I am Jesse Dhillon, a writer, artist, web developer and gamer. This site is here to inform you about my professional and creative pursuits and interests — I used to keep a blog but it took too much time and wasn’t really related to what I am trying to get done in life. Moreover, my creative projects are better representations of what I have to say.

Creative

Right now I am working on producing comics and graphic novels with a purpose beyond good story telling. I am creating plots which use historical events as devices to illuminate different, unseen aspects of humanity. My hope is that people reading my stories will be reminded of their own humanity and the humanity of others: those about whom they may know very little or already have opinions and prejudices.

I know that may be vague; keep watching this space and you’ll see some of my projects soon.

My goal in the next 2-5 years is to transition out of web development and into the gaming industry. My desire is to eventually arrive at a position where I have creative and design responsibilities, but at the moment I’m a little unclear as to how my current skill set would get me to such a position. Apart from expressing my hope that people can see the humanity of others, my comics and writing also serve to demonstrate my writing talent and my ability to produce creative projects by managing a creative team.

Technical

I’m an experienced Javascript and PHP developer and I always am working on some project or another with my web development and design skills.

For Javascript frontends, I use the amazing Ext JS 3.0 framework. Frankly, it’s the best there is. The API is consistent and the container pattern has been exquisitely implemented. I used to use Prototype, but the performance is just about the worst of all the frameworks and I found it bloated.

For PHP development, I love Symfony. It’s not as lightweight as some other frameworks, but the convenience and extensibility can’t be matched. I don’t do Ruby on Rails: I find that Ruby syntax is unnecessarily cumbersome and that Rails does a lot of wheel-reinventing. PHP isn’t perfect either and there are a few changes coming in future versions that have me considering going to Python, which is — in my opinion — the best scripting language, period.

Ubuntu Linux is my preferred operating system.

Political

In addition to Computer Science, I majored in Political Science at Cal and stay up with current political affairs, particularly Middle Eastern affairs. In 2008 I traveled across the country to canvas and phone bank for Barack Obama. Not necessarily because he fully represents my stand on the issues, but because I feel that it’s a civic responsibility to be involved with politics at some level. I manage to surprise most people with my political positions, which are all over the spectrum.

Talk to me offline if you’re interested in my political opinions.