Hi there! This is my very first blog post here on my website, so I figured it would probably be best to take some time to introduce myself. My writing skills have atrophied a great deal, since I haven’t really had to write anything except documentation and confluence pages since my freshman year of college (2019), so please bear with me. Hopefully this will be more bearable for both of us as time goes on and I write more.
My name is Grace, and I am a 22 year old software engineer currently living in Northern New Jersey. I work in NYC, so you can usually find me roaming 6th ave in Midtown Manhattan at 9am once or twice a week on my way to the office.
I was born and raised in NJ, and anyone who has spent more than five minutes with me knows I love my home state. I am a Jersey girl through and through, and I have no plans to leave for the forseeable future (I did - Boston for a year, for work against my will- and I hated it so much I returned expeditiously). I have a B.S. in Computer Science from NJIT, and I currently work for a large bank (if you live in the U.S. you’ve probably heard of it. Think: Samuel L. Jackson saying “wallet”).
Despite having a full-time job, I am, however, trying to break into the world of embedded systems, so I’m doing some baremetal C programming projects with an Arduino I got for Christmas nine years ago. I also created this website to get some frontend experience, since I don’t really do much frontend stuff at work (even though I’m technically supposed to be a “Full Stack” engineer). I’m writing this on my 6 year old college laptop that I “put out to pasture” by installing linux, but now it runs super fast because Windows OS engineers don’t seem to understand the concept of optimizing code. Linux ftw. Also I’m typing this post text directly into VSCode because I used Jekyll for the formatting of the site, and the post files have to be stored as markdown files, and Github Pages only supports static sites. It’s not a fun experience. Maybe next time I’ll just write it in a word editor or something and copy/paste it into the md file. That would have been smart, but I’m in too far now, so I’ll have to commit for this post.
Outside of work and tech stuff, I hike, do pilates (getting my teacher cert right now!), crochet, and read as much as I can. I’m also into wine, but I don’t go to many “official” tastings, I usually just buy a few small bottles, sample a bit of each, and take notes.
Fun facts about me:
- I have a three year old cat named Wayne (It doesn't mean anything, I didn't pick it. He came preloaded with that name at the shelter)
- I crochet. A lot
- I have been trying to learn to play the bass for the past 6 years. All I have to show for it is like 3 random basslines and most of the bassline from The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala. I say most because there is SO MUCH SLIDING in that song. My fingers hurt after like five minutes, so I give up. I recently (finally) purchased Rocksmith for learning purposes so hopefully I'll be more inclined to practice if its in game form
- I'm a big fan of hiking, I just wish I had more time to do it. It's really only feasible on the weekends.
- I hate roller coasters
- I also hate horror movies/haunted houses/anything involving jumoscares Basically, I'm a huge weenie.
- I *do* like creepy/unsettling things though. Salad Fingers, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, Possibly in Michigan, and Analog Horror NOT including jumpscares are favorite videos of mine. I also have a pretty in-depth knowledge of FNAF lore lol
- I'm a little bit of a hater, and often sarcastic. My friends would agree.
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Quick Facts about me:
- Currently Reading: Can't Hurt Me by Dave Goggins. I woke up at 6am and ran six miles the day after I started reading this. I did not do it again haha
- Currently Listening: Embedded Podcast - Elecia White. I've also had her book Making Embedded Systems on hold at the library for like 3 months. My patience is wearing thin but the podcast is good.
- Currently Watching: The Paper. It's a spin off of the Office that takes place in Toledo with one carry over character. Not bad... but it's not the Office.
- Currently on my wish list: The lucky iron fish. Anemic homies rise up.
- Food: At the moment, birria tacos, but it changes often
- Color: purple
- Season: Early fall - still hot out but the leaves are starting to change
- Band: Wallows
- Song: Connie by The Buttertones
- Music Genre: Alt Rock
- Movie: (unironically) How to Train Your Dragon. The animated one, not the bs "live-action" CGI mess they just released. (side note: I hate all these live action adaptations of movies that were originally animated. COME UP WITH ORIGINAL IDEAS)
- Book: I don't think I have one. I read a good amount, but I don't really reread any.