Nicolas Ventura
As of 08 January 2026, there have been 75 posts published.
Golden Gate Half
25 August 2024 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. Read more
Chess Stats
21 August 2024 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. Read more
Jobby
07 August 2024 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. Read more
Paddleboarding at Russian River
05 August 2024 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. Read more
Japan Trip Expenditures
26 July 2024 Here is a brief analysis of costs from my recent 2-week (12-day) trip to Japan. Read more
Japan: Fast Trains, Fish Food, and Filled Schedules
01 July 2024 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. Read more
Backpacking
23 June 2024 I like camping. And hiking. And backpacks. Turns out, there's just the activity for me! My friend Remy (yes, the same from my crossing-the-Golden-Gate-bridge-story) and I planned a one-night backpacking trip at Point Reyes. It was awesome. Read more
Astronomy
16 June 2024 Here's another short story! I got to see 2 unique astronomical phenomena in the short span of a few weeks! On August 8, 2023, there was the rare occurrence of the moon passing directly between Earth and the Sun, causing a solar eclipse. And on May 10, 2024 there was something normally you can only see in the arctic. Aurora borealis, at this time of year, in this part of the country, localized entirely within my apartment! Well, that last part is false. But I still got to see it. Read more
Buying a Condo
14 June 2024 I'm slacking on my journal writing! I realize that I never wrote about buying my house (really a condo)... so here goes! Read more
Running Recap: January through May 2024
01 June 2024 I can't believe it's already June! This year has been going by fast. I figure this is a great time to go over a recap of my running progress from the first 5 months of the year and show off some highlights. Read more