u/Glum_Carpenter_6706

I'm not an artist. I'm not a musician.

But I am a guy who has been on the incredible journey of becoming a parent, with all the highs and lows it brings.

I don't often share, and I don't have people around me to talk to, so many of the challenges and mental upheaval that come from the journey were internalised and pushed aside to focus on the needs of my family.

When my son turned one, it was also Mother's Day, so needless to say, my wife was especially emotional about her baby being a toddler.

To capture that moment and share a message of love, I wrote some rough lyrics, then spent a long time polishing them. I then tried uploading them to Suno, an AI site that sets music to the lyrics you supply. After a lot of work, trial and error, and more versions than I can recall, I had a song called 'Always Yours'.

Although the song was a gift to my wife, I found the process extremely cathartic.

It prompted me to start creating more songs, focusing on the entire journey from my viewpoint. What began as a gesture to my wife became a personal journey that was as healing as it was satisfying. For the first time, I felt like I was telling my story, and the story of my wife and son, as I, the father, experienced it.

In a world where, as the father, I felt practically invisible to anyone but my wife, creating 'Small Hours' has been an incredibly difficult, joyful and rewarding experience. I listen to the songs, I try to sing along, and frankly, I often can't, because I'm too busy tearing up.

Undoubtedly, this is not an avenue for everyone. But for me, I've been able to put my feelings into words, share them with others who may find them resonant, and, importantly, my family now has this very special memory of a time that has been transformational.

The album is called Small Hours, by The Little Crow (because my son loves to mimic crow sounds), and it covers the first year of becoming a father.

If you'd like to have a listen, you can search The Little Crow on Spotify.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the music if you do have a listen, but also, what have you done as a father to share your experience? Did you do anything to capture that first year?

Hey r/SideProject!

I'm the solo developer of RouteMap. It's my first app, starting from zero knowledge through to release.

The problem
I do a lot of long-distance trekking, and I use Strava for everything. Strava logs each activity individually, but I wanted to see it all at once. Every walk, run, and ride across every city and country I'd been to, on a single map. I couldn't find a tool that did that well, so I built one.

What it does

• Draws all your Strava routes on one world map.
• Lets you favourite, hide or group routes into collections.
• Has a timeline view and a few route styles.
• Only shows activities you deliberately recorded, never auto-detected ones.

Tech

• Expo / React Native app for iOS and Android.
• Backend on Railway with Postgres.
• RevenueCat for subscriptions.
• Builds through EAS.

What I learned

• Drawing thousands of routes on a map is where the performance problems start. I currently cap the map at 1,500 routes (favourites and collections are always drawn over the cap), and replacing the map engine to remove that limit is the next big piece of work.
• App Store review was the hardest part. I went through several rounds before finally getting it right.
• Shipping to both stores at once has doubled my testing time.

Where it stands
It's live on iOS and Android. It's free to use, with an optional VIP subscription (A$4.99/yr) for extras. I'd love feedback on what you'd want from a tool like this, and I'm happy to answer questions about the stack, the store review process, or anything else.

[iOS Link] | [Android Link]

I have a second trekking-based app in the works, with the goal to have that live before the end of the year. In January of next year, I'll be trekking 1,000 km up the East Coast of Australia, and I plan to use RouteMap and the second app to support and visualise that trek. The trek retraces the Sydney Cove shipwreck survivors' walk to Sydney, and I'll be retelling the story as I go. If you're keen to watch the trek unfold, my Instagram is jaseinthewild.

Thanks for reading, for your support, and for any questions that you ask!

Jason.

https://preview.redd.it/jxd2mg5hqmsh1.png?width=1270&format=png&auto=webp&s=f6f00a65f86f9977dfbcb60b404bf35e01cdf3bd