Hi, I'm jiratickets, or JT for short. Best known for shitposting on Twitter.
Contact
I live in Chicago. If you're around town, let's get some coffee, beers, or yakiniku. As alluded to above, I'm very active on Twitter. Message me there to get in touch.
(I've seen through 100% of requests to meetup with strangers and have made a few new friends as a result. I intend to keep my perfect record. Please rendezvous at your own risk; quality conversation is not guaranteed. I'm just some guy.)
About
I work as a data engineer for a US federal agency. Before government IT services, I did *big data* marketing analytics for a certain beloved hamburger company, and even used to sling those very hamburgers as a food delivery driver. Both jobs taught me a lot about human behavior.
Something I like to tell people is that I'm a self-taught software developer. This is an overt exaggeration. Truthfully, I lack the fundamentals -- fortunately, that doesn't seem to matter anymore! I still manage to build cool things all thanks to one easy payment of $19.99/month to the shoggoth that may or may not end up killing us all.
Beyond Columns and Code™, I very much enjoy reading personal blogs. Having been inspired and motivated one particular afternoon, I decided to spin up my own and contribute to the web's wealth of knowledge. (You should consider it too!)
My writing is amateur, some of it pure junk, and lots of it likely to embarass my future self, but ultimately I think someone out there might get something out of it -- and I know at least I will if no one else.
Outside of tech and the aforementioned reading and writing, I love watching films, traveling anywhere at all, and the world at large: all of its interesting people and places. Romantic, right? Lots left to do.
Now
Elon Musk's DOGE is making work a lot more exciting than usual -- in all of the best and worst ways. I'm still employed, for now, and actually aiming to get promoted soon. A future exists where my official job title is composed of seven words instead of the mere six I'm currently rocking. That will show my peers.
There's a new apartment lease on file somewhere out there that bears my name and has financially anchored me in the Midwest for the near-term.
I'm having lots of fun playing Thursday night trivia at neighborhood bars. I really like the geography and history questions.
Japan will see another tech bro begin his obligatory pilgrimage in just a few days. I've learned the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets to prepare, not as impressive as it sounds, and also something I've now realized won't actually do me any good out there. Duolingo marketing won that battle.
I left a note here to provide an update on my New Year's Resolution. The goal was to not half-assedly doodle once per day in a vain effort to improve my artistic abilities. Started off strong but I regret to announce I'm currently about 76 drawings short.