• Luanching Nebuloid

    For my entire existence as a software engineer, I didn't have a website! In the back of my mind, it was always nagging at me…

    1. Me

      Nolan, why not build a website? Nolan, it'll show recruiters you mean business. Nolan, your website though!

    2. Also me

      Yeah, yeah, inner me…I get the idea! Shush now, I'll make my website.

    3. Me again

      Okie :)

    …Yeah, my inner monologue happened pretty much just like that. Except, it took place over the course of a few years, while in school and on the job.

    I feel like this is a relatable experience to any web developer without a personal website. Take it from me: not having a website doesn't make you a worse developer, but it also doesn't advocate for your abilities either. That said, I'm quite proud to introduce my developer blog & portfolio, Nebuloid.

    Why Nebuloid?

    I wanted a website that had a space-themed domain name. Unfortunately, many of the good ones were taken. At some point I settled on a made-up word. Since it was (relatively) unused, I felt I could claim it as my own. …although, my domain now shares the namesake of an obscure item from Animal Crossing.

    After adopting the name, it became a little bit more personal to me than just this. We all have a multitude of conjoined and conflicting parts that make up our collective selves. Nebuloid became an abstract manifestation of a part of me!

    …Hmm, perhaps more aptly: Nebuloid is just a techy developer brand of mine. 😉

    Technologies

    I wanted to be the owner of the website from the rock-bottom to the tippy-top of the whole stack. I created a Backend API and a Frontend website for it, set up a Linux Server and a DB Cluster, using all of these technologies:

    • TypeScript
    • ESLint
    • NodeJS
    • ExpressJS
    • GraphQL
    • Mongoose
    • MongoDB
    • Linux Server
    • SSH
    • NGINX
    • PM2
    • NextJS
    • ReactJS
    • SASS
    • Figma
    • StoryBook

    Lovingly, I collectively call this the GREMLiN Stack. Okay, that's a made up acronym, but it sounds pretty good, right?

    Creating something like this, and owning it throughout the stack, really helped me grasp a whole onslaught of topics. I hadn't had much experience with Figma or with Server Administration, for example.

    As a Full-Stack developer, I believe its important to understand the entirety of a project's stack on some level. While people are right to declare a niche of their work as a highlighted expertise, at times its just as important to understand the connecting areas of a system. And while I maintain this philosophy, I also just think its fun to see everything connect smoothly and seamlessly. That, my friends, is why I am a Full-Stack engineer, and not specifically a Frontend or Backend engineer.