Hey all, another short post here. I think I might finally be getting into some form of consistency here, which is good. I love writing these posts and I want to do more, and so I’m doing just that.

First, I don’t believe I’ve ever mentioned this about myself on here, but regardless of whether I have, I’ll say it anyway. Last year, after not having been in school for over a year and a half, I finally began taking courses for a business degree with some elements of computer science sprinkled throughout. At first, it felt like the right decision. I’ve always enjoyed coding with different programming languages and found it especially fun in high school. I had planned to finish my degree, find a comfortable office job or a spot in a big software company, and then go from there. This was before I stepped back and realized an uncomfortable truth about the computer science industry, especially in Canada.

Simply put, it’s oversaturated and nearly impossible to find good tech jobs in Western Canada. This is due to many factors, including foreign nationals scooping these jobs up for themselves, a lack of overall employment, and a struggling economy. It’s also a fact that Canada isn’t a premier destination for those in computer science and software engineering. At this rate, your best hope is to go down south into the United States or move somewhere in Europe, where you can hopefully run into something there. In case it wasn’t apparent by now, I had decided to change my career path and go into something that I, as well as my entire family, think would be far more suited for me, as well as something that I would have a chance at finding good employment within.

What is that, you might ask? Glad you did. I plan on becoming a sportswriter or a media relations specialist for a sports franchise, hopefully focused on the NHL here in Canada. If you’ve looked through my blog, you’ll know I am a big hockey fan and love talking about it. I’ve been a fan for over a decade; I’m always putting my nose to the ground and trying to find out information about possible trades, prospects, etc. My parents had been urging me for the past couple of years to get into this industry instead of computer science, but I brushed it off at first because I thought I would enjoy coding more than I did. Also, there was still a chance for me to get into something like Google or even Microsoft eventually. That will continue.

It’s not just my parents that were urging me to change my mind as well. Many friends said similar things, and some church mentors even suggested I consider it. Looking back on it, I feel that the Lord had been trying to direct me towards doing this for some time, but I just hadn’t gotten the message. Now that I see it for what it is, I’m grateful to everyone who’s given me their support and encouragement throughout these last few weeks. I feel emboldened and excited to start this journey, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me. Whether it takes a couple of years or longer, I’m in this for the long haul and want to make the most out of it.

Now, in slightly less important news, the MLB playoffs start today. Until the last month or so this season, they hadn’t grabbed my attention as much as the last few had. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is due to how the Atlanta Braves, my team, have performed throughout the year. To put it simply, injuries and a surprisingly dire lack of offense have caused this team to go from a surefire World Series contender to having to settle for the 5th seed in the National League, a position they weren’t even guaranteed to get until yesterday when they played their very last game of the regular season. The Mets nearly kicked them out of the playoff race entirely, but they thankfully decided not to score any runs in the second game of yesterday’s doubleheader. No matter how epic it was, we don’t talk about that first game.

For what it’s worth, I’m really glad I started paying attention at the beginning of September. Lots of crazy things happen, from Shohei Ohtani becoming the first player to ever hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season to the Tigers and Royals beating the odds and making the playoffs for the first time in 10 years and 9 years respectively. I also watched Tarik Skubal and Chris Sale wrap up what should be unanimous Cy Young seasons. For all the problems the Braves have experienced this year, their trade for Chris Sale before the season began has been nothing but a tremendous win for the organization. Sale, 35 years young, pitched what might be the best season of his excellent career and he always gave the Braves a chance to win, which they generally did when he started.

So, who do I think will win the World Series this year? It’s hard to say, but after taking a look at how evenly matched a lot of these teams are and taking past years into account, I came up with this bracket early this morning:

Fun fact, the Astros and Phillies actually met in the World Series back in 2022, albeit under significantly different circumstances. Houston was a juggernaut and was easily the best overall team in baseball that year, while Philadelphia was the 6th seed in the NL and hadn’t made the playoffs in quite some time. Because the Astros are inevitable, they closed out the Phillies in 6, although the series was actually quite close throughout all 6 games. This year, I have them meeting up again, but the Phillies winning in 6 this time. While I absolutely despise the Phillies as a fan of a division rival, I cannot overlook how complete they are as a team, from the batting lineup all the way to their starting rotation. When you can roll out Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez and Christopher Sanchez as your 4 starting pitchers, you’ve got something really good going on. I would personally rather put a fork through my brain than see the Phillies win this year, but I also wouldn’t be shocked to see them do it.

Then again, baseball is really weird, and things never go the way you expect. Who knows, maybe the Dodgers and Yankees won’t choke and go all the way. Maybe it’ll be something super weird like the Brewers beating the Royals. Truly, I have no idea what’ll happen, and neither do you. Isn’t that the fun of it all, though? Probably.

At any rate, here’s to a good playoffs and hopefully more entertaining results than last year. With all that being said, God bless and I’ll see you later.