Projects & Side Lab
Projects
This is where the fun stuff lives. Most of these exist because I or someone in my family genuinely needed a tool and did not want to install yet another app — so they became small things you can just open.
Small tools you can just open
Word Defense Learn words, hold the castle Vocabulary drills dressed up as tower defense: every word you answer holds off another wave, and three misses in a row start draining your core. The word list follows the People's Education Press junior-high series across six volumes. Portrait-first, fully offline, zero dependencies — and the word list is a single plain array, so swapping in another textbook or your own list is a one-line change. Afterglow · Life Time Calculator How much time is actually left Spreads the abstract figure of "time remaining" out into a scale you can read at a glance. A quiet reminder to treat each frame with respect — and to stop spending hours on things you will not remember. Retirement Age Calculator Your exact date under the phased-in policy Works out your retirement date and the number of discretionary years left under the latest phased-in policy. Turns "how much longer" into a concrete number you can build a long-range plan around. Say the Colour A pure brain-speed challenge Classic Stroop-effect training: the word and the ink disagree, and you have to name the ink. A sixty-second read on your reaction speed and focus — nothing to install, nothing to sign up for. Xiangqi for Kids Pieces, rules, checkmates, then a real game Starts from the very first rule — "the horse moves in an L, the elephant in a square." Tap a piece to see where it can go, practise five one-move checkmates, then play a full game against the built-in engine. Three strength levels, from a beginner that blunders to a master that calculates deep. Everything runs offline. Go for Kids Go fundamentals for pre-schoolers Teaches only the rules that actually matter first — liberties, capture, who plays first — then lets the child start playing straight away. The fewest concepts needed to get stones on the board; everything else grows out of the game itself. Zen Interval Timer Meditation, workouts, deep focus A repeatable interval timer with a bell at every boundary. Pomodoro blocks, rest between sets, meditation pacing — all from one tool, so you do not have to install a fifth app on your phone. Chinese Characters for Kids Grade 1–2 character practice A character-learning app built for a child just starting primary school, using the high-frequency Grade 1 and Grade 2 lists from the standard textbook. Four rotating game types — picture-to-character, listen-and-pick, choose the pinyin, complete the word — with stars and stickers for right answers. Tap-only, no typing, no score pressure: get it wrong and you simply try again.