Rukus Flashchords

Not blues, really, but yeah it's sort of a shit show in the tech world right now. I'm going to take a pause on applying for product jobs, feels like a waste of time. I think right now I just need to enjoy where I am in life. I'm expanding this pretty cool app, I have ideas to keep it going... in the meantime maybe I'll find minimal part time work. The Uke app is doing reallly well, especially considering I have done minimal to no marketing. I am holding back on marketing still because I want everything to look consistent. I want the guitar apps to have the same design. I need all the screenshots on the app stores to look good. I want to publish the plus version of the Uke app. Oh wow the metronome wasn't even clickable on the first version of the uke app and I'm so grateful someone on Facebook called that out. I think once Uke Plus is published, that's when I'll feel ready to start marketing the Uke app. By then, hopefully, my designs will be consistent ...

An affirmation my therapist shared with me to enjoy liminal moments, like making a cup of tea or sitting in your car. For me, however, the affirmation comes to mind moreso when I'm on the brink of a mental overload.  My baby is on my chest disputing the nap she desperately needs because she's overtired. She's squirming, rolling around, standing up, sitting down, la lalalallalalalal going nuts, and right as my patience is about to run low..   Enjoy this.   She is the light of my life. She's silly, and energetic, and playful and curious, everything I could ever love wrapped up in a 14 month old. All of a sudden, whatever is about to turn in my chest, transmutes. Amazing how a couple of words can flip a moment.   I've been in the weeds with publishing and the redesign. Here's a sneak peek at my to-do list: - Input all updated design graphics into the guitar apps - Minor redesigns for those apps, then to update - Redesign social media graphics - Find 6 mor...

We went to Hawaii and I held off on the app for a few months. Baby was learning to walk, not to mention the sleep regressions and rapid fire changes. We bought a house, so now there's some structure to the day moreso than before. I found a really cool internet/babysitting cafe that I'm beginning to integrate into our routine.  Things are really beginning to take form. Even though I took a step back from the app, I've been picking at it every day, and I even built a new version for Ukulele with updated design. Looking at the original app, it feels rudimentary compared to how it is now. This upgrade will take a lot of time to integrate across all of the platforms I've built, but it'll get done. She doesn't nap as long as she use to, but I can still work when she's sleeping or during the hour or two a day she does nap.  I feel like I'm in a place now to have this career I'm dreaming of. I think once I have my app looking uniform, and once I get some foo...

So here’s the truth: I built this app during baby naps and breastfeeding. Usually my daughter falls asleep on my chest, and I’m typing one-handed, laptop balanced, trying not to wake her. My days are spent quiet at home while my partner ( a nightshift ER nurse ) catches up on sleep. It’s been hard, mentally and physically. Lonely. Building this app became the perfect distraction.. a little light at the end of the tunnel, a reminder that maybe I can still have a career while mothering full-time. If I’m honest, my chest tightens whenever I think about my “dream job.” Right now, it feels impossible to imagine doing anything outside of mothering when I have to stay quiet all day, structuring my life around naps. But in a perfect world, where I could shower whenever I want, sing out loud, and hire a nanny so I could tick away on my laptop, I know exactly what I’d want. I’d love a role in Product at a company that’s building tech to make the world better. Likely a psychology app. I want t...

I've had this silly weird feeling ever since I've been going public with this app... it's a nerves thing I guess, but I think it's the same feeling most creators get when you put something out into the world. I've never built a ship but the metaphor I could loosely relate it to is like building a boat panel by panel and watching it coast on the water from the edge of the shore. The ocean is unpredictable, and sort of how I perceive the public opinion.   Anyhow. I'm adding two new buttons. A button to play custom chords in order, and a metronome. I think the app will be complete after these two things, more well rounded. That way people can practice progressions intentionally and songs. That was the original plan for the app but I hadn't any experience with Thunkable so I was going with the flow of my experience.   So far... I thought I had made some progress in a duplicate app for the programming but when I copied the logic into the actual app... the screen ...

Apple https://tinyurl.com/rukusapple    Android https://tinyurl.com/rukusdroid    

Wow. What a hell of a few weeks.   The app was, admittedly, rudimentary before I finished this last update. Initially, my intent for the app was to select the chords custom to be shuffled - the whole "basic, intermediate, advanced" thing was a workaround because I hadn't the slightest clue how to program that. After some meetings with a Thunkable rep and some surprising thinkwork on my end, the Custom button is finished. The entire reason I went on this rabbit hole was because I needed to factor in this website. I wasn't able to do so until I had a review and approval from Apple's team, which can take days or a week sometimes. I had already begun the new update when I ran into this roadblock so I needed to finish it entirely before I could re-submit, as I had no way to go back to the initial version. In Thunkable, once you start editing, it's pretty set in stone. No "Undo".  So it took some weeks, meetings, and a big pause on marketing because people...