This week I’ll start with most of the non-work related things I’ve been up to.

Local Fireworks

After last week’s blog post, Lily and I went to one of the local parks to watch the 4th of July Fireworks. It was by and large your typical fireworks show. It took some time to find parking, but all the driving I do as of late has improved my patience. We had to carry our chairs about half a mile to get to the park, but once we were there it was fine. We got there later in the day this year, so less time to get sunburnt or bitten by all the bugs.

The actual fireworks show was pretty standard. There was buildup and a climax, but for some reason they did a few tiny ones after the climax. The food selection wasn’t very Rob-friendly, so we just opted for some fast food on the way home. Honestly, I was surprised we made it in time to get any considering we had at most 15 minutes to spare until everywhere was closed.

Chicago Anniversary Shenanigans

This year marks my 7-year anniversary with Lily, so we decided to celebrate this year by having a day-long date out in Chicago. Lily wanted her anniversary gift before leaving so I gave it to her the night before. It’s a cute little custom music box I bought from ONETINYSHOP. For the curious, the song this one plays is Faraway Promise from Xenogears, a game that Lily and I both cherish. The first part of Lily’s anniversary gift to me was a handcrafted card with several references on it, mostly Trails related.

Moving onto our Chicago trip, we opted to ride the local train. It just so happens we have a train in town that directly connects to Millenium Station. It was a fairly calm trip. However, we did come to find by the time we got home that the train cars are in the midst of updates. Meaning, there was some inconsistency between the quality of seats from car to car. However, all in all it was fine. It was just a single train each way, so nothing to get stressed or confused about. It also happened to be my first time actually riding a train anywhere, so that was fun.

After hopping off the train, we did some initial walking around Millenium park. So Lily got to see the Bean and we happened upon some orchestra playing with some singers. Afterwords, we moved onto brunch. For that, we kept it simple with Dunkin (as we already had reservation for a restaurant later for dinner).

After lunch, we walked back towards the park for a bit; and then eventually to The Art Institute. It was my second time visiting, but my first time with Lily. We ended up spending most of the day there, walking between the different areas. I think during this visit I enjoyed the Medieval section the most. It was a good time, but understandably we were exhausted after spending over 4 hours in there.

You mean Gnome armor?

Afterwards, we eventually made our way to The Gage for dinner. It had a nice atmosphere and solid food, but it wasn’t really worth the price. The dessert was better than the steaks we ordered. We still had a fun time regardless.

After dinner, we made our way back to the station and rode on home. The next day Lily made the other half of her gift to both of us, a nice chocalate cake. All in all we had a pretty good time.

Chipping away at work

There is not much to report in regards to research (it has only been a week since last blog after all). I reserved a slot to request signal be produced for my analysis, so I will be giving a talk next Friday. It won’t be anything too crazy, mostly just a quick theory summary followed by what I’m asking be produced. Most of the slides were already around in some form, so it kind of just put itself together.

The lab side of things is at a standstill until materials arrive.

Game Updates

Not too much to report here either. I’ve been bouncing around a lot of games from my backlog. I’ll post more comprehensive thoughts once I’ve finished the next one. For the curious though,

Games I’m streaming: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 (XB), Trails in the Sky FC (PC)

Games I’m playing off-stream: Hollow Knight (PS4/5), Celeste (PS4/5), Detroit: Become Human (PS4/5), Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (PS4/5), both versions of Ys IV (TurboCD, SFC) (won’t necessarily commit to finishing all of these)

What else?

There’s not much else going on at present. I’ll likely continue my monthly treks back to Ohio to visit people. Funding is very much in the air, no knowing if and when travelling to CERN may happen.

Next blog post at latest in August (around my birthday), but I may post sooner if I have enough worth sharing about.

Till Next Time,

Rob