#important: Revealing the secret

So you’ve been hearing me mention my secret side thing, Project Longbottom since oh… October or so.

Today, I’m far enough along that I’ve decided it shouldn’t be a secret any longer.

This is WeMinder. It’s a cloud-based tool for consenting adults in discipline based relationships. Like me.

It’s based around the idea that behavior is like temperature. You move between good and naughty, based on your behavior. Naughty behaviors move you into the red. Good ones move you towards the green. Rewards and punishments move the needle back towards the center.

I’ve been contemplating this tool for a long time. It addresses many issues kinky folks have nurturing their dynamic in a chaotic world filled with challenges.

Want to find out some more? Check out the demo video.

#gratitudeNow: The Whirlwind

So yesterday, I did something amazing. After a pretty productive workday, I turned from the work computer to the personal one, and started tinkering with a pretty significant feature of my secret side project, Project Longbottom. It involved adding SMS based notifications to the app I’m building.

I started work around 3:30pm, and about maybe an hour in, I felt myself slip solidly into the zone. That’s this thing where my brain just flips all the way on and I’m able to see ahead of myself several steps, my thoughts feel fluid and easy, and it’s like I’m suddenly tapping into extra capability. It’s a profoundly powerful and somewhat painful feeling.

I feel like this urge has slipped over me, and this thing I’m trying to do, I have to do. It’s honestly sort of manic. My breath comes easier, my skin tingles, and I just feel this sense of urgent need to keep going. I’ve decided to call this phenomenon The Whirlwind.

I worked almost non-stop from 3:30 to 10:30 that night. And along the way did the following:

• Designed a UI on paper for an SMS number verification system.

• Implemented it in the system.

• Refactored it to make it better.

• Got it to actually generate verification codes and send them.

• Got it to change backend records after the code is sent.

• Got the page to live update based on these statuses.

• Got a core feature of the system to send out SMS messages when a particular kind of user does a particular thing, to another user only if they opt in to receive the message.

• Got the message to format based on user input.

• Figured out how to send a carriage return in an SMS.

Around 10:30 I finally felt the Whirlwind somewhat let go of me, and I was able to get up to bed. Until I lay in bed and checked my repo just to look at the many commits I had made that day. I didn’t see them because although I had committed, I hadn’t pushed. No big deal. I headed BACK downstairs, pushed the changes up to my repo, and then proceeded to chat animatedly with friends about my progress for another hour or so.

Today, I’m exhausted. But happily so. I love being a creative person, love that I can do this. And my wife Missy, she’s a huge cheerleader to me. When she saw I was mid-whirlwind, she told me I could stay up until midnight. As I made progress, I periodically stopped to demonstrate it to her. She very patiently indulged me each time. I would burst out of my office, to show her a demo video on my phone, or broadcast it onto the screen of our TV. Sometimes I’d excitedly call her in to peer over my shoulder at what I was doing. At a certain point, the sheer magnitude of what I was doing clicked for her, and her face split with this combined look of amazement and pride.

I could live off that expression on her face. It nourishes my soul.

I’m ever so grateful to have this profound joy as a part of my life, and to be able to share it with her.

Oh, and a side note. Sometime in the next few days, I’m going to stop calling it Project Longbottom and tell you what it’s really called, and what it is. I’m very, very close to being ready to do that.

Stay tuned.

#gratitudeNow: A pizza, the action

So, a bit more on that good traveler business.

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’ve missed my train. Oops! That’s because I had to change my tickets on way up here in the first place, because reasons, and when I put the revised reservation in my calendar, I put the wrong time. I got to the station here in New York about 25 minutes after my original train left.

It’s okay. I marched right up to the Amtrak desk, told them what happened and they gave me options. I picked the best one. “Best” involves me waiting an hour for a new train, which goes into Washington DC, but not to the station where I left my car. Then I can take the subway south, and grab a lyft from the end of the line to the station where my car is.

Oy.

But… I did get to have some lovely new york pizza here at the station, a little bit ago. Plus, I’ve got my laptop, and can spend the extra time working on Project Longbottom, blogging, and relaxing.

So, really, it’s okay.

#gratitudeNow: Karma Going, Not Gone

I have this wi-fi hotspot, a Karma Go.

An ex of mine gave it to me. I’ve had it for a couple of years now. Back when I was actively working on a side project (Project Drummond) I used that thing constantly.

But I stopped working on Project Drummond with vigor a while ago, and in fact killed the project altogether late last year.

However, since last October I’ve been working like a demon on a different side project, Project Longbottom. Which by the way, is going incredibly well. I’m actually in beta with it now. I’ve got 30 users banging away on the thing, each and every day.

I need to take a long train trip this weekend, and the X hours I’m going to be on the train will be absolutely prime time to put my head down and code away. So, time to break out the trusty old hotspot.

I was nervous about it. I haven’t used it in ages. I know my account is still current. But it’s a finicky beast, prone to losing charge. Plus, the companion iOS app for it had vanished from the app store, which I didn’t take as a good sign.

But I booted the sucker up this morning, got it charged, and it’s just fine. Moreover, when I contacted the nice folks at Karma, they told me the reason the app isn’t available anymore is because they’re busy upgrading it, and it’ll be back soon.

Whew! Glad to have it.

#gratitudeNow: Frandom

Over the years that I’ve been an author, and we’ve been creating the podcast, my work has made me pretty well known in the ageplay and kink communities. I’m always leery to use the term “minor internet/kink celebrity” because of even the slightest whiff of Gilderoy Lockhart style self-aggrandizement. But it’s true, I do have fans.

I love hearing from people how the podcast has helped them, or how they enjoy my books. It’s super gratifying when a complete stranger, someone I’ve never met, and wouldn’t know otherwise, reaches out across the aether to let me know that my work has had meaning to them in their life.

Relatedly, I had the nicest thing happen to me about two weeks ago. I was hanging out on a discord server I like, “MDLB and Friends!” just chatting when I struck up a conversation with someone, Danny.

I told Danny about my secret project I’ve been working on, Project Longbottom. It’s a software tool, an app-as-a-service for age players. I’ve been working on it like crazy for several months now, and it actually just went into beta testing a few days ago.

We were chatting about it when Danny told me he was a fan of my work. He’s listened to the podcast for ages, and had recently bought and was actually in the middle of reading Concerning LIttleton when we were talking. He told me “I bought concerning littleton and started to read it, I just got to say how amazing it is.”

So we had this lovely conversation.

And just like that, he went from fan to friend.

We’ve become fast friends, me and Danny, and his lovely wife/mommy Steph too. They’re helping me to test Project Longbottom and their help has been of immense value to me.

I feel incredibly lucky to have good friends like these.