Bio

I was born and bred in Feilding, a small town of around 14,000 people in the lower North Island of New Zealand. I am the second eldest child of four, and the only daughter.

My hobbies include:

• Reading - mostly science fiction and fantasy, Kate Atkinson, Sara Douglass, Juliet Marillier, Joanne Harris, and The Hungry Little Caterpillar!
• Watching TV - Supernatural, Doctor Who, Crime Mysteries, British Comedies mainly
• Movies - Star Wars, Studio Ghibli, Amelie, The English Patient, The Princess Bride
• Gaming - Mostly Adventure Games like Forever Lost and Syberia, and RPG such as Final Fantasy VII
• Learning Languages
• Cryptic crossword puzzles
• Cooking and Baking

I finished high school at age 17 knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I then completed the BMLS (Medical Laboratory Science) degree at Massey University. After this, I gained a job as a medical Laboratory scientist at Gisborne Hospital, the city where my mother was born and raised, and our family history dates back to the 1800s with the arrival of my great-great-great grandparents on a ship from Cornwall, so it made sense. I worked at Gisborne Hospital for at least 15 years, and perhaps a few more.

Then in 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and I had a baby a few hours before the first nationwide lockdown. This required me to completely rethink my career trajectory I had been on since sixth form at high school, due to the hours being pretty horrific and high risk for catching Covid-19. I had always been talented with computers, having been writing my own programs since my pre-teens, starting with Basic and Turtle Basic (vector drawing) on the family's Amstrad CPC-664 computer. So it was logical to pick a new career path that would lead to me doing something I loved, and which would lend itself to more flexible & family friendly hours. I also desperately needed some mental stimulation. A kaiawhina that had been visiting us regularly since my son was born, accompanied me to check out IT courses at EIT. After much deliberation I decided to enrol in the Level 4 NZ Certificate in IT Essentials starting January 2022. I loved it so much, a few weeks after it started I enrolled in the Level 5 NZ Certificate in IT. Being spontaneous for the first time in my life. Near the end of that, I found out I had completed part of the BCS degree, so I decided it was now or never and I took a leap and re-enrolled. I'm looking to carve a new career for myself, or at least a decent side-hustle. In the future I see myself as being a programmer ultimately in the gaming industry.

Web Technologies

My top 5 web technologies I use:

• Web Design:

  I would consider my level of Web Design to be intermediate. I learnt some basic HTML and Java 2 years ago, and coded a basic website using only HTML. Since then I have updated and broadened my skills and written two websites for Level 4 and Level 5 courses, using a mix of HTML 5, CSS and Javascript.

• Google Forms:

  I am intermediate level for this. We used Google Forms to create user feedback surveys in both Level 4 and Level 5 courses, and it is fairly straightforward to me now to create a range of questions using various structures.

• Diagrams.net:

  I have used this software extensively to create mainly flowcharts, organisational structure diagrams and ERDs since Level 4.

• Lucid Chart:

  I am beginner level for this software which I began using this semester (2023 semester 2) for my DBMS class to create a high level ERD. I am about to use it again to create a fully attributed ERD as it seems more user friendly than Diagrams.net that I have used up until now.

• Bootstrap 5:

  I began using this technology only this semester (2023 semester 2) so I would consider myself as a beginner. There is still a lot for me to learn with regards to Bootstrap.