A Year of AI Experiments, Failures, and Surprises

What I've learned using AI over the last year or so.

AI is powerful, but it’s not magic. It’s a tool that rewards clarity, structure, and iteration. Over the last year I’ve used it for coding, cooking, writing, and even building autonomous agents — and the pattern is always the same: the more intentional the workflow, the better the results. AI saves time, but only after you invest time. And that’s the real lesson.

Shameless Plug: I Wrote Some Books

See all my books on Amazon .

So, I am an author now. Or, at least I like to think I am. Yes, I already mentioned that I have been a published author for a long time (in my The Dogs of Draaken post), but this time I actually get paid for my books. Well, if anyone would buy them, I would; but I only make about $1 or so per copy, so I won't be buying a yacht just yet!

I've launched four titles so far. Three of them are children's books (but at least Tabletop Dinoland, if not all of them, is pretty much for any age kid, from one to ninety-two as the Christmas Song says):

• Tabletop Dinoland - the one that started it all (well, recently re-started my authorship)
• Tabletop Dinoland: The Dino Alphabet Book: Yes, P is for Pterodactyl. I know it's technically a pterosaur and not a dinosaur, but what self-respecting dinosaur alphabet book could resist?
• Bitty the Algorithm: Hopefully the first in a series that teaches kids about logic and problem-solving in fun ways.

And one for the adults:

Tactical Human Snickerdoodles

(or: why my attempt at writing a normal action scene immediately caught fire)

I wanted AI to assist me in writing a gritty, grounded tactical raid sequence… instead, Copilot handed me cinnamon‑scented hubris wrapped in a Kevlar vest. (OK, maybe I had a hand in the tactical kitchen, too.)

The KRDL Vest: because safety should smell like the holidays.

I wanted realism.
I got tactical human snickerdoodles.

Below is the exact moment everything went wrong.

Strava Wants Me to Pay for My Own Data

If you haven’t seen it, I’ve been recording my daily steps and activity (or lack thereof) at Mr. T’s Fitness Tracker. The step data comes from my Withings account, and the activity data comes from my Strava account. All of that gets pulled automatically into a Google Sheet using an Apps Script, which then powers the dashboard on my site.

At least, that’s how it works for now. Strava sent an email today with this key line buried in the details:

Effective June 30, 2026: A Strava subscription will be required to access the API as an existing Standard Tier developer. Extended Access Tier developers are not affected.

Strava is effectively introducing a Strava API paywall — a subscription requirement just to access data that comes from my own walks.

In other words, if I want to keep using their API to pull my own data into my own dashboard, I’ll have to start paying them. Every month.