Hello everyone, I’m Victor Velten. I created this site to host my side projects. It’s still a work in progress, so things will likely change a bit over time.

In terms of a day job, I am a backend software developer who works on building AWS infrastructure. This is the fifth industry I have done software IT work for (defense, healthcare, life insurance, automotive, and now power generation).

Particularly Personal

In my personal life I’m a father of 3 kids and husband to my partner in this life. We subdivide a bit which parent is responsible for which child activity, but still make time for each of us to spend time with all of them.

The impetuous for my current project, Reckoner, is my dual interest in the financial independence and early retirement (FIRE) community with my growing interest in privacy and security. I am not on a b-line to reach financial independence like I did when I was burned out, but I have found that having a good financial buffer has really helped to keep unforeseen expenses from being a cause for fights.

For Fun

My favorite past time is to meet with friends and family and play some board games. I enjoy a wide gamut of games, but historical war games do hold a special place in collection and memory. At the very least, if I’m loosing, I can devote more brainpower to enjoying some of the bourbon barrel beer I brought!

At the opposite end of the health spectrum from my like of good beer is my religious exercise habit. Ever since college I’ve been going to the gym for weightlifting. Recently though I’ve joined the CrossFit adjacent programs (typically labeled strength and conditioning), and loving it. I’m pretty good at the grind strength exercises (think rowing and sled push) and suck at all pull ups and burpies.

Side Projects

It’s funny how what you choose to do with you time changes as you age. I played video games all the time up to college. After that I had family responsibilities and couldn’t devote as much time to after. Fast forward a few more years and now I get just as much enjoyment programming and figuring out that d@#n bug that was taunting me for the past month.

All that is to say that a lot of free time not devoted to any of the previous pursuits is not devoted to the application development for my personal project.

So This Site Is …

My attempt to make it known that I’m doing something I hope you’re interested in! If so, stay tuned! I plan to release Reckoner updates and other thoughts and musings as they hit me.