Goodbye November
Today is November 29, and it's nearly the beginning of the last month of 2020.
I honestly have a hard time believing that nearly an entire year has passed since the world was effectively turned over on itself. So much has happened and yet, I feel like I haven't experienced much. The obligatory newsletter that looks back at the year is due pretty soon, I'll save the details for that one. For the most part, I think life for me hasn't changed too much.
Living alone, I'm used to interacting less with other people than most (both a blessing and a curse), and besides from the odd drink with a friend or two, I'm not much of a person who goes partying or clubbing. I even went for drinks some weeks during the summer, when COVID-19 was much more under control than it is now. Speaking of COVID, British Columbia had a record-breaking 911 new cases this Friday, November 27. A sobering statistic and a testament to exponential growth. That said, it looks like the 7-day rolling averages for the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal health regions have stabilized. Whether this is a statistical anomaly or a consequence of restrictions introduced by the PHO a little over two weeks ago remains to be seen.
Last Friday, I also had my final regularly scheduled office hours of the year as a TA. I really did miss the in-person interaction I'd usually get with my students, and I feel like I've done them a huge disservice by being unable to hold them in person. That said, I'm fairly certain now, that long after the recommencement of in-class lectures and office hours, a virtual office hour time slot will continue to be offered. That's something that this year has shown us; many jobs can often be done without having the need to commute long distances.
Speaking of commuting, I'll be moving next month to East Vancouver. This is the furthest I've lived from UBC ever since I started school there in '15, and I'm excited to live in a new area. Luckily, the place I'm moving to is close to an express bus that goes right to UBC, but I'm planning to commute by bike most days, if/when the in-person aspects of school resume.
As the term winds down, deadlines are fast-approaching. My final for 509 is on the 3rd, and project due-dates are coming up. Aside from 513, I've really enjoyed the courses I've taken so far. Next term I'll be taking a course on program verifiers (which incidentally happens to be related to one of the courses I'm taking right now), and I'm planning to do a directed studies with my advisor, which should make up for the unfortunate reality that the department isn't offering any graduate-level courses in software engineering.
I've got to get back to cleaning up some D3 code, so I'll see you all next week. Stay safe.