End of Monthly Trivia

Between early pandemic Zoom trivia and the virtual trivia I've been running on Trivia Night, I've now hosted 75 games over three years. I've loved every minute of it, but I've decided it's finally time to call it quits. With attendance slowly waning due to the reinvigoration of social lives post(?)-pandemic, I think it's best to reallocate my efforts to other projects.

If you've been part of this trivia journey, I can't thank you enough for your support and participation over the last few years. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have!

While this is the end of the monthly games, it's not the end of Trivia Night. Feel free to use the site to host your own games, or hire me for a private event. I'm also gearing up to host my first ever live trivia game next week, so wish me luck on that too!

What Did You Have For Dinner?

In addition to travel and various life maintenance activities, I've spent the last year starting a number of different projects, then getting bored/disenchanted and abandoning them. While I think this is a healthy part of the creative process, it has been a particularly frustrating stretch, so I'm happy to announce that I've actually finished something!

I now present What Did You Have For Dinner?, which grew out of a simple personal need that I first discussed in my December 2021 Review. As my partner and I continued to use the original version, I got more excited about adding additional features and eventually committed to making a version that was polished enough for a public launch.

Right now, the site aims to solve four problems:

1. Remember meals that I've enjoyed

Whether it's a recipe from a library-loaned cookbook, or a restaurant on the other side of town, I often find myself forgetting about meals that I've enjoyed. Since the site reminds you to log your dinner every night, you'll have them cataloged and at the ready when you inevitably find yourself wanting to relive them.

2. Save notes that will help me enjoy them more in the future

Which sushi rolls do we like at that Japanese restaurant? How spicy do I usually get my pad kee mao? How long do I need to cook the beans for? These are all questions that I used to ask myself with no answers available. With WDYHFD, you can save notes about your meals to help you enjoy them more in the future.

3. Quickly save recipes/restaurants that I want to try in the future

When I see a recipe or restaurant that looks interesting, I used to put it into my Notes app and never see it again. Now I can use the site as a canonical spot for all ideas. Then, when I'm looking for inspiration, I can search my list and pick something that interests me.

Once I've perfected a recipe, I often want to share it with friends, but the hassle of explaining my specific alterations can be a pain. With WDYHFD, you can share the original recipe along with your notes, so your friends can enjoy it as much as you do.

While there are a few different meal-tracking apps out there, none of them quite serve this niche. Specifically, the ability to store both restaurants and recipes was a requirement for me, but we'll find out shortly if anyone else is looking for the same thing. If you do check out the site, please let me know what you think!

Short-Term Goals

1. Get 10 paying customers for WDYHFD

The site is built, and I have a stable of beta testers looking for bugs and improvements. I have a few features I'd like to add, but I'm going to try to resist my natural urge to keep coding and instead focus on getting some users.

2. Have a successful in-person trivia night

I'm hosting my first ever in-person trivia night next week, and I'm surprisingly nervous. In theory, the game shouldn't run much different than the virtual sessions I'm used to, but I'm sure there will be some kinks to work out. Here's hoping it goes well!

I'm not going to pretend that I'm jumping right back to a monthly cadence, but I will try to write these more often. See you when I see you!