A little bit about me #

My name is Rose I live in Canada, I have a family (husband, kids, dog, very vanilla.) and I write software for a living. Or actually I currently manage software developers, but historically I was also one myself.

As a kid, I made websites. And then as an adult, for a very long time, I was in a front-end heavy role, working on a task management app. Lots of JavaScript, lots of CSS... I view the front end as my "home".

However, for the past four years I've been managing a team that writes code to process payments. Payment processing, as you can imagine, is not front end work. So although I consider myself a FED at heart, it's been > 5 years since I did FED work professionally. Working on this site is a way to scratch the itch.

Anyway, enough about that! What more to know about me?

I enjoy reading - my fav genre is fantasy but I'm up to try whatever - I also like tinkering on the web, hiking & running, spending time with my kids, working with my dog, watching ASMR videos (yes I am one of those people - discovered this video in 2013 and never looked back) and vegging out and doomscrolling on my phone.

I am pretty mild mannered and I don't like conflict. I try to get along with people and I stress out when I can't. I am usually a cheerful person and I hope I manage to remain that way my whole life.

A list of nostalgic internet things #

A non-exhaustive list of some of the highlights for me back in ye olden days of the web. Why am I reminiscing so hard? Because maybe someone browing my site will recognize some of these! And it's nice to run into people who remember this stuff and connect over it.

Listed in roughly chronological order but probably not entirely chronological.

Buttons on website entry pages telling people to use Internet Explorer... A big movement by the web to force people off Netscape Navigator... Until eventually Firefox and Chrome knocked IE off its pedestal.
Dolls from The Palace. I don't know what The Palace is but I remember the dolls on everyone's sites and the heading was always "Dolls from The Palace." The dolls were always scantily clad.
Frames were in vogue... but then at some point frames wasn't cool anymore and we all had to switch to tables
Using tables and becoming god-tier level at rowspan and colspan and making things line up just right.
Server side includes
Everybody has a page where they have little pixel art they had created for people to take.
Emojis are not called Emojis, they are called emoticons, and they look like this: .
Slicing up images into hundreds of tiny pieces then piecing them back together with html & css because... performance?
Young people couldn't afford to buy a domain & hosting so other more affulent young people (or young adults) would "host" them and let them piggyback on their shared hosting plan. Most prestigious is if you got your own subdomain on someone's domain.
Everyone used Greymatter and Megabook. Then it was B2... which evolved into the Wordpress we all know today. Movable type had a moment in there too.
Communities like: The quilting bee and the wormie mafia.
Everyone and their mother rushing to get a free .tk domain.
Then suddenly .nu domains were all the rage.
Famfamfam came out with a massive free icon set
The absolute reaction when box-shadow and text-shadow were introduced.

If you think we might be similar sorts of people, maybe you'll like these things that I also like

Books #

Unsouled - I have been talking to everyone about this book series for the last couple years. I am borderline crazy stalker fan level of Will Wight's work after reading his Cradle series (also recommended: his new series, The Last Horizon, a silly and fast-paced space fantasy). These books are addictive and fast to read. Highly recommend if you like any of the following: Fantasy novels, anime, stories about an underdog becoming super awesome. I also recommend listening to the audiobook. The narrator is really great and brings the series to life in amazing ways.

I also love supporting Will's work because he's a self-published author who has become incredibly successful... and that's no small feat! Another cool thing: The team is trying hard to make the dream of an animated series based on the book come to life. They raised over a million USD from fans on kickstarter to create an animatic, and self-funded this sizzle reel.

Video Games #

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom / Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Sorry I'm totally unoriginal, most boring stereotypical person, recommending this world-bestselling ultra famous game. But it's just so good! How can I not. When I first got Breath of the Wild it was like re-creating a magic I hadn't experienced since I was a kid playing Ocarina of Time for the first time. I will always love these games.

Reality TV #

I have never been a big reality TV fan BUT a few years ago my husband and I discovered Love Island. I don't recommend every season, but if you watch it, totally check out Love island UK Season 2, Love island UK Season 5, and Love Island US Season 6... in that order. Some of my most favourite guilty pleasure TV watching right here.

ASMRTISTS #

If you like ASMR, these are some of the youtubers I like. If you don't like ASMR... probably best to skip this section, it's weird. . While I randomly peruse a lot of ASMRtists and could list a lot of names here, not many are on heavy rotation. These are some I find myself coming back to again and again.