Sorry for the infrequent posts lately, but, well, I'm lazy. However, a few things of note have happened lately:
1. I'm in Seattle - My long saga of finding a job has (hopefully) ended for a while as I got an offer from Amazon to work for them as a Software Development Engineer. I moved to Seattle this past week and I start work on Monday.
2. My leg is (healing from being) fractured - In my distance build-up while training for a half-marathon last fall, I got a stress fracture in my leg (hence the abrupt halt in the Twitter updates about my running). I was in a brace for a few weeks and on Monday get to start running (small amounts, sticking to a schedule) again.
That's about it for now, on the news-of-my-life front. More will I'm sure come as I settle into place up here in Washington.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
New Year's Resolutions
First, last year's resolutions:
1. Eat pie - definitely succeeded.
2. Run 365 miles, including in the Charlottesville 10-miler - Success. I ran the ten miler, and in November hit the 365 mile mark as I crossed the finish line in the Richmond Half-Marathon. I did a few miles after that but wasn't able to do much as I found out a short while later that I have a stress fracture in my leg, and won't be able to run until mid-February (and even then, much less than I had been).
3. Lose weight to 160 lbs. - Ha. Not a chance.
4. Test in Myo Sim - I tested for my 3rd degree black belt in kendo, and passed.
5. Be more organized - Hard to say.
6. Build stuff - I built a bed, as previously mentioned, and completely reassembled my bike.
7. Climb stuff - I did a bit, but nowhere near enough.
8. Work on learning an instrument - I worked a bit on guitar but not enough to get much better.
9. Work on learning a language - Nope. I worked a bit on my Spanish in the spring but since then, nothing.
10. Be a better person - Again, definitely not my place to judge whether or not this was successful.
My resolutions for the upcoming year:
1. Eat pie - as always.
2. Run 365 miles, including the Tough Mudder and the GORUCK Challenge - I've shown I can run this far, but a) I won't be able to start until mid-February and b) I want to put more of a focus on endurance runs and overall strength, hence the non-traditional runs I've set as my goals.
3. Lose weight - If I can lose any weight at all this year, it'll be an improvement from previous ones. That said, if I can gain muscle while staying the same weight, that'd be fine, too.
4. Climb more - There are three climbing gyms convenient to where I'll be living and working, and as I don't currently have kendo filling up evenings, I have no excuse not to go. I was going to sign up for a membership today but the one I was going to join was closed today due to snow.
5. Do more photography - I did a bunch back in 2009 with the trip to Vietnam and Europe but it's fallen off a lot since then. I want to change that.
6. Stay organized - I just moved into an apartment in Seattle (post explaining everything about that to come) and I'll be living here for at least the next six months. It's currently not messy (even I have trouble getting a place cluttered in a few days) and I want to keep it that way.
7. Write - I haven't really written fiction in a few years now, and I'd like to give it a shot again.
8. Draw - I always feel like I'm right at the border of being happy with how I draw, and I want to practice enough to get over that hurdle and into the range of art that's at least good enough for me.
9. Get involved in some form of community service - In elementary - high school I had Boy Scouts, and then in college I (eventually) got involved in APO. Now I'm out in Seattle and I want to find some way to get involved in service. Not sure exactly what yet, but something.
10. Be a better person - partly a cop-out because I had trouble coming up with my usual ten, but also something I'll always think I need work on.
1. Eat pie - definitely succeeded.
2. Run 365 miles, including in the Charlottesville 10-miler - Success. I ran the ten miler, and in November hit the 365 mile mark as I crossed the finish line in the Richmond Half-Marathon. I did a few miles after that but wasn't able to do much as I found out a short while later that I have a stress fracture in my leg, and won't be able to run until mid-February (and even then, much less than I had been).
3. Lose weight to 160 lbs. - Ha. Not a chance.
4. Test in Myo Sim - I tested for my 3rd degree black belt in kendo, and passed.
5. Be more organized - Hard to say.
6. Build stuff - I built a bed, as previously mentioned, and completely reassembled my bike.
7. Climb stuff - I did a bit, but nowhere near enough.
8. Work on learning an instrument - I worked a bit on guitar but not enough to get much better.
9. Work on learning a language - Nope. I worked a bit on my Spanish in the spring but since then, nothing.
10. Be a better person - Again, definitely not my place to judge whether or not this was successful.
My resolutions for the upcoming year:
1. Eat pie - as always.
2. Run 365 miles, including the Tough Mudder and the GORUCK Challenge - I've shown I can run this far, but a) I won't be able to start until mid-February and b) I want to put more of a focus on endurance runs and overall strength, hence the non-traditional runs I've set as my goals.
3. Lose weight - If I can lose any weight at all this year, it'll be an improvement from previous ones. That said, if I can gain muscle while staying the same weight, that'd be fine, too.
4. Climb more - There are three climbing gyms convenient to where I'll be living and working, and as I don't currently have kendo filling up evenings, I have no excuse not to go. I was going to sign up for a membership today but the one I was going to join was closed today due to snow.
5. Do more photography - I did a bunch back in 2009 with the trip to Vietnam and Europe but it's fallen off a lot since then. I want to change that.
6. Stay organized - I just moved into an apartment in Seattle (post explaining everything about that to come) and I'll be living here for at least the next six months. It's currently not messy (even I have trouble getting a place cluttered in a few days) and I want to keep it that way.
7. Write - I haven't really written fiction in a few years now, and I'd like to give it a shot again.
8. Draw - I always feel like I'm right at the border of being happy with how I draw, and I want to practice enough to get over that hurdle and into the range of art that's at least good enough for me.
9. Get involved in some form of community service - In elementary - high school I had Boy Scouts, and then in college I (eventually) got involved in APO. Now I'm out in Seattle and I want to find some way to get involved in service. Not sure exactly what yet, but something.
10. Be a better person - partly a cop-out because I had trouble coming up with my usual ten, but also something I'll always think I need work on.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Knife
Here's the knife I made for my brother. It's for karate, so it's blunt (both blade and tip), but apart from that and the lack of heat-treating (not very necessary when no edge-holding is required) it's made exactly like a sharp knife would be. The blade is 1095 high-carbon steel, and the handle is African Blackwood. It took about eight hours to make and another six to eight hours to polish, but the polishing is easy and was primarily done while watching TV or reading.
There are a couple things I wish I could've done better with this. For one, there are still a few filing scratches visible on the blade. I should've spent more time with rough sandpaper when polishing it. In addition, I countersunk the holes for the bolster pins a bit too much, leaving small divots around the edge, and I used a pointed punch on the bolster pins when it turned out to not be necessary, so there are tiny holes in the middle. I wish there were a bit more blade definition, but that's more just aesthetic preference.
I've got another shipment of knife materials coming tomorrow (wood and synthetic scales for two handles and enough metal for seven blades), so hopefully I'll get a chance over the weekend to get started on another one.
There are a couple things I wish I could've done better with this. For one, there are still a few filing scratches visible on the blade. I should've spent more time with rough sandpaper when polishing it. In addition, I countersunk the holes for the bolster pins a bit too much, leaving small divots around the edge, and I used a pointed punch on the bolster pins when it turned out to not be necessary, so there are tiny holes in the middle. I wish there were a bit more blade definition, but that's more just aesthetic preference.
I've got another shipment of knife materials coming tomorrow (wood and synthetic scales for two handles and enough metal for seven blades), so hopefully I'll get a chance over the weekend to get started on another one.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Recent stuff
Sorry about the lack of a post in October, but I forgot. It happens.
Anyway, a bit of interesting stuff has happened lately.
1. Running a half-marathon: This past weekend I ran the McDonalds Half-Marathon in Richmond (putting me at exactly 365 miles on the year). I was aiming somewhat optimistically for a time of 2 hours, but due to the complete lack of hills (compared to my normal running routes, at least) I managed to finish it in 1:55:10, and like the Charlottesville Ten Miler I ran the second part faster than the first (8:54 a mile for the first 10k, 8:41 a mile for the rest). I need to do more practice at these distances so I have a better idea of what pace I can handle.
2. Looking for a job: Due to budget cuts at the place I was going to work, I no longer have a job lined up once I finish with the start-up in a few weeks. I'm working on fixing that. I've applied a couple places, so hopefully I'll get something.
3. Knife making: Back in September I decided to make a knife for my brother for his birthday, as he was in need of one for karate and hadn't had much luck finding a suitable one. I'd made one or two really crude ones in high school and college, but nothing fancy or nice-looking, and nothing with a design as specific and tight as this one needed. It ended up turning out much better than expected (I'll post pictures of it once I get a chance to take them later this week) and now a handful of other people want them, as well, so that'll be my project for December after I'm done with my current software job.
Anyway, a bit of interesting stuff has happened lately.
1. Running a half-marathon: This past weekend I ran the McDonalds Half-Marathon in Richmond (putting me at exactly 365 miles on the year). I was aiming somewhat optimistically for a time of 2 hours, but due to the complete lack of hills (compared to my normal running routes, at least) I managed to finish it in 1:55:10, and like the Charlottesville Ten Miler I ran the second part faster than the first (8:54 a mile for the first 10k, 8:41 a mile for the rest). I need to do more practice at these distances so I have a better idea of what pace I can handle.
2. Looking for a job: Due to budget cuts at the place I was going to work, I no longer have a job lined up once I finish with the start-up in a few weeks. I'm working on fixing that. I've applied a couple places, so hopefully I'll get something.
3. Knife making: Back in September I decided to make a knife for my brother for his birthday, as he was in need of one for karate and hadn't had much luck finding a suitable one. I'd made one or two really crude ones in high school and college, but nothing fancy or nice-looking, and nothing with a design as specific and tight as this one needed. It ended up turning out much better than expected (I'll post pictures of it once I get a chance to take them later this week) and now a handful of other people want them, as well, so that'll be my project for December after I'm done with my current software job.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Stuff has actually happened this month!
So, unlike the rather boring couple months since my two-wheeled trek to the Pacific ended abruptly, stuff has actually happened this month.
-Job? Kinda? I have something resembling a job now. I'm currently working for a start-up while waiting to find out if I have a job with an established company. I'm working on an app for Android devices. Probably shouldn't say much more than that. I'm not getting paid yet (it's a pre-funding start-up), which is unfortunate, but it also has the benefit that there's no office, so I can work from my couch. It's pretty interesting stuff. It's giving me a chance to learn more about mobile development, which is something I've been meaning to learn, and it's interesting to see the inner workings of a fledgling company, instead of just being buried in code and nothing else.
-Moving to NoVa: I've recently moved up to Northern Virginia, due to that whole job thing. I'm living with a couple other guys from APO, which is working out pretty well. My room is a bit tiny (8'10" x 9'2"), but at least it's letting me practice my creative furniture building.
-Creative furniture building: Due to the miniscule size of my room, I'm having to conserve and double-use space. In order to fit both a bed (which is kinda a necessity) and a couch (which is definitely a necessity) into my room, I built a loft bed so they take up the same area of floor space. However, I was bored back in August/early September before starting work, so I decided to make it without the use of anything other than wood. This meant no nails, screws, glue, or even lashings, and instead a lot of chiseled notches for various pieces of wood to slot through, with a few pegs to hold the diagonal braces on. Somehow, it actually worked, and I think it's even sturdier and more stable than the loft bed in my room at home, despite initial skepticism on the part of all involved (that is, me and my dad). As an added bonus, the design actually incorporates my required couch as one of its braces. I'll post pictures once I take them tomorrow, but currently it's sitting nicely in my room ready to be slept in. And, with the exception of moving the couch into place, I was able to assemble it entirely by myself (Zak, thanks for the help with the couch).
-Other fun stuff: One nice advantage of working as opposed to school is that I don't have homework for the weekends (although I've been putting in a few hours of work out of my own curiosity about the project and not because I have to). This means that I have the time to do fun stuff, such as this weekend when I went climbing on Saturday (at a gym, as opposed to outside, but it was still quite fun) and scuba diving on Sunday (I'm now advanced open-water certified by NAUI). Next weekend will probably be climbing again on Saturday, and then I don't know about Sunday. Something fun, hopefully. In addition, I've been able to run most evenings after work, which is always good.
Now, though, sleep.
-Job? Kinda? I have something resembling a job now. I'm currently working for a start-up while waiting to find out if I have a job with an established company. I'm working on an app for Android devices. Probably shouldn't say much more than that. I'm not getting paid yet (it's a pre-funding start-up), which is unfortunate, but it also has the benefit that there's no office, so I can work from my couch. It's pretty interesting stuff. It's giving me a chance to learn more about mobile development, which is something I've been meaning to learn, and it's interesting to see the inner workings of a fledgling company, instead of just being buried in code and nothing else.
-Moving to NoVa: I've recently moved up to Northern Virginia, due to that whole job thing. I'm living with a couple other guys from APO, which is working out pretty well. My room is a bit tiny (8'10" x 9'2"), but at least it's letting me practice my creative furniture building.
-Creative furniture building: Due to the miniscule size of my room, I'm having to conserve and double-use space. In order to fit both a bed (which is kinda a necessity) and a couch (which is definitely a necessity) into my room, I built a loft bed so they take up the same area of floor space. However, I was bored back in August/early September before starting work, so I decided to make it without the use of anything other than wood. This meant no nails, screws, glue, or even lashings, and instead a lot of chiseled notches for various pieces of wood to slot through, with a few pegs to hold the diagonal braces on. Somehow, it actually worked, and I think it's even sturdier and more stable than the loft bed in my room at home, despite initial skepticism on the part of all involved (that is, me and my dad). As an added bonus, the design actually incorporates my required couch as one of its braces. I'll post pictures once I take them tomorrow, but currently it's sitting nicely in my room ready to be slept in. And, with the exception of moving the couch into place, I was able to assemble it entirely by myself (Zak, thanks for the help with the couch).
-Other fun stuff: One nice advantage of working as opposed to school is that I don't have homework for the weekends (although I've been putting in a few hours of work out of my own curiosity about the project and not because I have to). This means that I have the time to do fun stuff, such as this weekend when I went climbing on Saturday (at a gym, as opposed to outside, but it was still quite fun) and scuba diving on Sunday (I'm now advanced open-water certified by NAUI). Next weekend will probably be climbing again on Saturday, and then I don't know about Sunday. Something fun, hopefully. In addition, I've been able to run most evenings after work, which is always good.
Now, though, sleep.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Obligatory August post
Too many of these posts are obligatory end-of-the-month ones. Hopefully that'll change once I'm actually doing interesting stuff.
On the topic of doing interesting stuff, that'll hopefully actually start happening soon. More details once I have more details.
As for what I've been doing for the past month, the first little bit was finishing up at CTY, followed by coming home and attempting to get out of Charlottesville. It looks like that'll be happening in the coming week. I'm currently about to start one job in the dead space while waiting to find out if I have a different job.
As the Twitter sidebar thingy probably shows, I've been trying to do more running lately. I set a resolution to run 365 miles this year, and just yesterday I got back up to having done an average of a mile a day. Today I ran more and gave myself a week's buffer, but my ankle isn't happy with me so I'll probably take a few days off.
That's it for now, but expect more frequent posts once I actually have things about which to write.
On the topic of doing interesting stuff, that'll hopefully actually start happening soon. More details once I have more details.
As for what I've been doing for the past month, the first little bit was finishing up at CTY, followed by coming home and attempting to get out of Charlottesville. It looks like that'll be happening in the coming week. I'm currently about to start one job in the dead space while waiting to find out if I have a different job.
As the Twitter sidebar thingy probably shows, I've been trying to do more running lately. I set a resolution to run 365 miles this year, and just yesterday I got back up to having done an average of a mile a day. Today I ran more and gave myself a week's buffer, but my ankle isn't happy with me so I'll probably take a few days off.
That's it for now, but expect more frequent posts once I actually have things about which to write.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Obligatory July Post
So it's the last day of July and I realized that because of CTY I hadn't yet posted anything on here. It's always busy and there's so much fun stuff going on that I don't have much time for outside communication.
A good portion of what I've had to do the past few weeks (aside from work for CTY) was figuring out what I'd be doing in the fall. I'd previously accepted an offer from Datran Media, an internet analytics firm in Reston, Virginia. I'd chosen them primarily because of the location: I wanted to get out of Charlottesville for a change of scenery, but I still wanted to be on the east coast.
However, in June I was told that they were moving from Reston to Austin, Texas. I've heard wonderful things about Austin, but I didn't particularly feel like moving there. I started looking around for a new job, and ended up getting offers for a few interviews. I was only able to do one of them due to being away at CTY, an interview with SAIC in Bethesda, Maryland, but it went well and I got the job. Assuming I can get the requisite security clearance, I'll be starting work there in September.
This upcoming week is the last one of CTY, and it's weird to think that it'll be my last summer here for a while. Having a real job means I probably won't be able to come back until I'm in grad school, which won't be for at least a few years. I've been at CTY in some way, either as a student or a TA, for 8 of the last 9 years and it feels strange to be leaving that.
The next month will be spent finding an apartment up in North Bethesda/southern Rockville, or somewhere in that vicinity, and preparing to permanently move for the first time in my life. I've moved to a dorm plenty of times, but I've never moved anywhere to stay for an indeterminate time frame.
Anyway, time to get back to work for class.
A good portion of what I've had to do the past few weeks (aside from work for CTY) was figuring out what I'd be doing in the fall. I'd previously accepted an offer from Datran Media, an internet analytics firm in Reston, Virginia. I'd chosen them primarily because of the location: I wanted to get out of Charlottesville for a change of scenery, but I still wanted to be on the east coast.
However, in June I was told that they were moving from Reston to Austin, Texas. I've heard wonderful things about Austin, but I didn't particularly feel like moving there. I started looking around for a new job, and ended up getting offers for a few interviews. I was only able to do one of them due to being away at CTY, an interview with SAIC in Bethesda, Maryland, but it went well and I got the job. Assuming I can get the requisite security clearance, I'll be starting work there in September.
This upcoming week is the last one of CTY, and it's weird to think that it'll be my last summer here for a while. Having a real job means I probably won't be able to come back until I'm in grad school, which won't be for at least a few years. I've been at CTY in some way, either as a student or a TA, for 8 of the last 9 years and it feels strange to be leaving that.
The next month will be spent finding an apartment up in North Bethesda/southern Rockville, or somewhere in that vicinity, and preparing to permanently move for the first time in my life. I've moved to a dorm plenty of times, but I've never moved anywhere to stay for an indeterminate time frame.
Anyway, time to get back to work for class.
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