About

Hi, I’m George, a software engineer based in Bristol, UK. This is my personal blog, where I’m hoping to occasionally post about personal projects, reviews, gaming, or anything else that comes to mind. I’ve been helped numerous times by random blog articles found from a lucky Google search over the years, so I’m hoping I can do the same for others.

About Me

During the day, I’m primarily a back-end developer working in internet security and fraud prevention.

My day job is very varied, so I’ve used a lot of different languages to varying degrees throughout my life as a developer, including:

• Perl 5
• Node.js
• Python
• Go
• PHP
• Java

For personal projects away from work, I prefer using Python or Node.js for their suitability for quick prototyping (spare time is always in short supply!).

Away from programming, I like stand-up paddleboarding (when the British weather allows!), board and PC gaming, and watching live stand-up comedy. I’m also a fan of sci-fi novels - usually the kind involving large spaceships making other large spaceships explode.

Why cucurbit.dev?

A cucurbit is the scientific name for a member of the gourd family (Curbitaceae). Cucurbits include cucumbers, melons, squashes, and pumpkins.

…Sure, but why?

In short: I “earned” the nickname “Pumpkin” at work.

On a trip to Venice, I went on a short paddleboarding tour of some of the quieter canals around the city¹ which I can highly recommend as a very unique way of seeing the city, that’s a lot more exciting than an extortionate gondola ride). After the tour I bought a couple t-shirts from the company, one in a deep leafy green, and the other in a positively luminous orange.

I returned to work in the run-up to Halloween, proudly wearing my new orange shirt. Off-hand I made the joke to my friend Vince that I had come back dressed as a pumpkin for the occasion when I arrived in the morning.

Later, I make my way to the office kitchen for lunch, only to be greeted by the ever-cheery Vince with a particularly melodic “Hi Pumpkin!”.

Unfortunately, nobody else in the room had heard my earlier joke, so what should have been a throwaway callback to the morning suddenly became a ridiculous nickname.

Fortunately, there are worse nicknames to have; I can’t deny that pumpkin isn’t a good ingredient, and orange is a great colour, and doesn’t get nearly enough love as it deserves. That being said, I’d say butternut squash is the better cucurbit; it’s easier to prepare, tastier, and the texture is firmer.

I’m glad I didn’t get the nickname Butternut Squash.