About Me

I’m C.J. – a creator with equal affection for art and spreadsheets, for fantastical stories and logical structure. I like taking messy chaos and turning it into something that makes sense: a cleaner process, a better tool, a coherent story, and a sensible world.

I’m proudly a lifelong nerd in the best way: I love design across just about any medium and I love building interconnected systems (whether they’re in software, databases, or fictional universes). And since I was born on the same day as The Legend of Zelda, it’s kind of inevitably become part of my personality.

When I’m not working, I’m often found making things: writing, tinkering with software, building games, cooking, building with LEGO, or otherwise getting lost in fictional worlds.

What I Actually Do

I build. I learn what I need to learn, and then I make the thing that solves the problem at hand.

That habit is what pulled me into programming. In a Quality Assurance role, I kept running into “we need a tool that does X” moments – So I learned to make those tools. I started with VBA in Microsoft Access and Excel, and mixed in some SQL and Python. Over time, I’ve shifted into C# and modern development (Visual Studio & Unity).

I’ve love designing in many mediums – from Adobe Creative Suite, drafting plans for furniture or clothing, cooking new recipes for specific tastes. The medium changes, but the goal never does: Make a form that follows function, filling a need in a reliable, clean and (hopefully) pretty.

Background

I’ve worked in manufacturing Quality Assurance, where I dealt with ISO documentation, business processes, and the strange beauty of how everything connects. I also built internal tools along the way, including a document management system and auditing utilities (with examples in my portfolio).

Earlier on, I spent time in e-commerce (including running my own small online business and helping manage other people’s) and studied graphic design — which is still part of how I think: clarity, usability, and communicating a message cleanly.

History

I’ve moved around a lot growing up, which helped me to quickly learn to be flexible, adaptable and to go with the flow. Like all of us, life has had a large amounts of ups and downs, sadness and joy, spice and flavor. Eventually life led me to Utah where I went to school, got married in the mid-2000s, and now have two crazy, but wonderful children.