👋 Welcome

I scribble syntax, paint pixels, carve faces, and bend waves. — Me

Hi, my name's Lance, and I'm a creative.

I've been a career software/web/game developer for ~25 years now. I'm also a designer (yeah, like pixels and stuff), terrible gamer, opinionated jerk, and hopeful teacher.

Welcome to my tiny, little slice of the internet. It's a place for me to share my thoughts, creations, and experiences with... well, anyone who cares to listen. I'm not here to sell you anything, and I'm not trying to be the next big influencer. I'm just a guy who likes to make things and share them with the world.

Here are a few things that I hope to do here:

💻 Code

When it comes to writing code, I find myself constantly tinkering and learning. I'm fortunate enough to write code for a living, but what you'll see here are what I assemble in my off-hours. You're probably still better off on Stack Overflow (opens in a new tab), but I enjoy crafting useful tools and experimenting with a variety of languages and tech stacks, and I'll be putting some of it on display here. Through snippets, tools, and inane musings, I hope to offer some insights and artifacts that might be of use to someone out there.

🎨 Design

My journey in design is an ever winding road, I'm not at all saying I'm good, but I've fairly versed and have always been drawn to visual mediums (even as a programmer, I know /smh). I use an eclectic array of software and techniques, each serving a purpose in the wider landscape of design and graphic development (yes, you can make pictures with a keyboard too). Whether I'm hand-jamming vector art, generating something through AI, writing scripts that generate effect plugins in Photoshop, or actually taking a pencil (stylus) to a page (graphics tablet), my goal is to explore the boundaries of what I can create... then walk it back a few paces so that it actually looks decent again. So, join me on this road less traveled; I have cookies... 😉

🎲 Play

I've never been a Twitch sensation, but I've been a gamer as far back as I can remember. Yes, even back when all we had were sticks and dirt. Aside from the immersive escape in these alternate realities, I find immense satisfaction in modding; everything from creating textures for re-skins to making/breaking game systems. I'll be using this as a platform to share some of my mods, good mods, tutorials, tools, opinions, and maybe even a few actual reviews.

⭐ Review

I'm not here to sell you anything, but I do like talking about what I love. I'm not much of a complainer, so I'll probably not spend too much time dogging on failed abor—yikes; well, okay then. My reviews aren't sponsored or scripted, they're honest. If that changes, I will be sure to state that clearly, or I'll likely just take the easy route and delete this site. That's not to say that I haven't accepted free products for the purposes of review in the past. I most certainly have, and will. I just won't lie about how I feel when I do. When I come across a product or service that I have strong feelings about—positive or otherwise—I feel compelled to share my perspective. No sugar-coating, just my genuine take that I hope will help you make good decisions, and maybe show you a shiny, new thing to love like I do.

📚 Teach

I'm old. I've picked up a few things over the years, and this will be my platform to pass some of them on. Hopefully not with dry, pedantic lectures or bullshit essays; I'm no authority, and I'm certainly not looking for a grade. If I'm going to try to help someone grow by teaching them something that I know or discover, I'll do my best to convey the spirit, the facts, and my opinions; I have a lot of those. I'm not always right, but I'm always willing to learn. I hope you are too.

🛡️ Disclaimers

🤖 Artificial Intelligence

Hey there, before we get too deep, I want to be completely transparent about something: I make heavy use of all kinds of tech; conventional stuff like paid services, fancy software, keyboards, even a mouse(❗), to more contested things like ML, LLMs, and other forms of AI.

Look, I get that AI, especially generative AI like LLMs, can be a sore spot for a lot of people. The debate around AI's ethical implications and its role in creative processes is an ongoing one, and I totally get that. But I'm of the mindset that these tools have the potential to act as incredible amplifiers of human ability and creativity. This has always been the case, and will ever and always be the case. I'm not here to debate the ethics of AI, but I do want to be clear about my use of it.

Everything you see or interact with on this site—be it an article, some weird piece of digital 'art', a chunk of code, or even a catchy tune—is born from a collaboration between myself and a machine in some capacity. That was the case before 2023, and it will be the case after. I'm not trying to hide that fact, and I'm not trying to trick anyone into thinking that I'm some kind of super genius, starving artist, or whatever. I'm just a guy who likes to make things, and I'm not afraid to use whatever tools I have at my disposal to do so.

So, whether you're an AI enthusiast, skeptic, or indifferent, I hope you find something here that speaks to you. If you do, just know that it was generated in concert with technological tooling. And hey, thanks for hearing me out.

🤑 Affiliate Links

While we're on the topic of transparency, let me just put this out there: Some of the links you'll come across on this site might be affiliate links. What does that mean? Simply put, if you click on one of these links and then make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Sometimes there are even perks in it for you too, like discounts or free stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to push products or services that I don't genuinely believe in. Any affiliate links you find will be for stuff I've actually used, or at the very least, have thoroughly researched and think would be genuinely useful or interesting to you. Not every link is going to be an affiliate link though, and I'm not trying to be shady about it; I'll put together a list of all of my affiliate links so you can see for yourself what's what.

This is just one way to help support the site and my creative endeavors. Think of it like tipping your waiter, but you also get something cool in return. And hey, if you do end up using one of my links, I genuinely appreciate the support; more than anything, it helps me know some of the value that my work brings to you.

So, feel free to click or not click. No hard feelings either way, but I wanted to make sure there was no ambiguity.