Who I am

my name is jen~

I'm a front-end web engineer, part-time vegetarian, video game enjoyer, friend to all dogs, and a bad skater.

I love mountain views and riding my bike.

I'm trying to travel the world to places I've always wanted to see. So far, I've taken trains around Europe and Japan, stayed in a castle in Ireland (!!), and hiked around the moorland near Loch Ness in Scotland.

Selfie of me wearing a KN95 mask at the Lake Charles airport in Louisiana, standing in front of a dual Christmas and Mardi Gras display. There's Mardi Gras themed Christmas tree off to the side, where you can see part of a purple, green, and gold masquarade style mask. The tree also has a photo pinned it that appears to show a shaker of Tony Chachere's spice mix, low resolution mysterious main dish, and perhaps some cornbread on the side. But the primary focus of the photo is the aligator statue behind me. The gator is standing on its back legs at about 4 feet tall and is wearing a green and purple jester hat. You can't see much of my expression behind my mask, but trust me I was laughing. A lot.
"laissez les bons temps rouler" 🙄

Where I'm from

I grew up in rural Louisiana 😵‍💫

you will not hear an accent. and if you think you did,
no you didn't

because internet infrastructure was so bad when I was little, our dialup internet speed averaged 12-14 kbps—as in, kilobits per second.

that is super slow.

and somehow, I still managed to enjoy being on the internet and learning HTML and CSS. (thank you Lissa Explains It All!! 🙇🏻‍♀️).

anyway...

to be honest, I hated living in Louisiana, and I dreamed of leaving since I was little.

after I graduated, I moved to Austin, Texas 🤠

some of my favorite things about ATX, off the top of my head:

  • watching the bats fly out from under Congress St bridge 🦇
  • citywide scavenger hunt, ending at Easy Tiger
  • tamales, Ramen Tatsuya, migas breakfast tacos, and pancakes at skull and cakebones
  • Austin Chronicle halloween mask every year 👻
  • learning to skateboard in the IBM parking lot
  • catching a live show for The Front Bottoms in downtown Austin (Talon of the Hawk album)

What I'm doing now

in 2021, I moved to the pacific northwest / Seattle area with my family, and we love it here. 💖 My neighborhood is walkable! The air quality is good! Internet is fast! Weather is pleasant! And there are wild otters here! Truly, living the dream.

maybe I'll write more here later. this is fine for now~