We just started week 45 of 2024! Isn't it crazy that there are only 58 days left of this year? A bit over 2 months ago, I wrote about my 2024 New Year's resolution progress. I'm pleased to announce that I have made some great progress on this, and I am well on track to fulfilling my resolutions by the end of the year.
I'm fortunate not to need it, but I tried taking public transit to work today! Simply as an experiment. I had mapped out a few different routes and decided on one that would have the fewest transfers, even if it took a bit longer. This will read a bit less like a story and more like a bulleted list of chronological events. So, if that's not your cup of tea, you might want to skip this one.
This weekend, I traveled far and wide within and around the San Francisco Bay Area, locally known as the Bay Area. On Friday through Monday, I traveled over 200 miles, and crossed 6 bridges to visit 5 cities, including my hometown. Despite all this commute, I only ended up paying $14 total in bridge tolls! Let this story be your guide on how to effectively navigate the complex and expensive web of Bay Area FasTrak.
It's that time of year again for HPCOR; the high performance computing operator's review! This time, my colleagues and I went to Sandia Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I am now part of two different running clubs, both with the same acronym! "MRC," for "Marin Running Club" and "Marina Run Club." I've been going to the Marin Running Club for several months now, but this week was my second week attending the Marina Run Club in San Francisco.
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 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.
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.
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.
Here is a brief analysis of costs from my recent 2-week (12-day) trip to Japan.