“absorbing Markov chain #2”

This was one from December last year, a patch emotionally dark but creatively fertile. I was glad to see the end of 2022, but not expecting much brighter from 2023. Luckily I’ve been proved wrong so far, following up my usual new year mood rebound with some family wins. Like the drive to live life to the fullest after a brush with mortality, I’m feeling the buzz of difficult being easy compared with fucking awful.

Researching a previous picture vaguely based on snakes and ladders, I came across the idea of the absorbing Markov chain, a mathematical theory of probability where each state leads inexorably to the next. In that game there are different paths, some longer and some shorter, ways to loop back past and delay, but it must come to an end.

Along the way I was also working out how to chart my beer consumption, the cans here graphing that curve too. All that said, it was an enjoyable one to draw with a big chunk of geometry through the middle, and an excuse to buy a couple of new markers. Maybe the cup is half full. Cheers.