Words and Patterns

When I was around 8 years old, one thing I discovered about myself was that I was drawn to using words and patterns to create things. This was back in 1999, so for me this meant learning that HTML was a thing, and that I could create my own websites to form image galleries of images that I, well, right-clicked and selected "Save image as" from all over the Internet. And being 8 years old, my local folders were neatly organized to hold Hello Kitty and Pikachu images off websites I chanced upon through what used to be the "Yahooligans!" Yahoo! website for kids.

This hobby drove me to pursue Computer Science as my major in college, once I found out it was a major I could apply for, considering I had pretty okay marks in Math, Science, and Computer in my report cards.

After graduating college, spending 4 years in the industry doing front-end programming for a multinational company, changing careers entirely, and dipping my toes into programming again during the pandemic just to leave it again - here I am in February 2025, attempting to get into rebuilding my coding portfolio. Again.

The plain truth is that I am struggling financially, and I am right now trying to capitalize on what skills I can still salvage from the back of my head. I've worked a year in government service, and as how government tends to be in developing countries, the pay is not enough for me to sustain my needs. A third of my pay is reserved for paying obligations and paying back debt.

On top of that, my family is unhappy that I am choosing my own path instead of choosing to be exactly like our relatives. These are family members with volatile personalities, and even the shockwave from just their mood being off can send one's mental wellbeing flying backwards. Much more for scenarios such as admitting to being content to live and earn in one's home country, compared to relatives who migrated to much more developed countries at much expense and hardship.

Anyway. So now I'm trying to figure out firstly, the fastest way for me to earn more, and secondly, the fastest way to be independent from my toxic family.

For this Lunar New Year, all I really pray to achieve are genuine peace and prosperity. So, this is me restarting through reconnecting with my interest in using words and patterns to create things.

So for the nth time, Hello World.