Tim.Maciag

Explorer of Technology, Art, Music, & The Everyday

Tag: reflection

  • 2024 albums of the Year (& a bit of an update on life Happenings)

    2024 albums of the Year (& a bit of an update on life Happenings)

    This is coming in WAY late. But better late than never!

    Life-wise, 2024 was a very difficult year. Things were rolling along very well. The Winter teaching term went well. In summer I geared up to go on a 6-month sabbatical. I began my focus on research grant writing, and it was coming along nicely (I had to steer in another direction but I’m hopeful on the new direction I took. I’ll find out in June if I’m successful #fingerscrossed). And then BOOM, the Fall hit…

    In late September, my mom suffered a severe stroke and my mom’s world, and all of my family’s world was turned upside down. Suffice it to say, this was a life changing event for my mom and family, something we are all still navigating today.

    In January this year, normally when I do my yearly reflection, I had to go back to work, very ill-prepared to do so while also trying to navigate helping my mom and family to the best of my ability. As I (finally) start to write this review and reflection here at the end of April, taking advantage of an LMS/URCourses end-of-term maintenance update that has gone astray and is preventing me from finalizing student grades, I take a moment to pause, breathe, reflect. My family and I – We are doing as well as can be. My mom, the “rock” of our family that she is, is settling into her new normal and taking things day by day. She is now living at Harbour Landing Village where she is settling in, getting the best possible care, and the rest of us our doing our level-headed best to help as best we can. I’m not going to lie, it’s not been an easy time for my mom or for any of us. But, family! We do our best to support each other!! And this, we are doing! And my mom is still our “rock.” She truly is the best of the best (she’ll hate me for posting this pic, but I think her beautiful soul shines right through here).

    OK. Back on track. As 2025 unfolded over the last few months, I took advantage of listening more to my top 40 or so album picks for my annual top 10 albums of the year. As with most years, it was hard to get things down to just 10. But as always, I get my list started with a few “notables” I squeeze in for good measure to help me out (ha). So, let’s get at ‘er.

    Honourable mentions (no particular order)

    • Elliot Brood, Town and Country
    • Japandroids, Fate & Alcohol
    • The Black Keys, Ohio Players
    • Cuff the Duke, Breaking Dawn
    • Serj Tankian, Foundations
    • Ministry, HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES
    • The Black Crows, Happiness Bastards
    • Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department
    • Pearl Jam, Dark Matter
    • The Strumbellas, Part Time Believer
    • The Mavericks, Moon & Stars
    • Iron & Wine, Light Verse
    • Luke Combs, Father & Sons
    • Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweets, South of Here
    • The Smashing Pumpkins, Aghori Mhori Mei
    • Joel Plaskett, One Real Reveal
    • Brothers of Metal, Fimbulvinter
    • Pixies, The Night the Zombies Came
    • Soccer Mommy, Evergreen

    Pfftt…OK…I told you it was hard. So many gooders!! But here we get to the top 10 of it all! These albums were solid from start to finish. All songs on all albums, solid!

    10. Green Day, Saviors. What can I say? These fine lads have been a staple since my early high school days. This album does not disappoint. Just a good time! Favs include: Look Ma, No Brains!, Living in the ’20s, Goodnight Adeline, Father to a Son, and Strange Days Are Here To Stay.

    09. Lost Dog Street Band, Survived. This was a band I was introduced to in 2024. Having formed in 2010, I was sort of surprised I had never come across them. A little more country-iswh, very bluegrassy, with some folk goodness sprinkled in there to boot. All super great! Favs include: Last Train, Son of Tennessee, Muhenberg County Line, Lifetime of Work, and Survived.

    08. Unleash the Archers, Phantoma. Another album from these very fine British Columbia heavy metal queens and kings. I find that with each new album these folks put out into the world, they keep refining their talent. Such a great album! Favs include: Gods in Decay, Ghosts in the Mist, Ph4/NT0mA, Green and Glass, and Blood Empress. Damn…it’s all great!

    07. Bleachers, Self Titled. Jack Antonoff is one super duper talented musician, producer, etc. And when he assembles his band of merry and talented cohorts, my goodness do they ever make beautiful music. Every album these fine folks put out into the world is a gem. Favs include: Tiny Moves, Modern Girl, Woke Up Today, Jesus is Dead, Hey Joe, and Self Respect.

    06. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Woodland. Gillian is one of those singer/songwriters that gives me the goosebumps when listening to her voice. David too, mind you, is also great! This album is sooooo very good. All songs shine, but favs include: Turf the Gambler, The Bells and the Birds, North Country, the Day The Mississippi Died, and Empty Trainload of Sky.

    05. Alan Doyle, Welcome Home. One of my favourite musicians and people. Alan (and Co.) never disappoint on any album he and his band release. He is one of Canada’s greats, from Great Big Sea to now, with his solo stuff. It’s all so very good! Favs on this album include: Hard Old Hands, Best I Never Had, Long Night, Welcome Home, Your and Mine, All for a Song, and How Did We Get From Saying I Love You.

    04. Judas Priest, Invincible Shield. Well what can I say? The Metal Gods came back with this little ditty of an excellent album. I must say, my prolonging of doing my annual album top 10 benefited this album as I never really gave it its due last year as it got lost in the hundreds of albums I had in the queue in ’24. I have to give kudos to my brother Joey who was like, “you need to give that more of a listen.” And oh man, am I glad I did. This is Priest’s best album since Painkiller (1990), of course, in my opinion. Favs include: As God as my Witness, Giants in the Sky, Trial by Fire, The Serpent and the King, Vicious Circle, Invincible Shield, and The Lodger. Crank it to eleven folks!! It’s all great!

    03. Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past is Still Alive. Although coming on the music scene in 2007, I had only just found out about Alynda Segarra’s band in ’24. This album is a delight from start to finish, and having since gone back to listen to their previous albums, folks, they are all great! I simply love all songs on this album, but to pick a few super favs: Alibi, Hourglass, Hawkmoon, The World is Dangerous, Buffalo, and Snake Plant, and every other song…ha!

    02. Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood. Another person (Katie Crutchfield)/band I had just encountered in ’24, but have been around since 2010 (I think I may have been living under a rock!). This is just a fantastic album. Every song shines. Like Alynda’s stuff (Hurray for the Riff Raff), I’ve since gone back to Katie’s back catalogue and ya, it’s all great! On this album, like the last one (my #3 pick), every song shines. But to pick of few favs: Lone Star Lake, Burns Out at Midnight, Crowbar, 3 Sisters, The Wolves, and Tigers Blood, and ya, it’s all great! Give it a spin ASAP!

    01. John Moreland, Visitor. This man has such a soulful voice and beautiful spirit. I must say, it also has a couple of my favourite lyrical passages/song titles: “The More You Say, the Less it Means,” so very true (I try to practice this everyday but fail quite often), and “One Man Holds The World Hostage,” this one very reminiscent of the man down south holding its citizens and the world hostage (or maybe it’s more like two men doing it). This whole album is a gem, but to pick a few favs (minus the two I’ve already said): Will the Heavens Catch Us?, Gentle Violence, Ain’t Much I Can Do About It, Visitor, and….you know what, every song is great. Like with my 02, 03, and all thee rest, listen to them all ASAP!

    In the video below, the first two songs are from John’s 2024 album and the latter two are from his 2013 (In the Throes) and 2015 (High on Tulsa Heat) albums respectively (his whole catalogue of albums are all great so why not check ’em all out!).

    And there we **finally** have it. How I saw and heard music in 2024, with a little bit of life happenings sprinkled in. Life is still moving along for me and my fam, and the 2025 music scene is looking bright so far too. I imagine I’ll have a hard time with my top 10 this year too! -tMac

  • Spring/summer 2023 reflections

    Hatchi matchi, the Fall 2023 is just around the corner. The spring/ summer has treated me quite nicely. So what all happened?

    My student Muna (pictured above with yours truly) successfully completed her Masters of Engineering project – congratulations to her! We worked together on developing an engaging educational board game named “SEPPAL: Software Engineering Pre-Project Playtime Active Learning.” This game is designed for early-year software engineering students and aims to teach and reinforce concepts in software engineering and computer science. Additionally, it serves as a fun ice-breaker for team projects. I am looking forward to sharing more details about the board game in an upcoming paper within the next few months.

    During the spring term, I had the opportunity to teach ENSE 271. Together with my students, we partnered with Charlene Mclean and Colleen Strauch from the Saskatchewan Career Development Association (SKCDA) to brainstorm fresh website design concepts. An exciting highlight is that one of the students was actually hired during the Summer term to bring the concepts we explored in class to life. The plan is to launch the new website sometime during the upcoming Fall term.

    After that, I embarked on a journey to Kelowna, British Columbia for the annual conference of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA). The road trip took me through the scenic prairies and majestic Rocky Mountains! During the event, I played a role in arranging a workshop within the “Humanities in Engineering” special interest group (as seen in the picture above). Moreover, I shared a paper outlining my investigations into educational technologies spanning the past few years. The response was overwhelmingly positive! The conference also provided a valuable opportunity for me to absorb fresh perspectives on enhancing the appeal and impact of my courses, as I listened to the insights from fellow presenters.

    Afterward, I decided to take some well-deserved time off. During this period, I dedicated my efforts to assisting my family with yardwork (the picture above captures my older sister, dad, and I after staining my sister’s deck). Additionally, I’ve been tackling various yard projects in my own space, collaborating with my wife, Nova, to create a serene haven for both us and wildlife. An interesting tidbit: we’ve been fortunate to host a number of monarch butterfly transformations in our yard (see the picture below), with approximately ten or more caterpillars evolving into vibrant butterflies this year! My wife has taken the initiative to document this fascinating journey. Below, you’ll find a collection of images captured by Nova

    As we approach the Fall term, I’m still taking some well-deserved rest before diving into preparations for the upcoming semester. Currently, my brother, sister, and I are enjoying the Regina Folk Festival (as shown in the picture below). Following this, I have a bit more yardwork to tackle, and I’m hoping to squeeze in some relaxation time, catching up on TV shows and movies. By the way, have you seen Barbie yet? If not, it’s a must-watch! #fantastic #iamkenough. Soon enough, I’ll be gearing up to get my courses ready for the Fall. I’ll be overseeing both my elective ENSE 405 and the software engineering capstone course (ENSE 400/477). I’m eagerly looking forward to diving back into it all!

  • 2022 year in review

    The Fam Jam

    2022 was an interesting year. The world started opening back up, which after 2 years in isolation, was exciting and scary all at the same time.

    SSEers in Lego-making action!
    Making an RV? What? 🙂

    My teaching evolved into something different, with my teaching philosophy changed in a way I didn’t think it ever would. The changes largely due to our forced COVID experiences of the past few years has me thinking in new and exciting ways that I am wanting to continue to explore from the lens of how best to support my students but also myself and other educators (from the perspective of Mepham’s matrix of autonomy, fairness, well-being – an idea carried over from my PhD days). Regardless, I’m excited to continue the journey of how best I can support the future software designers and developers of the world. Indeed some of it is trial and error but I am thankful for my students who, even though at times are forced to come along for the ride with me as I teach core and required classes, nonetheless come along and provide me with open and honest feedback along the way. Engineering students really are a great bunch to hang out with throughout my days!

    I attended my first academic conference since coming on board with the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Regina in 2017. Wrote two peer-reviewed and accepted papers to boot! The conference – CEEA-ACEG’s (Canadian Engineering Education Association) annual event – this year it was at York University in Toronto – my first conference since my PhD days. The conference was ever so fun as I got to link up with like-minded educators in engineering and science. Folks met over Zoom over the last few years but it was nice to connect with them in-person. The CEEA folks are so inspiring and I am glad to have decided to be attached in some way to the community.

    I received official recognition at work for my experiential and reflective-based teaching practices and got to meet others who also demonstrated interesting and unique teaching practices who also received similar recognition as well. Even more crazy was I got a certificate to highlight my work as well as attend an event where I got to meet and shake the hand of our new university president and our new dean of engineering. I have realized I am thankful and grateful for having a gig that officially recognizes folks who take the time to go outside the box and take initiative to explore new ways of exploring and honing their craft in a safe-to-fall way (Kudos to Dr. Alec Couros for creating these fantastic teaching recognitions). My old gig did this too, they just took more of a fail-safe approach to it all – a kind of “ya explore away, but if the shit hits the fan, the fun (might) need(s) to be over.” Having said this, I am also ever so grateful for my past experiences too as without key folks giving this crazy guy a little leeway and flexibility to be crazy and creative I wouldn’t be who I am today (i.e. super thankful for the Jacky Hoffert’s, Cindy Ikola’s, Shannon Waugh’s, Chris Zimmer’s and Wilbour Craddock’s of the world)

    Pippin, Nova, and I went through a rather scary event where Pippin almost lost his life due to a bloated stomach. Gladly he is back to his normal and annoying, but super awesome self. He really is our world and we love this little big guy ever so much!

    Doh!
    Woohoo!!

    COVID finally hit Nova and I and let me tell ya, it was an experience I would have rather done without but seemed inevitable. As we near the close of December we are both COVID-clear but I am still experiencing some long-COVID-type symptoms – the dry coughing, brain fog, and sinus fun. Hopefully, this clears soon. I was one of the unfortunates who during COVID lost all sense of taste and smell along with all of the other stomach and sinus fun. Thankful for vaccines though as maybe it could have been a worse time

    I also re-started the gym thing after a 2-year hiatus due to COVID. This has had a really positive impact on me mentally and physically as I try to get back on track to having more healthy internals (I’ll likely always be a big dude as food is life, but I can tighten up the internals indeed). Also if I can get rid of some of those external “COVID cupcakes” mostly seen around the stomach region (haha), gained throughout COVID, even better! 🙂

    Overall, reflecting back on 2022 – hills and valleys aside – another fine year! Stay tuned for my albums of the year coming soon!