Hello!
Who I am and what I do
I'm Ratio, a senior engineering leader with 20+ years in tech and a creator who can't stop building things. By day, I lead cross-functional teams architecting enterprise cloud platforms. By night, I make romhacks, build desktop apps, stream kaizo on Twitch, and somehow still find time for 30 years of punk rock.
This site? I built it too. Next.js 15, seven real-time API integrations, Redis caching, admin panel. My hobby is having hobbies, and one of those hobbies is building the tools for the other hobbies.
At home, I'm surrounded by my amazing family who make every day an adventure. Mrs. Ratio and I have been married for over a decade. Our daughter and Little Ratio keep us on our toes, while Fox 🐕 and Penelope 🐱 complete our chaotic but loving household.
The Journey
First Developer Role
Started as a SQL Developer building BI reports, complex stored procedures, and designing websites. Fell in love with data and code.
University of Georgia: PHP & MySQL Certificate
Formalized the self-taught skills. Moved into dedicated database development with SQL migrations and ETL pipelines.
Applications Development Manager
First leadership role. Built 50+ ETL packages, 20+ reports, CRM integrations, and C# plugins. Started managing teams alongside the code.
Senior Applications Development Manager
Led the migration from on-prem to Azure cloud. Transformed legacy file-based systems into modern API-driven integrations. Built observability from scratch.
Started Streaming on Twitch
A hobby that turned into a community. First stream, first community members, first inside jokes.
Discovered Kaizo
Fell into the kaizo rabbit hole and started learning Lunar Magic. Same engineering habits, new puzzle.
Senior Developer Lead + First Romhacks Released
By day: leading cross-functional engineering teams, owning architecture for enterprise integrations. By night: released Beautiful Dangerous and co-created Super Curious World, a tribute to our friend James.
Multi-Platform Creator
Expanded to YouTube and TikTok. Collaborated with SparkySie on Conditional Gravity. Started organizing community events: relay races and tournaments.
Builder Mode Activated
Built SMWC Downloader & Patcher for the community. Released Beautiful (Not So) Dangerous. Launched iamtheratio.com v1. Built a custom WebSocket streaming server with 20+ services. Started building PixelPerfect.
The Year of Shipping
Launched KaizOFF.com for the kaizo community. PixelPerfect hit v1.0. SMWC Downloader reached v5.1. iamtheratio.com V2 redesign.
What I Work With
Cloud & Platform
Backend
Data
DevOps
Frontend
Leadership
This site runs on Next.js 15, React 19, Vercel, Redis, 7+ real-time API integrations, and an admin panel I use every week.
Off-Screen
Music & Hobbies
30 years of punk rock across various bands. Former skateboarder and ice hockey player, still hooked on woodworking.
Gaming & Code
Creator of the “Beautiful Dangerous” romhack. I build tools for the SMW community, and the next project is already started.
Fox
Our German Shepherd, full of energy and up for anything. The gentle giant of the household.
Penelope
Our petite tabby cat with a big personality. She supervises everything and adds chaos where she can.
My Philosophy
“Fun over frustration. Community over competition. Always learning, always growing.”
I make things that bring people together. Making kaizo easier for beginners, building tools that solve real problems, hanging out on stream: the goal is to lift other people up.