Now

Last updated: May 2026

Welcome to my now page, where you can see what I'm currently up to, both personally and professionally.

Headlines

Last year I bought my first house in with my partner, with whom I had been in a long-distance relationship for 5 years (!!). It's a cosy little place in Stoke-on-Trent, where we have the wild nature of the Peaks almost on our doorstep, and a great local board game cafe (shoutout to Long Rest in Hanley).

In sad news, my time at The Economist came to an end in May 2026 during a round of layoffs. I'm very happy to be keeping in touch with a lot of my former colleagues though, and forcing them to look at pictures of my vegetable trug. My time is currently filled with a lot of gardening, reading, and learning new things in preparation for my next role.

Projects

• emiliawil.dev - This website! Built with Astro and TypeScript.
• dnd-wizard - An extremely beginner-friendly D&D character builder built with Next.js and TypeScript.
• solitaire - A simple solitaire game built with Next.js and TypeScript. No help from AI, just a fun coding challenge for myself.
• Brushing up on my fundamentals on Codewars, Excersicm, Just Javascript and real-time coding tutorials. My Claude Code hasn't been touched for some time now and I can feel my brain healing!

I'm also taking advantage of my time off to do a lot of reading and engaging in hobbies I haven't had time for in a while, such as gardening, crocheting, painting and creative writing.

Currently

Reading:

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford. I'm only a few chapters in, but every sentence is a banger so far.
• All the Red Dwarf novelisations by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor. I have mixed feelings which I really must go into more detail about at some point.
• Some fantastic blogs by fellow devs like Dana Ciocan and Matt Andrews (both former colleagues!).

Watching:

• Titanium Daydream, a fantastically original shortform web series by Ben Crouse and Jacob Sluka. It's a lot of fun.
• The Pitt - TV series (HBO/Now TV). Very cool medical drama set in an ED in Pittsburgh
• Half Man - TV series (BBC/HBO). An intense, dark, toxic story that gives me anxiety (but it's fantastic)
• Project Hail Mary (2026). Just saw it at the cinema and I have a lot of thoughts! I'll have to write a review at some point.

Playing:

• Paralives, an indie life sim which was just released in early access.