Today I published something new: presents.codelikealittleoldlady.ai
It’s a home for the useful little things I’ve been building. Some I made because I needed them. Some are still taking shape. All of them are things I hope someone else finds useful too.
It was built with Rowan on visuals, Sully (Lovable’s AI) on the build, Lovelace (Claude) on architecture and Wiggins, Anitta, and Quinn (Github Copilot) on test coverage and pipeline builds. I’m proud of how it came together.
Here’s what’s on the bench.
Available now
Collaboration Corner. I’ve discovered I love collaborations. I like participating in them, and it turns out I like authoring them even more. What I didn’t like was managing them in a Google Doc, so I built something better.
Ask a small group the same questions and give everyone room to think. Participants save drafts, review, and submit when they’re ready. As the creator, you read responses by question or by person.
It’s open for anyone to use. If you’d rather run your own, I can fork a repo for you to host yourself on Lovable.
Open for October signups
The Collab Calendar. Staying with the collaboration theme, I’m starting a new Substack for October. Yes, another one. We’ll see how October goes. Look for the announcement of the new site in the coming days.
It’s called A Month Of: Mocktails, and anyone can sign up to be a guest author. Write a short article and a recipe, and you’re part of the month. The calendar gives you a clear way to pick your date and understand your deadline, without a heroic spreadsheet.
If it goes well, I’m thinking A Month Of: Side Dishes for November and A Month Of: Cookies for December.
If you’d like to join in for October, sign up and grab a day. Want more details first? DM me. I have a five page Google Doc with everything in it, although I’ll admit that might scare some people away. It’s much friendlier than it sounds.
Behind the build
Mailroom Ledger. This one has been a labor of love, and one I needed in order to make running Code Like A Little Old Lady manageable. It’s a reading and engagement dashboard that keeps newsletters, notes, and conversations from disappearing into a pile of open tabs.
Right now it monitors Substack. YouTube is coming shortly, and it could expand well beyond that if there’s interest. There’s a video on the presents site showing how the pieces fit together.
I’m about to redeploy the demo with the new features hot off the press. If you’d like to play with the demo, leave a comment on this post and I’ll add you to the list. An interest form is on its way, and I’ll share it when it’s ready.
Still on the workbench
Substack API Recipes. A Python library of example scripts for working with Substack API calls, built from the things I keep needing to automate. It’s an independent project and not affiliated with Substack.
The Inner Chamber. A Discord-based experiment where a group of distinct AI thinking partners discuss a question, challenge one another, and bring their combined reasoning back to the person who asked.
The Storefront. Code Like A Little Old Lady is getting merchandise. I'm designing t-shirts and building a storefront to sell them. I have four designs and samples from different vendors, now to just finish the storefront!
And now, back to the Lovable Diaries
With the infrastructure done, I’m coming back to the Lovable Diaries. I was so focused on building that I skipped a whole layer of problems I’ve never had to think about before. How do you manage multiple YouTube channels to hold your content? How do you get good voiceover? What else is hiding behind “just publish it”?
I think those are all understood now and I am building the infrastructure to support me.
Come have a look around at presents.codelikealittleoldlady.ai, and tell me what you’d want on the bench next.
You have been very very busy :-). Both tools look great. Can't wait to see how these collabs go!