Why am I writing?

I wanted a new project, I have an interest in the web and I wanted to improve my writing. I had been thinking about learning a new programming language for a while and it occured to me that perhaps I could do that and write about it as I went along.

I mentioned the idea to one of the Ruby developers at work. I was fairly sure that as I'm a newb I would have nothing useful or interesting to say. His response inspired me to write everything on this site. He said, "There is always someone that started learning a week after you".

So I plan to spend 2015 learning Ruby and blogging about my experiences. I aim to write at least one post a fortnight but I hope to exceed that. I will post my code to a public github as I go along for others to play with, advise on, improve or maybe even use.

What have I done?

I have been making websites since I was about thirteen. I started playing around writing HTML in Notepad on the family computer back in the mid-ninties. I received an original iMac in exchange for my first "paid" website about three years later and started taking it a little more seriously from then on.

I have worked as a freelancer on web and graphic design projects on and off around day jobs since then. I have a design company called Image Circus and still take on occasional projects when time allows.

Primarily I have built sites on top of WordPress, Drupal and Concrete5. The projects mainly involved a lot of front-end design and leaving the CMS to do the heavy lifting.

Last year I decided to roll up my sleeves and learn PHP. After about eighteen months I got to a place where I felt quite comfortable with the basics and confident that I could find my way through the things I didn't know as they arose. I built an eCommerce site, a gallery for my wedding photos and a tool to generate avatars from minecraft usernames.

I learned from Treehouse, a couple of books and a lot of googling. Handily my brother is a senior developer and despite living across the pond he gave me plenty of advice and suggestions to improve my code. I am also priviledged to work with an amazingly talented bunch of designers and developers. All of whom have helped me out with various questions along the way.

Who am I?

"He's just zis guy, you know?" Gag Halfrunt

I'm a recent immigrant to the capital from the wilds of Kent. I work in a non-technical role for an awesome public sector web agency near the hallowed roundabout. I get to meet all sorts of interesting people that I had never expected to work with and I get to have meetings in some of the most awesome buildings in London. Most importantly I believe that the work we do makes a difference and it feels good to be involved in improving the public sector for everyone.

In my spare time I like to tinker with code and occasionally electronics. I'm interested in multirotors and the potential applications of aerial platforms. I also love video games but rarely find time to play them.

I'm married and live with my wife and our two cats in North London.