Hello!!! I'm Victoria, aka vrk! I've been a software engineer for 13 years, building browsers, maps, VR experiences, dev tools, and creator tools for web, mobile and desktop.

I'm very interested in everything paper these days. Stationery, stickers, cards, calendars...
I recently quit my job to explore building software in this space!

Welcome to my personal website. Make yourself at home ✨

areas of interest

I'm making prototypes and tinkering with ideas as I explore a few prompts:

click thru →

stationery printers (indie) magazines learning tiny objects of joy

how it works

I'm being kind of vague, using language like "exploring prompts." What does that mean?

Here's the format I'm using to lightly structure how I spend my time:

1. I'm choosing a topic every ~month, such as, "zines."
2. I'll research the topic and answer questions I'm curious about. E.g. "who makes zines today and how do they do it"
3. I make or prototype some things, following my intuition with few constraints. E.g. maybe I make a zine myself, or a tool to design zines, or something inspired by a zine. Or maybe I follow a side quest that has nothing to do with zines. Whatever feels right.
4. I do that for ~3 weeks, then take the last week of the month to wrap things up, reflect on my learnings, and figure out the next topic.

I'm recording my research, prototypes, and reflections in my newsletter, vrklovespaper!

Would you like to follow along?

why though

I fell in love with computers because I love making things. In my 13 years as a professional software engineer, I have been making things, but I've been making other people's things. I want to try making my own things. It's why I got into this field in the first place!

So, I quit my job and starting July 2023, I'm giving myself about 12 months of runway to try the following:

• Practice creating software of my own, on my own. It's fine if I'm bad at it. I'll just keep practicing.
• See how it feels to center my creative self for a bit.
• Figure out if I want to be a founder of a company or organization.

I can't tell you what will happen at the end of this year. Unfortunately I can't just not-work indefinitely, so at some point I'm going to have to earn money again. But I'm not worrying about that yet! The objective of my year ahead is exploration and learning, and for the first time in my adult life, I'm not planning every step of the way. I'm trusting my future self to figure out the rest!