Erick Gutierrez
This edition’s star of Humans of ICS is Erick Gutierrez!
We hope you enjoy reading about Erick and his passions regarding music, board games, and quesadillas.
Year: 3rd Major: Software Engineering
Emily Doan: Welcome back to another feature of Humans of ICS! Today we have Erick Gutierrez. Erick, do you mind introducing yourself with your name, major, year, and pronouns?
Erick Gutierrez: Hello, my name is Erick Gutierrez. I'm a third year software engineering major. My pronouns are he/him/his.
Emily: So why did you choose software engineering as your major?
Erick: Well, when I first got into UCI, my major was Computer Game Science. But as I, as I did research or, as I reflected it out, I thought that, will this really be as versatile as I imagined it to be? I don't want to just be stuck with games. What if I wanted to open the doors to more possibilities? So I switched to and I don't like math and computer science I've heard has a lot of math so I switched to software engineering instead.
Emily: That sounds great. I don't think computer science has a lot of math, unless you're interested in machine learning. Okay, so next question, what are you passionate about and where did you develop that passion?
Erick: What am I passionate about? I guess as of lately I've just been really passionate about making music. It's just a fun pastime that I have. When I'm bored or I'm taking a break from school work, I just turn my amp on and I play my guitar. And I record myself playing the lead guitar and the bass guitar and I make songs by myself. That's kind of what I'm most passionate about right now.
Emily: Do you have a specific platform that you post those recordings to?
Erick: I make them on this app called Band Lab but I later edit them and I post them on to my alternate Instagram account, @montageofbrick.
Emily: Okay, Hannah Montana.
Erick: Haha, Lemonade Mouth.
Emily: What is the one piece of advice you would give yourself before coming to UCI?
Erick: Hmm…
Emily: If you want context from your nomination form: “Manage your time properly, don't get too caught in the fun. Don't feel pressured to live the ‘wild fun’ life. If you want to take things slow and live humble, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.”
Erick: Yeah, word for word, exactly that.
Emily: Why do you feel that way?
Erick: Because I see a lot of people caught up really worried about this college experience or whatever, but to be honest, I'm just not a party person, so people who really worry about not being able to party or enjoy their college wildlife… I’m just like, know what you're here for in the first place so don't get too caught up with that.
Emily: Fax, no printer. People are so obsessed with trying to go to at least one party throughout her college career. Like are you actually having fun, or are you just doing–
Erick: –doing it to fit in, exactly.
Emily: Anyways, onto the slightly more personalized questions. Anyways, how many board games/card games have you collected? What is your favorite board game that you have collected by far?
Erick: Well, I don't know off the top of my head like on, I have a dresser right here and from there, I can count 12 board games off just that I can see right now in my room that's not even counting all the ones that have it in other hidden spots in my room. Which is my favorite of all is an easy, easy question obviously Scythe. I don't know if I should explain what Scythe is, but it's a very beautiful game, and I know there's certain people that are like “Oh brother, not a bad game.”
Emily: So by estimate, how many board games do you think you have?
Erick: I want to say, like around 30-40.
Emily: And how much do you think the total value is?
Erick: Probably, I would say, there's no way it's more than $500 there's no way. I'd say like no more than $500, no more than that. Because a lot of the games, some of the games that I have I didn't buy, some of them are like gifts.
Emily: Okay, our next question, can you share your quesadilla recipe; what makes them so excellent?
Erick: So the recipe itself it's nothing to write home about but it's the love that goes into it. If you don't put love into it when you make a quesadilla, it's not gonna be bussin’, you know, but the recipe it's literally just flour tortillas. Four-style Mexican blend cheese. And Fries, that's literally it. That's a perfect meal. Yes, it's a perfect meal.
Emily: I see, I see. Anyways, how long have you been playing your guitar? Do you plan on one day performing gigs?
Erick: Oh shoot okay. I need to do some math here. So I started when I was a freshman in high school so it's been like seven years now or six years, but I don't know about playing gigs. I'm really bad when it comes to playing in front of people. I think ultimately what I want to do, I want to make like an OST for something.
Emily: Like, for a video game?
Erick: I guess, so I mean like a show, or something else that I don't know about. That's what I want to do.
Emily: So we're finished with the personalized questions and next are rapid fire questions where I'll give you a choice of two things, and you just answer your preference to one. First is, early riser or night owl? Erick: Night owl.
Emily: Spicy or sweet? Erick: Spicy.
Emily: Xbox or playstation? Erick: Playstation.
Emily: Twitch or YouTube? Erick: YouTube.
Emily: Talking or texting? Erick: Talking.
Emily: RPG or FPS? Erick: FPS games.
Emily: iOS or Android? Erick: Android
Emily: Summer or Winter? Erick: Winter
Emily: Coffee or boba? Erick: Coffee. 100%
Emily: Staying in or going out? Erick: Staying in.
Emily: And that marks the end of our interview! Thank you for taking the time to speak with me!
Erick: Thank you for having me.
Thanks to Erick for being a part of Humans of ICS and thank you for reading this edition of Humans of ICS! Remember to follow Erick (@livincynical) and ICSSC (@icssc.uci) on Instagram! Nominate yourself or your friends for Humans of ICS. See you next time!