Hello lovelies, I'm Kaity!
50-year-old Aussie woman, maker, tinkerer, and incorrigible tangent-generator
G'day! Welcome to my little corner of the internet. I'm a 50-year-old Australian woman living on Gubbi Gubbi country in Queensland with my wonderful wife Ada. Between the two of us, we're constantly building things - sometimes it's quilts, sometimes it's database clusters, sometimes it's community spaces where people can just... exist safely. (Ada's also responsible for at least 60% of the puns around here. I take no responsibility.)
I'm a tech lead by trade, polyamorous and pansexual by nature, and hopelessly ADHD by neurology. My brain has this delightful habit of spawning three new projects while I'm trying to finish one. I've learned to embrace the tangents rather than fight them - it's tough living with my brain sometimes, but honestly? It keeps things interesting.
What I Get Up To
My interests are... well, let's just say "eclectic" is being generous. I'm the kind of person who'll spend the morning debugging a Postgres cluster, the middle of the day building a 3D model for something around the house, and the afternoon designing a dress. Here's a taste of the rabbit holes I've tumbled down over the past 50 years:
Traditional Crafts
Quilting, sewing, baking - all the cosy domestic arts. There's something deeply grounding about creating with your hands. Plus, you can't accidentally take down production with a quilt. (Though I did once sew through my finger. Different kind of downtime.)
Workshop Shenanigans
Welding, machining, carpentry, mechanics. I'm just as comfortable with a welding mask and angle grinder as I am with a sewing machine. Metal, wood, engines - they all speak to me, and occasionally spark at me.
Servers & Code
Software development, infrastructure, network architecture. From frontend to backend to "why is this server on fire at 3am", I've seen it all. These days I'm particularly passionate about building systems that protect people's privacy and safety.
Electronics & IoT
Microcontrollers, hardware tinkering, making physical things smart. There's something magical about bridging the gap between atoms and bits.
Community Building
Running safe spaces for LGBTQ+ folks and other vulnerable communities. Privacy advocacy, calling out corporate overreach, and trying to make the internet a little bit kinder. Ada and I do this together - it's a team effort.
My Setup
Look, I'm going to be upfront about something: I'm team non-Windows and I try to avoid big-tech products where I can. It's not about being preachy or superior - it's just that after spending years thinking about who can access your data and who's profiting from your digital life, I've landed firmly in the "open source and privacy-respecting tools" camp.
My daily drivers are macOS and CachyOS (that's an Arch Linux derivative, for the curious). I bounce between them depending on what I'm working on, and honestly? They both spark joy in ways that a certain other operating system never did for me.
This does mean that when I write guides, I'll typically show macOS or Linux first. I'm not trying to exclude anyone - if you're on Windows, the concepts will usually translate just fine - but I write what I know, and I know these systems inside out. If you're curious about making the switch yourself, well... I might have some thoughts on that too.
The parkrun Chapter
Here's something vulnerable: in October 2022, I could barely walk 5 kilometres. Like, physically couldn't do it without stopping multiple times. But I showed up to my first parkrun anyway, because sometimes showing up is the hardest part.
These days? I'm doing intervals. Running actual intervals! The journey from "oh god I'm going to die" to "actually I might enjoy this?" has taught me a lot about growth, patience, and the fact that my body can do more than I gave it credit for. If anyone's been thinking about starting something similar - do it. You don't have to be fast, you just have to show up.
What I Care About
I'm openly queer, openly trans, and openly protective of communities that need protecting. When you've spent your life being told you don't belong in certain spaces, you learn pretty quickly how important it is to create spaces where everyone can exist authentically.
Privacy matters. Safety matters. Who can see your data, who can switch off your servers at a moment's notice, who the intermediate people are that can collect your information - these things matter, especially for vulnerable minorities. I think about this stuff constantly.
I'm also not shy about calling out hypocrisy when I see it. If something's wrong, I'll say so - though I try to do it with love rather than cruelty. Ada keeps me balanced on that front.
Why This Site Exists
I started Kaity's Tips because too many tutorials are written in dry, corporate language that makes your eyes glaze over by paragraph two. I dunno about you, but I learn better when it feels like a friend is explaining things to me - someone who remembers what it was like to not know this stuff yet.
When I write a guide, I write it the way I'd explain something to a mate. No jargon without explanation, no skipped steps, no condescension. Just one curious human helping another curious human figure things out. And yes, there will probably be tangents. It's part of the charm, I promise.
Acknowledgement of Country
I live and work on Gubbi Gubbi country, and I want to acknowledge that properly - not as corporate boilerplate, but as genuine recognition. This is, was, and always will be Aboriginal land. The Gubbi Gubbi people have cared for this country for tens of thousands of years, and that stewardship deserves more than a checkbox acknowledgement.
Sovereignty was never ceded. I'm grateful to live here, and I try to remember that this land holds stories and knowledge far older than anything I could ever write.
Say Hello
Got a question about one of my guides? Spotted something I could explain better? Just want to say g'day? I'd genuinely love to hear from you. Drop a comment on any guide, or reach out however works best for you.
Thanks for stopping by. Go make something brilliant - and don't forget to take breaks. Lots of love!