The Darkness of Winter
Hello 2022
Welcome to my inaugural post here on Substack. My plan is just to write about whats on my mind this week. What I am doing, playing reading, thinking or struggling with. I hope for this to be a light in the darkness that is everyday life. Walking and wandering in the cold dim world that is everyday life.
Who am I?
I am Corey. I have a bit of a dark sense of humor. I dont take this world too seriously, as there are so many things outside of our control that you really cant dwell on the forces of nature. A lot of what we prioritize in our life now may be the most important thing we ever do right now, but in the grand scheme that is our life, these are but mere grains of sand on a beach. You do what you can, you try to make yourself a better person, try to provide for your family and find the joy in life. Also the ice caps are melting and the world is on fire, so theres that.
What am I?
A software engineer by day. Turns out also a software engineer by night. I work in backend technologies but I am focused on moving into the machine learning and AI space this year. My biggest hobby is probably game development because I love sitting in front of a computer for 20 hours a day. I have been studying and making games for 15(??) years maybe and I am still fascinated by the medium and how we can build these narrative structures and worlds that people can explore. Games are an escape, a safe space to tune out the noise of the world, albeit just for a small amount of time.
What have I been playing?
I have been in a bit of a lull lately with what I have been playing. Mostly I have been back in Destiny 2, playing through the new anniversary content (which is fantastic) and gearing up for the big expansion in February.
I also decided to get back into “The Return of the Obra Dinn” on the Switch. Had to restart because I forgot where I was, but man what an incredible game. A murder mystery set on a ghost pirate ship where you get to explore the memories of the dead sailors as you piece together what the hell happened. What more could you want? More here.
What have I been reading?
I had an off year in 2021, only managed to finish about 20 books. This year I want to aim for 50. I tend to read multiple books at the same time:
I have zero statistical background, so I am working towards trying to understand things from a different perspective. Especially working in AI I find my knowledge gaps when it comes to a statistical point of few to be severely lacking and I have found this book to be an excellent way of understanding Bayesian statistics.
Book 2 of the Lightbringer series. My first fantasy read of the year and I am completely enthralled in it. This series has one of the most unique magic systems I have ever read, right up there with Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive is terms of uniqueness and utility. If you are looking for something to read, this series seems to be off to a very strong start.
What have I been watching?
In the TV world it has been lots of sports. The NFL playoffs are on the horizon which is exciting and soul sucking. Go Bills.
On YouTube I have been watching the ML talks by Cassie Kozyrkov. There are a ton of great videos and information here regarding ML, AI, statistics and what machine learning looks like in practice.
What have I been struggling with?
Burnout. It’s not good. I wrote more in depth about this over on my medium page, but man this sucks. All I really know what to do is try to work myself out of this slump. Build things that interest me, pivot my career and keep that creativity alive.
And on that note, have a great week. Don’t go outside, don’t talk to anyone, everyone is sick so just wait it out. I’ll be on twitter if you need me @corery_s_.