$ cat hello-world.txt
I might be just another random person on the Internet, but if the algorithms somehow gave me the favor of you reading this, then let me introduce myself:
Hi, I’m Ael, a software engineer, runner, and matcha fanatic who writes about my learnings and musings. I created this space — typedby.ael — to record what I’ve learned, question what I don’t understand (and unravel it until I do), and just about everything in between. The name speaks for itself: this is a repository of the things I type – in a literal sense.
You’ll find a mix of technical deep dives, thoughts that haven’t fully settled as I figure out the 20s, as well as miscellaneous things about me scattered here and there.
🛠️ My job
I work as a software engineer, and my working weekdays revolve around designing, architecting, and building cloud solutions primarily in AWS. My career goal (at this point in writing this post) is to work as a research scientist, but I've had my fair share of abrupt career path redirects, so let's see how things will turn out.
🏃🏻♀️ I'll let you decide
I did say I was a runner, but seeing social media right now, I think everyone has their own definition of a "runner," so I'll just spill out what I've gone through with running so far.
I bought my first pair of running shoes in the fall of 2023 as an outlet for one of the hardest things I had done until that point in my life (my senior project). I ran my first race – a 5K Turkey Trot – after two months, and when winter hit with tons of snow where I live, the hiatus began.
The hiatus lasted nearly a year, and I started running again as fall was fading away in 2024. I took another hiatus (because of the snow, obviously) and signed up for a 10k race in May, which forced me into staying committed as soon as the snow started to melt.
At the point of writing this post, I've been running consistently for about 6 months, and am three weeks away from my first half-marathon, so let's see how that goes.
I probably have too many running shoes for a novice, but I try to get away with myself into thinking that new gear forces me to stay more consistent.
🍵 My obsession is not passive
I know matcha is the drink that's going viral on Instagram to the point where Japan is running out of its matcha supply, but to those who may think I'm just "following the trend," I will say my first ice cream flavor was matcha, and that I will always, always, always 2X-shot my matchas. I will never get matcha at places where they don't have the option to 1. take out the sweetener and 2. add an extra scoop of matcha, because my whole point is to taste the vegetal and slightly bitter grassiness of the tea.
🎯 You might want to read my stuff if...
This space is actually a revamp of my old blog that I used to host on GitHub.
I wanted to add a bunch of features (like email notifications), but all the feature implementation got in the way of producing better-quality posts, so I found an alternative platform.
So...
If you're someone who learns by doing, reflects by writing, and needs clarity to the point where you can explain every little detail, we might get along together pretty well on the same boat.
So, whether you know me in person or not, welcome, and I hope what I write here can be helpful or resonate at some point.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention,
The first few posts will be me moving over stuff from my GitHub blog, so it's gonna seem like I'm ignoring reality and grinding blog-writing.
Anyway, hope to get more on this new platform.
Until next time,
Ael