Tyler Calabrese

Grad School Comes For Us All It’s been a while since I wrote for this blog, mostly because I have been procrastinating on sharing some very exciting news. This fall, I’ll be starting a PhD program at Boston University, in the Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences! I’ve already moved out of NYC. I’m visiting my sister in Pittsburgh now, then I... Read More

Bigger, Better, Still Mostly White and English-Speaking I’m about a month late, but New Colossus last month was a blast, just like the year before. I don’t have as much to say as last year – first of all, how could I? That is a long, two-part post. Second, most of what I said then still stands, so I’ll start with some updates. Updates from Las... Read More

We’ve reached the end of 2024! Although I’m not yet ready to share publicly about the big plot points in my life this year, 2024 has been good to me. I stayed true to myself this year, had some new experiences, caught up with some old friends and spent quality time with some new ones. I just skimmed my “Hello, 2024” post to see what was on my m... Read More

Mr. Floyd Larry, who I saw at New Colossus Festival earlier this year, has a new album out: Different Place and Time. It’s their best album so far. I just listened to it while going through my usual weekend morning routine, sipping coffee at my desk, reading, and emailing. Which, when I put it that way, is no different from my weekday morning r... Read More

It’s been about a month since my last post, where I talked a bit about how my phone was pickpocketed recently and some ways I wish I had prepared better for that possibility. Thankfully, my identity still hasn’t been stolen so far, so I am starting to think I am in the clear. Not that anybody is ever in the clear, I guess. I’m no longer particul... Read More

Back in April, my undergrad CS advisor, Mark Sheldon, invited me to give a guest lecture in his Concurrent Programming class. I was excited for the chance to do this – I like teaching and public speaking, and Concurrent Programming was one of my favorite classes I took in undergrad. My friends and I made a multiplayer platformer game for our fin... Read More

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to get to visit an old friend in Mexico City. I had a great time, and it felt good to catch up after not having seen each other in years. The joy of traveling to a city I like very much, practicing my Spanish, and spending time with my friend… Are not what this post is about. One thing that did happen, around... Read More

On Saturday night, a new friend of mine hosted a PowerPoint party for his 25th birthday. Technically speaking, I didn’t make a PowerPoint, I made a… marp. I wrote about something that I had long been wanting to research in more depth and already loved to enlighten people about: the time Angelina Jolie offered to act as human bait to help catch ... Read More

Or, at least, a lot of it. The other day I had the privilege of seeing Mannequin Pussy, whom I’ve previously described on this blog as the most important rock artist right now, play Bowery Electric in Brooklyn. I had seen them in concert once before, in college, (my first mosh pit!) with a friend of mine who is much cooler than me, after a dif... Read More

Earlier today, on the way home from an Easter service, I read Baldur Bjarnason’s post “The one about the web developer job market,” an analysis on the tech industry’s current direction that I thought was really thoughtful and smart. I don’t quite agree with the level of pessimism he expresses about the tech job market in particular but the “this... Read More

Hi, hopefully you’re here becuase you enjoyed my last post, where I wrote about New Colossus, the music festival I attended last weekend. As promised, in this post, I’ll go over some shows that stuck with me, in order of when I first saw them. I’m trying to go with my gut here, as far as highlighting a number of bands that feels right to me, a... Read More

This weekend, I went to the New Colossus Festival on the Lower East Side. New Colossus is an international music festival that a few bars co-host, with the HQ at Pianos. It’s usually the weekend before SXSW, so they can catch acts coming into the US for that. This festival has been on my radar since last year, when I spontaneously caught a show ... Read More

This site is currently hosted on an Oracle Cloud “Always Free” server. I migrated here from Digital Ocean, where I was paying $8/month ($6/month for a droplet and $2/month for block storage) for only 1GB of RAM, where I now have 6GB. The Oracle Cloud Always Free tier is a really good deal, and comes with a generous Free Trial that I never got ar... Read More

Happy New Year, readers! We’re a week in, and although I’m skeptical of the whole new-years-resolution thing, I’ve recently been afflicted with the typical New Year’s existential crisis (to complement the “I’m in my 20s” existential crisis), so I figured a bit of reflection and resolution couldn’t hurt. It’s not like I’m having a quarter-life cr... Read More

Last week, I traveled from Arkadelphia, AR to Pittsburgh, PA on Amtrak. There were two legs: Sunday night I embarked from Arkadelphia on the Texas Eagle, arriving in Chicago Monday afternoon. Then, I spent Monday night on the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Pittsburgh. This was my first time on either of those railways: I’ve taken Northeast Regi... Read More

There’s early voting going on for the city council election in NYC right now, and my councilmember is running basically unopposed for re-election. As I get ready to go about my Saturday, which will start with going to the polls, I’ve been wondering why exactly I am going to vote at all. What’s the point of engaging in this ritual of voting for a... Read More

Welcome to my blog Hi, I’m Tyler. I’m 23 years old, I’m from Houston originally and live in NYC currently, and I make software. I like live music, reading, video games, a good beer, and going to the park. So, unsurprisingly, in the summer I love to lounge in the park, either with friends or a good book, and sip a beer. Or, in Houston, I like t... Read More