Hi friends, I am back in Saint Louis after nearly two months in California. I got to visit Petroglyphs National Monument and Petrified Forest National Park on the way out, and White Sands National Park coming back. All are amazing, and I hope you have a chance to see them yourself. (Yes, I took lots of photos—read on for more!)

It’s nice to get back to my own bed and my own kitchen and my walkable neighborhood—now with a new taco place nearby, even! Perhaps as a result, I’ve had a burst of creative energy over the past couple of days, and channeled it into a few fun things I want to share.

New online shop for Low Overhead woodworking

In late 2024 I made wooden owl ornaments from scrap lumber and leftover paint samples. To my surprise, I sold a bunch of them! So I did what a lot of people do and set up a little Etsy store to make them available online. Etsy is okay, but I don’t think I’m getting my money’s worth from them. So I’m trying something new, and now Low Overhead woodworking is on Ko-fi! I have a couple of items left to add, and after that I’ll close shop on Etsy.

I really want to get my little workshop back in order this month, and back to building. There’s never a shortage of projects at home, which means plenty of little scraps for future items. I may also set up for small commissioned projects, if you’re looking for a customized owl or something. Stay tuned!

Bandageman tip jar (and stickers!)

I had a ton of fun last year learning game development with Pico-8. I released three little games through Bandageman Studios, my just-for-laughs video game development shop. The games are free to play! But if you’d like to leave a tip, or even buy a sticker, Bandageman is also on Ko-fi.

The stickers are really nice! I ordered them from Sticker Ninja, and highly recommend them the next time you need stickers for whatever it is you need stickers for. I eventually want to get some made for all the characters in the BCU (Bandageman Cinematic Universe, natch).

Meanwhile, I have a couple of game ideas noodling in my head, and have started sharing work-in-progress screenshots on Ko-fi. Maybe even early access?

Work-in-progress: Gallies

Since bailing on Instagram for ethical reasons, I’ve missed having an outlet for sharing photos with family and friends. Pixelfed isn’t great for photo dumps, at least not in its current state. So I built my own thing. I’ve uploaded several photo galleries from recent travels and music to my new site, Gallies.

Apologies that they don’t yet have alt text, and navigation is a little weird—I have a list of things to improve upon, and am using this as an opportunity to learn more about AstroJS and (later) Svelte. I’ll make the software open source eventually, too.

That’s all for now

Thanks for making it to the end. I’m hoping to get back into the habit of a monthly-ish update here. See you next time!