Aiden Carabine is a third-year psychology student and rising comedian who draws inspiration from comedy, comic books, pop culture, and storytelling, even if the world has yet to catch up to his genius. Balancing school with creative self-expression, he brings a dry, self-aware honesty to everything he does, fully aware that many consider him unfunny and his comedy career questionable at best. Still, that tension between ambition and perceived failure fuels his perspective, shaping a voice that leans into discomfort, irony, and the absurdity of taking oneself seriously in a world that rarely does.

Aiden Carabine approaches comedy and comic books as parallel universes where time does not always age kindly, and that’s part of the joke. From comic storylines that are now unintentionally hilarious to characters whose flaws are more memorable than their heroics, he sees humor in decay and misfires. Rather than viewing himself as a heroic figure refining the craft, he likens his role to a villain or anti-hero someone actively destroying stand-up comedy through relentlessly terrible sets. If he were to merge stand-up with a comic-style narrative, it would involve inventing a universally loved superhero or villain, delivering one perfect joke, and immediately becoming rich and famous without ever having to improve.

Aiden Carabine’s creative identity has been shaped most by sarcastic sitcom characters and comedians who mastered the art of saying the wrong thing perfectly, including figures like Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, and Norm Macdonald. He’s especially interested in how irony dominates modern pop culture, not just as a joke but as a shield, allowing people to say anything while pretending they don’t mean it. For him, this trend reveals something deeper about society’s discomfort with sincerity, and if he could change one thing about today’s pop culture, it would be simple: people would be nicer, even if that idea feels more unrealistic than most sitcom plots.

Aiden Carabine finds his literary inspiration primarily in science fiction, a genre that allows big ideas to exist alongside deeply flawed characters. Books like Dune have shaped the way he thinks about power, identity, and systems far larger than any one person, influencing how he views both school and comedy. When it comes to recommending something to someone who feels lost or creatively stuck, he sticks with Dune or The Secret History of the IRA, believing that dense, challenging material can sometimes be the fastest way to shake loose new perspectives.

Aiden Carabine ultimately embodies the contradiction of someone deeply committed to creativity while openly doubting his own success within it. Through comedy, pop culture, and books, he explores failure, irony, and ambition with a tone that never fully commits to confidence yet refuses to quit. Whether he’s positioning himself as a villain, a sarcastic observer, or a misunderstood creative, his work reflects a willingness to keep showing up, even when the laughs don’t at least not yet.

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I went to University of Alberta to ask my fellow students what they program they're in and what they plan to do with their degrees.

There are many answers from business, eng, sciences, arts and more.

I hope this gives is useful to your academic journey. We are all gonna make it!

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Jess Manoj is a University of Alberta engineering student and passionate writer who thinks deeply about what shapes human character, meaning, and moral purpose. With a blend of analytical rigor and introspective curiosity, Jess observes both the structures that guide our lives and the inner worlds that define who we become. Today, we explore three themes central to his thinking: people, technology, and the personal journey of building a moral code.

When Jess reflects on people, he finds them endlessly fascinating because each person begins life with certain limitations, some inherited, some imposed by circumstance yet some individuals still manage to sculpt those limitations into strengths. Those who transform their constraints into meaningful contributions inspire him, because they demonstrate what’s possible when self-awareness meets effort. Jess believes that truly understanding someone requires more than surface impressions; it requires listening, sharing, and entering a cycle of curiosity and vulnerability that only happens when both people genuinely choose it. And while he acknowledges that we all play certain roles to fit into society, he believes authenticity is uncovered by revisiting the past, by asking how places, people, and experiences made us feel, and tracing those feelings back to the self we’ve always been.

When it comes to technology, Jess sees it as something that can ease life’s burdens but cannot create meaning for us. Technology can be incredibly powerful at removing obstacles, but it cannot replace the inner work required to understand who we are or what fulfills us. He believes humanity and empathy exist outside the realm of machines; the timeless questions about virtue, love, and purpose were being asked and answered long before modern advancements. Technology itself is neutral, neither good nor bad, but because people tend to choose convenience, it can contribute to disconnection if misused. Still, Jess believes that those who use technology intentionally, for the sake of virtue rather than ease, will continue to create balance within society.

Finally, Jess’s moral code emerged from a place of insecurity an honest confrontation with the qualities he lacked and the longing to grow. Over time, he realized that even the traits he pursued to gain admiration were not the real source of his discomfort. Through reflection and experience, he came to understand that the only thing truly within one’s control is striving to be a good person; everything else rests in the hands of fate. When societal expectations conflict with his values, he returns to honest analysis, examining where those expectations come from and whether they are rooted in genuine principles or collective compromise. To Jess, virtue doesn’t require rebellion or conformity, it simply requires thinking for oneself, independent of modern praise or judgment.

In closing, Jess Manoj invites us into a worldview grounded in curiosity, self-inquiry, and the belief that meaning comes from within. Whether he’s examining the complexity of people, the evolving role of technology, or the ongoing task of shaping one’s moral compass, his perspective reminds us that growth is both a personal responsibility and a lifelong pursuit.

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