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Considering that you are, presumably, sentient, you probably have something from your past that you really liked. Depending on when you were born, it may have been anything from an old train set to a perhaps not quite as old iPad, though I’m going to take a wild guess and say most people reading this blog lived too long for an iPad to be part of your early childhood. Anyways, for me, this thing was my GameCube.

At the time, the GameCube was the newest gaming console from Nintendo, coming before the Wii. When I first saw it, considering before then I had TV and Dr. Seuss for entertainment,  it was mind blowing. You could actually interact with it and the outcome was based on your own abilities? It was unheard of! Unfortunately, it did belong to my brother, but after seeing how much I liked it, he left it for me when he went to college. I would play it at every chance I got, and it was wonderful.

Though I’m more of a PC gamer today, it was the thing that introduced me to gaming, and without it, I might not be the gamer I am today.

When I first arrived in August, I expected it to be just another slow year. However, I quickly found out I was going to have a lot more homework than I had expected.

By October, I had next to no time to sleep. For several days at a time, I would have so much homework that I would have to stay up until midnight, only getting seven hours of sleep. Occasionally, I would even have to stay up as late as two o’ clock doing homework, as there was so much of it, or something took a long time.

Eventually, in the second semester, the homework did relent and I started getting a reasonable amount of sleep, but I still occasionally stayed up late. As the year comes to a close, the homework is really starting to slow down, leaving me plenty of free time and allowing me to stay up late when I want to rather than when I have to.

If you’ve ever used a computer, you probably have a few programs you always use. Maybe it’s a word processor, or a communication service, or maybe it’s just iTunes, but there’s always one you always use. I, as a frequent user of computers, have quite a few programs I use, and here are some of my favourites.

First off, we have Steam. Steam is digital distribution service run by the company Valve. A digital distribution service is a service that hosts games to be bought, downloaded, and played via the service. I use Steam pretty much every day to play most of the games I own, so it’s probably the most important program on this list.

Next, we have Skype. I’m sure most of you know what Skype is, but for those who don’t, it’s a service that allows you to message, call, and stream video (usually from a webcam) to other people. You can use it to have a conference or just chat, but I use it to talk with my friends while we play games together.

The next thing on my list is a utility called the Dual Shock 4 Tool. It’s a fairly minor program, it’s only purpose being allowing a Play Station 4 controller to work on a PC, but I use it so often I felt it deserved a spot.

The final thing on my list is a little music program I like to play with called Synthesia. Synthesia is a program originally designed to teach you how to play the piano, but it’s far more fun to use it to run files called midi’s. A midi file is basically a file that tells the computer what notes to play and what order to play it in. The real beauty of it is that unlike a person, the only limit on the number of notes played at once is the power of the computer, resulting in hilariously absurd and impossible songs.

That concludes the list of my favourite programs. Some of them I don’t always use, but they are all very useful or, in the case of Synthesia, amusing, so they are all great and I would recommend them top anyone who spends any large amount of time on the computer.

If you’re going to Austin, there are several places you could go. You could play game at Blazer tag, go for a swim at Barton Springs, or ride a bicycle around Ladybird Lake, but if you asked me, the best place to go in Austin is Hopdoddy.

Hopdoddy is a fantastic burger restaurant in Austin taking pride in its all natural menu and locally sourced ingredients. None of their food has any artificial ingredients, so my parents will actually let me eat everything there, and the food is delicious. Their menu pretty much consists of burgers, salads, and fries, and if you have a gluten intolerance, you can get gluten-free buns. The place is excellent and has great food, but it’s very popular, and the place isn’t particularly big, so good luck getting to eat there.

So even though you might have trouble getting a table, it is a great restaurant and an excellent place to go in Austin (preferably in the morning, when nobody is there.)