cjsatnarine.space/blog/content/about_me/_index.md

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Hallo, I'm CJ! I'm a 20 year old from Kitchener, Ontario with dreams of being a graphics programmer/technical artist/game developer. I attended Software Engineering Technology at Conestoga College between September 2023 and August 2024. Turned out I didn't like software engineering, so I dropped out. Nowadays I'm just working on projects and trying to teach myself a few things.  

I do not use generative AI in any of my work. At this moment, I do not plan on using generative AI in any of my work. 

I like sharing and learning about things relating to my interests in maths, art, computer graphics, linguistics, history, tech, and programming.

<h2 id="vaxandi_forritari">
    Vaxandi Forritari 
</h2>

The phrase ***Vaxandi Forritari*** is Icelandic for ***learning programmer***. I loved programming since I was 16, discovering my love for it in highschool when learning to make a game in the Unity game engine. I'm familiar with the following programming languages:
- *C#*: learnt it in 2021 for scripting in Unity
- *Java*: learnt it in Computer Science class in highschool, spent most of my time in Grades 11 and 12 using Java
- *Processing*: used it for making graphics in Media Arts class in highschool
- *Python*: learnt it for scripting with the [Blender Python API](https://docs.blender.org/api/current/index.html), later used it to try out Pygame and [Blender's game engine](https://upbge.org/#/)
- *Arduino*: this is C but I learnt this before learning C/C++, used it in Computer Engineering classes in highschool
- *C/C++*: used a bit of it for programming [Mirobo UBMP4s](https://mirobo.tech/ubmp4) in high school Computer Engineering classes, learnt way more in college when persuing software engineering
- *6808 Assembly*: learnt it in college and I never want to touch it again
- *HTML, CSS*: learnt it to make this website
- *JavaScript*: learnt it to script in Three.js
- *Lua*: used to configure Neovim, used a bit with LÖVE

<h2 id="aspiring_graphics_programmer">
    Aspiring Graphics Programmer 
</h2>

My admiration for computer graphics grew with my interests in programming and 3D animation. Finding out I can combine my love for programming and graphics changed me. Since July of 2024, I have been trying teaching myself graphics programming (it's difficult but I love it). Currently, I am teaching myself *OpenGL* and *GLSL*. Eventually, I hope to move onto something modern like *Vulkan* once I'm more experienced. I also hope to experiment more with *HLSL* in Unity and the *Godot Shader Language* in Godot. 

<h2 id="amateur_linguist"> 
    Amateur Linguist 
</h2>

I'm really into languages. Since I was kid, I have loved learning about other cultures and traditions, including their languages. For a while, I was grinding Duolingo, but that felt more of a game than actually learning, so I stopped that and tried learning languages through other means. My native tongue is English, but I find interest in these languages: 
- *Deutsch*: currently learning both Hochdeutsch and Schwiizerdütsch from my Swiss friends
- *Español*: learnt some Spanish when I was younger, not really good at it but I can barely hold a conversation
- *Français*: learnt a bit in school, but my French is really bad as I often confuse Parisian French with Swiss French
- *Nederlands*: learnt some when I was younger, I'm not as good as I used to be
- *Dansk*: an unfortunate event occured
- *Íslenska*: I know this cool Icelandic guy and the language is so cool because they still use þorn
- *Norsk*: Norwegian is interesting but I already know some Danish and I'm not sure if I want to learn Danish but less funny-sounding
- *Lingua Latina*: learnt a bit in school, pretty cool language
- *ελληνικά*: Greek is kinda cool, I wanna learn it in the future
- *Русский*: I have no interest in learning Russian but I am going to torture myself by learning Russian just to read Tolstoy's War and Peace its original language
- *Suomi*: my brother is learning Finnish so I might learn it as well for the funnies
- *Davvisámegiella*: I discovered Northern Sámi through music, and I think it's a cool language
- *Kalaallisut*: Greenlandic was also discovered through my music, I think it's also cool 

Unfortunately, I do not think I'll be able to learn all of these languages. That's fine, I'm happy about learning as much as I can. 

<h2 id="wannabe_game_developer"> 
    Wannabe Game Developer 
</h2>

I have had an interest in game development for as long as I have been learning to program. Throughout my time programming, I have used (and plan to use) a couple of game engines: 

- *Unity*: this was where I learnt how to program in C#, and where most of my experience lies in terms of game engines (picked it up in 2021)
- *Godot*: learning Godot because I love FOSS, I use C# instead of GDScript for scripting (picked it up in 2025)
- *UPBGE*: tried out [Blender's game engine](https://upbge.org/#/) for a few months but I wasn't a fan of scripting in Python so I ditched it 
- *GDevelop*: yeah no
- *LÖVE*: tried it out but it was more of a playground than using it as an actual game engine
- *Pygame*: did a bit in highschool, but that's about it
- *Kyzen*: soon to be first beta tester of [Kyzen 2D game engine](https://github.com/luut189/kyzen)

<h2 id="adventuring_animator"> 
    Adventuring Animator 
</h2>

While learning and falling in love with programming at age 16, I also fell in love with *Blender*. My introduction came from Media Arts class, where I initially learnt Blender for making assets for Unity. I fell in love with creating models and experimenting with shaders. The following two years of high school were spent developing my skills in the software. After graduating highschool, I stopped using the software to focus on software engineering for college for about two years. Now I hope to revisit this old passion of mine, and also venture into the unknown territory of digital art with *Krita*. 

<h2 id="music_enjoyer"> 
    Music Enjoyer 
</h2>

I listen to a lot of music. Uh, what type of music? It's a complicated mess. The genres and languages of the music I listen to is all over the place. I hope to eventually learn how to make my own music for future animation and game development projects using [LMMS](https://lmms.io/).

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