about Alistair Smith

if you've ever looked at any of my personal site, my twitter, or any projects i've done, usually there's a familiar name surrounding it: Alistair Smith. seeing as i'm actually using his blog template, i figured make my first article about him, our friendship, and how i gained such an incredible mentor in 2021.

the past

the exact timeline is fuzzy, but from what i recall it was around December 2019 that Alistair and i first interacted. our mutual friend, ven, created a website called discord.bio. we were both staff on the server and there i got to actually talk with him. i had known of Alistair from the sneaker resell community, however it was because of that mutual connection that i actually got talking with him.

as 2020 went on and we began to quarantine, i started to take a heavier interest in programming, specifically JavaScript and TypeScript. i really had no idea where to start - yet mr. Alistair was there to guide me along. in the span of ~2 days, Alistair guided me through the basics and thus nanoleaf.js was born.

the present

since then, i've been on a long path of learning JS/TS, and having Alistair by my side to help me through it all has been indispensable. he's helped me work on tunes.ninja, and one of our first projects together was working on our bot StreamTicker. he helped me develop and design my current website, and has always dropped what he was doing to help me. not only is he a fantastic and talented programmer, but he's also just a fantastic human being.

2020 was undeniably a hard year, and there were times throughout the year that i struggled. throughout it all, Alistair constantly checked up on me and talked me through personal events i was going through - offering advice, potential solutions, or just someone that listened. and looking back on it now, it was exactly what i needed in the moment and without him things would have been a lot harder.

the future

as it stands right now, Alistair will eventually be able to visit - sometime in the summer is the goal. meeting internet friends is always exciting, but it'll be extra exciting getting to meet someone who's had such an incredible impact on me in the time i've known him.

- jack