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About me

I don't often like talking about myself, but I guess I've got to it for this page. Here goes nothing!

You've probably gathered my name is James and I'm a website developer. I'm not important enough to have my own Wikipedia page (yet), but as a website developer here's my own corner of the world that's mine!

Spilling the tea!

I've been interested in website development since Year 8 in secondary school (that's 7th grade for any US citizens passing through 👋). I saw HTML for the first time in an IT class, and I became instantly fascinated. Being able to change the background colour of a webpage seemed cool to me. Computing and IT generally has always fascinated me since a young age. I'm not quite sure where my interest in computing/IT came from as no one in my family has any interest or connections to programming or IT related areas. I've always said, if I didn't happen to stumble into website development, I would likely be in IT. I turned left instead of right at that crossroads (that's a Doctor Who reference for those who know!)! It ultimately worked out as since the age of 19 I've been doing website development full-time and have over 10 years' experience in website development, marketing and working within the education sector, which is crazy and wonderful place.

Working in Further Education has been an amazing journey since I started. Way back in 2011, I was fortunate enough to be given an opportunity to go from being a student to employee of the same college I studied at for two years where I earned a BTEC Level 3 qualification in Software Development. Fresh faced 19-year-old me had no idea what the real working world was like, how a college worked or what marketing was, but several key people (they know who they are!) took a chance on some clueless college student who just liked to code and provided an environment to thrive, work alongside some great people (some of which I still work with today) and gain a variety of skills. Fast forward to today, I'm a Senior Website Developer who is the primary development and technical lead for one of the largest Further Education college websites in the country (which is both amazing and terrifying sometimes!). My journey is proof of Further Education being a vital and important pathway for many young and adult learners today, which I continue to champion being a product of that journey!

The timeline of me

Here's my journey in the world. Yes, I've skipped some parts, but they are the notable events of how things came to be related to my career and interests.

It was quite fun plotting my own timeline of events, I had to dig out some old records to get the dates for some of these, it has been that long! I feel old now.

The dates should roughly align, although I absolutely am estimating, because time travel hasn't been invited... yet.

  1. I am born into the world

    10 days overdue (I was due in February), and my mum endures 36 hours of labour and an emergency caesarean section (c-section) because I didn't want to come out. Sorry mum (don't worry she reminds me regularly).

  2. First computer for Christmas!

    Seeing my interest in computers and IT from a young age. My family buys me my first PC for Christmas! It's a PC from an OEM called Tiny Computers (which is long defunct now). It comes with Windows Millenium Edition (aka Windows Mistake Edition), the thing would regularly Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). One fresh install of the absolute king that is Windows 98 Second Edition sorts that out. Later on, my mum somehow acquired a Windows 2000 Professional install disk from where she worked. That probably wasn't technically legal for the licencing agreement. Oops. The NT kernel was solid though 👌.

  3. I see HTML code for the first time at secondary school

    On a rainy day in an IT class at secondary school, the teacher shows the whole class HTML code and how it works with web pages. I am instantly intrigued and fascinated. I'm sure I committed unspeakable acts with bgcolor in that lesson. It definitely wouldn't pass Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for minimum contrast that's for sure! I begin learning more about HTML outside of school, alongside CSS and JavaScript.

  4. I learn the consequences of messing with computer systems

    At school we often had tutorials sessions which ended up being boring. I decided it would be fun to play games, but our school network actively tried to block them. I figured out you can download SWF files from websites and run them locally providing you had Macromedia Flash installed. I then discovered unprotected network shares on the school network and proceeded to copy them to these locations, then sharing the file share paths with others so we could all play. I got caught and a swift head teacher detention and near exclusion from school took place. My bad.

  5. Finished my GCSEs

    I finished my GCSE exams and do well enough to get more than 5 GCSEs at C or above (now known as 4 or above) and decided staying on at sixth form to do A Levels was a good idea (spoiler, it wasn't).

  6. I quit A Levels after the first year

    Me and A Levels don't really get along and I decide I want to leave after the first year. Would you believe I got a U (ungraded) in IT? My mum isn't best pleased. I end up doing a PowerPoint presentation about why quitting A Levels to go to college is a good idea. No really, that happened. Having not learnt my lesson of messing around with the school network, I put Quake III Arena on a USB drive and give it to some of my friends who stay on at Sixth Form, couldn't have been me, I left!

  7. I start my college course in software development

    After my A Level journey wasn't the best idea, I start my BTEC course in Software Development at South Nottingham College for two years. Turns out it was the best decision of my life. The course is primarily programming focussed but also has website development modules, which I enjoyed the most.

  8. A potential job opportunity comes up

    A junior website technician role opens up at the college I'm studying at towards the end of my course, my tutor puts me forward. I've only not long turned 19 at this point. I get an interview! It's in a big boardroom and everything. Definitely gave off The Apprentice vibes.

  9. I finish my software development course at college

    I complete my two-year course and come out with a triple distinction. Oh, I got that job by the way!

  10. I start my career in Further Education

    I have about a week gap between finishing as a student and become an employee. I have no idea what the real world is like, but have some great people who help me develop and grow.

  11. Present

    I've been working in Further Education for 14 years now. There's been some mergers and college name changes in between, but still here!

Skills and knowledge

Having already amassed over 10 years of experience in the education sector, I've been able to develop and learn many skills while working for a major Further Education college. Here's some of what my key skills are if you are interested!

Web development things

  • Front-end website development and design (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript all the usual suspects!).
  • Frameworks like Tailwind or Bootstrap for front-end development.
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
  • PHP website application development (Object Orientated Programming/PSR-12).
  • Content Management Systems (Mainly Craft CMS today, but also WordPress a long time ago!).

Technical/back-end development

  • Integrations and APIs.
  • Email marketing and template design.
  • DevOps (Although I try to absolutely avoid it at all costs where I can, give me a Platform as a Service solution any day!).
  • Server Management (Mainly web stacks with NGINX or Apache on Linux based distributions).
  • Cloudflare infrastructure.
  • Amazon Web Services infrastructure.

Tools I use regularly

  • DDEV (PHP development environment).
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2).
  • Google Analytics (GA4).
  • Google Tag Manager.
  • PHPStorm (Integrated Development Environment).

Beyond the web

Outside of website development anything technical usually has my interest, I like technical challenges or puzzles figuring out how something works and learning new things. I'm absolutely not academic (I dropped out of A Levels after the first year), but if there's a technical challenge or a problem that needs solving that usually involves either a keyboard, command prompt or some piece of hardware or software, that's basically like Christmas to me! Like many others in technical roles, website development basically means IT or "you do technical things so you must know why my computer doesn't work" to everyone else, so I'm often the go to for solving IT problems, both family, friends and colleagues!

When I'm not doing website development, I also like writing about topics that are of interest to me, no surprises, usually technical! I have a blog which started over 10 years ago back on my own WordPress site! (It doesn't run on WordPress anymore, Craft CMS all the way!). I'm a strong believer in knowledge sharing and information being a freedom not a commodity or being used for power over others.

I love rock and heavy metal, my family questions my music taste, but I learnt over time that being accepting of all music and genres leads to discovering great bands and mixes that you wouldn't perhaps think can. Spotify is the only service I allow to data mine the crap out of my listening habits and data, as it usually leads to some new recommendations and bangers.

I enjoy some light gaming, gone are the days of being able to come home from school or college and sit on the Xbox 360 for hours on end (great times), I apparently have adult responsibilities like a mortgage (boring) and other bills to take care of.

I'm also a big Formula 1 fan with first memories of the late 1990s/early 2000s thanks to my dad (who sadly passed away in November 2014, miss you dad), seeing the yellow Jordan cars or the McLaren West livery with one of my favourite driver pairings back then with Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard.

I'm someone who also has a smaller than usual social media presence, not because I'm in fact a MI6 agent (spoiler, I'm not but I do technically work for the government!), but because of my personal views on social media and some it's exploitative and potentially damaging qualities both on a psychological and an unconscious level. Despite the typical stereotype of sitting in a dark room with RGB lights everywhere and having servers running (which I do), I do like interacting with other people, so if you want to get in touch my contact form is the best place, given I'm a bit old fashioned with email or dropping by on my GitHub profile and viewing and commenting on any of my projects or discussions! I'm quite active in a few projects that are personally important to me, mainly Craft CMS and various open-source software I use either personally or as part of my work.