I just released a small web app called Joy Jar. I made it for storing away precious memories and pulling them back out when you need to think happy thoughts. The idea is that when something makes you smile – an inside joke! a bit of nostalgia! a hopeful wish! – take a moment to jot it down in the the app. Then whenever you need a pick-me-up, open the app and pull a few random joys from your jar.
Making this toy app was a fun little project. Building something that promotes positive thinking during this chaotic age gave me the motivation to actually finish it – which is something that can't be said for the majority of the side projects I start. I'd attempted to build something similar to this app a couple times over the years, but always got distracted halfway thru. Spending all Spring indoors, hiding from the pandemic, gave me ample free time to focus on getting it done this time.
This project is written in Python using the Django framework. Python is and has been my favorite programming language since I learned it, and even tho Django is a pretty heavy-duty framework for such a small project, I chose it for educational reasons. Despite having worked with three large Django codebases over the course my career, it feels like there's so much more to learn. So I'm also going to use this project as an opportunity to install new libraries, explore unfamiliar techniques, and dig into the Django internals.