5: Hiatus

Weekly updates have turned out to be difficult as well as unnecessary. Events seem to come in clusters; to paraphrase a well-known quote, there are months where nothing happens, and there are weeks where months happen. This month was the former: mostly midterms, although with one exception.

Halloweek

The last week of October was extraordinarily busy, lots of gigantic assignments and little time to finish them all. I ended up missing one, but did it the following day for practice.

Next week had lower deadline density but was nevertheless very lively.

On Tuesday evening I wanted to glance at the election a bit and go home, but I had work to finish by the evening which I had not started, so I met up with a couple friends in the same situation and steamrolled through it, all the while streaming the polls on a projector.

This passionate fellow accompanying us made the evening much more entertaining. Safe to say he was satisfied with the results. After turning in a half-baked assignment by midnight I finally came to terms with the impossibility of returning home and crashed on our faculty lounge couch.

Wednesday was my birthday, so it was met in unusual conditions to say the least. Groggy, uncomfortable, and miles away from my own bed. Yet it made returning home to eat dinner with my family all the more rewarding.

20 is honestly a pretty depressing milestone; at 19 one is an adult in Canada, and in the US at 21, but for the in-between age no new rights are gained. Regardless, I marked off the special day over the weekend by going to the casino for the first time (a year too late), joining a few friends who were much more regular attendees. They were running a promotion where everyone got 40$ for free, so I took it, broke even, and left.

I absolutely will not be coming back. It was a far cry from what I expected: the atmosphere is tense and bleak, and the clanks and jingles of mechanical slots are notably absent, replaced entirely with screens. One sight that soured my mood for the night was a digital plinko machine. In the physical equivalent there is at least an aspect of genuine randomness and a necessity for clever design on the manufacturer’s part, while here some codemonkey can just set a parameter to 0.49 with no need for creative deception of the customer’s expectations.

It should be somewhat evident that my only prior exposure to these establishments have been films like The Hangover, which paint a completely different picture, presumably to draw the naive viewer in. It is an industry build on false hopes and exploitation of helpless addicts. Easy to see why it is blasphemous in many religions.

Reading Week

UBC’s legendary reading half-week finally came around. I was excited to use the time off, however brief, to get through a backlog of responsibilities like fixing my bike’s flat tire; however, my body kind of gave up when it spotted an interruption to the constant stress I had been placing it under, and I got sick for a few days. After catching up on missed sleep, I got better right as the weather began to suck again, extinguishing what was left of my motivation to bike.

In lieu of going outside I rediscovered a game I had played years ago, an RTS/tower defense hybrid called Mindustry.

This game needs a warning label along the lines of: if you are in engineering or other STEM field, do not open me during academic terms. One of my friends who is now in CS purchased Factorio in highschool and has poured immeasurable hours into it over the years (although he has landed crazy internships, so maybe the macroscopic design knowledge is realistically applicable). Something about these manufacturing games is deeply satisfying and I hope there are job positions that require the same kind of dynamic and intricate problem solving strategies.

Respite + Music

In the last seven days my cohort wrote four midterms; today was the last (and probably most dreaded) one of this semester. I am writing this now since I have a moment to breathe before the tension resumes.

Since my commute is 90 minutes one way, I have 3 hours to kill every day I go to class. In that time I have been utilizing the privilige of internet access to the full spectrum of its potential, from pointless scrolling of videos to erudite literary analysis to, most commonly, checking out new albums.

I am constantly hungry for new music and rarely listen to the same track twice but these albums have stood out for me lately. Highly recommend.

I would argue Resonance is one of the defining songs of my generation (even crazier since the guy made it at 17 years old!!). In my tireless pursuit of music similar to it I stumbled upon this, and have since replayed it dozens of times while grinding through the tedious busywork of this degree. Best song: Horizon

Very accessible yet unique fusion album with crazy time signatures so well executed you’ll barely notice them. Having only played guitar and bass I’m sure I am not appreciating the displays of musicianship here to their fullest extent. This is peak jazz. Best song: Cool 7

An EP on the shorter side, but it still blew my mind. Progressive metal is my single favorite genre and this is a quintessential example of its lighter side. No screaming or shredding, but plenty of crazy rhythms, smooth vocals, and satisfying production. Best song: Flying

Very long post here. I had a lot to get out. See you next week (maybe).