Exposition
Below I have included some of the exposition and presentations I have written over the years. They are in varying levels of rigor and completion and mostly I keep them for my own organizational purposes.
I also keep a collection of high-level notes on various topics I am reading. Mostly I use these for referencing they are in no means self-contaiend
Hobbies
If you happen to share some of the same interests as me, I encourage you to check out some of my recommendations!
Favorite Books
I would describe the style of books I tend to like as journalistic: a remarkably true story of mental fortitude, perseverance, or just plain survival. If that sounds to your liking, I suggest one of the following:
- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing.
- The Sun Does Shine: How I found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinto
- The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
- The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Some of the books I like for other reasons:
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Favorite Climbing Destinations
Trad Climbing
- Lover's Leap and Sugarloaf in South Lake Tahoe: Climbed my first outdoor chimney at Sugarloaf and was so terrified, but in the end it was an awesome experience. Lover's leap is a great destination for aspiring trad climbers like myself. There were many very easy and well-protected routes for one to try.
Sport Climbing
- Owen's River Gorge in Bishop, California: Beautiful, tall, vertical canyon walls surround both sides of the gorge. A nice hike down some well-maintained roads/trails follows the river down the center of the Canyon. The rock feels very solid and the routes are nice and long.
- Vent 5 and Mickey's Beach which is just outside the Bay: Convenient location and the ocean front setting makes for a fun climbing destination. But the routes are fairly short, and sometimes do to the constant moisture of the ocean the rock can be somewhat chossy.
- Red Rock outside Las Vegas: the amazing Aztec sandstone is soft on the hands and offers an awesome mixture of frictiony slabs and juggy flakes. All the routes felt very well-protected and it is an excellent spot for the aspiring multipitch climber.
- TODO: Smith Rock in Oregon
Bouldering
- Castle Rocks outside San Jose, California: The sandstone forms such interesting shapes, and the friction makes for excellent compression-based climbing.
- Happy Boulders and the Buttermilks in Bishop, California: The Sierras are visible directly in the background of these absolutely massive boulders. It is truly incredibly beautiful, and quartz of the buttermilks provides for excellent climbing.
Favorite Bike Trails
- Ohlone Greenway --> Richmond Greenway-->Golden Gate: These two trails run all the way from west Berkeley, up into Richmond, and to the Richmond bridge. After the bridge, you can travel further south down towards Strawberry, Sausalito, and exit at the San Francisco Bridge. I recommend stopping by some of the nearby beaches like Kirby cove or the Black Sands Beach. You get some great views of the bay along the way!
- Fisherman's Wharf --> Hawk's Hill: Getting off at Embarcadero BART you can follow the waterline to the Golden Gate bridge. Across the bridge is the nice and sustained Hawk's hill, followed by a fun and steep descent down towards the bck sand beaches. Following futher down the coast you'll eventually come across Rodeo beach before looping back down Bunker road to return to the city.
Project Euler
When I get some free time, I sometimes enjoy working through the fun problems listed on the Project Euler page. These are an intersting mix of mathematical and computational riddles. I encourage anyone who likes to think about algorithmic complexity/design and who is interested in learning some new math (particularly a little bit of elementary number theory) to give it a try! I'm not much of a number-theorist myself, but I still enjoy many of the puzzles.
