Sa'drok Rawrs
Sa'drok Rawrs
I’m Francois Basson (also known online as Sa’drok), a senior software engineer based in Cape Town, South Africa, with a background that spans petrochemical instrumentation, software engineering, music, 3D art, and the furry fandom.
Yep. Before software engineering, I worked for nearly 9 years as an artisan instrument mechanic at SASOL Synfuels. That meant maintaining industrial instrumentation, troubleshooting complex systems, and generally learning how not to panic when things go wrong. Surprisingly, those skills transferred really well into software development.
I originally studied Computer Science, but getting into software straight out of university wasn’t easy. After working in industry, I eventually transitioned into software engineering in 2017 and never looked back. Today I work professionally as a software developer, mainly focused on backend systems and web technologies.
Professionally, I spend most of my time with Python and JavaScript/React, cloud systems, APIs, databases, and distributed systems. I’m also curious by nature and constantly learning — Go and Rust are high on my interest list.
Mostly backend, but I’m comfortable across the stack. I enjoy building systems, solving architecture problems, debugging weird edge cases, and occasionally making frontends behave.
Because dragons are awesome.
More seriously: Sa’drok is my fursona — a black western dragon with white hair, blue eyes, and a generally friendly vibe. The furry fandom has been a creative and social outlet for me, and I enjoy character design, VR social spaces, and creative self-expression.
Yep. I’m part of the furry fandom and enjoy the art, creativity, community, and characters. It’s mostly a creative hobby and social space for me.
Quite a few:
Mostly electronic and heavier genres — especially EDM, Drum & Bass, and Metal. Bonus points if orchestral elements are involved. I also enjoy cinematic and atmospheric music.
I’m learning and experimenting. Music production is one of those long-term creative skills I want to keep improving at.
Blender is both fascination and frustration. I love character modelling, sculpting, materials, animation, and learning how to bring ideas into 3D — even if sometimes Blender fights back.
Currently my main focus is my professional engineering career, but I’m always interested in interesting technical conversations, collaborations, or creative ideas.
Because both are me.
“Francois” is the human behind the keyboard — software engineer, problem solver, tech nerd.
“Sa’drok” is the creative side — dragon, music enthusiast, Blender tinkerer, VR enjoyer, and general internet gremlin.
Coffee. Preferably helping me debug something existential.
I went from troubleshooting industrial control systems in a petrochemical plant to debugging software systems. Turns out “finding weird failures in complicated systems” transfers surprisingly well.
More learning, more creating, more experimenting. I’d like to continue improving in software architecture, Rust/Go, Blender, and music production — and maybe finally finish all those creative projects sitting in the backlog.
You can learn more here: