nuga (noun): a joke, jest, trifle, or worthless thing🔗

Hello, 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐄, toki, 你好!

This is the blog of one Tobias Merkle, software developer.

I have a linguistics degree from UF and have been working in tech since 2015. I started out developing web apps, moved on to enterprise QA automation, and have since worked as a fullstack generalist at startups, solving all sorts of problems. I can help you solve yours! I'm especially interested in projects involving:

• Languages. I speak Latin, Chinese, French, Spanish, and toki pona; I have also constructed a language for Lovecraftian Cthulhu cultists, and authored a Chrome extension for translating social media feeds into any language.
• Music. I play piano, ocarina, bass, and ukulele; I am also actively pursuing composition education.
• Agentic AI systems. I built a multimodal Discord assistant and successfully replicated Stanford's Generative Agents with my own code and hardware.

I live in Indiana, enjoy remote work and travel, and run a cattle ranch farmstead in my spare time.

I'm looking for a job. Here's my resume.

I write posts about my projects and I make heiroglyphic art.