Articles & Writing
Writing that comes out of building the tools. Each of these started as something I had to work out to make a tool behave correctly, and turned out to be worth explaining on its own — how a sand table's coordinate system actually works, what your salary looks like after every honest deduction, how a tattoo studio really arrives at a number.
They are grouped by the tool they came from. Nothing here is a summary of what other sites already say; if a piece exists it is because there was something specific to get right.
What Is My Time Worth?
The arithmetic behind your real hourly wage, and the judgment calls the calculator makes on your behalf. All WIMTW articles →
- What Your Real Hourly Wage Actually Subtracts — why salary ÷ 2,080 is wrong in both directions at once.
- Comparing Two Job Offers When the States Have Different Taxes — when a $10,000 raise is a pay cut.
- The Enjoyment Multiplier — why the DIY-vs-hire model needs a fudge factor, stated openly.
- What Is Life Energy? — the Your Money or Your Life idea the whole tool rests on.
SandPath
Kinetic sand tables, file formats, and why the obvious way to convert an image is the way that fails. All SandPath articles →
- Theta-Rho vs G-code — polar and Cartesian, and which format survives a table upgrade.
- Why Scanlines Look Wrong in Sand — edge detection, marching squares, and skeletonisation.
- Travel Lines: The Problem You Cannot Fully Solve — the travelling salesman problem in a sand tray.
TattooSafe
What a tattoo costs, how big it should be, and why both are harder to answer than they look. All TattooSafe articles →
- How Tattoo Studios Actually Price Work — area, style, placement, rate, in that order.
- Sizing a Tattoo to a Body Part — why screens mislead, and what actually limits size.
HoloPath
The largest collection here — sixteen articles on holographic displays, from Pepper's Ghost to LED fans to colour theory for holographic art. All HoloPath articles →
Essays
Longer pieces about the project itself rather than any one tool — why these get built, and what happens between an idea and a shipped thing. Browse essays →
On Substack
Occasional longer-form writing goes out by email. No schedule, no filler.