Last night, after leaving the hackathon, I started to feel as though time was moving more slowly than usual, and my brain felt strangely agitated. The sensation intensified toward bedtime, and I ended up unable to fall asleep at all. After investigating, I realized that several cans of “sparkling water” I had consumed during the event actually contained a large amount of vitamins and stimulants, including caffeine and green tea extract. In effect, they were closer to Red Bull or Monster energy drinks than to ordinary sparkling water. I should have paid more attention to the nutrition labels, but I was too preoccupied with the hackathon to do so.
2026-10-12
2026-10-11
MongoDB hackathon
This hackathon drew a much larger crowd than the previous one I attended, with hundreds of participants and 93 projects submitted in total. Unlike the previous event, the judging emphasized topic impact and live presentation more than technical execution. Since the theme focused on harnesses and databases rather than motion and graphics and I also ran into hardware issues during my presentation (screen sharing and a broken mouse), I did not perform as well as last time. Even so, the project ranked 10th out of 93, was completed well ahead of schedule (with most of the time spent on demo production rather than on the actual development), and I had a great time on Sunday in a wonderful venue with nice food and drinks.
See this repository for more information about the project, which implements a harness and database backend for my earlier DrawTalk frontend.
https://www.instagram.com/kub1ai/p/DeZxSg2FoVv/
2026-10-08
Temporary Body by Jerron Herman
In this participatory art project, the artist first invited the audience to create decorative adornments before a solo dance performance among the audience. I enjoyed making a few quick headdresses and immersing myself in the performance. My interpretation is that these adornments and dances act as positive beautifications for the artist, who appears to be gay and struggles to move the left side of his body.
https://www.instagram.com/kub1ai/p/DeUkRkommBG/
https://www.behance.net/gallery/256925537/Temporary-Body-by-Jerron-Herman