About

If you’re here, you’re likely curious about me. Why this page? Life is short, and if it helps someone connect over shared interests, that’s a win. This page also serves as a sort of ever-evolving auto-biography. See something interesting? Have questions? I’d love to hear from you!

Hobbies & interests

Some things that inspire me, in no particular order!

Technology, especially fascinated by retro systems, web 1.0, and homelabs.
Urbanism, with a focus on liveability, walkability, and transit.
Listening to music, particularly progressive rock and metal.
Playing music, drums primarily, but also guitar, bass, and singing.
Solo travelling, immersing myself in another culture, learning its history.
Photography, often landscape, usually with my Pentax K-50 and a 35mm lens.
Continuous learning, introspections, reading novel scientific findings.
Time in nature, rock climbing, hiking, and wandering in botanical gardens.
Financial independance, FIRE movement, DIY investing, simple living.

Assorted fun facts

It’s like two truths one lie, except I’m only listing truths! Again in no particular order.

Came across a highschool friend by chance while solo travelling in Montenegro.
Walked the 15km of roads and highway interchanges separating Brussels and its airport.
Did some urban exploration photography, breaking into abandoned factories and schools.
Piloted an airplane while the pilot was busy taking video footage.
Traveled to Europe (and missed school) primarily to see a one-off music show.
Hosted 16 multi-day themed LAN party weekends, with a rotation of 19 friends.
Hitchhiked and was picked up by a former Navy in the north of Japan.
Reliably traced my lineage in two direction going back to the early 1600s.
Organised and tracked my life in a large digital notebook (3,200+ notes worth of information).
Received a Pentium 3 machine with 64MB of RAM and a 20GB hard drive as first computer.
Didn’t have a cellphone until mid-high school, a Palm Pre I purchased from a part-time job.
Love sharing hugs, receiving post cards, and connecting with others.

Favourite media

Everything listed below, I consider “favourites”.

Listening: Ayreon, Between the Buried and Me, The Dear Hunter, Haken, Porcupine Tree, Rush, Tool.
Reading: Anne of Green Gables, Asterix, Harry Potter, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Little Prince, The Lord of the Rings.
Playing: Age of Empires, BioShock, Factorio, Final Fantasy, Outer Wilds, Ragnarok Online, Stardew Valley, Trials of Mana.
Watching (series): Adventure Time, Angel Beats, Clannad, Doctor Who, Futurama, Freaks and Geeks, Game of Thrones, Kaguya-sama, Spy x Family, Stranger Things, Toradora.
Watching (films): Back to the Future, Ghibli, The Lord of the Rings, Monty Python, Pixar, Star Wars.

Brief timeline

Here’s a very brief timeline of major events of my life. Non-exhaustive, of course!

Growing up

1994 (0y): Born in Québec (QC).
1997 (3y): Moved near Shédiac (NB), where I’d stay for much of the next 20+ years.
1999 (5y): Started attending school.
2001 (7y): Got my first computer (a beat-up Pentium 3 machine). Learned HTML and made my first “websites” (coded entirely in Microsoft Notepad!)
2004 (10y): Around this point, I wanted to become an astronaut and got very interested in everything space-related.
2005 (11y): Started learning English more in-depth.
2006 (12y): Started playing drums, getting my first ever kit (an Alesis DM5-based one).
2007 (13y): Also started playing guitar. Coincidentally, the Taylor I went on to aquire a decade later was built that same year. Learned C++ and got into programmation as a hobby.
2008 (14y): Graduaded from middle school and started highschool. Got into photography as a hobby. At this point I thought I’d get into robotics or electronics as a career.
2010 (16y): Attended my first LAN party. Later that year, I would host my own, a yearly tradition I kept up with friends for the following 10 years before moving out of the province.
2011 (17y): Started learning Japanese on and off.

Entering university

2012 (18y): Graduated from highschool, moved to Québec (QC) alone to attend Université Laval in software engineering. Boarded my first ever flight (a two-seater Cessna 140).
2014 (20y): Transferred university to Mount Allison University in NB (for a variety of reasons) to pursue computer science. Went to the outside the country for the first time (USA). Hiked my first 5k+ ft mountain (Mount Katahdin in ME, a hair short from being an ultra). Went skydiving. Attended my first big convention, PAX East in Boston (MA).
2015 (21y): Took my first ever (commercial) flights, visiting university friends in Calgary (AB), Banff (AB), Los Angeles (CA), and Montreal (QC).
2016 (22y): Hired for my first summer tech internship, at EMC Corporation.
2017 (23y): Spent 3 weeks travelling Western Europe as my first truly solo trip (and first time being outside North America). Completed a second summer internship at EMC (now acquired by Dell). Flew out to Mountain View (CA) for interviews with Google (which I wouldn’t pass).

Starting my career

2018 (24y): Graduated from university, spent 3 weeks in the Balkans solo, and started working at Dell EMC full time.
2019 (25y): Did trips to Boston (MA), Seattle (WA), Vancouver (BC), and spent 2 weeks in the UK solo.
2020 (26y): Accepted an offer to work at Google in their developer relations team. Really got into Final Fantasy XIV while everyone was stuck home. Did a lot of local roadtrips in NB.
2021 (27y): Started working on and released XIV ToDo. Relocated to Waterloo (ON) to work from the Google office in-person.
2022 (28y): Visited New York (NY) for the first time.
2023 (29y): Started rock climbing. Attended my first tech conference as a staff worker, Google Cloud Next in San Francisco (CA).
2024 (30y): Started getting back into travelling, doing trips to Vancouver (BC), Montreal (QC), Boston (MA), Salt Lake City (UT), and spending 3 weeks in Japan. Released a fully revamped version of my website (you’re reading it now!)
2025 (31y): Picked up learning Japanese again. Relocated to Toronto (ON) with my two cats. Went on 12 trips covering 15 cities in all four corners of North America. Built a spec-compliant IRC client for fun.

Change of direction

2026 (32y): Let’s see what this year holds!