Matt Wrench

I sat in a garage and invented the future because artists lead and hacks ask for a show of hands.

steve Jobs (2015)

boy finds love, pt. 1

My life changed the night my dad brought home our family’s first desktop PC. Inside the huge cardboard boxes were a CRT monitor and a Micron computer with a 1 GB hard drive and Windows 95. I was smitten with the machine from the moment the crackling screen was first turned on. I spent the rest of the night drawing in Microsoft Paint and playing Minesweeper though I did not even know the rules of the game.

Soon after, I picked up a book on HTML from my elementary school’s Scholastic book fair. A world of possibilities opened up before me. CSS was a new invention and a complete unknown to me; the <center> tag was a critical tool. <table>-based layouts ruled the web. Discovering the <marquee> tag was like Oppenheimer unleashing nuclear weapons, but good design and separation of concerns were irrelevant. I could create my own websites. The computer had become a creative tool for me.

Learning HTML set me on a lifelong path. I taught myself C++ in order to develop my own video games. In high school, I picked up Java. Originally, I went to college for biomedical engineering, but I would eventually realize I wanted a degree in computer science instead. The house I live in is paid for by the career I have built writing code.

Programming is still my passion. My nights and weekends continue to be spent learning and building with the computer. Why do I still love coding so much? Because it is literally fucking magic. You pick the right words and put them in the correct order then you can change the world. You can communicate across continents, solve impossible math problems, or build entire virtual lands.

You can tell them anything if you just make it funny, make it rhyme.

Bo Burnham, Make Happy

Steph Curry ruined basketball¹. I am not mad at him nor do I blame him. If my jump shot was better, I too would want to compete for Larry O’Brien trophies. In many ways, Curry has improved the game of basketball, but his style of play has certainly destroyed what the game once was.

Historically, basketball has been dominated by freakishly tall centers: George Mikan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and many more. With Bird and Magic in the ‘80s, this became less true, but we are still talking about a power forward and a 6’9” point guard who could play any position on the floor. In the ‘90s and ‘00s, the most popular players were Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, but centers and power forwards were still superstars in the league: Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, etc.

Steph, however, changed that². No player has ever been so effortless at shooting threes, and the second most dangerous 3-point shooter in the league was his teammate, Klay Thompson. No longer could players keep their distance from a ball handler past the 3-point line. Even a half-court shot needed to be contested. The Splash Brothers widened the field of play. In doing so, the paint and the centers who dominated it became less important³.

Marge: Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon.

Homer: That’s not how I remember it.

The Simpsons, “Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo”

Full spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Remake, and the original FFVII follow.

Aerith dies.

Growing up, I was a Nintendo kid. I did not own a PlayStation until I was a man. Nonetheless, Aerith’s death at the hands of Sephiroth’s Masamune is common knowledge for anybody who knows the acronym JRPG. Seeing this moment recreated in glorious high-definition was the main appeal for picking up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Technically though, I also grew up playing Rebirth. I started the game shortly after its release as a late-young thirtysomething and finished it a year later as a young-mid thirtysomething.¹ FFVII Rebirth is too long. Beating the game took me under one hundred hours, so this is not the longest JRPG ever created. Yet it drags so damn much. I would play for a week or two at a time but grow bored every time I set off to complete all the world intel for each region. Inevitably, I would put the controller down for a few months, play something else, and then pick Rebirth up once again. Remake’s shorter, forty-hour runtime felt like a light snack in comparison to Rebirth’s all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

I have mixed feelings about who I am but that is OK, I’m a little bit of everything.

Paddington Bear

Sunday, June 8

L and I have arrived in London. We were in the United Kingdom last year and got engaged; this year we are back for someone else’s wedding.

I am exhausted by the time we check in to the Z Hotel Soho. The room is cramped. Your arms can almost stretch from one side of the room to the other. Most of the floor space has already been claimed by our limited luggage. The small room does not bother me though. Sleeping on planes is impossible for me, and the ten-hour flight from Phoenix has sapped all my energy. I take a quick nap while L goes to look around the nearby Uniqlo.

Eventually, I am able to drag myself out of bed. Soho is even busier than the next-door neighborhood of Covent Garden where we stayed last year. Our hotel is right next to the Palace Theatre where Harry Potter and the Cursed Child plays most afternoons and evenings. The crowds are thick but never unmanageable.

We grab dinner at Rock and Sole Plaice, one of the city’s best chippies. Unlike many fish and chip spots, RSP has an extensive variety beyond just the standard cod or haddock.

I decide on skate for dinner, a rare find on most menus. This was always my granddad’s favorite type of fish. Unlike most fried fish, the skate is served on the bone. Pulling the meat from these bones which resemble the strings of a harp is a bit of a faff. The extra effort though is worth it for the strong, yet still clean, flavor of the meat. My granddad had good taste.

I guess I felt attached to my weakness. My pain and suffering too. Summer light, the smell of a breeze, the sound of cicadas–if I like these things, why should I apologize. The same with having a beer with you…

Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase

Some rivalries are lopsided: Coke versus Pepsi. Globetrotters versus Generals. Roadrunner versus Coyote. And despite both bands’ critical and commercial successes, the Beatles versus The Rolling Stones can be included on that list as well.

A hundred years from now, the Fab Four will still be the quintessential rock band. “Ruby Tuesday” is charming, but “Yesterday” is legendary. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road are seminal works that define not only the rock genre but music as a medium.

But liking the Beatles is fairly meaningless. Their work has been absorbed by the popular culture. Enjoying the White Album says as much about you as eating at McDonald’s; you would sometimes prefer to listen to harmonious sounds than silence. As Stephen Hayden explains in Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, “If I’m honest, I’ll admit to being a Stones guy because being a Stones guy just seems more interesting. Loving the Beatles is ordinary by comparison; it says nothing about you other than your unquestioning acceptance of inevitable truths. Siding with the Beatles is like siding with gravity.” I wish I was a Stones guy.

In fall 2019, I started my bachelor’s in computer science at Western Governors University. By April 2020, I had finished my degree.

At most schools, this would be impossible. WGU, however, has a unique system. Students sign up for a six-month term at a fixed tuition price. You start with a regular semester’s worth of classes. Once you finish those first four classes, you can take additional ones as long as you finish them before the end of the term. In theory, you can complete your entire degree in a single six-month term. My studies only took an extra 3 months. If you are looking to do the same, here are some of my best tips: