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2024

  • in Journal
  • 3 min read

Resolution Progress

We're nearing the end of August already. At the beginning of 2024, I had 2 simple New Year's resolutions. How am I doing? Did I keep them, or stop after a week, like most people?

  • in Random
  • 6 min read

Possible Chess Games

Without looking up the answer, how many possible games of Chess are there? Find out here in this excruciatingly long story! Do you think there are more games of Chess or atoms in the universe?

  • in Journal
  • 5 min read

Journey to PE

In the United States, certain practices of engineering are required to be performed by a licensed engineer. This includes signing and sealing engineering plans and drawings, and some engineers working in teaching or government must be licensed. To obtain licensure in engineering, you must pass two national standardized tests (the FE, fundamentals of engineering, and the PE, principles of engineering) and then apply to your state's board to obtain the license (also called the PE, professional engineer.) The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) writes the standardized tests, which are specifically designed for several disciplines of engineering. Spoiler alert: If you've seen the home page on my website, you'd already know I have successfully obtained a PE in control systems engineering.

  • in Journal
  • 3 min read

Golden Gate Half

A 5K is about 3.1 miles, and a 10K is about 6.2 miles. That's a lot of running, but long-distance races don't stop there. There's half marathons (13.1 miles), marathons (26.2 miles), 50K's (31 miles) and 100K's (62 miles). Anything beyond that is crazy. I was in San Francisco today with the simple intention of running across the Golden Gate bridge to Marin and back. What I did was much more than I expected.

  • in Random
  • 3 min read

Chess Stats

I've been playing a lot of chess lately, mainly on Chess.com. It provides some great statistics and analyses of your games, but the features are limited unless you pay them money. I'd love to see the extended statistics, but I'm not interested right now in a subscription. In fact, I hate all subscription models, and avoid them like the plague. (But, I do understand that the developers need to eat.) Anyway, that's a different story. Here, I'm talking about the game of Chess.

  • in Random
  • 2 min read

Jobby

Something I've been wondering about for the past couple days is whether your job should match your hobby, or be something quite different. For example, one of the things I like doing in my spare time is programming. Although, I haven't had much time for that lately since I've been focusing on my running and pickleball, and various house-work items have popped up.

  • in Journal
  • 2 min read

Paddleboarding at Russian River

I'm getting behind on my writing! This is my 30th journal entry for 2024, and it is week #32! So in order to catch up, I'll need to write 2 more this week, or 1 more this week and 2 next week, or 3 next week. So, buckle up for some more stories coming up soon! My New Year's resolution didn't specify how long each story needed to be, so this will be a short one, probably. Yesterday, my family and I went to Russian River and I got to try paddleboarding for the first time.

  • in Journal
  • 14 min read

Japan: Fast Trains, Fish Food, and Filled Schedules

Months ago, my cousin Michael asked Emily (my sister) and I if we wanted to go to Japan after his graduation. We said yes...and then didn't speak about it for months. Then, some time had passed. We finally started making arrangements, like booking a flight, hotels, and developing an itinerary, in a series of Discord calls. We also invited Emily's best friend, Christine, who had been to Japan a few times in the past. They could help be our guide, plus, we decided it would be more fun to travel in a group of 4.