There’s a reason the phrase stuck around.
Studies have shown people spend less than 10 seconds forming an opinion about a book based solely on its cover. And publishers? They often drop $500 to $3,000 on cover design — just for that first impression. It’s wild, but it makes sense. Presentation matters. Vibe matters.
So what am I doing right now?
Working on the cover of my own book.
But in my case… it’s not a book. It’s a weird neon math festival game.
🔧 The Labels Were the Hardest Part?!
This week, I’ve been locked in on the main menu of SnowCone MathFest. Getting the labels to sit perfectly on a resizable PNG sounds simple, right? But holy hell — it wasn’t. Between screen scaling, CSS positioning, and image aspect ratios, it felt like I was building a laser light show with duct tape and faith.
And even though I’m using ChatGPT to help me code (shoutout to my partner, Patch), I’m still very much teaching myself how to do this. The AI tool is powerful — but it’s also wrong a lot. Like, kindly-wrong. Confidently-wrong. Just enough to keep me questioning everything.
But that’s been the surprising gift: it’s forcing me to slow down, test ideas, and actually understand the system I’m building. I’ve restarted this project from scratch, and this time around, it’s finally feeling real.
📁 From Chaos to Scalability
Last version of this project? Over 2,000 lines of HTML smashed into one file. No folders. No organization. Just vibes and hope.
This time?
✅ Folder structure.
✅ /assets, /js, /css, /dlc… you name it.
✅ Clean repo.
✅ A modular codebase I can grow.
I’m not just making something that works — I’m making something I can build on. And that’s a huge shift.
🎨 Seeing It Come to Life Again
Honestly? The best part has been seeing graphics on screen again. For a week it was just structure and planning, but now it’s glowing buttons and floating labels and vibes. And it feels… fun again. And now that I’m not hindered by a silly head cold, I feel… fun again.
I can’t wait to show you all SnowCone MathFest as it comes together.
It’s weird. It’s bright. It’s math. It’s music.
It’s mine.
🚀 Coming January 1, 2026
Too ambitious? Probably.
Still gonna try? Absolutely.
Stay tuned.
– JPS Grooves
JPS Grooves 
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