who I am

my name is jen~

I'm a software engineer, pescatarian, 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.

Recent 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}

Photo of me as a kid, early 2000s. I'm sitting at my desk. I'm proudly showing off my computer, which is now extremely dated. The CRT monitor looks almost as big as me. — moments before booting up Age of Empires

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.

GIF of Honda racecar from Initial D anime drifting around a sharp corner, headlights flashing.

after I graduated, I moved to Austin, Texas 🤠

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

getting married in downtown Austin💖
watching the bats fly out from under Congress St bridge 🦇
citywide scavenger hunt with my coworkers at IBM
tamales, Ramen Tatsuya, migas breakfast tacos, and pancakes at skull and cakebones
Austin Chronicle halloween mask every year 👻

what I'm doing

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~