BLOGit started as a school project in PHP and MySQL. It could not run on Vercel, so I rebuilt it with Next.js and TypeScript, and moved the database to Neon Postgres. Same look, much stronger backend.
The club final went right down to the last minute. Muddy field, loud crowd, sausage sizzle by the gate. Club rugby is where you see how much the game means to a community.
Some cafes are happy for you to work all morning, some are not. Buy something every hour or so, sit at the small tables, and skip the lunch rush. Bring headphones and a charger.
The hour after sunrise and before sunset gives soft, warm light that makes everything look better. Turn off the flash, tap on your subject to focus, and slide the brightness down a little so the sky does not turn white.
When an event runs smoothly, nobody notices the AV team. We handle the microphones, the music, the slides and the screens. Our job is to make sure the people on stage can be heard and seen.
Two fonts are usually enough: one bold font for the headline and one simple font for the details. Give everything room to breathe. Empty space makes a poster look more professional, not less.
I tried six cafes in one week. The winner had smooth milk, no bitter taste and served it at the right temperature. Runner-up was faster but a bit weak. Tip: go before 8am to skip the office rush.
A poster has about three seconds to get attention. Before I open any design app, I write down the one thing people must remember, like the event name and the date. Everything else on the poster supports that.
A database is like a set of very strict spreadsheets. Each table holds one kind of thing, like users or posts, and each row is one item. The website asks the database questions in SQL, like "give me every published post", and shows the answer on the page.
Most of my projects use React, Next.js, TypeScript and Tailwind CSS, with Node.js on the backend. I like this setup because one language covers the whole site, front and back.
I studied Computer Science at the University of Auckland. The biggest lesson was not one language or tool, it was learning how to break a big problem into small steps and keep going when something does not work.
My interest in tech started at school when I built my first website. It came top of the class, and that was the moment I realised I liked making things people could actually use.
Plan five dinners before you go, buy what is on special, and choose home brand where you can. Oats, eggs, tinned tomatoes, pasta, onions, carrots and chicken thighs are my base list. Leftovers become lunch.
I built my first website with plain HTML and CSS. It was just a page about my favourite songs, but seeing it in the browser felt amazing. Lesson learned: start small, finish it, then make the next one a bit bigger.
A big bag of rice goes a long way. Fried rice with frozen veges and egg, rice with mince and gravy, a simple curry, rice pudding for dessert, and rice soup when you are sick. Cook a big batch on Sunday and keep it in the fridge for up to three days.
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is about 19 km and the weather changes fast. My list: rain jacket, warm layer, hat, gloves, 2 litres of water, lunch, sunscreen and a charged phone. Book your shuttle the day before and check the mountain forecast in the morning.
Catch the early ferry from the city and you can be on the summit in about an hour. The path is rocky lava field most of the way, so wear proper shoes. Take water, because there is none on the island, and look back at the city skyline from the top. Worth it every time.