John Spahr

I know that this is random, but I just wanted to say that Microsoft PowerPoint is super cool. This is obviously not sponsored or anything, so why I am saying this? Well, to put it simply, I'm just impressed! As someone who has  suffered  tolerated using Google Slides for many years, it's refreshing how clean and powerful PowerPoint for Mac is. In fact, I like it so much that I decided to make a game with it! The A- maze -ing Game The premise of this game is pretty simple. Move your mouse cursor to avoid walls and traps as you navigate through a maze! There are a total of five total "stages," and hitting a wall will force you to restart the entire game. Tough, I know, but that's the way PowerPoint games should be if you ask me! How did I make it? In short, I simply assigned slide navigation actions to several shapes I inserted. Since these can be triggered by mouse hover events, they can behave like deadly walls. Yes, deadly walls are a real thing, trust me. Anyway...

Are you an aspiring author, an English student, or just someone who wants to write better? If so, StreakWriter might just be the iOS app for you! This application not only makes writing in your free time easier, but it also incentivizes you to do so. Writing can be difficult, but StreakWriter makes it less daunting. How does it work? That’s all well and good, but how does StreakWriter actually do this? Well, there are a few main ways it accomplishes this: Goals: Rather than simply providing a blank canvas, StreakWriter provides six different quick and easy writing goals for you to choose from. Each goal requires a minimum amount of characters to be written to be met, and you can easily track how close you are to meeting this requirement as you write. Having something to work towards makes writing much easier, and choosing a goal to work towards certainly can make writing less stressful. Streak: As you could probably guess from the name, StreakWriter also involves keeping a streak. If y...

Hi, everyone! Believe it or not, Violoncello is a year old as of today! Seeing it evolve over the last twelve months has been an amazing experience, and I would like to thank everyone who has downloaded it and/or upgraded to Premium for their support. I really appreciate it! As for the app itself, I still have a ton planned for it. I hope to make it available for even more platforms, and I also plan to continue working on improving the existing versions of the app. Overall, I’m very excited to see where it will be in another twelve months, especially considering how far it has come in the last year. Anyway, thank you very much for reading, and happy birthday, Violoncello!

In the world of budget watches, few are as well-loved as Seiko’s SNK series. For under $100, you get an automatic movement, an attractive design, day and date complications, and a surprising amount of fun extras. There are plenty of reviews of this watch already, so I figured I would just quickly share my experience and first impressions with this watch. So, let’s begin! First Impressions: Upon opening this watch’s perfectly adequate box, at least for the price, I was immediately impressed. This is a watch with a lot of character, featuring unique hands, plenty of luminescence, and the signature Seiko 5 shield emblem. The dial feels much less flat than a lot of the competition, and the whole piece feels like it’s worth much more than the $90 it retails for. It’s not too large or thick, and it feels quite substantial. In short, this watch looks and feels excellent for the price. Pros: This watch has a unique and attractive design, although it has been debated whether or not this is cons...

Howdy, everyone! It’s hard to believe that it’s already November! Violoncello will be having its first birthday this month, and we’ll be in the year 2022 before we know it. However, there’s still a bit of 2021 left, so here are my goals for the remainder of the year. While I can’t guarantee they’ll work out, they should at least provide a rough blueprint of what’s to come. What’s Already Happened Before I share my plans for the rest of 2021, here are a few recent developments that you may have missed: New Site: Last month, I completely redesigned my website to be more of a personal portfolio. While I did share a post on this blog with the exciting news, you may have missed it, so make sure to check out the new site if you haven’t already! Violoncello for Android v1.9.3: Something I haven’t written about previously is the new Violoncello for Android release! This one isn’t the most significant, but it does make some important refinements to the app and its user interface. My Upcoming Pl...