Hi, I'm Evan (he/any).
TLDR: I'm a privileged white hetero-cis-male politically
#left #TriratnaBuddhist #SoftwareEngineer (#IHelpPeopleGetJobs) currently in
#Seattle but planning to move to
#AotearoaNZ or
#Australia as so as we can manage it with my wife & 3 kids
I'm politically
#left (at least in United States terms). I'm a
#voting nerd in that I have a favorite voting-related textbook (Collective Decisions and Voting by Nicolaus Tideman).
I think we could mostly solve
#gerrymandering by making larger districts with ~5 representatives instead of just 1 and then using
#SingleTransferableVote. That would strike a nice balance between local & proportional representation. For single-person positions, like presidents/governors/mayors, STV becomes
#RankedChoiceVoting (aka
#InstantRunoffVoting aka
#AlternativeVote) which eliminates the spoiler effect and leads to more civil campaigns.
Plus,
#RankedChoiceVoting eliminates the need for primaries and runoffs, which can lead to significant cost reductions.
I'm training for ordination with the
#TriratnaBuddhist Order (#dhamma,
#dharma,
#Buddhism) and have been for many years. It's a long process, especially with other things going on. I've done some kind of
#meditation (mostly
#anapanasati) every day for over 3 years and more sporadically since 2006.
That said, I do take issue with some of the things the founder (Sangharakshita) did, and I'm concerned with a recent rise in sort of guru worship around. I can have gratitude for his explanation of the dharma, try to sort out the idiosyncratic bits, and still view him as a deeply flawed human being.
I write
#software for
http://indeed.com (job search site) (previously employed by Amazon). I've written a lot of
#database-backed
#webservices in
#Java, but in the last few years, I've been working on
#microfrontend platforms in
#JavaScript &
#TypeScript, primarily supporting
#React. I have more knowledge about
#Webpack #ModuleFederation than anyone should be cursed with. I'd love to try
#SolidJS,
#RustLang seems really cool, and I'm excited about the future of
#WebAssembly.
My wife & I have fantasized about moving to
#AotearoaNZ or
#Australia since well before the pandemic, and now we're actively trying make it happen. Since we're both in high-demand professions (she's a nurse), I think it should go reasonably smoothly
. Feel free to get in touch with job opportunities that offer visa sponsorship, suggestions for
#kiwiana or Australian culture that will help us adapt, reasons that your city is the best, etc. I always blow on the pie when I wear my jandals to the dairy. If we ship things over, I can only hope that the front doesn't fall off the boat. I hear that only rarely happens.
My daughter Juniper was born at the beginning of 2020, so her experience of life and my experience of parenthood are both tightly linked to the pandemic. On the upside, I get to work remotely, which means I get more time with her. She's a lot of fun (and of course a lot of work).
Then, we had our twins Heath & Magnolia (Noli) in September 2023, and our lives got even more hectic and full of love.
Juniper goes to a Waldorf school, and I wish I could go, too, but I think the adult version of Waldorf school might just be therapy.
Mike Amundsen 
