Rukus Flashchords

 In all honesty, I'm not entirely happy with Thunkable and the help I received on the app anymore. Every day I was so impatient because I felt like the longer it took for me to get this all finished, the lesser chance I had for it to become popular and successful, and ultimately just stay... up.    I realize that this hellbent desire for Rukus to become some famously known app or super successful isn't because that's what I really want. There are things I think I want. A job. My partner to work less hours. Haircuts. Personal time. Travel.   During this sound update journey, I got free sounds from a uke player who happens to be a developer. He understands the vision and the importance of free resources of musicians, as he built an entire community for uke players. His wife is a developer too, how friggin cool is that!? He would finish the job for as much as a single year of subscribing to Thunkable. It's a no brainer, but my thought loop was that I'd lose au...

 Whelp that opportunity went nowhere. And the custom sound playing feature I wanted is not possible with Thunkable's setup. Sounds can't play instantly when the chord flashes, which defeats the concept I was going for. Essentially, the .wav file has to travel too far through Thunkable's foundation for it to do that. If the app was made from scratch coding then it would work.  Anyway. At least Playlist does what I want it to do. At this point I just have to clean things up and get everything uploaded, repay my subscriptions. It's time consuming but I'd say I have about 5-10 hours of solid work before it's "done done". Then I'll make a few videos and leave the rest to fate.    I'm tired thinking about it. Lol 

 So I go into my spam folder of my Rukus email, right? Totally aloof, what could possibly be hiding here. Probably something silly and explicit like my other spam folders on my soldout emails.    Dude. This guy FOUND me, through the newspaper article I was in, and reached out about a super cool super fancy convention in SAN FRANSISCO and wants to chat about something... idk. I started crying. Just to be recognized like that for the work I'm doing feels really special. I had to hire some help to finish Playlist and Custom because it is beyond what I have the time and expertise to accomplish right now. My babe is 18 months old and hopping, running, skipping, jumping, just a total force of nature and I am loving every second of it. But there is absolutely no way I could continue to build the app like I was doing when she was 5/8 months old. The transition to toddlerhood is a whole new level of sleep deprivation and emotional regulation. I am staying consistent, however. Smal...

Wow. I think this next big step is what completes the app. Anything after this will over complicate things. But my last steps are this:  Playlist - a community playlist of chords in the order of songs that you can practice and play.  + you don't need to manually enter something if you can find it + lots of people contributing  Custom - hear the chords before they flash. An option to save decks in an advanced version of the screen + allows personalization at a basic level The only thing is that people will probably prefer the custom saved chords over the community chords, but whatever. The playlist community was really just a workaround for this custom screen thing that I'm just gonna try and ship.  Kind of like when I had just started, with the Styles button. It was a workaround for Playlist, building custom chord decks. But I ended up keeping the feature anyway because it's fun to try.  It's funny how simple my guitar apps look compared to what's coming. This n...

After numerous people suggesting that hearing the chords would make the app more helpful, I am going to explore it. I have a few people interested to record the individual audio files, which is sort of shocking considering I don't have any money to give them.  I keep saying to myself "this next feature is going to be the one that makes the app big". Well, I think this one is. I can't imagine what more I could offer after this within my abilities. I thought it would be cool for the song lyrics to show up on the chords as they flash, but I don't see that working out.  I could build a whole other app for left handed players as well, but that is... a lot of time. Yeah, even thinking of it is like holy shit.  But if this becomes my job, or helps me find a job, or I start to miss app building after a short break... then yeah I could definitely see that happening.  Wish me luck, void   

 Alright. Whelp. The update is done. Songs can be saved now. I have to count the days individually and hope that google approves it after 2 weeks and hope my testers actually do the thing. Ughq;eufhjnlfjqwe fiwknf;modwukfnjqvmlierf   as nice as it feels to be doing this app and to feel like I have some sort of direction, not making any money for doing all of this work, hearing back from any recruiters about other types of jobs... one thing at a time I guess. I've been working at this every night for weeks, when she naps, when she sleeps.. it's the only time I get to myself. Now that I'm just done with this update I've got all of this nervous energy built up. I need to rest.

 Ok y'all I'm really gonna send it. Firebase. Cloudinary. I was hesitant because I don't know these programs and I don't want to get defaulted into a subscription, but I figure even if I get that many users to justify it, then it's worth a shot. I am holding back on the design updates. I just want everything to send at the same time. All the designs looking the same on all the apps. All the features looping/acting the same. I just want to plop it all out there instead of trickling updates and progress... so yeah things are bound to look messy for the next couple of weeks but I am tinkering away on the back end as much as I can for that final send.  I... am... eexcitttteeeddd!!!! This is so cool! I don't expect it to take off right away, but just to have a new direction to go into with the app. Even though it's unknown waters, it's something new and I'm eager to give this a shot. I really feel good about all of this. It's all been a momsical whim ...

 Wow this blog looks like shit I mean, I'm not entirely stoked with everything I have out there right now... and to call myself a designer right? Haha. I enjoy more of the back end design than the front end. I like building the system, not decorating it. I think I've said that somewhere before.  This is the first time I've really had a fire up my ass to finish everything off in a long time. I have 3 main things to be completed and then I think this app is really done. Adding anything else to it will go against the point - making it simple and effective. And for that to ring true, I need to keep that in mind when implementing these things as well. As above so below. SO it might look a little funny, but once you know how to use it, you'll be like "ahhhhh ok".. Sigh. I really gave it a shot trying to code stuff alone today. It is not easy. I think I've effectively coded alone once. All this time I've been piggy backing off AI and live support. It sort of ...

Hey folks! All of the apps have been redesigned, but I haven't published the updates yet. The biggest hurdles have been jumped over at this point, and I'm feeling positively that I am nearing completion of the app. It's taken me about a year to feel certain of it, but here are the steps to the finish line: - Fix the metronome. How? Instead of being built into the app ( how it currently is ), the app will play a link to the BPM selected by the user and it'll be looped. - Update the custom button to have a "play in order" and "shuffle" button on the screen so the user can make a simple list. - Playlists button will be where you can build and SAVE songs. No account creation required. Just pop a song into the data base, search the data base for songs.  - Create alert windows the user can do the know "Do not show again" option to give a small tutorial on the screens of how things work The last point I'm excited but also nervous about. Kind o...

My girl is on the cusp of toddlerhood. Finding time to iterate and update is a challenge, but I've adopted the mentality that I don't need to sit down for 2 hours to have a productive session. I'm doing things in pieces. 20 minutes here, half a bullet point there. I keep reminding myself that the most difficult part has passed, but I still feel like I'm in the thick of it.  I've found more joy in working on the app when I don't feel pressured to do everything in one go, especially when my daughter has a 6th sense for when I am about to sit down and do something. But! That's ok too.  The nights have been difficult. She still wakes up periodically, and it makes me grumpy in the mornings. And sometimes at night. "Enjoy this" wears off when I feel my eyes burning. It's mostly the anxiety that makes me feel that way, anxiety for how tired I am and how it will persist... but the days usually lighten up after I've had some caffeine and time. Baby ...

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...

 SUp Been working on the next update for the past few days. At first, I was only going to include "Styles" in the paid app. The styles button is a shuffled set of chords that are popular by genre. Naturally, I added about 20 new chords to the original layout.  As I was programming "plus" (I'll refer to it that way), I imagined some kid playing the free version and feeling curious about the additional buttons, or even what potential they may find if they prefer one sound over another. It didn't feel right to put a price barrier, and that's sort of been my whole memo with this app. I don't like "in app purchases" or "pay to play". I also started to see the impact that the ads were having and figured it may work out in my favor anyway to just offer the whole package for free. So... that's where I'm at.   SO, this ads thing. It has been on my mind every day for over a week. I found out the hard way that I needed to make this w...

 Greetings  Currently my babe is resting on my lap, milk drunk. That's how I got the inspiration to build the app in the first place. My partner is an ER nurse and sleeps during the day, so usually my afternoons are quiet. I would stare at my guitar peeking behind an oversized blue papasan cushion slouching in its small frame, beckoning me to practice.   There are about 5 tracks my mind wants to go off on when I hit this mental crossroads of context. Do I bring a backstory into it? Or just get to the fukin point? Latter, for now. I got bored. I wanted to play. I couldn't. Wondered "how am I supposed to get better if I don't practice?". Then I kept sitting until the day went on per usual.   The opportunity struck one day where the timing was just right for me to play a little bit of what I use to know. I pulled up the chords for "Sister Golden Hair" and found that I needed to continuously scroll up to see what the fingering chart was for the chord as I ha...