Hello! I'm James W. A development engineer, originally from the UK but who moved to Canada in 2018. I am currently working with both JavaScript (TypeScript, React.js, Node, Gatsby, and Ionic) and Python (Flask, Django etc).

I first started with web development in 2011 as part of a college project and never dropped it. I then changed my plans for my undergraduate degree from marketing to "Multimedia Web Design" at the University of Gloucestershire. My professional start was in a few agencies developing bespoke WordPress themes amongst other things like natural language processing powered chat bots, and interactive direct-marketing campaigns.

I've been a professional developer for 7 years, working in a variety of environments including non-profits, creative agencies, and enterprise level product development settings. Working on a diverse range of web based projects both for B2B and consumer facing audiences. My professional journey so far:

• Technical Lead @ Points.com
  Toronto, CA • 2022 Jan to Current
• Development Engineer @ Points.com
  Toronto, CA • 2021 Mar to 2022 Jan
• Web Developer @ Points.com
  Toronto, CA • 2019 Mar to 2021 Mar
• Web Developer @ Silver Agency
  Cheltenham, UK • 2016 Oct to 2018 Nov
• Web developer @ Fusion Design & Print
  Cheltenham, UK • 2016 Mar to 2016 Oct

If you want to find out more about my experience or projects check out my posts where I try to cover all the interesting and challenging projects I've worked on, or feel free to reach out on LinkedIn. For those more interested in something more formal that you can download, take a look at my resume.

Things I use

For work I use a MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) plugged into a LG 34″ UltraWide Monitor (34UM69G-B) using a Dell 3000 USB-C dock, and a wireless Apple mouse and keyboard. When I need my headphones I've got a set of Bose QC 35s. For fun I've got a self-built gaming PC, specs for which are outlined in this post: Building my own PC.

I use IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate as my project IDE and a little bit of Sublime Text for other random files. In both I use FiraCode (with ligatures) as my code typeface of choice, and on the command line I use iTerm2 running with ohmyz. Building things and surfing in general with the help of Firefox Developer Edition as my daily browser. I use Obsidian for my notes, which is hooked up to a GitHub repo.

This site

This site is built with React using Gatsby, to staticly render. I am using MDX for posts and styled-components to handle the design. All deployed via Netlify from its home on GitHub.

This website is estimated to produce 0.05g of CO2, everytime someone visits. Which is estimated to be cleaner than 96% of the internet, find out more with the Website Carbon Calculator.

Currently reading

To keep track of the books I am reading with Goodreads.

I also keep a list of all the blog posts I've found and have read which you can see on my reading list.

Everybody has a testing environment. Some people are lucky enough enough to have a totally separate environment to run production in.
- @stahnma