About me
Hiya, I’m Duskfall, a trans woman who grew up in the Midwest region of the United States and has indigenous ancestry.
Interests
Over the years I’ve collected “hobbies” and interests to hoard for a page like this someday.
- Open-source and open-knowledge: I love the ethos of these communities as providing valuable things for everyone to use at no cost. Information and programs should be shared creations for everyone to benefit from.
- Programming: I designed and created this very site myself, so obviously I’m into programming. I’m not super experienced but tinkering around with code and making cool stuff is fun.
- Note-taking: Or knowledge management, whatever fits. Just the practice of working with information by writing it down, organizing it, and refining it is something that deeply interests me. I like to use Obsidian as my note-taking app.
- Art and writing: I like creating things because it is fun. It’s a valuable tool for expression and just seems like a nice skill to have nowadays when it seems so few care for craft.
Some others that are present somewhere in the back of my mind:
- History: While initially narrower in scope around World War II, I’ve taken some increasing interest in broader European history and American history, but I’m still not very knowledgeable for other areas like Middle Eastern history, Chinese history, African history, indigenous histories, etc.
- Cartography: My interest in history meant I got to see a lot of historical maps. Naturally I grew interested in making them and was enthralled by OpenStreetMap when I discovered it.
- Urbanism: Ever since learning of the detriments of car-dependent infrastructure, I’ve been interested in urban planning that genuinely cares for public transit and pedestrians. I should know, there isn’t even a continuous sidewalk between my house and my workplace because it just ends for no reason.
- Linguistics: I’m not super deep into it but I like to dabble in it every once in a while. There’s so much to language that I would have never otherwise considered. Maybe I’ll look more into it and use that for contributions I make to Wiktionary.
- Vexillology: My interest in history unsurprisingly brought me to the topic of flags many times. I learned that designing good flags goes much deeper than it appears, or at least that’s the impression I get. I’ve only really made like a redesign of my state’s flag and that’s it.
Aspirations
I want to build a world that values…
- Creativity and craftsmanship
- Empathy and care for one another
- Education and the pursuit of knowledge
- Transparency and openness
…and I’m sure many other things I have forgotten to include.
The world has a lot of problems. I know I won’t solve them or ever see the world I dream of, but the least I can do is work toward that vision.
History
From a young age I drew art, read books, and played video games. A middle school geography class opened me to the world of social sciences like history and grand strategy games like Hearts of Iron IV.
Hearts of Iron IV modding was my first “real” experience with programming, which then later developed further as I got into web development and started projects like this website and those listed in my portfolio.
In mid-2025 I discovered the note-taking app Obsidian, which began my interest in writing and knowledge management. It also revived my interest in art, which had stagnated for a long time.