Recording notes from 10/7/26 to 10/16/26. I got behind a bit. Trying to do some catch up. This is a terrible joke but - Oh, you are being a hotdog, you must work hard to catch up (say it kinda fast and it sounds like mustard and ketchup).

Emails and follow-ups. Sending some documents out for signing. Reading documents passed to me from Steve, AI plans, and a growth advisory contract. After reading the growth advisory document, I replied to the party stating that the timing wasn't quite right. Not that we don't need the help, but the cost and timing are off currently.

Quick meeting with Hamid at 5 pm. We jumped on the GoToMeeting session and then I had to go pick up my daughter. We met briefly and we will hit it again next week. I showed him a few things that I was working on. We chatted for a bit. Very short.

Reworking some documents for Andrew. Got them ready and sent them over to Steve for review.

Went into town to meet with Matt at the food bank. Somewhat of a short meeting, but we went over the progress that I am working on. I showed him what I have done, on my local box or instance. He was happy with the progress, and I told him that I will keep going. I will reach out when I have more to show him.

Meeting with Wayne and Steve. We were talking about some upcoming interface and application changes. Lot of talk about using AI to change things. There are some pros and cons. Here are some of my notes:

- We are burning through tokens.

- Skills and teaching the AI what we really want (rules and processes). We are seeing some problems with consistency and some other issues.

- AI's default fix is to put a guard around it (if exists, do this, if not, do this).

- No real way to test our code.

- AI is taking our code and creating different versions of key features. Multiple implementations for the same thing (ish). We would love it to use our existing processes.

- Making consistent changes - that's what we are wanting. Slight wandering and varying of the code source.

- Back to testing and setting up testing accounts. We are starting to get into automating some of that. Still needs some help.

- Steve is heavy into AI and that is how he is coding everything.

- He is loading in things to the demo sites. Eventually, he would even like AI doing demos, AI doing payroll updates, etc.

- Cory is doing a little bit of backend code stuff. She gets the call from the customer and then she makes the fixes using AI.

- Wayne wants to make the AI more productive and more standardized.

- We have pages and functionality expanding at a crazy rate. We are also multiplying possible problems. Being able to manage all of the different possible configuration options.

- Making customers mad over time due to so many changes.

- Test driven design skills - templates and how to apply them over time. Helping to remove the need to look for AI context. Send it to a specific template and then let it run, based on those templates. Build in the patterns and context.

- Talking about "View Objects" and splitting things into MVC (model, view, controller) stuff. Separating the layers - the business logic, the view layer, etc.

- Wayne is working on some workbench stuff - adding in fixtures and scenarios to run against certain pages. Being able to switch themes. The view object becomes the record of truth. Checking the visual impact of the different changes. Converting some of our older pages into testable views. Trying to bring it (all of adilas) under test, without making major changes.

- Pushing all of the data into a valid view object.

- Setting up new pages that follow our new rules, processes, with view objects that are testable.

- Focusing on the main traffic - pages that get tons of views and traffic - like view cart, etc. Wayne wants us to pick some pages and go slow, vs just telling AI to run with it. Trying to get some consistency up and going.

- Everybody is working on work in progress stuff. Be patient. We may be giving AI too much access and authority.

- Being able to really translate the background meaning of things (intent, assumptions, and overarching context). Coordinating all of the moving pieces.

- If we want to customize things, help make it fast, powerful, and stable. Custom is part of our model.

- Wayne spends lots of time fixing new AI code and missing variables (he said 75% of time over the past few months). It works great but we need those guardrails. He is on a different time zone then we are... New things will launch for us over night. It is morning time for him and his error logs start going off. He ends up changing and fixing things before everyone else comes to work. It is almost turning into his daily process. AI is super fast, but we may be introducing errors and bugs even faster. I'm so grateful that Wayne has some logging and error monitoring tools in place. That is huge.

Got up early to get some custom code started. Had to run a number of new database updates on my local box to get it up to speed and working. Steve, Wayne, and Eric have been using AI to add new functionality to the system.

I then switched over and was working on the food pantry stuff. Setting up a new corporation in the system. Sent off a quick email to Shari O. to see what server she would like them to be on. Started working on my local box to help with some new custom homepages and mini header versions, in order to create a super simple interface. Going through settings and permissions and tweaking things out for this specific use case. Pretty good session and making progress. Starting to work on new homepages with simple custom layouts.

Working with Russell. We were looking at some PHP documentation. Russell was working on an automatic API based off of the database, model (database tables), and classes. He would like to build out a mini adilas app using API sockets, PHP, and raw vanilla JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. He is better at PHP then Adobe ColdFusion. Thus, the switch to PHP, while working with Russell. If we use the adilas API, it won't matter what backend we are using.

Spent the whole rest of the session working on new adilas changes for the dev docs project. Basically, Russell turned over the code to me to start working on it. We made some logo changes and started going through things. It will still take some time, but the main app (as an outline structure) is fully ready. We had AI help us convert a current webpage into new content for the dev docs project. We are still just experimenting with things. It is going to be cool!

Working on some documents for Andrew. I ran some of them through ChatGPT to get some help. I had a bunch of old documents but I needed to tweak them and update them a bit.

Working on some new documents for Andrew Brandt and Brandt OnPoint, LLC. Steve has been working with Andrew on some sales and marketing ideas. The new documents are dealing with percentage ownership in adilas, llc and a hybrid non-compete and non-discloser agreement.

Meeting with Fred from Zaidwood Capital. Quick touch base. They will be sending over a proposal for a possible growth advisory type deal. We'll look at it and see what happens. Nothing has been decided at this point.

Recording notes from last week. Emails and text messages with Steve and a potential client.

Reading a document and agreement with Andrew Brandt about sales and marketing in exchange for some equity options for adilas. I then jumped on a phone call with Steve. We talked about the agreement with Andrew, what he will be doing, and some timing on things. He then let me know about some new leads from Josh and possibly working with an insurance company. Things are constantly changing. We briefly talked about custom buildouts, using AI for some of the coding - on top of what we already have (expanding the platform), and how to structure ongoing maintenance and service fees (basically a commission percentage based off of the full buildout).

We then talked more about the meeting with Wayne and Steve, going over servers, databases and such. That happened last Friday. We are planning to meet more about those subjects later this week. Lastly, we talked about setting up custom code rates, using AI, and then paying commissions and/or birddog fees for guys who bring in the custom work. Steve is trying to just do work for companies that are willing to pay. We have done a lot of free work, over and over again. Hopefully we are learning from lessons in the past. Over the last couple of years, we have had some big fish and big lessons. Big fish play different than littler fish. There are pros and cons.

Recording notes from 10/6/26. On that day, I was doing lots of brainstorming and working with ChatGPT.

Prep work for helping Steve with a plan for some database stuff. Spent hours working on a voice dictation. Originally, it was going to be small, but it sort of grew. It ended up being an 8-page voice dictation with 20+ items on it. I then sent him and email with some supporting documents. This was all dealing with the bus to motorcycle or datasource project. Lots of moving pieces.

For security reasons, I will not be posting the file here. I do have a copy on my computer with the name of "for_steve_bus_to_motorcycle_datasource_project.docx".

Online meeting with Fred and Yimin. They gave me a small rundown of what they would like to do. They are proposing a 90-day growth advisory type relationship. We haven't decided on this yet, but they are going to send me over some information. Towards the end, they were asking me some financial numbers, and I asked if I could just show them. I jumped into adilas and navigated around a bit. That was kinda fun. Hopefully I wasn't showing off too much (click, click, flip, flip, drill-down, new tab, click, click, etc.). I had fun. Here are some of my notes from the meeting.

- Fred did most of the talking on this meeting.

- They would like to look at options for doing a growth advisory type relationship. We talked about what that would look like.

- They were talking about delusion based on the valuation of the company. How things get spread out.

- They try to send their pitches out to 3 different tiers - people who they know and/or pitch to. Each is at a different level... friends and family, semi acquainted to, and more strict business entities and funding parties. Most of those parties and/or people are one and done. If you pitch something, that is your chance. They don't let you keep refining your plans.

- We talked about key employees, key roles, and having too many clients from a single industry. Those are all possible risks and/or potential problems. Basically, warning signs.

- Investors want to see a growth engine - running on full steam.

- Looking at what we could do in 90-days - growing a sales team - viable leadership team - and increasing the inbound pipeline.

- We talked about a couple of pillars - 1. Organization - talent assessment, score cards, and weekly meetings. 2. Sales funnel - play books, compensation, marketing, etc. 3. Operational - SOP's, packaged offerings, KPI's (key performance indicators), and financial reporting.

Finished reading some of the plans from Steve. Last night I had scribbled down some quick notes on post-it notes. I spent some time this morning planning and scribbling down some more notes for the datasource project (bus to motorcycle) on scratch paper. The post-it notes just couldn't handle everything that was needed.

Reading Steve's bus to motorcycle plan. Almost finished it. This was a multi page document that showed plans and phases to help with the adilas database and converting the bigger database into smaller pieces (bus to motorcycle). He was working with Claude (AI) to make the plan. Some of it was perfectly on point... Some of it really needed some background, guiderails, and some handholding. As I was reading it, I was scribbling down some notes on post-it notes. I wanted to make sure and chime in vs just letting it unfold or just play out.

Working with Russell. Looking at stats for our project. It was faster, using AI. We still spent just under 150 hours, but it would have taken us over 600, if we did it in a traditional style. That was good to see.

Russell was showing me some of the voice stuff with ChatGPT. He was using his phone and just chatting with the bot. He has even gone on walks and gives it tons of information. He then jumped on the computer, had it make him a markdown document, and we went over the markdown together.

From Russell, as we were talking... if you know more, your job may be to help others learn and lift them up.

Also from Russell - treat work as if you are employed by God, it helps you have the right outlook.

Looking at some classes and underlying API structure stuff. Some of this code is some stuff that Russell is or has been working on. He would like to use his API engine to do some adilas work. comparing older REST and context API stuff. For Russell's stuff, you just specify the model (database table) and then the system self generates the underlying API based on that model. We spent some time going over some of his documentation and some samples. We were doing good, and then kinda got bogged down in some deep details and likes and dislikes. We ended up chatting about options as we were going through things.

- Sometimes, we make monsters... (our code or application blocks... huge, monsters, that have to be fed, and taken care of...)

- Doing tons with just the basics - it's okay to explore and experiment - as you experiment, you grow.

More AI historical records stuff. Started in June of 2007 through December 2007. See below for some links:

From ChatGPT - small sections pulled out during our conversations:

- Keep them on the path - talking about guiderails, legends, and step-by-step wizards

- A major Steve thread to track - As we continue through the notebooks, I want to watch for this recurring pattern: Real-world event - operational process - transaction/record - relationships - accounting result - And when the evidence supports it, we should recognize Steve's role as teacher and translator, not merely as someone requesting accounting features. That may ultimately be one of his most important contributions to the architecture. He was helping translate accounting out of its traditional vocabulary and into business events and consequences that could actually be modeled in software. You, in turn, could translate those processes and relationships into databases, pages, permissions, workflows, reports, and code. That's a pretty powerful combination:

Steve: "When this happens in the real world, here's what it creates and what has to happen next."

Brandon/system: "Okay—how do we represent that relationship and make the software facilitate it?"

And then you would test it against actual users and actual business activity and repeat the cycle.

That also makes the later Adilas idea of operations leading to accounting, rather than treating accounting as a disconnected after-the-fact activity, feel much less like something that suddenly appeared years later. We're seeing the educational process that helped produce that worldview.

So yes - huge shoutout to Steve. When we eventually write the longer historical narrative, I don't want this reduced to "Steve knew accounting." The richer story is that Steve repeatedly taught accounting as real-world cause-and-effect, and those lessons were translated directly into the evolving system.

Historical overviews for 2007 - chat links with ChatGPT to create monthly summaries:

- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007

- Annual Summary for 2007