Have you ever gone camping and seen the most gorgeous sunset ever? Because I have, and I don't know if I'll ever see anything close. Check this out

I've included more photos below because it would be a shame to not share for anyone interested.

Now then, this week was certainly more chill than the last and has me thinking more about AI coding and satisfaction. But before we get into that boring stuff, a little recap of what I did and learned is in order. We've got camping, visiting an art gallery, and building out more of my personal projects and even creating demo sites!

Peaceful and serene

So this was my first time going backcountry camping (I've done frontcountry a few times, hiking/driving in, and always had a proper washroom and water supply somewhere semi-close by). I didn't really appreciate what the "back" in "backcountry" implied until this. It's so isolated but so stunning. After feeling like I've perhaps done a bit too much work recently, being able to just sit down, listen to the breeze, and watch the waves roll by was the best thing I could ask for.

We took a canoe out about 1.5 hours to our campsite, and boy was that a workout. It was all worth it though because while there, I caught two fish and we ended up eating one with our lunch! One of my proudest moments. I also went cliff jumping and faced my fear of heights and falling. I also realized that a large motivating factor is not letting others wait. I was having trouble psyching myself up for the final jump (a lot higher than the previous!), but after I heard my friend's splash, I convinced myself to go. It's kind of wild how all the hyping up my friends did couldn't shake my nerves off, but knowing that they would be waiting for me to leave was the deciding factor.

Reflecting on my path

Given my clearly reflective mood this summer, I also took my time there while admiring the scenery to think about where I am right now. Not literally of course -- but where I am in regards to my goals for the summer and overall. When it came to my original summer plan, I honestly think I've done a great job of it (minus all the stuff I wanted to put on my personal website by now haha...). I've even gone further in some ways with meeting new people and exploring new things. But I think there are days where I lose myself to the slog of coding and need to ask myself what I'm coding for.

Now then, it isn't all slog. I've been having a lot of fun building out an arsenal of websites to help with things in life. Tracking my finances, tracking job applications, honestly a lot of tracking haha. If anything, the real realization is that there was a lot of joy in the initial creation of these websites, feeling so excited to improve my life. Unfortunately, after the base version was created and I started using them, the trade-off of "time spent vs performance gains" went down. I was making small refinements to make it as seamless as possible for myself, but either I've slightly burnt out and don't want to code so much, or I'm affected by the fact that it takes a lot more effort now for less gain in these websites. I think it's always been that way with coding, but now that it's so much easier to get the first version created, the shift is even more drastic.

After returning home, I had the great joy of watching the new Avatar Aang movie! Incredible throwback to the past because that was such an amazing series in my childhood. I'm still very disappointed that it didn't release in theatres...

Seeing is believing

I started making demo sites for my projects and it was a very fun experience. Since they use supabase as the SQL storage, I wanted the demo to be fully local instead to not overuse my free plan. My solution was to create sample data for each demo site that made sense, load it locally, and also allow it to reset so users can play around but then undo anything they didn't like.

I won't go too in detail, since actions speak louder than words, and you can check out either site at your own convenience.

Finance Tracker: initially built as a local script writing to sqlite on my laptop, I moved this to the web to let me log spending from my phone. I wanted to be intentional with my money and thought that logging each transaction would help (and give real-time data without security issues from connecting to my bank accounts). It's also let me make spending reports and derive cools insights on my spending!
Job application tracker: Lots of application trackers exist, but none link your github resume to each application. After putting my resume in git, I realized I could link the unique resume hash that I applied with to each application, and then compile the resumes on demand without actually needing to store the pdfs. It also let me log what I care about, like how aligned my resume is with the posting, what it targets for, and how long it took, letting me gain insights on what in my resume is working well and what efforts are worth it.

Alone is good

Finally, I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario on my own while downtown (before meeting some old work friends) and honestly had a great time! I think there's a lot of value in being able to enjoy things in life without needing anyone else to do them, and I must say that art galleries are one of the best places to do that.

I enjoyed the Monet exhibit after seeing a lot of him while in Europe, but I was surprisingly awestruck by a Canadian artist's abstract work. Edna Taçon, a modernist painter and professional classical violinist -- who somehow turned a typical non-enjoyer of abstract art into someone who stared at art pieces for minutes straight. I loved the blending of colours, especially given that many pieces held my favourite dark blues, greens, and turquoises, but also found myself tracing the abstract lines and marvelling at it all. One piece even seemed like it had a glass effect similar to liquid glass which was mesmerizing on canvas. All that to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my solo visit and hope to go again next week.

Overall, this week was a great refresh by camping, but also a nice week of discovery and (some) productivity.