Daniel Allen

Off the clock

Same guy, different theme.

The other half of this site is my resume. This half is what my weekends are for. If we ever end up working together, this is the stuff you would find out about me in the first week anyway.

Back to work

Pixel-art Daniel in a cyberpunk jacket inside a neon cyan ring, pointing forward

Interests

What the weekends are for

Pixel-art running shoes, a marathon bib reading 26.2, a finisher's medal, golf clubs and tennis rackets

Athlete

Most people hate running. I think it is great.

I did not become a runner until my first job out of college. Leo Burnett had a stack of spare Chicago Marathon bibs one year, a coworker and I raised our hands, and neither of us had ever run past a 5K. We got in shape for it. That race changed how I think about hard things, and I have been running ever since: 5Ks, marathons, and one 50K that seemed like a good idea at the time. Two decades on I still train year round, and this year's goal is to beat the times I ran in my twenties, which takes a lot more discipline than it did back then. The rest of the roster is a weekly golf league my wife and I got into together, tennis whenever I can find a singles match, and pickleball with my parents. Running also got me a job once. The hiring manager was a marathoner too, and that was that.

Pixel-art cap reading number one dad above a Lego Pokémon Center with Pikachu on the roof, a toy car and a bin of bricks

Dad

Driveway to driveway, exactly one mile

My son is three and a half and a little mini me, right down to the Legos, the Hot Wheels and the monster trucks. I was always career first, and then he showed up and rearranged the list. Now the important stuff is being there for it: the arcade, the zoo, and building whatever he wants to build. He says he wants to play golf and he runs every time he sees me running, so we will see. We moved to Geneva in 2018 for the quaint little downtown, and my parents liked it so much they moved into the neighborhood a mile up the road. Then my sister and her family followed and landed right at the half-mile mark. My whole family is a walk from my driveway, and honestly that is my favorite thing about where I live.

Pixel-art track saw, impact driver with batteries, calipers, a micrometer and gauge blocks

Craftsman

Every tool you could possibly want

I come from a long line of carpenters and bricklayers. One grandfather was a machinist for Ford with a South Bend lathe in his basement, and I still use his tools. The other did marquetry and built furniture and houses, and my uncle carries that on today. I worked finish carpentry in college, and I still do my own electrical, plumbing and cabinetry, so nothing around the house is off limits. After a full day in front of a screen there is nothing better than going down to the shop and making something real. I will admit I am a power tool guy: a CNC, a track saw, a lathe and a mill. I care about accuracy and speed more than doing it the old way, which probably makes me less of a woodworker in some people's eyes. Cabinetry is my favorite, because it is a system with rules, constraints and good materials, and a kitchen built that way should last forever. It scratches the exact same itch as a design system, just in plywood.

Pixel-art 3D printer with a spool of filament, a soldering station, a desktop CNC and loose electronic components

Engineer

When I need something, I design it and build it

I was the kid with the Erector set and the Legos who followed the instructions once and then built his own inventions. I started college in mechanical engineering, got a taste of civil engineering through an internship, and then the web business I was running on the side won out. Software is still engineering, just digital. The maker side never left. When I need a part I open SolidWorks and 3D print it or cut it on the CNC, and when I need a gadget I solder one together with an Arduino behind the LEDs. The arc reactor I built one Halloween came real close to the one in the film.

Pixel-art desk with a laptop and monitor showing code, a mechanical keyboard, coffee, a database and a small server

Developer

It is my job. It is also my hobby.

I started out as a database guy writing stored procedures, moved into full-stack .NET, and drifted toward the front end because I like seeing the thing at the end of the day. Most full-stack developers hate front-end work, so that worked out nicely for me. I never stopped. When I clock out I will pull the laptop onto the couch and code something up: a new stack to try, a design system to tokenize, some little tool nobody asked for. I do not try to monetize any of it. I just enjoy the work. This site is one of those projects.

How this site is built

Pixel-art home studio with an electronic drum kit, a bass guitar, an electric guitar and a MIDI keyboard

Musician

I did not see the bass coming

I have played something for as long as I can remember: clarinet, keyboard and drums as a kid, then a friend showed me his Stratocaster in seventh grade and I had to have one. I played guitar in a band in high school, was never much of a singer, and have kept the guitars through everything since. About four years ago, right around when my son was born, I got the itch to build a home studio and picked up a Jazz Bass. I fell in love with it. Every song I have ever loved has a great bassline, and coming from drums I would rather sit in the pocket and hold the whole thing together than be the frontman. I play almost every night now. It calms me down. The studio has grown to three basses, an electronic kit and a MIDI keyboard, and I am finally learning enough theory to write my own music instead of only playing other people's. There is a short-scale bass waiting for my son whenever he is ready.

Gamer

A Sega kid who grew up Nintendo

My parents got me a Sega Genesis when I was tiny, and I still remember watching my mom play Sonic. The Nintendo 64 was the first console that was mine, and my best birthday memories are Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie and GoldenEye with the neighborhood kids. Pokémon was the biggest obsession of all, big enough that I named my son after a character from the show. Now he loves Mario Kart and the Mario movies, so the stuff I loved as a kid gets a second life with him. On my own time it is Diablo II for old times' sake, Elden Ring when I want to earn it, and Cyberpunk 2077 above everything. I have finished that game more times than I should admit, and its world is the reason this half of the site has its own look. One day I would love to build a game of my own for him.