Day 14. A summary

Dear Reader,

The following post will summarise my last days spent in isolation. I have recently not posted because I am lazy.

To much disappointment, I shaved my beard, if you could even call it that. Perhaps a more accurate description would be an unusually long, and curiously dispersed wiry mess. It was fun while it lasted. Will it happen again? Probably. I'm in Darwin.

I've done a little more research into my data ethics assignment. If you haven't already, you gotta watch 'The Great Hack' 2019. It shines a shocking spotlight on your datas role in the current age of information warfare. I won't spoil too much, but it's frightening. Also very well made.

I caught up with a friend, she is out a week from tomorrow. I haven't spoken to or seen her in ages. She's also the only person in here I've spoken to that I actually know outside of these four walls. It was nice as a last day sort of thing. She also found the first two or so days to be the hardest, but is now cruising.

I love my uni group members. Still stressed about the fact two may be leaving, but it's okay. We've already done a solid body of work. Backend UML is for the most part done, and the front-end prototype. I'm actually becoming more interested in the project as we go along. This is a product that could eventually be deployed within a real business.

Dinner was good, like most meals here. They did an amazing job to keep us full and satisfied. Only a few meals I did not enjoy, and that's more to do with my personal preference than anything, as the neighbours often had no complaints.

I want to say a big thank you to the neighbouring  group around me. A great mix of young and old, we got each other through pretty unscathed in unique circumstances. It is unsettling to see some people never leave there rooms, only to grab delivered food, or appear in a daze for a temperature check. These are the people I worry most about, and I thought I was going to be.

I don't want to sound all motivational and shit, but the past two weeks have taught me a lot about myself. Prior to arriving, I was not in the best mental state, and I worried that two weeks in here may do more harm. But after the first few days, you have all this time to think, and really nut things out for yourself. I practiced mindful meditation from around day four, and exercised every second day or so. This, coupled with blogging and uni kept me on my feet. It showed to me how important a routine is. Something as simple as getting up at the same time and meditating each day can have a great effect. I feel more calm, and excited than I have in a long time.

Recently, I have been thinking about this saying 'Good luck'. You see, it is interesting. To me, it doesn't literally mean, good luck, as in something to do with chance. But that I have some belief in you. That I believe in you.

For those of you that have been reading along during my time here, I thank you. And if you've stumbled upon all this at a later date, I thank you too! Now I plan on starting a new routine with the lessons I've learnt here, and hope to do more blogging in future, albeit less frequently. Hopefully, with a little bit more to say. Until then...

Good luck, Oskar

Day 10. Home stretch

Dear Reader,

Tomorrow is Monday, which is just before Tuesday, only two days before Thursday, the day before I get out. Framing it this way makes it seem I'm practically out, which I am. I mentioned this before, but after the first two nights or so, it's gotten a lot easier. I'm now in a semi-regular routine waking up at more or less the same time every day. Accompanied with around the clock meals and daily walks, time has flown.

Most of the morning I spent working on my ethics assignment. I've now got a investigation title, which is 'Ethics of User Data: Collection & use'. I'm excited to work on this, as I find it the topic relevant to me in many aspects. I think most people are not aware of the data that is not only being collected, but used in various ways, myself included. It's going to be interesting to dig into it further.

A bit later on I tuned into a movie called 'Plus One' 2019. Another romcom of sorts. I'm not sure why I seem to be in a phase of watching romcoms. Maybe it's because I haven't had the pleasure being able to get out and about since this whole pandemic. It hasn't made it easy being single in this time, but that will change soon.

Later that arvo around dinner I watched some of the footy with my neighbour. It's been great making some quality friends with the unlikeliest of people. Walking around, it seems I lucked out with my section. A block over from us, their are a few fellas that don't wear their masks and talk most of the day about very unstimulating things, quite loud might I add. Almost every meal, most of us are out and talk. I've even managed to tease out a few mutual friends.

One thing I need to do is read more. I made a point with myself before leaving here, and yet, haven't even read a page. Poor on my part, but I'll be sure to rectify that tomorrow. I do enjoy reading, I just find it hard to get into sometimes.

A song I've fallen in love with recently is Corcovado - Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars, first released in 1965. I can't quite put my finger on what exactly it is I like about it other than the vibe. The little transitions and smooth sax are next-level. It was released as part of 'The Girl From Ipanema' album, and will require further listens.

With my release on the horizon, getting as much uni done as possible is now of top priority.

Until tomorrow, Oskar

Day 9. Question time

Dear Reader,

Today I thought I'd try something a little different and use Instagram to ask friends to send me in questions. After a little time, I took a look and responded. Here are a few I thought I'd share...

Q: What will be your first meal after leaving isolation?
> A large triple cheese burger meal with a medium frozen coke and chicken nuggets.

Q: Explain to me why you would get a medium frozen coke when a large is cheaper?
> Finally, a sensible question. So in Darwin any frozen beverage such as a frozen coke experiences greater than normal heat. And as such a large would result in too much liquid for my liking. Given this, ordering a large would be undesirable, as a medium allows me to finish it more quickly whilst enjoying a cooler coke.

Q: If you could rearrange the world map, where would you have everything?
> I'd probably move Australia down a tad so Darwin cools down or maybe rotate aus sideways 90 deg. Other than that, maybe move Russia, China and the US all to their own continent and call it Peter.

This was great fun. It was good to hear from a few different people and answer some strange and interesting questions.

Later during the day I started work on another one of my assignments. It's going to discuss people and their data. I haven't  narrowed it down more than that.

Around this time, I contacted a good friend of mine to try and nut it out a little more. We talked about different aspects of user data, and how I could frame the topic. Although we didn't converge on a title, it was good to discuss the idea more. It helped me understand more of what I need to do.
 
For this assignment, I'm using LaTeX for the first time, and it's a bit intimidating, but early results are looking fantastic. It makes your documents look so neat and clean. I can see myself using this tool a lot more, along with Jupyter Notebooks. This semester has been rather interesting.

My other subject, in which we are developing a Spring Boot + React Web Application is going ok. Two of my group members have already indicated they may be leaving the subject with an exemption due to recognition of prior learning. I think we'll be okay, but it's not a great start considering the size of the project and lack of experience I have with it. However, it could be a good opportunity for me to learn more than I otherwise would've.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and all I plan on doing is making a solid start to the data assignment mentioned earlier. Depending on how things go I may even go for a run, but it's been rather busy around camp since the new arrivals. Until then...

Goodnight, Oskar