things

content/_index.md

@@ -63,20 +63,20 @@ I am a fairly active Amateur Radio operator. The following table is a reference
 |----------------------|:--------:|-----------------------------------|
 | **VA3ZZA**           | *Active* | My primary callsign               |
 | **VA3UJF**           | *Active* | Testing & automated transmissions |
-| [**VB3YEET**](/yeet) | *Active* | Special Event                     |
+<!-- | [**VB3YEET**](/yeet) | *Active* | Special Event                     | -->
 <!-- | **VG3ZZA**           | *Active* | Special Event                     | -->
 <!-- | **VG3UJF**           | *Active* | Special Event                     | -->
 
 </article>
 
-My current license class is *Basic with Honours*, and I have been on-air since late 2020. More station information may be found at [my QRZ page](https://www.qrz.com/db/VA3ZZA).
+<!-- My current license class is *Basic with Honours*, and I have been on-air since late 2020. More station information may be found at [my QRZ page](https://www.qrz.com/db/VA3ZZA).
 
 <article class="markdown-body">
 <table><tr>
 <td><img src="https://hamalert.org/myspot?c=VA3ZZA&amp;h=e0fa3b8ff28e81a5&amp;a=12" srcset="https://hamalert.org/myspot?c=VA3ZZA&amp;h=e0fa3b8ff28e81a5&amp&amp;hr=1&amp;a=12 2x"></td>
 <td><img src="https://hamalert.org/myspot?c=VB3YEET&amp;h=43adad96f1c09138&amp;a=12" srcset="https://hamalert.org/myspot?c=VB3YEET&amp;h=43adad96f1c09138&amp;hr=1&amp;a=12 2x"></td>
 </tr></table>
-</article>
+</article> -->
 
 ## Music
 

content/blog/2022-05-10-album-space-time.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+layout: page
+title: "Album Release: Space & Time Vol. 1" 
+description: "New music from Evan Pratten"
+date: 2022-05-10
+tags: music
+draft: true
+extra:
+  uses_katex: false
+  auto_center_images: true
+  excerpt: Release notification for Space & Time Vol. 1
+---

content/blog/2022-07-02-robotics-journey.md

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+---
+layout: page
+title: "My journey through robotics" 
+description: "5 years of self-taught robotics development, recapped"
+date: 2022-07-02
+tags: story
+draft: true
+extra:
+  uses_katex: false
+  auto_center_images: true
+  excerpt: From 2016 to 2021, I dedicated most of my time to robotics and control systems programming. This is my journey
+---
+
+My very first introduction to robotics was back in 2014, when I took an autonomous programming workshop as a part of a bigger summer engineering event at [Western University](https://www.uwo.ca/). A few years later, I ended up beginning a stint of robotics work through two different competitive robotics teams.
+
+<h2>Table of contents</h2>
+
+- [Elementary school robotics](#elementary-school-robotics)
+- [Highschool robotics](#highschool-robotics)
+  - [Introduction](#introduction)
+
+## Elementary school robotics
+
+Back in 2016, myself and three other friends formed a competitive robotics team at our elementary school called the *Star Trekies*. My role on the team was both hardware prototyping and single-handedly programming the entire robot.
+
+With very little knowledge of what we were doing, we stumbled our way through the process, and realistically got pretty much nowhere. Importantly though, I ended up figuring out a few key concepts of control systems development in the process that would come in handy later on.
+
+## Highschool robotics
+
+When presented with the question of which highschool I would apply to at the end of 8th grade, I specifically chose *H.B. Beal Secondary School* due to their well-known competitive robotics team, [Raider Robotics](https://www.raiderrobotics.org/), which later turned into a special-invite full-credit program at the school (conveniently counting towards my college requirements).
+
+The year before I joined Raider Robotics, most of the members with substantial technical knowledge moved on to other schools, leaving me once again will very little to work off of.
+
+### Introduction
+
+I remember in mid December of 2017, this testbed was brought in to the software lab I was working in, thus marking my first hands-on experience with a fully programable machine at this level.
+
+![Testbed photo I took](/images/posts/robotics-journey/testbed.jpg)
+
+I don't remember a ton about that night, aside from a group of confused students trying to figure out how to load code onto the thing, and [@hyperliskdev](https://github.com/hyperliskdev) teaching me how to make a `class` in Python3 (its the weirdest things that stick in my memory..)
+
+Fast-forward a few months to early February 2018, and I had figure out how to control a newly built testbed with a laptop sending control commands over a WLAN connection.
+
+<video  style="max-width:100%;" controls>
+  <source src="/videos/posts/robotics-journey/2018_drive.mp4">
+  Video not supported
+</video>