Access control and building security upgrade

With Pentillion Construction, I helped coordinate an access-control and security-system upgrade for a commercial building. The work included access-controlled doors, elevator access, cameras, wiring routes, and the operational requirements needed by both the landlord and tenants.

The project was not just a matter of selecting hardware. The scope had to balance security, usability, cost, code requirements, tenant disruption, and long-term building operations. I helped define which access points needed to be controlled, what the system needed to do, and how the work could be coordinated across the security contractor, electricians, elevator company, automated door contractor, tenants, and landlord.

One of the key constraints was elevator access. The building needed more controlled access to certain areas, but a full elevator-control upgrade would have added cost and complexity beyond the practical scope of the project. I worked through the requirements with the contractor and helped shape a solution that controlled access where it was needed without overbuilding the system.

The project also required code interpretation around the building’s crossover floor. Because the crossover floor formed part of the life-safety and exiting strategy, the access-control approach had to preserve the required function of that floor rather than treating every door as a simple security device. That added an important check on the design: the system still had to support safe movement and code-required access while improving security.

I also coordinated wiring routes with the contractor and helped manage the system after installation. That included programming useful operational automations, such as event-based actions that supported day-to-day security and reduced manual steps for building management.

The result was a more practical access-control system that served landlord and tenant needs without turning the project into a larger elevator-modernization or building-wide security rebuild. It shows the value of defining the real operating requirements before selecting a technical solution, then coordinating the trades and code constraints needed to make the system work.

Date-night fitness challenge automation

My wife and I wanted a fun way to stay accountable with our fitness goals, so I built a shared challenge that turns Garmin activity data into a weekly scoreboard, a date-night fund, and a small amount of competitive pressure.

The rules are simple. Each week, the person with the fewest Garmin intensity minutes contributes $50 to the date-night fund. Zone 5 training minutes count double, so harder training gets extra credit. Each person is also expected to complete two weight-training sessions per week, and missing one adds another $25 penalty. After four weeks, the winner chooses the date night and can delegate the planning and organizing to the other person.

That structure made the challenge playful instead of purely punitive. The “penalty” still goes toward something shared, and the four-week cycle gives the challenge a clear finish line before it starts again.

The system only works if the tracking does not become a chore, so I automated the boring parts. Scripts pull activity data from Garmin, sync it into Google Sheets, backfill historical activity, calculate weekly standings, apply the contribution rules, and send a daily email showing who is ahead, who is behind, and what needs to happen before the week ends.

Google Sheets became the visible scoreboard and rule engine. It keeps the calculations transparent enough that the challenge does not feel like a black box, while the automation removes the need to manually copy workouts, compare activity minutes, or remember to send updates.

The daily email is a key part of the design. It makes the challenge visible without requiring either of us to open a dashboard every day. That small reporting loop keeps the system present in normal life and makes it easier to adjust before the end of the week.

This is a personal project, but the pattern is transferable: define the behaviour you want, make the rules visible, automate the tedious parts, and turn feedback into something people actually pay attention to. In this case, the result is a fitness challenge that supports consistency, competition, and date nights without creating another manual tracking task.