Calgary, Canada
2000 - 2008
Born in Calgary and lived there until I was eight. The classic Canadian experience: waking up early for hockey practice, summers learning golf and camping at a few different lakes. The favourite toy was Lego, the standing job was assembling whatever came home from Ikea.
My parents' oil and gas work moved us to Indonesia for 18 months. Little did we know it would kick off a whole series of moves. I went to Jakarta International School, and since the city's one rink sat inside a mall and had no kids' league, I played goalie in a men's league at eight because they needed one.
The next move was Houston. I tried to embrace the Texas football lifestyle but ended up right back at my roots playing hockey. Middle school shop classes were where I first felt drawn to building, and my first laptop, an 11 inch MacBook Air, was maybe the best gift I ever got. I was also the kind of kid who researched his first phone for weeks to find the one with a keyboard that slid out from under the screen.
Adelaide. We lived a block and a half from the beach, and I walked a few blocks to high school, where every student got a Mac for their studies. I downloaded every free app that looked even slightly interesting. South Australia had exactly two hockey teams, so we played each other every weekend, and I got to play for Team South Australia. It's also where building clicked: F1 in Schools had us CAD-design CO2 cars, CNC'd out of balsa with a 3D-printed wing and front bumper. Going through the process of designing something on a screen to holding it in my hands stuck with me.
We moved back to Houston, where I finished high school and kept playing hockey. Part of me already wanted to skip straight to building my own thing, but I didn't know exactly what that looked like. My parents gave me advice that stuck: I didn't have to pick THE path forward, but I did have to choose A path. I chose engineering, applied to the University of Calgary, and headed back to my Canadian roots.
A year of open studies chasing engineering credits taught me the lecture hall wasn't my format. SAIT was: a hands-on software development program where school finally felt like building. Databases just made sense to me in a way nothing at university had. I finished in April 2021 ready to do it for a living.
One of my best friends recommended me before I'd graduated, and I moved back to Calgary for it. Arbor was my people: builders who have a good time doing it, and a few of them became lifelong friends. One of the first hires, I went from analytics intern to integrations lead to rebuilding the AWS infrastructure, with all the ups and downs of an early startup along the way.
Days are contract automation work. Nights and weekends are my own things: Rune Fitness, this site, and a friend's site, plus a 3D printer and some woodworking when the software needs a break. I'm ready to leave Calgary. I don't know where to yet, but I'm going to go, build things people like, and live the whole way through.
Now
Actively building: Rune Fitness, this site, and whatever this summer brings.