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Derek's Digital Garden

About Me

Some Context…

I am a technical architect who sits in a weird line between functional and technical specifications. I know how to deploy applications and make sure they are optimized — however, I don’t have the detailed know-how of how companies use said applications. I know some basic concept of the application’s data model, which I could get by from time to time but for anything else “functional” I am not the right guy to ask.

I have survived this ever changing industry through my fondness for tinkering - the curiosity to figure out how things work when they suddenly just stop working. I have some background in programming which helped me go through lines of code from different scripts and programs to figure it out. Of course I am useless if your application is a black box where everything is compiled.

I have survived the pandemic mostly by offering my life to a series of projects almost 24/7, devoiding me of my personal life and a chance to enjoy any hobbies. Once freed I rediscovered cycling and explored many places which gave me a fresh perspective in life i.e. that not everything revolves around the four corners of my work desk.

Some History…

I grew up in Manila, Philippines but thanks to work I visited places in the United States1, England, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. While life is definitely better elsewhere I decided to live in the Philippines because my family is here. I have seen how immigrants are treated these days, and I don’t plan on getting any of that experience anytime soon. If you’re an immigrant, great. Just don’t judge me if I chose to stay in my country even if I can be anywhere if I wanted to.

I earned my degree in Information Technology in 2006 (pre-iPhone era. Sheesh), after getting exposed early on to computers when I was in high school. I figured I can work on computers all day and not get bored. Turns out the pay was good, so I was lucky.

I have reached a point in my life where I can no longer store information in my head for quick retrieval later, and so I built this site for my reference. If this helps you in anyway that’s great, although I would appreciate it if you could buy me a coffee.

Footnotes

  1. Just one state, really. ↩