Last night, I discovered Blaugust! I've been wanting to write more, and this seems like a great way to push myself to do exactly that. I doubt I'll write 31 posts this month ... I'm already a day or so behind. However, writing even 5 posts this month will definitely be a record for me.

The suggested prompt for the first day is to introduce yourself, so that's what this is! (I guess technically my first "blaugust" post was about a scam call).

I'm Andrew! I'm a software engineer from Toronto, Canada. For me, writing code isn't just about solving the problem. It's about understanding the domain and finding an elegant solution that, ideal, makes solving the next problem just a little bit easier. I'm passionate about the craft of writing code, and about finding good patterns and conventions that can make building tools simpler. I've had jobs as both a primarily front-end and primarily back-end developer. Right now, I consider myself to be pretty full-stack, and work on the server and client most days. But I think I'll always be a little more comfortable on the back-end. I worked in fintech for a while, but now I work in education tech. I've worked mostly in JavaScript or TypeScript environments. These days I enjoy discovering and sharing TypeScript patterns that improve developer experience.

For most of my time on the internet, I've been writing or making videos about programming. Originally, I did this for Tuts+. Apparently, they're still updating and republishing some of my old articles!¹ A few years back, I started making videos again, this time on my own YouTube channel. And now I'm trying to write here more often.

So far, this blog has been mostly technical, it's been programming-related. However, that's not the only thing I think about. I'm a Christian, and am always learning more about what it looks like to have a deeper relationship with God, and to live out my faith. Christianity is supposed to be primarily about that relationship, and not about a lot of the other stuff that gets labeled as "Christian" these days. Religion has done a lot of harm to a lot of people in the name of Christianity. I'm also interested in topics like productivity and having healthy relationships.

However, I think I'll stick to writing about technical stuff for now, at least publicly. I'm excited to be participating in Blaugust and look forward to discovering new bloggers to follow!

Thanks for reading!