Freedom Week 3

Three weeks without Automattic, a quick update.

Day off

This was a four day work week for me, since the kids had a free day on Monday. We went to the Illusion Museum, which sits somewhere between a very obvious tourist trap and an actual fun activity. The kids did enjoy it a lot, and there's some cool photographs you can take there:

Afterwards we went to eat waffles & pancakes. Fun day.

Endgame

I spent most of my time this week getting Endgame ready for release. And, well, I think it just might be finished.

Things I worked on this week:

• Added a Dark mode.
• Sharing. There's now native sharing to Instagram and Facebook Stories.
• There's now a lot more fun categories. Ever wondered how many bricks of LEGO you'll still step on in your lifetime? Or how many spiders you'll still eat in your sleep? Well, now you can.
• Consistent copy across the app.
• Tons and tons of bug fixes.
• Added and removed the ability to see how many X you've done, instead of left. It might return in version 1.1.
• Getting an Apple Developer account ready for my company, so my accountant is happy when this app makes any sales.

Oh, and I also created a landing page for the app. Since most domain names with endgame were already taken, I had to settle for endgame.now. It's a simple self-hosted Next.js website.

Next week I'll try to squeeze in submitting the app, and all five thousand screenshots required to Apple, so the waiting game can begin.

Lijsje.be

Lijsje.be was off to a very slow start. The first days did barely see any lists being created. So I did two things.

The first is redesign the homepage. The old version looked way too bland. I also used generative AI in Illustrator to create a more friendly icon.

The second thing I did is throw some free Google Ads credits at it. Let's see if it creates some sort of flywheel effect.

Other changes this week include better email templates, more Plausible analytics tracking, and some changes to my internal dashboard. I also joined tons of affiliate programs 💸

Misc

• I started working on my own little company's website. I still have no idea what's next for me after I get bored of doing nothing, but it feels like a good idea to have a web presence besides this blog. I settled on Next.js + DatoCMS for this, but it's still in its very early stages.
• Our Roborock vacuum/mopping robot started leaking a lot last week. This week I learned that sending a robot vacuum and cleaning base to Poland by mail is a hassle. It turned out to be a very big box.
• My intention to do a 30 min training session on the training bike is still going strong 💪 It really helps me to focus much better doing the rest of the day.

• I've been listening a lot to The Flaming Lips again lately. When their album Oczy Mlody came out I ignored it because they kinda lost me by then. I (re)discovered the album this week and it's such a gem. I like The Flaming Lips most when they sound somewhere between a celebration of life and a funeral. Oczy Mlody nails that sound.