Welcome

Welcome! If you’ve stumbled across this blog, chances are you’re either curious about what I’m working on or lost in a tangle of Google search results. Either way, you’re here now, so I may as well introduce myself.

I’m a software developer based in regional Queensland, Australia, where kangaroos vastly outnumber job opportunities—but we make it work. I’ve been involved in IT in one form or another for over 15 years, but these days I focus mainly on .NET software development. It’s a space I’ve grown to enjoy more the deeper I dig into it. C# and ASP.NET Core are my tools of choice, and while I wouldn’t say I dream in code, I’ve definitely woken up once or twice thinking about database seed logic.

Right now, I’m actively working on three projects that reflect the kind of developer I am: practical, slightly obsessive, and heavily influenced by years of online community-building.

The first is Vanguard, a modular fan club platform designed to support sci-fi communities like Star Wars and Star Trek. It’s built on ASP.NET Core MVC and MariaDB, with a focus on strong admin tools, rich character and faction management, and the kind of database integrity that would make a DBA raise an approving eyebrow. Vanguard was inspired by groups like Emperor’s Hammer and Bravo Fleet—organisations that once required entire teams of volunteers to manage. The idea behind Vanguard is to simplify that: reduce the workload, increase engagement, and make it easier for fans to just enjoy the universe they love.

The second is TapestryMUSH, a modern reimagining of the classic PennMUSH server. If that sentence means anything to you, we’re probably already friends. If not, think of it as a text-based multiplayer roleplaying server where creativity takes the front seat and visuals don’t exist. I’ve been part of that community for decades, and TapestryMUSH is my attempt to rebuild the platform using C# and .NET. It’s telnet-based, modular, and entirely my own codebase—no softcode, no legacy cruft. Just a clean, modern MUSH engine built from the ground up for today’s hobbyists.

The third project is a Star Trek episode API called Subspace—a small but useful tool I’m building to catalogue and serve data about Star Trek episodes across all series. Originally conceived as a way to randomly select an episode to watch, it’s grown into a fully structured API built with ASP.NET Core and hosted on my own infrastructure. It’s a practical exercise in RESTful API design, but also a way to combine two of my favourite things: clean code and starships. Eventually, I’ll use it to power a web interface, but for now it’s already proving useful for testing and side tooling.

Beyond the code, I also have a growing interest in adversarial testing—pushing systems (especially AI models) to their limits to see how they respond when faced with the unexpected, the edge cases, or just plain nonsense. It’s an area that sits at the intersection of curiosity, logic, and breaking things on purpose, which suits me just fine. I’ve built a structured database to track my own testing efforts and I’m actively exploring how this kind of testing can be integrated more deeply into responsible AI development. It’s not just about tripping up chatbots—though let’s be honest, that can be fun—it’s about making systems safer, fairer, and more robust.

This blog is where I plan to document my progress on these projects, share code snippets and design thoughts, and occasionally rant about whatever strange bug or illogical behaviour I’ve run into lately. It’s equal parts development log, digital garden, and thinking-out-loud space. If you’re into software architecture, ASP.NET Core patterns, procedural text-based game engines, or the darker corners of AI behaviour, there’s a good chance we’ll get along.

I won’t get too personal here—that’s never really been my style—but I will be honest. This space is meant to reflect what I’m working on and thinking about, not polished marketing copy or influencer fluff. If I figure something out, I’ll share it. If I hit a wall, I’ll write about that too. And if I find something weird, cool, or deeply frustrating along the way, you’ll hear about it.

Thanks for reading. Now, back to the code.