➡️ How I Ended Up Here

My interest for "what happens behind the scenes" started in the early years of Todd Howard's indisputable masterpiece Oblivion.

The game (on PC) allowed the player to manipulate variables and change things around. Anything from adding items to the scene, changing an NPCs name or infamy, downright deleting them, to progressing quest flags and un-blocking things whenever a feature (bug) appeared (we love the bugs, please keep them!).

However, it was not until I was well into adulthood that I really started considering programming as something I could actually get into. Since 2013 I have been working in the IT field as Support for various types of companies - among them The National Library of Norway. During these years I was able to check in with many programmers and see how and what they were working on. And I have to admit, at first it was daunting. I doubted myself to a point where I shelved the whole idea - for years.

Life went on, and after a whole lot of lifing, things culminated in a crossroads in 2023. That is when I started to seriously consider the field. Eventually, I had built up the courage to apply for this incredible opportunity at Gokstad Akademiet - Backend Programming, net based, no meetups. It was perfect!

I started this journey in August 2025, and will be working my way through it until 2027! And up until now it has been very exciting, overwhelming, interesting, fun, and a blaring signal that I chose the correct path!

I simply cannot wait to one day be able to say: "I am a programmer!", and do actual programming work for a living! I will pop a bottle of Champagne when that day arrives, because when it does - I will finally be home.

Thank for coming to my TedTalk!

🧠 Tech XP

(I once decided to turn Copilot into a life RPG where I earned XP for quite literally anything I did. I recommend it!)

• +260 XP: Wayland Debugging Saga

• +50 XP: Surviving Battle.net installation attempts

• +60 XP: Input Safety Quest (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace supremacy)

• +20 XP: Harmless Warning Interpreted Calmly (Battle.net Ritual)

• +40 XP: Discrete GPU Bound to Azeroth

• +30 XP: Renderer Ritual Successful

• +25 XP: Prefix Purge Prepared for Rebirth

• +30 XP: Environment Variable Mastery

• +25 XP: Discrete GPU Bound to Lutris

• +20 XP: Renderer Ritual Clarified

• +35 XP: Renderer Offload Ritual Learned

• +25 XP: Discrete GPU Awakening

• +20 XP: Intel Mesa Banished for Azeroth

• +90 XP: Fact‑Checking & Calculator Recovery (technical debugging mindset)

• +∞ XP: Repo hygiene enforcement

• +∞ XP: Documentation Goblin Ascension

• +∞ XP: Backend Chaos Management (specialization)

• +120 XP: HDMI Handshake Debugging Saga

• +45 XP: EDID Interrogation & Stability Analysis

• +40 XP: Modeset Forcing & Hotplug Resurrection Ritual

• +35 XP: TV Deep Color / Enhanced Mode Compatibility Trials

• +30 XP: Driver Behavior Investigation (Sleep/Wake Negotiation Failures)

• +25 XP: Cable Bandwidth & Port Behavior Diagnostics

• +20 XP: Kernel Parameter & Display Stack Tuning

• +∞ XP: Surviving Consumer Electronics Protocol Chaos

• +140 XP: COSMIC Greeter Resurrection Saga

• +60 XP: Display Manager Rituals (GDM → COSMIC → systemd‑session alignment)

• +45 XP: PAM Chain & Session‑Init Investigation

• +40 XP: Wayland/Session Negotiation Trials

• +35 XP: Greeter Service Log Divination (journalctl augury)

• +30 XP: COSMIC Session File & Exec Path Forensics

• +25 XP: Login Loop Exorcism

• +20 XP: Pre‑Release Desktop Environment Stability Taming

• +∞ XP: Surviving the COSMIC Pre‑Alpha Multiverse

• +80 XP: JSON Schema & Data‑Structure Debugging

• +70 XP: C# Interface & Class Architecture Rituals

• +65 XP: XML Test Data Generation & xUnit Mastery

• +60 XP: Python Logic & Script‑Flow Debugging

• +55 XP: Git Branch Strategy Enforcement (Feature‑Branch Doctrine)

• +50 XP: Repo Structure Restoration & File‑Hierarchy Purification

• +45 XP: Naming Convention Unification (Norwegian → English Refactor Trials)

• +40 XP: Documentation Structure Engineering (README, templates, workflow clarity)

• +35 XP: Test‑Driven Development Alignment (Input validation, null/whitespace logic)

• +30 XP: Linux File Permissions & Execution Path Troubleshooting

• +30 XP: .NET Project Layout & Folder Hygiene Enforcement

• +25 XP: JSON Serialization/Deserialization Rituals (C# ↔️ API sanity checks)

• +25 XP: Debugging Input Edge Cases (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace supremacy)

• +20 XP: Bash Workflow Automation & CLI Rituals

• +20 XP: Python Environment & Dependency Handling

• +15 XP: Git Merge Conflict Resolution (Peaceful Negotiation Saga)

• +∞ XP: Documentation Goblin Ascension

• +∞ XP: Backend Chaos Management (Specialization)

• +85 XP: Double NAT Detection & Topology Mapping

• +60 XP: Xbox Live NAT‑Type Forensics (Strict → Moderate → Open Trials)

• +55 XP: Router‑Behind‑Router Diagnostics (ISP Modem vs Local Router)

• +45 XP: UPnP, Port‑Forwarding & NAT‑Traversal Rituals

• +40 XP: DHCP vs Bridge Mode Investigation

• +35 XP: LAN/WAN Segmentation & Address‑Space Analysis

• +30 XP: Gateway Conflict Resolution (Competing Routers Exorcism)

• +25 XP: DNS & Connectivity Stability Checks

• +∞ XP: Surviving Family Tech‑Support Chaos