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Garan Johnson

Hey, welcome to my few MBs of the internet. I'm a self‑taught full‑stack dev who’s found real enjoyment in designing, implementing, and deploying ideas into working solutions. A childhood dream of mine was building a career in tech, and here I am working to make that happen one tech stack at a time. Over the past few years, I’ve gained experience in security protocols, cloud development, and now web development and design.

When I step away from the computer, I’m usually trying new food, pretending I’m improving my golf swing at the driving range, or grinding XP in a game while embracing my inner NPC for a moment. Away from the computer screen, not the gaming monitor—important distinction.

Projects

Portfolio Website

Screenshot of Figma design for this website

A fully custom, responsive portfolio built from scratch using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

interactive components like an accordion, modal contact popup, and message box.

Designed for clarity, speed, and a modern developer aesthetic.

More info

Raspberry Pi NAS

Screenshot of Raspberry Pi NAS interface

A self‑hosted NAS built on a Raspberry Pi to host cloud storage. Includes SMB file sharing, user permissions, secure SSH access, and automated backup routines.

This project demonstrates Linux administration, networking fundamentals, and practical system configuration.

Pico W Weather Widget

A photo the Pico W with the current weather screen displayed

A tiny weather dongle built from a repurposed 1.14" Pimoroni Display Pack. Pulls live weather data, displays it across a multi‑screen 8‑bit UI, and showcases custom pixel art.

A dive into MicroPython, hardware limits, and embedded UI design.

More info

Skills

HTML5 logo HTML5
CSS logo CSS
JavaScript logo Java
-script
React logo React
React logo Node.js
Figma logo Figma
Git logo Git
GitHub logo GitHub
Visual Studio logo Visual
Studio
Azure logo Azure
Azure logo Linux
Raspberry Pi logo Raspberry
Pi

Tech Journey

This was the spark that reignited my IT ambitions. Passing the Security+ on the first attempt after a month of focused studing gave me the confidence that I could succeed in tech with the right mindset.

I built a strong foundation in security principles, safe design practices, and the threats to watch for when building systems

Taking this momenteum, I continued on to gain my Microsoft AZ‑900 and ISC2 CC certifications.

Progressing through this course gave me a deeper look into cloud computing and how all its moving parts come together to power the software we use every day. It also showed me how cloud services influence decisions around scaling, deployment, and architecture.

Honestly, having a dashboard full of tech tools made me fall even more in love with tech.

The course helped me break down the major sections of cloud computing and understand when and why you’d use each service in different situations. Passing the AZ‑900 on my first try made it feel like more than just another certification — it was proof of my consistency, focus, and dedication to keep pushing my skills forward.

I’m a proud student of YouTube University, and honestly, I’m not sure how far I would’ve made it without it. Following project walkthroughs helped me understand not just how people code, but how they think through problems and build solutions step by step.

The huge world of Raspberry Pi projects pulled me in, and eventually I picked one up to build my own NAS. That project gave me hands‑on practice with cloud concepts, networking, and security — plus it let me cut out one more subscription by hosting my own cloud storage.

More Pi projects on the way…

TOP sharpened my skills and techniques for full‑stack development with its in‑depth teaching style and heavy emphasis on hands‑on work.

I built multiple front‑end and full‑stack projects using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Node — which eventually led to creating this very website.

Along the way, I learned Git/GitHub workflows and version control, and really saw how useful it is to keep everything organized and saved properly.

I also practiced responsive design, layout systems, and UI fundamentals while navigating the many layers of modern web development.