I am originally from the Highlands of Scotland but currently living in Munich, Germany. I am a Frontend Developer, I love military and political history, I am a keen motorbiker, I enjoy reading and I like learning new languages. I have many passions and I do my best to explore them wherever possible, I think that I am the kind of person who likes to know a little about alot and would describe myself as a "jack of all trades, master of none".
Currently I am working at Futurice as a Software Engineer, primarily focussing on Frontend, Accessibility and Integration topics.
I am passionate about Accessibility, Performance and UX topics.
Of these, the topic of Accessibility is of a particularly strong interest to me and I am in the process of applying to be a member of the IAAP.
I believe that Accessibility, Performance and UX are all interlinked and very important areas of focus with all contribute to fulfilling the promise of the open web: Open, fair, equal access to information and resources.
Primarily my core knowledge is based around the web and thus my knowledge of languages revolves around there too.
My primary languages are HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Node, Python and SQL.
Ofcourse, within these languages, I also have knowledge of libraries and the use of them professionally and in side projects but the most important thing, in my view, is less about library or framework knowledge and more about language specific knowledge as that is far more transferrable and useful, thus I will not list my knowledge of such things but be aware that I am more than proficient in their use, should the requirement come to pass.
I'm currently learning more about SaaS, Haskell, User Experience and Project Management.
Here is what I am currently studying and what I plan to study on Udemy.
In my free time, I am beginning to focus on contributing to the open source Amatino Accounting Project and help to manage and maintain the Node and Python API wrapper projects.
On top of this, I also have a few side projects, of which you can see on my github profile.
In my free time I have a few core interests, I have tried to break these down into mini deep-dives to explain my interests in a bit more detail below.
In the last few years I have spent a good part of my free time studying things related to history. Usually these topics are surrounding cultural history and more often than not, military history topics. Most of my focus in the last year has been around the early modern period and the late modern period. Before this, my focus was on classicaly antiquity up to the late middle ages and currently I am transitioning my focus to split between classical antiquity and further divulsion into the late modern period.
The thing about history is that no matter how many angles you view a topic, no matter how many times, you always have something new to see or come to light and it is honestly fascinating to me reading up on myths and legends and stories of a bygone era and its people. From the classical greek period, we have lesser known people in history such as Alcibiades of Athens or lesser known events like the thebian & spartan war up to the modern period and controvertial events like Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The point I am trying to make in some form or another is that my interest in history stems from the fact there is always a new perspective, a new person, a new event, or whatever it may be, to learn and ponder and that's something I think is pretty darn cool even if it does make me a total history nerd.
I am a keen motorbiker and raced in motocross events for many years when I was younger. I own 1 motorbike back in scotland, a Lexmoto XSF 125 for those interested, and plan to purchase another one for over here in Germany by the end of the year, potentially a Yamaha tracer 900 with trekker panniers or the like, since I am an avid touring biker and plan to travel alot next year through east europe and the balkans.
I got my first motorbike when I was 4 years old, if memory serves it was a 50cc Yamaha PW80 and for my age, that was a big bike. I used to love going out on the bike after getting the hang of it and it engrained a love of motorbiking from a very young age into me.
When I was around 8, I began to participate in Motocross racing for quite a few years until I was around 15 and from this I developed a love of motorsport. I watch Formula 1, Supercross and Motocross events whenever I can catch them and honestly, I hope to one day get back into motorsport again.
In my free time I also enjoy reading as much as possible but admittedly I am a slow reader and so try to compensate for this by reading more than one book at once. I prefer reading fantasy, history and crime novels most of all and below is a list of the books I am currently reading when I get the time.
| Title | Series | Author | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instrument of War: The German Army 1914–18 | N/A | Dennis Showalter | Physical book |
| The Dark Tower | The Dark Tower | Stephen King | Audiobook |
I really enjoy learning languages even if only to the most basic degree. Some have stuck with me a bit more than others but I find that when I travel that it is more respectful to atleast try to speak in the local language instead of potentially forcing english onto the person you are talking to; ofcourse sometimes this is necessary but it's always nice to try.
| Language | Experience level |
|---|---|
| English | Native or bilingual proficiency |
| German | Professional working proficiency |
| Gàidhlig | Elementary proficiency |
| French | Elementary proficiency |
| Swedish | No proficiency |
Periodically I write blog posts on what I am working on, topics that interest me or just share some thoughts on life or work.
Currently my personal writing blog is under maintenance, however my dev blog can be found here: My Development Blog.