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. Anyone who works with me hears about all of it in the first week.

Back to work

Pixel-art Daniel, his wife and their son in cyberpunk armor inside a neon cyan ring, Daniel pointing forward

Interests

Life outside work

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

Athlete

Two decades of running, and I still love it.

I didn't take running seriously until my first job out of college. Leo Burnett had a stack of spare Chicago Marathon bibs. A coworker and I raised our hands. Neither of us had run past a 5K. We trained from scratch. I have been running ever since: 5Ks, marathons, and one 50K ultramarathon that seemed like a good idea at the time. Two decades on, I still train year round. The goal is to beat the times I ran in my twenties. That takes a lot more discipline than it used to. The rest of the week is a golf league, strength training, tennis, and pickleball with my parents. Running even got me a job once. The hiring manager was a marathoner too.

Pixel-art interlocking rings with D heart K, a diamond ring, two dogs, the Willis Tower, a watch, coffee and a bagel

Husband

Coffee meets bagel

My wife and I have been married a decade. She is a designer too. Design was the conversation at our dinner table long before it was my job title. She is still the first review on anything I make. We were both career-first for a long time, which is part of why we got along. Then we got into golf together. Then we bought a house on a golf course. Then our son arrived and reordered everything. She is the reason the rest of this page exists.

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

Legos, Hot Wheels and Nintendo

My son is my mini-me, right down to the Legos, the Hot Wheels and the monster trucks. The important stuff is being there for the special moments: the arcade, the zoo, and building whatever he wants to build. He says he wants to play golf and tennis. He runs every time he sees me running. We will see. We moved out to the western suburbs in 2018 for a quaint little downtown. My parents liked it so much they moved in a mile up the road. Then my sister and her family followed and landed at the half-mile mark. My whole family is a walk from my driveway. 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, machinists and bricklayers. One grandfather worked for Ford and had a South Bend lathe in his basement. I still use his tools. The other did marquetry and built furniture and houses. My uncle carries that on today. I worked finish carpentry in college. I still do my own electrical, plumbing and cabinetry, so nothing around the house is off limits. After a full day at a screen, I go down to the shop and make something I can hold. I will admit I am a power tool guy: a CNC, a track saw, a lathe and a mill. I care more about accuracy and speed than doing it the old-fashioned way. Cabinetry is my favorite. It is a system with rules, constraints and good materials. A kitchen built right should last forever. It scratches the 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 and build it

I was the kid with the Erector set and the Legos. I followed the instructions once, then built my own inventions. I started college in mechanical engineering. An internship gave me a taste of civil engineering. 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. When I need a gadget, I solder one together with an Arduino. The 3D printer is always running in the workshop.

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

Developer

I code for fun too

I started out as a database guy writing stored procedures. I moved into full-stack .NET, then drifted toward the front end. I like seeing the thing at the end of the day, so the front end suited me. I never stopped. When I clock out, I 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

The bass took over

I have played something for as long as I can remember. As a kid it was clarinet, keyboard and drums. 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. I was never much of a singer. The guitars have stayed with me through everything since. 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. 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 four basses, four guitars, an electronic drum kit and a MIDI keyboard. I am finally learning enough theory to write my own music. 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 little. I still remember watching my mom play Sonic. The Nintendo 64 was the first console that was mine. My best birthday memories are Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie and GoldenEye with the neighborhood kids. Pokémon was the biggest obsession of all. 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 anything Nintendo, Diablo II for old times' sake, Elden Ring when I want to earn it, and Cyberpunk 2077. One day I would love to build a video game for my son and me to play together.