📅 Monday 1st to Sunday 14th

It has been a busy fortnight indeed. Completed my last week of university classes, started a new job at Westpac and returning to the hockey field after a long time away.

A much shorter update than usual, but look forward to producing more website content after exams are over!

Jump to sections below:

🙋‍♂️ Volunteering

  • Coaching outdoor hockey for Hockey NSW's Centre Of Development program. Also coaching North-West Sydney Hockey Association's U18 indoor hockey boys squad. Fun to get back on the pitch and pass on to those juniors coming through.
  • Voted on the new executive team of 2022 for University of Sydney's Business Information Systems Association! Best of luck to the new leaders.
  • Uploading the images from Sikh Youth Australia's successful Family Picnic event, and preparing the posting material for our upcoming 2022 Summer Camp.

✍️ University Studies

  • Nearly... there... ahaha in all seriousness it's been a lot of wrapping up, presenting and reflecting. Two separate group projects due with a report and demonstration respectively, and trying to get on top of a massive server-client coding assignment.
  • Am going to spend the next week and a half under the pump studying before I wrap up my final exams in the last week of November.

🤵 Work

  • On-boarding in my new role at Westpac! Meeting the team, attending meetings and wrapping my head around a) organisational structure, and b) existing workflows/ content.
  • Lots of readings - luckily they are interesting reports and boards!
  • Will write an article sometime towards the second half of this internship to share my learnings and experiences.

📚 Books

  • To bolster my internship, started reading The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels. Bit tough to get through as it has a wide scope.
  • My read of Stories of Your Life ended up transitioning straight into Ted Chiang's Exhalation - a curiosity in the Kindle e-book's formatting that I noticed too late, but enjoyed regardless. Short stories make for harder reading than anticipated! Complex worlds, characters and math/ science/ technology to wrap my head around.

🎥 Movies

Eternals

Watched Nov 05, 2021

Easily the highlight of this period for me. Despite all the negative reviews I charged ahead to see this on a V-max film, looking forward to Chloe Zhao's storytelling in the ever-growing MCU machine - and it did not disappoint. Of course I have my biases, but I'm planning to do a full article on the movie and its comic inspirations as I dive into this lore I love.

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams & Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

Rewatched Nov 06, 2021

Had a family gathering for Diwali/ Bandi Chhor Diwas, which meant entertaining young kids for a few hours... what better way to dive back into the nostalgic world of Juni and Carmen Cortez than with a bunch of viewers who simultaneously enjoy and can point out the flaws in these family films.

Hum Do Hamare Do

Watched Nov 08, 2021

A refreshing change of pace from all the high-stakes science-fiction. Whilst it does limit some of its ideas around orphanage, modern dating in India and family structure, at least the film didn't devolve into nonsense. Great acting all around, and a simple story that had the potential to be much more.

🎵 Music

Day/Night by Parcels
Last fortnight I shared Parcel's EP (?), and then they went ahead and dropped their whole album. Definitely more of a musical journey with instrumental interludes set across a day of reflection and conversation. Enjoyed the tracks with vocals.

Thriller Access Memories: A Daft Punk & Michael Jackson Album
Calb is a genius. This was amazing, within two days I paid the $4 to support the creator and get access to the downloaded version. Don't just listen, but appreciate the coherence of the music video!

📺 TV Shows

Doctor Who
Watched the first episode of Season 13 on a whim (thank you ABC iview!). Having dropped off during Season 11 back in 2018 and half-heartedly following the show's rollercoaster since, I'm looking forward to revisiting everything great about the modern era in the lead-up to the show's 60th anniversary.

Big Deal
Caught an episode of this on late night ABC - fascinating stuff around Australia's political system including the lobbing-inspired backstory of public funding, similarities to the USA and successful regional community efforts.

Parks and Recreation
It's great to witness all the character growth and interactions, especially with funny guest stars... but it's getting harder to enjoy Leslie's stagnant character.

☕ Food

  • Oliver Brown... bit too sweet in the hot drink, but not enough flavour in the cake slice.

🏑 Exercise

  • Ryde hockey's 5-a-side summer competition has started! A really fun way to return to hockey and see faces from all levels of the club.

😅 Phew! You've reached the end of this fortnight, thank you for reading.

If you're interested in more content like this, hit up the homepage and have a browse. If you want to get in touch, my details are in the "Contact" link below!

👍 Hope you have a fantastic fortnight ahead.