what i love
design, ux, creation, creativity, exploration, development, empathy, community and love. i strive to give everything, and aim to leave things better than how i found them. reading is a passion, and a vital resource for wisdom. always looking to experience something new, and always aiming to be a better person.
"rich is the person who is content with what they have" - beth kempton
decided to make a web component button...(it aint finished yet)
"npm i gk-wc-button" to try it yourself
thoughts
i am not exactly sure what the intention is behind this website. is it somewhere to showcase small bits of code, various parts of my life and personality? as someone who is constantly changing my current interests and seeking new things, it can be hard to keep track of what i am practicing. i am trying to keep a balance between life and work, but they often overlap to the detriment of myself. i fear that if i do not keep up to date with the latest and greatest gadgets, then i somehow fall behind, but conversely, if you read too much, you never actually get to do anything purposeful.
"he who wrestles with us, strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. our antagonist is our helper." - edmund burke
i have often tried to think about what would make me happy. overtime, my ideas have conflicted, changed and morphed into different things. know thyself is a phrase that i value. if you don't know or understand what you want in life, how can you be happy? i often muse over what we all think is and is not important. we all strive for the latest and greatest, but it is only when something difficult happens in life that we realise that all we previously desired was meaningless. should life be about developing my own personal self and others even if that means earning less money and being less "successful"?
"don't waste energy worrying about what you don't have. that is the route to misery. instead, pay attention to the good already in your life, and do your best at whatever you are doing. there is joy in the satisfaction of that." - beth kempton
i don't like to be tied down to one thing, one route. to be self-reliant, and have freedom of movement is something that i want. but how to achieve such a thing? i don't even know what freedom of movement would entail. i am not even sure that i would want to travel too far from my family for prolonged periods of time. i sometimes feel torn between the desire to travel, and the actual physical action of travelling. sometimes the thought is easier and more enjoyable than the action.
"how we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depends on how the mind filters and interprets everyday experience." - mihaly csikszentmihalyi
i like to make things. to develop things. does this mean that i should aim for a life of personal diy. small hobby items at the weekend, or something greater? turn it into a career. but would that then restrict my freedom of movement? owning a business takes time, effort, stress and risk. i aim to avoid stress but i am not sure that can be attained as a web developer. as someone who has developed a large dose of imposter syndrome, i frequently feel inadequate when compared against others. but none of this matters when viewed from afar, so why should i care?
"only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment." - mihaly csikszentmihalyi
as someone who who frequently reads, i am always gaining insight to how other people think, act and what they think is the right and correct thing to do. some of these ideas have previously conflicted with each other and has caused my mind to be caught down the middle. as someone who seeks guidance from others, this has been a confusion within my mind. as i grow older, my ideas are becoming more concrete and i feel able to discern between what i believe in, and what i don't. i continue to read, and i hope you do as well.
"we give away freely that most precious of resources - our attention - and in doing so, we cheat ourselves out of the gifts that are already here." - beth kempton
"there is great beauty, value and comfort to be found in simplicity." - beth kempton
books
non-fiction
- why we sleep: the new science of sleep and dreams by matthew walker
- flow: the classic work on how to achieve happiness by mihaly csikszentmihalyi
- wabi sabi: japanese wisdom for a perfectly imperfect life by beth kempton
- 12 rules of life by jordan b. peterson
- ikigai: the japanese secret to a long and happy life by héctor garcía and francesc miralles
- the essential gandhi: an anthology of his writings on his life, work, and ideas by mahatma gandhi and louis fischer
- zen & the art of motorcycle maintenance by robert m. pirsig
- lila by robert m. pirsig
fiction
- liveship traders trilogy by robin hobb
- the riftwar saga by raymond e. feist
- the farseer trilogy by robin hobb
words
zen, buddhism, taioism, yoga, meditation, tea, ying and yang, baking, pizza, japan, mindfulness, consciousness, independence, truth, simplicity, family, education, self-control, books, philosophy, health, sound, energy, chaos and order, expression, light, life, patterns, flow.
technical skills
worked as a software tester for three years before taking a sideways step into the world of web development.
as a full-stack developer, i have worked with vue.js and quasar to build both a simple spa, and complex translation dashboard. developed both rest and graphql api's to retrieve and post data to a sql database. worked with the django framework which required upskilling in python, and also required me to better understand crsf, and user authentication.
as a software tester, i developed and executed test scripts for web and mobile applications. designed and maintained test metrics for stakeholders. maintained a test automation suite. developed proficient knowledge of xquery to execute complex queries within a nosql marklogic database to both inject and locate data. implemented complex bash scripts to be more efficient in testing.