Hi. I'm Gwen Bell.

I program and write every day. On 14 September 2013 I published Put Some Arch in It.

Prior to programming and writing I wrote for a living. I traveled the globe with all I own in one bag from late 2011 to early 2013. As I traveled I looked for what's next in tech. I didn't find it, so I decided to make it myself. At that point, I sat my ass down and taught myself hard things.

Like what? Like Git, Node.js, how to work on the command line, the nuts and bolts of Linux; learning is it's own reward and as we speak, I'm still in the thick of it.

My commits demonstrate the way I program. As Julian Gruber put it, my commits will show you who I am. If you'd like to use my work as a basis for your own, roll your own Node.js site with Bitters. If you do that you'll work with Jade, Stylus, Markdown and Node basics.

Best way to work with me is to take a pair programming session. Pair programming is the best way I've found to learn how to program; find someone who knows more than you about what you're interested in, and share screens.

I live in a 112 year old house in Oakland, California. Chickens in the back yard. Pear tree, plum tree, apple tree, composting bin. Here you'll find me on the command line (Enlightenment/Terminology/Arch). Or in the backyard around the fire with fellow technologists making s'mores.

I host this site on an Arch Linux instance on Digital Ocean and Vim, Git, Node (most) everything.

Sometimes I send messages to 150 people. If you'd like to be on the list of 150, you have to either bump somebody with your amazing story, or wait it out until someone drops off. Be in touch with what you're working on.