Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

My name is Jen. I’ve been working in IT Support for about ten years now. I genuinely love the work, and the people there really feel like a second family to me. The pandemic really upended my “social life” at work. I met my best friend there, who was my work partner, and we had a blast working together every day. We worked in Colorado together for a few years and had a gorgeous view of the mountains just right outside. Unfortunately, due to rising costs in real estate brought on by COVID, I had to move out of state and back home to Texas. I bought a house with my significant other, and we’ve been here for a few years. I’m hoping one day to eventually sell this house and move back to Colorado and buy a house there.

Outside of work, I used to be an avid gamer for years and years. Unfortunately, I developed severe pinched nerve damage in my neck, which caused pretty bad carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand. I also have ulnar impaction syndrome in my left wrist, which just means my ulnar bone on the outside of my wrist is longer than normal, which causes a lot of pain for me when playing a ton of video games with my left hand. So, after multiple x-rays and MRIs, I finally have a solid answer as to what is going on with me physically. I also had shoulder impingement in both shoulders as a result.

I started working out in January of this year to try and pull my body out of this state and get to a much healthier place. I’ve lost 40 lbs. so far and I haven’t felt this great in years and I’m not done yet. As a result, I’m on medication for my neck nerve pain but my carpal tunnel syndrome in my right wrist is pretty much gone. I was told by multiple doctors that I could no longer use a normal keyboard. So, once I started to research different types of keyboards; a friend of mine had gotten the ZSA Moonlander and after a lot of research, I finally purchased one as well and also got an ergonomic keyboard for work. I absolutely adore this keyboard. It has made such a huge difference in my daily life since I still am on a computer for the majority of the day.

Besides that, I also like doing projects on my house. I’m currently working on a spare bathroom renovation and updating it as well. I really love working with my hands and plan on doing a lot more projects in the weeks and years to come.

I also have a workshop and shed in my back yard that I eventually plan to renovate. I’ve been itching to start dabbling and try out woodworking and tinkering in there. I’ve also been researching 3D printers and want to buy one soon, as I already have several ideas that I’d like to bring to fruition. I’ve been looking at a Bambu Lab X1C or a Prusa MK4. I hear they are both amazing and wonderful machines to work with.

I also recently bought a Lectric XP e-bike earlier this year and have a blast riding it around my neighborhood.

I’m currently taking a class to get a Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate on Coursera and am hoping this will open up some more doors for me career-wise. I’ve always been interested in the security side of things, since it’s already a part of my daily job in the IT field.

What hardware do you use?

I’m currently using this amazing keyboard, the black ZSA Moonlander with Cherry MX brown keys, along with an Xbox Lunar Shift Special Edition controller and my newest toy, the Azeron Cyborg gaming keypad. It’s amazing and not too dissimilar to the Moonlander in terms of customization and adjustability. I’m also using a Logitech G502 mouse.

I actually have two PCs that I use. My main computer is running Windows 11 Pro with an Intel i7-12700K liquid-cooled with an ASUS Rog Strix Z690-A motherboard with 64 gigs of Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro RAM. I bought this motherboard because it had four M.2 slots and all of them are full of NVMe drives. I also have an 8TB hard drive that I use for game storage so loads of space. I really wanted to futureproof it. I’m also running an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080Ti 12GB video card. This video card is super fast, and everything looks and runs fantastic. I have two BENQ 27” gaming monitors that I currently use. I’m using a be quiet! 1000W 80+ Platinum fully modular ATX PSU. A bit overkill, I know, but I would rather have more than I need than not have enough. All of this is packaged into a full case tower that sits on top of my Uplift desk that I got last year at the same time I built this PC.

My other PC is my old one that I built back in 2015 and is running Windows 10 Pro. I mainly use it to run game servers for friends and family. I also use it as my Plex server that’s on the same network as my TV so I can store vast amounts of movies, TV shows, etc. I doubt I will ever go back to a single PC setup again now that I have both running side by side. It’s just too darn convenient to have at this point.

I also have to include obligatory cat pictures since he is my constant companion. Spooky is seventeen years old!

And what software?

I’m running Windows 11 and Windows 10 Pro respectively. I usually have Steam, Discord, Telegram, Spotify, Firefox, and some form of Microsoft Office windows open depending on what I’m working on. I switched from Chrome to Firefox earlier in the year and couldn’t be happier.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

I don’t have any custom keycaps yet, but I have been looking around to see what’s available. I do normally stick to a mostly QWERTY setup, but I’ve changed a few things over time and changed some of the layers as I go along to adjust things to my liking. I really love the ability to customize the keys, and the tilt options are off the charts. Thank you so much for creating such a beautiful piece of hardware! I’ve gotten very fast at typing on it.

What would be your dream setup?

I’m actually not too far off from my dream setup. I just built my dream PC last year and got my Uplift desk, but I think I would eventually like to add maybe two more monitors—but 4K this time so I can take better advantage of my video card. I’ve been thinking about maybe streaming on Twitch in the future, but who knows where I’ll go from here.