2020-11-27

It's been awhile since I last wrote an update here.

I'm currently working as a contractor at a company that specializes in vehicle recognition software. It's really interesting technology, I have a lot of autonomy in my work, and I really like the folks that I work with day to day. Naturally, given the events of the past year with regards to police behavior, I had some questions about the ethics of the software when I started. I still have some concerns, but I've been happy to see that others there share some of my concerns and have been guiding the products in what I believe to be an ethically-sound direction. That's about as much as I'm able to discuss here at the moment!

I've been picking away at some side-projects slowly. I don't think I'll be talking about them publicly until they're ready for release, as I don't want to say I'm working on something that never sees the light of day.

I recently did part of a meditation retreat. It came at a difficult time (new job, malfunctioning sump pump, some other stressful situations), but I'm glad I gave it a shot. I don't think I'll try again to do the half-retreat-half-work thing again anytime soon. I mostly just ended up feeling sort of crazy and ineffective at both activities. If I do another "remote retreat," I think I'll rent an AirBnb or something and let myself completely check out.

This was the first Thanksgiving I've ever had without my parents and sister. What a bizarre year. We made deep dish pizza, apple crisp, pumpkin pie, and some roasted veggies.

I've been watching Game of Thrones for the first time. I have mixed feelings about it.

His Dark Materials, on the other hand, is just about everything I could have hoped for in an adaptation. They're really leaning into the weirdness of it. Lyra's world also has a really unique design to it; much more unique than the Golden Compass adaptation, which was pretty run-of-the-mill steampunk. The new show of course has some of that, but also combines it with a more modern-esque brutalism that really sets it apart.

I bought a Nintendo Switch and started playing Breath of the Wild. I'm not very far, but I, again, have some mixed feelings. I just am not a fan of that sort of open-world game design (shared with Assassin's Creed, Horizon Zero Dawn, the recent Batman games, Final Fantasy XV...). I find it to be pretty boring, despite my best efforts.

Outer Wilds, on the other hand, completely blew my mind out of the water. It's now one of my favorite games of all time. I'm very sad that I can't find non-bootleg merch for the game.