Welcome to Joel's Hiding Place
Why hello there! I'm Joel - the coder of computers, the writer of words, and the listener of songs.
I work at Chick-Fil-A as a Team Lead, attend my church twice a week, and serve on both the tech team and the service team.
In my free time, I drink coffee, write stories, and program desktop applications. I use Arch Linux on my main PC, MacOS Tahoe on my laptop, and only use Windows for gaming.
My current programming projects are:
mDirt, a Minecraft Datapack IDE
Crossed, a scheduling app designed specifically for churches
and of course my own Church's website!
I am writing a sci-fi anthology called The Sky We Left Behind. Writing the first short story about the end of the earth.
What I'm Doing Now
👨💻 Programming:
mDirt - a Minecraft Datapack IDE built in Python.
Crossed - a scheduling app designed for Churches.
✍️ Writing:
A dystopian sci-fi anthology, titled The Sky We Left Behind.
📚 Reading:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
🎵 Music:
Mostly classic rock - Zepplin, the Eagles, etc.
🎮 Games:
Minecraft. Hytale. Any co-op games with prox chat.
🧠 Learning:
Preparing myself for college.
Learning app development for iOS and Android.
Last updated: April 15th, 2026 | Inspired by nownownow.com
Now Playing
Track Name
Artist Name
This widget displays what song I am currently listening to.
Thanks to Josh for the idea.
Writings ✍️
A place to share my writings and worlds.
Destruction First Draft
A sci-fi short story about humanity's exodous from earth, and one man's quest to save his family.
Project Overview
Progress: 13% complete (663 / 5,000 words)
Genre: Sci-fi Thriller
Themes: Gods, kings, lies, political drama.
Synopsis:
Thirty years ago, the United World Government interrupted every signal on Earth with a single announcement: the planet was dying, and only a fraction of humanity could be saved. Hundreds of massive life ships—Arks—were already under construction, but nowhere near enough to carry the global population. Billions would be left behind.
At the time, there was hope. Scientific projections estimated nearly a century remained before Earth became uninhabitable, giving humanity time to evacuate in an orderly, if cruel, selection process.
That estimate was wrong.
Now, three decades into the evacuation effort, a second broadcast shatters what remains of global stability. Planetary systems are collapsing far faster than predicted. Humanity is informed it has four weeks before Earth becomes completely uninhabitable. The selection process is immediately reduced to randomized allocation, leaving most people with no control over their fate.
In the midst of this collapse, Josiah Martin realizes his family will not be chosen. With time running out and systems already locked into final evacuation protocols, he makes a decision that will define his survival: he will not wait for selection. He will infiltrate an Ark.
Current Stage: First Draft
Main Characters
Characters coming soon.
World Building
Story Excerpts
All word counts are pulled from my Google Drive every 30 seconds.
Weekly Devotional
"Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble."
- 1 Peter 3:8
We live in a world filled with hate, anger, and division. Every day we see people tearing each other down instead of lifting each other up. But God calls us to a different way, a way of compassion and humility.
God calls us to love instead of hate, to be slow to anger, and to walk in humility. When we live this way, we reflect the heart of Jesus in a world that desperatly needs His light.
Devotional published once a week.
Programmings 💻
My recent programmings. From applications to websites to backend tools.
Retro Website
This very website! A CRT 80s vibe!
Tech: Vanilla HTML, CSS, and JS.
Bitpad
A developer-focused text editor for notes, ideas, and inspiration built with PySide6. It features session persistence, find-replace, and everything else you'd expect from a notepad-like tool.
Tech: Python, Qt6.
mDirt
A desktop application that provides a robust IDE for creating Minecraft Datapacks.
Tech: Python, Qt6.
Crossed
A desktop & mobile app that provides an easy to use schedule system, designed specifically for churches.
Tech: Swift, C++.
About Me 👋
Hello! I'm Joel - a developer, writer, coffee-drinker, and procrastinator.
- 🚀 Started coding at age 8 with Scratch
- ☕ Coffee consumption directly correlates with code quality
- 🎮 Retro gaming enthusiast - nothing beats the classics
- 🌟 I love Git. I hate Git. - Every programmer ever
- 🎸 I also write songs. I cannot sing, sadly
- 🎮 Games get made when I find motivation
When I'm not programming, writing, or thinking about programming and writing, you can usually find me playing games with friends, building computers, or eating chocolate.