Jamie Thingelstad

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 13:10:52 -0500

The watermelon matches the table!

Thingy Evolved

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 07:36:27 -0500

I rebuilt Thingy into the archive agent I always wanted. Thingy started a month ago as an agent that acted as a librarian in front of the Weekly Thing archive. It did a great job at that and even if nobody else used it I found it super helpful to explore the archive. However, I quickly found that I also wanted Thingy to know about the 12,000+ posts on my blog in addition to the Weekly Thing. Oh, and my one episode Another Thing podcast should be available too. I wanted Thingy to know all of the information I have published.

Core to making this happen was to create semantic archives for not just the Weekly Thing, but also my blog and Another Thing. Once I had that foundation, I gave Thingy super powers!

The changes…

A New Home: Thingy is now its own dedicated website at thingy.thingelstad.com. That gave it room to become a full chat experience, with a cleaner interface, mobile-first interaction, conversation history, and a user experience that feels like Thingy rather than a search box.
Search Box to Agent: The biggest conceptual shift is that Thingy no longer feels like you are querying a database. It welcomes you, remembers prior conversations, understands which archives are available, and can help connect threads across the Weekly Thing, thingelstad.com, and Another Thing.
Three Archives, One Conversation: Thingy now works across all three semantic archives: the newsletter, the blog, and the podcast. The source selector lets you focus or broaden the conversation, and the backend has been improved so each archive has similar and robust capabilities.
Persistent Conversations: Conversations moved from browser local storage to the server. That means Thingy can remember conversations across devices, show recent chats, reload prior threads, and provide robust evals as well as user-friendly naming.
Curiosity Maps!: This is probably the “show, don’t tell” feature. Instead of only answering questions, Thingy can draw a map of adjacent ideas from the archive. You can start with Thingy’s suggested map or seed it with your own topic.
Richer Responses: Responses can now render tables, trails, maps, citations, action buttons, copy/share/play controls, and better markdown. This makes Thingy feel less like a chatbot bolted onto an archive and more like an interface for wandering through ideas. Thingy also shares its thinking process with you as it works!
Voice Input: You can talk to Thingy now. It is not a full voice conversation mode, but speech-to-prompt makes the experience feel more natural, especially on mobile.
Mobile Experience: The mobile interface got a major rethink: chat-style header, conversation drawer, floating composer, cleaner controls, and a more app-like feel. This matters because Thingy now feels usable on a phone, not merely responsive.
Memory and Personalization: Thingy can remember user preferences like name and use prior conversation context. It can welcome returning users differently from new ones, and the experience can become more personal.
Thingy Identity: The UI moved away from a publication aesthetic and toward a dedicated chat client with Thingy’s own visual presence. The larger rail image, cleaner composer, and simplified interaction model make it feel like its own thing.

Thingy requires you to be subscribed to the Weekly Thing, and it will do the subscribing for you as you sign in. Give it a try! 🤩

Sun, 31 May 2026 21:21:29 -0500

We watched Lucky Logan tonight. Moved at a different pace than your typical heist movie. A lot of fun twists towards the end.

Sun, 31 May 2026 12:27:15 -0500

Enjoying a little day trip starting with a coffee stop at Getaway Motor Cafe in Carver.

Fri, 29 May 2026 21:45:00 -0500

We watched The Instigators this evening. Meandering would be a good word for this one. Not our favorite.

Mon, 25 May 2026 18:18:54 -0500

Tyler and I opened our first batch of Chaos Rising Pokémon packs and I pulled the chase card — Mega Greninja Gold!

Sun, 24 May 2026 18:46:23 -0500

Look up.

Sun, 24 May 2026 18:45:33 -0500

Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail with our niece and nephew.

Sun, 24 May 2026 18:44:19 -0500

Memorial Day weekend Dairy Queen with the Lundeen’s. Mazie on her summer job in Boundary Waters.

Sun, 24 May 2026 18:43:08 -0500

These plants are invasive but their flowers sure are pretty.

Sun, 24 May 2026 07:50:23 -0500

Morning sauna time. 🔥

Sat, 23 May 2026 10:22:07 -0500

First time at Marc Hue Patisserie. Won’t be my last.

Sat, 23 May 2026 08:50:52 -0500

A pattern I’ve adopted when I’m heavily engaged with Claude Code or Codex is to have an open text file where I’m keeping the “next prompts” that I’m considering. While the agent is working I’m continuing to refine these so we are ready to move to the next feature or task.

Tue, 19 May 2026 22:30:00 -0500

Mazie and I went to Project Hail Mary. It was a second watching for me and her first. She isn’t the biggest movie person but loved this one and thought that Rocky was very cute.

Tue, 19 May 2026 19:15:00 -0500

Mazie and I had a great dinner at Khâluna. She had the Mango Fish and I had Laksa. We started with the Basil Wings (wow!). Great food and an amazing dining room to boot. Recommended!

Minnesota Technology Council

Mon, 18 May 2026 21:00:00 -0500

I had my first official meeting of the Technology Advisory Council a week ago. I was honored to be accepted into this group with an official appointment from Governor Walz. The role of the council is to advise Minnesota IT Services (MNIT). The group is preparing for transition with a new CIO for the State of Minnesota, and a Governor transition as well. This meeting was my first chance to see the breadth of the portfolio MNIT manages.

I’m looking forward to helping in established areas like cloud and data transformation, as well as new areas with AI deployment. I think there could also be some good opportunities to connect the State of Minnesota with the Minnesota Technology Association (MnTech) where I’m currently chair.

Sun, 17 May 2026 22:19:33 -0500

It took all four of us about an hour to get the canopy in the boat cover. The wind was borderline and three different times we got it on just to have it blown off. After finally getting it on we gave the boat the best cleaning ever and it is looking really good!

Sun, 17 May 2026 22:15:48 -0500

Fabulous show by The New Standards at The Dakota tonight. 🎶

Sat, 16 May 2026 20:35:44 -0500

Time for s’mores.

Sat, 16 May 2026 18:26:18 -0500

Evening bike ride to Dairy Queen for ice cream!

Sat, 16 May 2026 17:25:03 -0500

First visit to Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm for 2026! Delicious pizza. 🍕

Sat, 16 May 2026 10:54:06 -0500

Mazie and I taking the boat out for the season. Beautiful day!

Fri, 15 May 2026 15:18:46 -0500

From a chat with Claude today…

“everything else is scope creep dressed as ambition”

Statistical word model or not, that was an insightful comment.

Suburbs @ The Parkway

Thu, 14 May 2026 22:00:00 -0500

Somewhat even to our surprise Tammy and I hadn’t been to a Suburbs show. Neither of us connected with the band when they were first on the scene. We see Chan play all the time with The New Standards. So we decided it was time to fix that and saw them play at the Parkway. Good show and clearly we were in the midst of a ton of super fans. Seemed like half the audience had the black Suburbs shirts on.

Thu, 14 May 2026 18:00:00 -0500

So I’m wondering “Is there a way to store hats on a hanger like thing in the closet?” After a quick search on Maker World I printed a Hat Hanger.