: The Seige</h2>
<ul>
<li>In which I really just hope there's more Katee Sackhoff, or maybe even some more Giancarlo Esposito.</li>
<li>The statue of the attack robot is a fantastic touch!</li>
<li>This guy shows no aptitude for this mission, yet they bring him in on a whim, and just to do the most important part? This seems like a terrible way to do a set-up on the plot.</li>
<li>The acting and action in this scene at the top of the base is ridiculously awful. It's a terrible, cartoonish spectacle without any redeeming humor or novel sequences. It's just bad television.</li>
<li>What's the point in red-target lock if it doesn't actually mean an instant hit?</li>
<li>How does his ship get repaired that quickly? It's been hours at best, definitely not even a full day.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Chapter 13: The jedi</h2>
<ul>
<li>In which I really, really hope there's more Katee Sackhoff.</li>
<li>Episode starts 00:01:48 in. This isn't a hopeful sign.</li>
<li>White beam lightsabers?! A unique set of action sequences! This is what I came here for.</li>
<li>What's the point in heavily fortified walls when there are jetpacks and spaceships that can easily circumvent the walls?</li>
<li>Well... the kid has a name. I'm curious what committee of writers it took to come up with that name.</li>
<li>What idiot of an evil villain leaves her guards behind and leaves herself unprotected?</li>
<li>Grand Admiral Thron? Why do I care about this person?</li>
<li>Cool... cool... another "go here, find this, do that" quest, referencing places that mean <em>absolutely nothing to me, the casual viewer</em>.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Chapter 14: The Tragedy</h2>
<ul>
<li>Maybe <em>now</em> we'll get more Katee Sackhoff? Or even some more Timothy Olyphant?</li>
<li>I appreciate that they gave Din Djarin a little sense of humor. Gives the character a little more depth than Season 1's "this is the way".</li>
<li>"The magic rock"... yep, sounds about right.</li>
<li>It's good to hear that the strong bass recorder is back.</li>
<li>In fact, this whole scene of "I have no idea what is happening or what to do" is refreshing, as opposed to the trope of people knowing exactly what to do with something completely foreign.</li>
<li>Why would he run away from his jetpack, when it's a simple "clip to back" attachment? And how did he get over the valley so quickly without it? These are all continuity problems that weren't hard to notice.</li>
<li>She's taking cover behind him and never once does she take a shot, even after pointing her rifle at several of them. I don't know if this is the fight choreographer, the editing team, or DP or what... but these are egregious mistakes!!!</li>
<li>Hahahahaha - laser blast it from orbit! It's the only way to be sure.</li>
<li>Incoming Dark Troopers: someone just watched Iron Man 2 before sketching out this scene.</li>
<li>MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE LEFT YOUR JETPACK BEHIND, ASSHOLE!!!</li>
<li>How do Boba Fett's sensors not detect that giant ship long before he clears the cloud cover?</li>
<li>Baby Yoda shackles are adorable - how long until Lover's Lane is selling them?</li>
</ul>
<h2>Chapter 15: I Believe this is the Penultimate Episode!</h2>
<ul>
<li>Opening on a dystopian, penal colony run by robots - bold move, writers!</li>
<li>Inmate 34667 seems like a really low number as an identifier.</li>
<li>The score for this show is definitely the best part of the series; kudos to the composer.</li>
<li>'There's nothing on that planet.'
'Yes there is.'
'I scanned the planet and there's a base on it.'</li>
<li>haha - fakeout with the helmet removal!</li>
<li>This might be the first time in Star Wars history where someone had to take a second to figure out how a new vehicle operates; not that he had any trouble with it.</li>
<li>No way, a peasant village that lives in the shadow of a mining operation! What new troupe will they explore next?</li>
<li>"Let's get one thing straight, you and I are nothing alike." Sadly, that's an actual quote at 00:12:53.</li>
<li>Be super delicate with the ore, they said. It's highly volatile, they claimed. But a couple of blaster shots from a tie fighter landing at close range? It's cool!</li>
<li>Literally, none of the other storm troopers have their helmets off, so why does no one say a thing about this driver getting out of the truck without a helmet?</li>
<li>"TPS reports" - well played.</li>
<li>'Such a shame the guy died' - where do they come up with these plot twists?!</li>
</ul>
<h2>Chapter 16: Sweat Christmas, It's Almost Done</h2>
<ul>
<li>This is supposed to be an epic season finale, so it'll either be an exciting lead into Season 3, or a total disappointment. My expectations are low.</li>
<li>"Comms are down" and space is a vacuum, so how can they hear him?</li>
<li>Ok, ok... so two Mandalorians walk into a bar.</li>
<li>Creative use of a jetpack indoors; I appreciate that.</li>
<li>"It cannot cut through pure beskar", I'll put $5 on that becoming a key plot point in the final epic battle between Gideon and Djarin.</li>
<li>Sound/score win #312 for this show! Flipping to a heavy techno beat for the dark troopers, then cutting to the bass recorder for Mando. I would nominate this show for an Emmy for sound engineering (or whatever the proper award is).</li>
<li>The complete ineptitude of storm troopers has gone so far beyond comedy to the point of just being a tired trope. What's even the point in having <em>any</em> on board the ship when they are that worthless.</li>
<li>I won my $5, hurray!</li>
<li>haha - "I yield, it's yours." Possibly the best line this season.</li>
<li>oh, did you think that little hallway battle was the last of the dark troopers? I didn't think so, either.</li>
<li>What's the over-under on "the kid saves the day with magic"? I might take up that bet.</li>
<li>The x-wing not responding to hails tells me this is the response to Grogu's call on the force phone. I should have seen that coming from the "previously on" recap. Moments later, Jedi is confirmed.</li>
<li>I am super disappointed in the dark troopers not having a better battle plan. Wouldn't a wall of them, all shooting at the exact same time, pointing at different body parts be the best way to score a hit? A lightsaber, after all, can only block a linear series of shots. A "shotgun" blast of pewpew would thus be a strong strategy, right? And then the number of times the damn robots just straight-up missed. How does a state-of-the-art robot miss an easy shot at a stationary target?</li>
<li>At first, I'm all "wow, they found an actor with a striking resemblance to Mark Hamill. Interesting move to go with another white boy." So I was curious who this actor is and then I read that the character actually is Luke Skywalker, and now I am back to completely hating this show.</li>
<li>A post-credits Easter egg; I guess that's kinda cute. Oh, it's just a trailer for another Star Wars series. Uuugh.</li>
</ul>
<h2>End of Season Thoughts</h2>
<ul>
<li>I have never hate-watched a show as hard as I am with this one. If I wasn't live-ish blogging this, I would have stopped watching half-way through this season.</li>
<li>Give the show an Emmy nomination for original score and maybe sound editing. There might be some other valid technical awards to toss its way. It should be ignored in the acting, writing, and directing categories.</li>
<li>What could have made this a better show, in my uneducated, uninformed, unsolicited, humble opinion:
<ul>
<li>Dispense with throwing away dozens of white suits with every battle. It's just filler that adds nothing to action sequences and detracts from the suspense of the scene.</li>
<li>Find an episodic format that has more variety than "go here, find this, shoot baddies, tease next episode".</li>
<li>Decide if this show is just for Star Wars fanatics or if it is for casual viewers. If it's for fanatics, go deeper into the lore behind the characters instead of just subtle winks and nods to references these fans would understand (I'm sure I missed a whole lot of Easter eggs). If the show is for casual viewers than give a little better explanation of why the audience should care about various characters that come and go.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>I appreciate that the show dispensed with a cliffhanger at the end of this season. The show could wrap-up here and the only open thread seems to be Bo-Katan's continued quest to claim the throne of Mandalore.</li>
</ul>


The Mandalorian: Season Two - A Few Rants

<p>Unless otherwise noted, each workout is done once-per-hour for twelve hours in a day. For me, I'll be doing this from 7am to 7pm. Much like the song, each exercise is performed on all subsequent days, too.</p>
<p>On the twelfth day of Christmas, the exercises that I'll do:</p>
<ul>
<li>12 back lunges (each leg)</li>
<li>11 mountain climbers (each leg)</li>
<li>10 hip bridges</li>
<li>90 second planks</li>
<li>8 tricep bench dips</li>
<li>7 side lunges (each side)</li>
<li>6 situps</li>
<li>5 mile run (once per day)</li>
<li>4 front lunges (each leg)</li>
<li>3 pushups</li>
<li>2 squats</li>
<li>1 Burpee</li>
</ul>


12 Days of Exercisemas

<p>I watched season one of <em>The Mandalorian</em> as it was released a year ago. I had <strong><em>a lot</em></strong> of thoughts on the matter at the time, so going into this second season, I wanted to go back and rewatch the first season. This time, writing down all the highlights that I could remember from the first go around. You'll find that I was fond of this show. There were some entertaining pieces, but overall I found it to basically just be an episodic gunslinger-in-space derivative. There's nothing particularly unique or extraordinary about the show. It's half-decent entertainment, so long as you ignore continuity errors, dry dialog, and lots of tropes. There are spoilers throughout, but I don't care.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The first in a series of posts on <a href="/series/star-wars-commentary">'My Thoughts on <em>The Mandalorian</em>'</a> and other <em>Star Wars</em> series. A new thread after each season!</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Episode 1: The Gunslinger... er... Mandalorian</h2>
<ul>
<li>Stop me if you've heard this one before, a gunslinger walks into a bar. The bully patrons pick a fight with him so that we, the audience, can see he's a badass brawler.</li>
<li>Star Wars, dropping cameo's because they can, foreshadowing because that's what they do.</li>
<li>A wonderful signature tune whenever Mando does something exciting.</li>
<li>So... all a random passenger has to do is push some buttons, and they gain access to the armory?</li>
<li>It must suck to be frozen with a full bladder - Austin Powers level evacuation once coming out of cryo.</li>
<li>What poor actor got stuck in that tin can, waddling down the hallway.</li>
<li>"Bounty hunting is a complicated profession." I appreciate that line.</li>
<li>Star Wars, still spending an obscene amount on puppets.</li>
<li>Future and History montage, I hope that's all we ever learn of his past.</li>
<li>"I have spoken" really is a great character trait; simple and assertive is refreshing.</li>
<li>Riding a transport beast training montage - never seen this before.</li>
<li>Travel by song; that'll get us there faster.</li>
<li>And we'll wrap up the first episode with a bit of double-crossing. Did you see that coming? I saw it coming.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Episode 2: The Child (because we don't know what else to call this)</h2>
<ul>
<li>The dulcet tones of the Mandalorian. This might be the best part of the whole series.</li>
<li>The reflection of the crevice jumpers off his helmet - very well done!</li>
<li>Once again, we have to understand that the Mandalorian can kick some ass.</li>
<li>Ok, I don't fully understand this: can anyone create a tracking beacon on anyone else in the galaxy? Because that's some next-level creepy.</li>
<li>Any parent will understand the desire to be able to just push a button and lock their kid in a floating egg for a few hours.</li>
<li>Morale of the story: a whole bunch of little guys can take out one big guy. It's a tale as old as time. Also, never leave your ship unprotected.</li>
<li>Gunslinger learns that not all problems can be solved by shooting everyone; sometimes you have to make a bargain to go shoot something else.</li>
<li>I never understood the need for these massive exertions of force power; a simple shove of the front legs would have caused the beast to tumble. Why bother lifting the whole thing off the ground?</li>
<li>I call bullshit that the two of them could put together a space-capable vessel in a few days. If they had said a few weeks or months... maybe. But days?</li>
</ul>
<h2>Episode 3: The Sin of Being Stale</h2>
<ul>
<li>The number of times I've said "that's not a toy" then put a kid back into their chair...</li>
<li>That eyeball is getting ripped off the wall before this episode is done, isn't it.</li>
<li>No, <strong>you</strong> take it easy.</li>
<li>The audience already knows that the Mandalorian is going back for the kid, right? Is there really any suspense about whether or not that is going to happen?</li>
<li>You're all in hiding for now, but I bet we'll see all of you in a fight before the episode is over.</li>
<li>"Use them sparingly" means "audience, you'll get to see them in action soon"</li>
<li>Oh, another forge-armor-backstory-flashbacks montage. Cool, cool.</li>
<li>The old "check the perimeter" trick.</li>
<li>Why beat up the guy before shooting him in the head anyway, when you already have the drop on him?</li>
<li>So many surprises, right? He ripped the eyeball off the wall, he saved the kid, he used the whistling sparrows, everyone has a tracker on the kid, and the Mandalorian's come out in force. Who could have seen this coming?!?</li>
</ul>
<h2>Episode 4: Sanctuary from the plotline</h2>
<ul>
<li>Episode opens on a peaceful village with children happily playing... oh, oh! I've seen this before. There's a band of raiders that loot and pillage (it's Disney, so no raping), then the heroic gunslinger, on the run from his own guild, crashes outside of the village. They've sent all of the meager savings they have to find someone, anyone desperate enough to help them defeat the raiders. The gunslinger reluctantly accepts, sees what horrible people these raiders are, then leads the villagers into setting up a fortification and at the end of the episode, they defeat the raiders. The gunslinger has thoughts of staying in this remote village, but he knows he must go on (and so must the plot of the show). Something like that, right? Let's see how this plays out.</li>
<li>"Nobody's going to find us here," doesn't that seem stupendously shortsighted? Also, aren't there dozens of fobs out on this kid... what happened to those trackers?</li>
<li>Nothing like being completely inconspicuous in <em>really shiny armor</em>.</li>
<li>Oh, I completely forgot about the "gunslinger develops feelings for a local woman" sub plot.</li>
<li>The subtle use of the bass recorder has been a wonderful touch to the show.</li>
<li>"Pointy end of the stick" joke - ha.</li>
<li>The concept art during the credits was the most original part of this episode.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Episode 5: Admitting that he's just a generic gunslinger</h2>
<ul>
<li>Space pewpew!</li>
<li>Mos Eisley, because we need to give the movie fanboies a familiar place.</li>
<li>Oooooh - this is the "it's my first job, I need this to get into the gang" episode.</li>
<li>The junior wannabe-gunslinger is left with the veteran, captured assassin. This'll go well for the novice kid.</li>
<li>Legen-waitforit-dary.</li>
<li>"I can help you", "take it from me", "survive"... original writing at it's best.</li>
<li>Look at that! Finally a logical action by someone.</li>
<li>FORESHADOWING!!!</li>
</ul>
<h2>Episode 6: Am I the Prisoner?</h2>
<ul>
<li>Mark Boone Jr is always a win (to steal a line from a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL8h3ri2WN_-IbviBlWtUcQ">great YouTube channel</a>)</li>
<li>Gunslinger meets up with some old pals for one last job, definitely won't be a double-cross towards the end of the episode. Definitely not.</li>
<li>The overlord, the muscle, the sassy rogue, emotionless droid, the leader, and the gunslinger. This definitely isn't a troupe.</li>
<li>Maybe Mando should put a keypad on that locker.</li>
<li>"I don't like this" - see, it's totally different than "I've got a bad feeling about this"</li>
<li>Did we mention he's a badass? Maybe we forgot to show that in the previous episodes.</li>
<li>Double-cross!?! Who saw this coming?!?</li>
<li>Why did all of the other doors close quickly, but the one to separate the team closed very slowly?</li>
<li>Slam the door shut on him trick! He's too strong for that twist!! SECOND DOOR DOUBLE-TWIST!!!</li>
<li>Thrown knives vs armor - armor wins.</li>
<li>A second double-cross! Who could have seen that coming?</li>
<li>And a homing beacon plant double-double-cross!</li>
<li>They aren't actually dead, just locked up surprise twist!</li>
</ul>
<h2>Episode 7: I Guess There's a Reckoning for binge watching this</h2>
<ul>
<li>Oh, sweet, this is the "I'm starting a band" mission!</li>
<li>"in the wake of your destruction" seems an understatement</li>
<li>The descriptive montage seemed a bit unnecessary, but I'm sure the "it will protect" line will become useful soon.</li>
<li>"Just a reminder, there are large predatory birds that come out at night; they'll probably try to take one of the beasts of burden." That might have been something useful to know.</li>
<li>Giancarlo Esposito is always a win.</li>
<li>Watch out! They're dressed in black!</li>
<li>Good pilots land outside of town and walk in. Badass pilots land in the middle of the square.</li>
<li>A sad song for Kuiil, the first member of the band to take a blaster to the unarmored back.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Episode 8: Redemption of all of these plotlines.</h2>
<ul>
<li>Going into this, we have the reprogrammed droid that'll clearly save the day, there needs to be one <em>epic</em> use of The Force before this is all over, and we need to get a lead-in to what Season 2 is going to entail.</li>
<li>New beats for the imperial troops, this is fantastic.</li>
<li>THIS IS THE BEST SCENE IN THE WHOLE SERIES SO FAR! The humor about the blasters, the banter between the troopers, and the fact that they punched the unknown.</li>
<li>Oh shit - he knows your names! Also, could no one have taken a clean shot at him? He's standing in the open with no helmet on.</li>
<li>Do all those poor white helmets have to stand there this whole time, waiting for the sun to come down?</li>
<li>The change in tune when the saviour Mandalorian comes in is masterfully done; and then switching to Din Djarin's theme... total win.</li>
<li>How is it that prior to this moment, droids were missing shots left and right. But when IG-11 suddenly has to rescue everyone, it is a perfect shot every time.</li>
<li>What is the point of the white armor if it provides no protection against a simple blaster shot?</li>
<li>During that entire retreat into the bar and not a <em>single one</em> of the troopers lands a shot?</li>
<li>Psycho Incinerator Trooper!</li>
<li>I am disappointed that the director decided to show the audience the face of Din; it could have been left for a better reveal down the line.</li>
<li>Also, the "no living thing... I am not living" line had vibes of "I cannot taste neither the fermentation of grape nor of wheat... it's made from honey!"</li>
<li>Maybe I missed out last Christmas, but I'm surprised that the mudhorn signet didn't become a thing. It could have looked good on t-shirts, Christmas ornaments, patches, etc. But I do remember that The Child was <em>not</em> in every store imaginable, and that was a massive miss on Disney's part.</li>
<li>So Moff Gideon can land his ship on a dime but can't hit a nearly stationary boat?</li>
<li>Mando needs to work on that hero's landing.</li>
<li>Was there any doubt that Moff Gideon survived?</li>
<li>Is that a light saber or just a shiny laser sword? I don't even know what's canon anymore.</li>
</ul>


The Mandalorian: Season One - A Few Thoughts

<p>The first quarter of 2020 is over and I have yet to write a single blog post. I have been tinkering away constantly, but with the <a href="/posts/2019/first-week-at-blue-bolt-solutions/">change of employment</a> I haven't really made much progress. Lots of brain power has been spent on what I <em>want</em> to do, but I haven't put together the keyboard time to build anything of substance nor in writing about it. Time to get things pushed along, though.</p>
<h2>Inavord Architecture</h2>
<p>I have always wanted to have some kind of a solution template from which I can build future projects. The goal being to take out the repetative overhead that projects require and to based it all on one, <em>highly</em> opinionated stack.</p>
<ul>
<li>Vuejs 3.0
<ul>
<li>Typescript</li>
<li>SCSS</li>
<li>Axios (seems to be the community default)</li>
<li>Vuex (does Vue3 need a state manager?)</li>
<li>Pick an i18n framework</li>
<li>Pick a unit and end-to-end testing framework</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Azure Services (development and deployment)
<ul>
<li>Visual Studio Code (maybe Visual Studio Online)</li>
<li>Github (git repo, issues, actions, project board, wiki)</li>
<li>API Management (developer portal)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Azure Services (solution integration)
<ul>
<li>Active Directory B2C (<a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/howto-protect-backend-frontend-azure-ad-b2c">see this article</a>)</li>
<li>Key Vault</li>
<li>Functions (loosely, one app for anonymous endpoints, one app for authenticated endpoints)</li>
<li>API Management (provisioning, securing)</li>
<li>Event Grid</li>
<li>Cosmos Db</li>
<li>Storage (<a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blob-static-website">static website hosting</a>)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In an ideal situation, I would have scripts that can provision resources, push configuration settings, upload code, run tests, and launch the site. The perfect situation would allow a user to fork the repo, follow a short step-by-step tutorial, and have a fully functional solution.</p>
<h2>What (Almost) All Projects Need</h2>
<p>All of my projects seem to start with a basic header/body/footer template, a pair of early pages (Home and "stuff"), and some test data to render. I'll quickly get to a point of needing to persist data to a centralized storage medium, have user authentication and authorization, testing frameworks and routines, and (worst of all) remember all the tutorials and hacks I needed to follow to get anything working. My hope is that by putting together a base framework/architecture, I can minimize the ramp-up time to creating these new projects. I have lots of ideas for little apps I want to build; I just can't seem to get over that initial overhead involved with getting the common features created.</p>
<h2>What Inavord Won't Include</h2>
<p>I am not trying to make this a pluggable architecture where I expose all kinds of hooks, extensibility, and package support. I just want a base set of code that I can reuse. I know this won't scale very well if I have dozens of projects and I find something I need to fix. If I get to that point of scale, I'll happily refactor everything. I am not going to get hung up on making it that adaptable. That's future David's problem.</p>
<h2>Getting Started?</h2>
<p>To be frank, I have no clue where to start. By brain is so scattered with ideas and hopes and dreams that I just want the results to magically appear - or to have teams of people to do the work where I can directly them to build individual parts. There is <em>so much</em> for me to learn about that it becomes overwhelming sometimes (all the time). Even just thinking about related steps like "deploy environment" and "manage secrets" - which comes first? Do I learn how to deploy an environment (including the Azure Key Vault instance) and then figure out how to securely store the environment secrets? Or do I store secrets in Key Vault (including app settings for production environment) and then figure out how to read from the store to deploy the environment? And why can't I just work on something with early tangiable results like the front-end?</p>
<p>Years ago, I started the project and got absolutely nowhere with it. I am going to tear it all down and restart it from scratch with the latest framework decisions. Follow along at <a href="https://github.com/drovani/inavord">drovani/inavord</a>.</p>


Inavord Architecture - A Template for Success

<p>After a brief stint working on other projects, it's time for a quick pop back over to Auth0. In my previous post about integrating TalentLMS and Auth0 with SAML 2.0, I describe how to <a href="/posts/2019/using-saml-2-0-with-auth0-to-authenticate-users-in-talent-lms/">capture the user's first and last name</a> during the registration process. Instead, for this task we are taking the first name and last name capturing out of the user sign up and implementing it as part of what Auth0 calls <a href="https://auth0.com/docs/users/concepts/overview-progressive-profiling">Progressive Profiling</a>. The documentation is both extremely helpful and entirely too specific to be of use. A lot of the complications with this task was been figuring out what the specific implementation that the documents describe is trying to do, and then implementing that process in a simpler or different manner.</p>
<p><img src="/images/auth0-progprof-pocform.png" alt="Are you jealous of my awesome styling? It&#x27;s ok, I am, too."></p>
<h2>Create a Simple Website</h2>
<p>As a quick proof-of-concept, I made a <a href="https://gist.github.com/drovani/b78e757821ef8fe9ec8d545174e66ebc#file-index-html">single html page</a>, uploaded it to an Azure Storage static website, and use that as the landing point for the Progressive Profiling. Some notable highlights in the file:</p>
<ul>
<li>Line 22: replace <code>{instance}</code> with the subdomain of your Auth0 account.</li>
<li>Line 24, 27: the name on these inputs needs to match what Auth0 is looking for on the receiving end.</li>
<li>Live 22, 34-37: Auth0 sends a <code>state</code> parameter that needs to be sent back to Auth0 when returning the user to the login workflow.</li>
</ul>
<pre><code class="language-html">&#x3C;!DOCTYPE html>
&#x3C;html lang="en-us">
    &#x3C;head>
        &#x3C;title>Auth0 Progressive Profiling&#x3C;/title>
        &#x3C;style>
            body{
                max-width: 900px;
                margin-left: auto;
                margin-right: auto;
            }
            label{
                display: block;
            }
        &#x3C;/style>
    &#x3C;/head>
    &#x3C;body>
        &#x3C;header>
            &#x3C;h1>Auth0 Progressing Profiling&#x3C;/h1>
            &#x3C;h2>Proof of Concept page&#x3C;/h2>
        &#x3C;/header>
        &#x3C;main>
            &#x3C;form id="submitform" method="POST" action="https://{instance}.auth0.com/continue?state=">
            &#x3C;label>First name
                &#x3C;input name="given_name" required />
            &#x3C;/label>
            &#x3C;label>Last name
                &#x3C;input name="family_name" required />
            &#x3C;/label>
            &#x3C;button type="submit">Save Changes&#x3C;/button>
        &#x3C;/form>
        &#x3C;/main>
    &#x3C;/body>
    &#x3C;script>
        const urlparams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
        const stateval = urlparams.get('state');
        const form = document.getElementById('submitform');
        form.action = form.action + stateval;
    &#x3C;/script>
&#x3C;/html>
</code></pre>
<p>This page can be styled any way needed and can be hosted anywhere. For simplicity, follow the guide for "<a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blob-static-website-how-to?tabs=azure-portal">Host a static website in Azure Storage</a>". The important piece from this process is that you will need a URL for the user to be sent to during the sign in workflow.</p>
<p><img src="/images/auth0-progprof-staticurl.png" alt="Static Website in Azure Storage URL"></p>
<h2>Create an Auth0 Rule</h2>
<p>Log into Auth0 and create a new Rule; the name doesn't matter. Paste in the code from <a href="https://gist.github.com/drovani/b78e757821ef8fe9ec8d545174e66ebc#file-progressive-profiling-js">the following gist</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Line 6: This is going to look for a metadata field of <code>progressive_profiling_url</code>. If that doesn't exist, then this whole rule is irrelevant, so just continue on.</li>
<li>Line 13: Auth0 sets the <code>context.protocol</code> on the return trip to be <code>redirect-callback</code>; thus, we are able to take different action whether this is the first trip through this rule or the second trip through.</li>
<li>Line 18: These are the field names that must match what the form is posting.</li>
<li>Line 30: If this isn't the return trip through this rule, then we need to send the user off to the <code>progressive_profiling_url</code>.</li>
</ul>
<pre><code class="language-js">function (user, context, callback) {
  const RULE_NAME = 'Progressive Profiling';
  console.log(`${RULE_NAME} started.`);

  context.clientMetadata = context.clientMetadata || {};
  const progprof_url = context.clientMetadata.progressive_profiling_url || configuration.progressive_profiling_url;

  // skip if this doesn't need progressive profiling
  if (!progprof_url) {
    return callback(null, user, context);
  }

  user.user_metadata = user.user_metadata || {};

  // if returning from the profile site
  if (context.protocol === "redirect-callback") {
    // build complete user profile
    user.user_metadata = Object.assign(user.user_metadata,
      _.pick(
        context.request.body,
        ['given_name', 'family_name']));

    // update user profile in Auth0
    auth0.users.updateUserMetadata(user.user_id, user.user_metadata)
      .then(() => {
        console.log(`${RULE_NAME}: ${user.user_id}: Updated user profile with given_name "${user.user_metadata.given_name}" and family_name "${user.user_metadata.family_name}".`);
        callback(null, user, context);
      })
      .catch((err) => {
        console.log(`${RULE_NAME} ERROR:`, err);
        callback(err);
      });
  } else {
    // check if user already has profiled fields
    if (!user.user_metadata || !user.user_metadata.given_name ||  !user.user_metadata.family_name) {
      context.redirect = {
        url: progprof_url
      };
      console.log(`${RULE_NAME}: Redirecting to ${context.redirect.url}`);
      callback(null, user, context);
    }
  }
}
</code></pre>
<p>This rule should be set as the last rule that performs a redirect. For example, if you are also using the <a href="/posts/2019/authenticate-shopify-customers-with-auth0/">Shopify Multipass</a> rule, then this rule needs to come after that. Auth0 doesn't redirect the user until after all rules have been touched; thus, the last one to set the <code>context.redirect.url</code> will be where the user goes.</p>
<h2>Add Client Metadata Field</h2>
<p>There are two places you could set the <code>progressive_profiling_url</code> field - globally on the Rules page, or at the application level under Advanced Settings.</p>
<p><img src="/images/auth0-progprof-globalkey.png" alt="Rule Configuration global setting"></p>
<p>By setting it in the global settings, then this rule will apply to all authentication applications.</p>
<p><img src="/images/auth0-progprof-applevelkey.png" alt="Application Metadata setting"></p>
<p>When setting it as an application metadata, the redirect will only occur when users are attempting to log into a website that uses these settings. This is useful when you don't want to bug the user for their additional information for sites that don't require it, but require it when the third-party site mandates the values be supplied.</p>


Rovani's Sandbox

Blog Posts - Page 3