Month: November 2020

It has been a few weeks since the previous blog, and our project has proceeded forward with leaps and bounds. It felt like we were stuck in the mud for a while, but now we have broken free and we have begun moving forward. We completed our first prototype, and while it is very limited in scope, but it is the perfect starting point. Honestly, we can simply build off of what we have so far and eventually the project will be complete. Is that bad design? Maybe. What we have looks pretty cool at this point, and I’m pretty happy with it.

This past week was Thanksgiving, so I am going to use this blog as a bit of an exploration of the things I am thankful for in this wild year. One thing I am truly grateful for is the reprieve coming with the end of the term. While this capstone course has been fun and interesting, and will continue next term and the term after, I am happy to be through with several of my other courses. During this time, I have found the little things that help get me through each day have been important. Things that I would have taken for granted since they are part of the endless stream of information pouring into my life, and the lives of anyone with an internet connection. The human connection provided in the meetings, while they were sometimes frustrating, or felt unnecessary, has truly helped me along. It’s thanks to great professors and volunteers and classmates and TA’s that this experience hasn’t been quite as bad as I’m sure everyone thought it would. These little connections are things that I have grown to appreciate more than ever. I look forward to a brighter year next year.

And thank you, 1 person who is reading this.

This past week was week 6. It feels like the turning point in 2020. I have felt ashamed of my country for the past 4 years, and I feel proud to be an American for the first time since 2016. We see record Covid-19 cases across the country, but at least we have a light at the end of the tunnel now. I hope our nation will start to be able to regain the unity we once had. I have a bit more faith in humanity, and I feel like I’m not just muddling along trying to make it day by day. I feel like there will once again be a positive example leading our country. This week has been crazy, I feel like I know far more about elections and American geography than ever before. Our entire nation has been waiting with baited breath for the drawn out result, but I feel like the wait was worth it. There is dancing in the streets, as our nation is smiling once again. I was born in Canada and immigrated to the U.S. to follow the opportunities provided, and for the past few years, all I’ve wanted to do is leave. I have regained some of my hope for the American people after this election. However, that’s all pretty irrelevant to my project.

Our group project is working steadily forward, but the obstacles we face have been unexpected. I expected to be working steadily and constantly on the code, yet so far what we have done for the most part is work through the bureaucracy of the government agency that we have to work with. I feel like I understand a little better why nothing ever gets done in the government. We’ve added so many extra steps before you can actually get to work that it just kills efficiency. I wonder what the solution to this problem is. Should the government be more modularized so groups have to focus on less? Is competence the issue? If we made these changes would security be lost? It feels like the government is one gigantic program file that is uncommented, entirely bloated, and using legacy systems from 200 years ago.

Thanks for reading my blog this week! May all of your dreams come true!

The halfway point of the term has been reached. The Midterms are fully underway, and the homework is piling up. This has been a good week. Our project is starting to take shape. We have our charge, and we are charging forward to make something useful for some very hard working people. Current events are underway, and progressing at a rapid pace. By the time I write my next blog, we will see who the President of the United States will be for the next four years. I’m hopeful, but also kind of worried about the fallout. Not only that, but we are seeing record infections and I just know that a lot of people were partying for Halloween. I predict a SPoOky result! However, things in my little world are going well. That seems a little callous to all the people who are facing hard times right now, but I think it’s important to express gratitude for the good things in life, even when things are looking a little bleak. I voted last week, and I hope that anyone who ends up seeing this post did as well. I didn’t vote in the last election, and honestly I think that was stupid. I think a lot of people probably think the same way, and turnout is going to be the highest its ever been.

I know this blog has been more about current events so far, but that’s what has been occupying most of my headspace. Do you think that election day should be a national holiday so everyone can get to the polls? It’s crazy out there right now, and I hope you can find your own little pocket of peace and quiet in all of this. I have been thinking a lot about living in the present moment more and more in life. I feel that the future is less guaranteed than it ever has been, and worrying about what’s going to happen is just wasting the precious time that I have available to myself today. I wonder what I can do to make myself into the kind of person that I want to be, and have found that just doing the best I can to use every fleeting moment of the present is the best way to give myself the future I want. I don’t know if I’m right about this, but I’m giving it my best shot!

Thanks for reading!

Luke