Hey all, sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've been job searching, which involves interviewing, and making sure I actually have a "professional" web presence, etc. so I've been working on a different site altogether. In between that though, I have been playing Minecraft. A lot. Even 10 years after I first started playing it, it's still my favourite game. In light of that fact, I've decided to talk (and info-dump) about it today.

I remember the first day I heard about Minecraft, extremely well. I was in grade 8 and I overheard a couple of people I knew talking about something. At first I thought they were just talking about Runescape, but I asked them and they told me about this incredible new game called Minecraft. Immediately I was intrigued. As soon as I got home, I went on my laptop and downloaded a pirated copy of Minecraft. I loaded it up, and I was greeted by a simple but very well designed cobblestone logo with a dirt background. I hit Play Singleplayer and created a new world.

It took a while, but when I finally loaded into my new world, I was awestruck by the simple, but polished visuals. It was so blocky and simple, but so well done? It kind of confused me to be honest. I had no idea what to do on my first day, and back then there was no tutorial built into the game, but I tried my best. I died around 3 or 4 times before I gave up and looked up a tutorial on how to play. I remember specifically, the video I watched was called something like "How to Survive and Thrive on your first night in Minecraft" by paulsoaresjr. That officially started my proper journey into the world of Minecraft.

And hoo boy did it was a fantastic journey. Every single day after school, I would play Minecraft. I would eat, sleep, breathe Minecraft. It became an addiction, but at the same time, it was something that really helped me come out of my shell (as it did with a lot of autistic people). I started playing on multiplayer servers with friends, and even with random people online. I started doing research every day and was determined to know everything I could about this wonderful game that had come into my life so suddenly.

Minecraft is really just so beautifully simple, but at the same time how infinitely complex it is. You break and place blocks, and make a pseudorandomly generated infinite world into your own beautiful creation. There are 2⁶⁴ possible worlds in Minecraft. There's always something new to find, and I don't think I've ever been bored while playing. Sure there have been times where I stopped playing for a while, but I always manage to come back to it one way or another.

The thing that really makes Minecraft my favourite game of all time is honestly the fact that it singlehandedly got me into coding. It was a game that was made by one person: Markus "Notch" Persson Hatsune Miku. Like one person?! At the time, that was pretty much unheard of (Save for a couple examples I had never heard of at the time). I looked into the modding community, and that drove me to buy a programming book on Java during the middle of one of the biggest snowstorms of 2012. I learned so much from the game, and especially about how I could make something of my own from essentially nothing. That drove me into programming during later grades of high school, and then to my first job. Like it's feels weird for me to say to my interviewers, "Hey, this particular video game inspired me to learn how to code", even though I know for a fact that that is a perfectly normal experience, haha.

In any case, yeah. Minecraft has been a huge inspiration for me, and it kind of always will be. I personally hope that it stays relevant for decades. Between 2.8-3.6 million concurrent players every single day can't be wrong.

Anyway, It's like 5AM now, so I should probably go to bed now. In the near future, expect a site design update, and maybe even an info-dump about the Doctor Who theme music.

Goodnight,

—Arin

It was only a matter of time before I started to properly work on this site. I've been struggling with being unmotivated when it comes to web development.

I think that this pattern of thinking and being unmotivated really dates back to the end of my time at my first job. I really did love my job, but my god there were so many problems that I look back and am like "How the hell did you not go crazy???". People not taking the co-op students seriously even though we were constantly demonstrating our worth, the projects being held up by other teams, and the fact that I managed to forget to offload my work to a thumbdrive before I left the company so I could have an actual portfolio to show off, it was all just so much for a 17/18 year old to parse.

After I graduated high school, there was a lot of stress put on me by my parents to immediately get a job out in the field. This was only increased by the fact that I took a gap year to de-stress myself and get back on my feet. That led to me not feeling good about myself because nobody would hire me. However, what I didn't realize at the time was that I was only at the beginning of my journey and still had a long way to go.

I really do hate the idea of spending thousands to go learn something I could more than likely learn in my spare time through extensive googling, but at the time I really just wanted to prove to myself that I could get a diploma. First and second semester at college were a breeze, while third and fourth were a little bit tougher. I even managed to graduate with a ~3.9 GPA. However, I finished my program back in August, and I have still not received confirmation from my college that I've actually graduated. Maybe I'll vent about that another day, but the point is that it's led to a huge stagnation in my work, and progress. I just want to get out into the world and get a job, maybe even start my own company down the road, but I really feel like I can't without that stupid piece of paper. I feel like nobody will trust me that I actually completed my program, and while deep in my heart I realize that it's just my anxiety talking, it just feels like a kick in the teeth.

That leads me to my plan to get better and keep motivated: First step is going to be for me to to commit to this site. It's supposed to be a fun space for me to just hang out and do whatever I want. Maybe even show off my progress on projects that I'm working on. I'm going to be doing that at least 2 times a week. I'm unsure what days, but probably Monday and Friday. The second step is going to be for me to hound the college until I know what the hell is actually going on. I know that I graduated and so does my academic advisor. I at least know they can't deny that I did. If they do, well, I have a plan. The third step, is for me to work on my music in my spare time when I'm not coding. I want to release an album by the end of 2023, and it's gonna be really funky and cool. It's not exactly the most detailed plan, but that's what I want to do.

—Arin