Hi, I'm Alex :) I'm a Full Stack Software and Web Developer based in Cardiff, Wales. I tend to let my imagination get away with me and in my spare time I make whatever I feel like making.
I play football (soccer) for the most part as a getaway from software, but mainly as an exercise to refresh my mind, especially if the work has stagnated slightly and motivation is down.
If the software I'm working on excites me then I rarely take myself away from it.
Aside from spending time with my family or playing with my kid and dog, any of my other hobbies come into play. Reading, biking, snow shoeing, photography, board games, video games, and occasional wood working.
Meditation, and running. In a way I consider these priorities one and two with life before anything else, not in a flag waving way, just in regards to physical and mental health as a platform for everything else.
Outside of that also being really careful to ration out technology use and attention use during the day - you can't expect to focus on anything taxing if you're diluting your attention between phone / twitter / news / netflix / games / etc / etc / etc.
Senior software developer at Amazon Web Services. I work on the AWS Serverless Application Repository and AWS SAM. I’m passionate about writing quality software and teaching others how to do the same.
Location
Seattle, WA
Education
BS Computer Engineering, Minors: CS and Math
Work
Sr. Software Development Engineer at Amazon Web Services
I go for long walks or hikes and practice yoga. Yoga is great because it's hard to think about anything else while you're upside down in a headstand. It's also good for my terrible posture, one of these days I'll learn to sit properly while coding.
I also love snowboarding, although I can only make a few trips a year to the mountains. It's the ultimate distraction from life, and my seasonal treat for myself. I'm almost forced to stay off the internet, there's often terrible or no internet connection, and being distracted by anything else while flying down the slopes isn't an option because I'm usually just focused on not falling off a cliff and not crashing into a tree or another human. So, while I'm in the mountains, I can be totally in the moment and like enjoy some breath taking views.
Endurance sports and training. Running, biking, rock/ice climbing, mountaineering, and any thing outside. If I didn't do this, I would constantly be doing software and eventually run into burnout. You need time away to let the good ideas sneek in from the subconscious.
Read books, play Magic The Gathering in real life with friends casually around a kitchen table, woodworking (including the never-ending house remodeling projects). Can't really say yardwork in summer distracts, because lawn-mowing time is catch up on development podcasts time :)
Latest comments (38)
I play football (soccer) for the most part as a getaway from software, but mainly as an exercise to refresh my mind, especially if the work has stagnated slightly and motivation is down.
If the software I'm working on excites me then I rarely take myself away from it.
Aside from spending time with my family or playing with my kid and dog, any of my other hobbies come into play. Reading, biking, snow shoeing, photography, board games, video games, and occasional wood working.
Drawing (sometimes dot-to-dot), running/working out or death metal :)
Meditation, and running. In a way I consider these priorities one and two with life before anything else, not in a flag waving way, just in regards to physical and mental health as a platform for everything else.
Outside of that also being really careful to ration out technology use and attention use during the day - you can't expect to focus on anything taxing if you're diluting your attention between phone / twitter / news / netflix / games / etc / etc / etc.
Spend time with my family, read books and play ice hockey.
I go for long walks or hikes and practice yoga. Yoga is great because it's hard to think about anything else while you're upside down in a headstand. It's also good for my terrible posture, one of these days I'll learn to sit properly while coding.
I also love snowboarding, although I can only make a few trips a year to the mountains. It's the ultimate distraction from life, and my seasonal treat for myself. I'm almost forced to stay off the internet, there's often terrible or no internet connection, and being distracted by anything else while flying down the slopes isn't an option because I'm usually just focused on not falling off a cliff and not crashing into a tree or another human. So, while I'm in the mountains, I can be totally in the moment and like enjoy some breath taking views.
Endurance sports and training. Running, biking, rock/ice climbing, mountaineering, and any thing outside. If I didn't do this, I would constantly be doing software and eventually run into burnout. You need time away to let the good ideas sneek in from the subconscious.
😎 اكشّت بالبر
That's mean spend more than one day in the desert. 😎
I build trebuchets. It allows me to hone a different set of engineering, plus the benefit of watching pumpkins explode is pretty rewarding.
Read books, play Magic The Gathering in real life with friends casually around a kitchen table, woodworking (including the never-ending house remodeling projects). Can't really say yardwork in summer distracts, because lawn-mowing time is catch up on development podcasts time :)