It's Been a Minute...Or Two...

Hey guys, It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but I’m excited to say—I’m back! 👋

Over the past few months, I’ve taken some time to tidy up various aspects of my life and improve this site under the hood. While there isn’t any new content apart from this post, I’ve spent countless moments pondering, battling deployment errors, and (frustratingly) trying to wrangle Next.js tree-shaking into submission.

The biggest upgrade is that I’ve integrated a CMS! 🎉 After a lot of research and experimentation, I went with Outstatic, and I couldn’t be happier with the choice. It lets me keep full ownership of my data, stick with Markdown, and avoid the chaos of pages breaking because of stray apostrophes 🙄. I can already feel the difference—it’s so much easier to manage everything now. I’ll be sharing more about why I chose Outstatic and the challenges I ran into while setting it up in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!

---

Life Away From My Desk: Hiking & Wild Camping Adventures 🥾

Outside of the world of software, I’ve had some exciting outdoor adventures this year. Back in May, I hiked Skiddaw, and more recently, I attempted The Cumbrian Way. Both were incredible experiences with my best friend Lizzie, and I’ll write up some posts soon to share the beauty, highlights, and must-dos from those trips.

As a self-confessed camping gear nerd, I also want to dive into the equipment I used during The Cumbria Way specifically. Stay tuned for gear reviews and tips too! I’ve tried some fantastic gear this year and can’t wait to share my thoughts with you all.

---

A Festive Tech Challenge! 🎄

Since it’s December, it only feels right for a tech household like ours to take on a festive challenge! James (my partner, fellow dev, and all-around legend) and I have been working on a fun Christmas project together this year! We've wires up our Christmas tree with 400 addressable LEDs powered by an Arduino and Raspberry Pi. It’s been our couples side project for the past few weeks, and while it’s almost ready, we hit a classic snag...we need an extra power supply to handle all the LEDs we ended up using! Thankfully, it’s arriving tomorrow (fingers crossed!).

Once everything’s up and running, I’ll share a full post diving into what inspired us, how we made it work, and all the tools we used to bring it to life!🎄

---

Dream Job Announcement!

The biggest news this month?... Tomorrow morning, I start my dream job as part of GitLab’s Dynamic Analysis team! 🎉 I’ll be helping build tools that empower customers to create more secure software—a mission that feels both exciting and incredibly meaningful to me.

Joining a company that’s globally scaled, 100% remote, and deeply committed to innovation like GitLab feels like a dream come true. If you’d asked me a year ago whether this would happen by the end of 2024, I’d have called it “pie in the sky”(now I’m picturing an actual floating apple pie 😋).

Finding a new job wasn’t something I planned for this year, but sometimes destiny has other ideas. GitLab’s company values and ways of working align perfectly with my own, and I couldn’t be more grateful to start this next chapter of my career. I’m beyond excited to collaborate with brilliant minds and contribute to work that not only pushes the tech industry forward but also truly makes a difference in creating a safer digital world.

---

A Moment of Gratitude & Reflection

This past year hasn’t been the easiest, I’ve had my fair share of struggles with my mental health, but sitting here now, I can honestly say I feel so grateful for where I am and for the people who’ve supported me along the way.

Whether you’ve been a blessing or a lesson, you’ve played a role in shaping this journey, and I truly appreciate it. The universe has a funny way of delivering what you need when you least expect it, and I couldn’t feel more blessed as I step into this new chapter.

Here’s to new adventures, meaningful work, and the little joys that make life so special.

xoxo

Hannah