2014: best of

I love my Osprey Porter 46 L backpack so much that I am declaring it my favorite item of 2014.  I originally purchased it just for backpacking in Europe, but I've ended up using it for just about every other trip I've made. It's very well made, comfortable, deceptively spacious, and fits easily in all overhead compartments. Sure there were some occasions when I didn't want to run around with a heavy backpack on in the summer heat, but the incredible ease with which I could hop off a plane and navigate through stony alleyways and steep stairs was well worth it. Thanks Osprey Porter, you're the real MVP.

Honorable mention goes to Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead." Yeah, yeah, it was written in the 80s, but I read it this year so it's going in the 2014 category. When I first started reading it, I was expecting a direct sequel to "Ender's Game," not a completely different sort of story set 3000 years in the future with the same characters. But it is fantastically written - that character and background development, tension building, and political and military philosophy analysis. The second time I read it this year, I also read Card's introduction where he mentioned that he wrote "Ender's Game" because he was ultimately trying to eventually write "Speaker." Everything eventually points to the concept of a speaker for the dead who speaks on behalf of the deceased, not necessarily with a nice eulogy, but with an honest life biography that explains motivations and intentions rather than just actions. Highly, highly recommend this book.

Lastly, here are some of my favorite pictures from the year.

2014: in review

What an exciting year it has been!

January
Jan 1-3: Started off the new year with my dearest SNK, playing Takoyaki roulette with a few of her kendo friends. Takoyaki roulette?? Yes, possible options included tako (duh), kimchi, cheese, mochi, and Chinese mustard... Then I spent the rest of my new year watching the third season of Sherlock and the Doctor Who Christmas Special with SNK and her gentleman friend. There was also a giant fruit strudel involved.
Jan 11: E&K wedding!

February
Feb 1-28: Work work work.

March
Mar 24-25: Presented at the Western States Section of the Combustion Institute (WSSCI) spring meeting at Caltech. Enjoyed my first mashed potato martini bar (so many topping choices!) and used the conference as an excuse to hang out with my fabulous college roommate.

April
Apr 1-3: APEP's 14th annual International Colloquium on Environmentally Preferred Advanced Power Generation (ICEPAG).  Helped with the computer system this year, which was interesting.
Apr 4-6: CrossLife retreat. Learned about the importance of fellowship and was challenged to love Christ's bride as Christ loves his bride.
April 11: APEP's 4th annual Talent Show. Lots of awesome talent, hilarious "most sustainable man in the world" videos, and a shameless banana phone dance (oh my).
April 13: Beloved International's Huruma at UCI, featuring Tim Be Told. I don't think I've ever heard a better live performance in my life. Tim's voice is incredible.

May
May 12: Turned in my thesis three weeks early. Hooray!!
May 16-21: Portland, Oregon :D Spent the first two days hanging out with old high school friends, then presented at the Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems (ILASS) Conference and got the opportunity to co-chair a session. Also found out when I came back that the delicious tap water I was drinking was possibly contaminated with E. coli.
May 31: Took my last final ever, which was a weird one-on-one oral exam with my professor on turbulent flow. Alas, I was unable to escape prelim style examinations after all. I was delighted and terrified at the same time to realize that oral exams go by a lot faster if you keep saying "I don't know..." (But surprisingly I got an A!)
Also, CrossLife Senior banquet on on the same night.

June
June 9-13: Conquered Boston, Massachusetts with SNK on an epic YOLO trip, during finals week for everyone else...
June 14: Graduated and saw the POTUS speak at my graduation with KLee. No big deal.
June 20-23: Anchored conference in Phoenix, Arizona with some RGC people. It was very dry and hot there.
June 28: L&PJ wedding!
June 29: Off to Europe :O

July
First month of my travels: Paris, Brussels, Ghent, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Ljubljana, Vienna, Budapest, and Krakow.

August
Second month: Prague, Berlin, Potsdam, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, and London.

September
Back in the States, living it up in funemployment.

October
Continued unemployment... cooked a lot of food with friends, did some campus EV, and spent a lot of time at my pastor's place playing with his cute kids.

November 
Waited around a lot for jobs to call me back. Is this what one-sided dating feels like? But I had a really fun 6 hour interview that was essentially a time for me to nerd out and ask all the gas turbine questions I've ever had in my entire life.

December
Dec 2-6: Went to Denver, Colorado to visit a few NASA friends. Thankful that the awesome Maddog gave me a place to crash and was willing to show me around the city. I was also offered a job during this time - Praise the Lord!!
Dec 20: B&R wedding!
Dec 26-30: SJ/SF - some catching up, some sightseeing, and some time spent as a DIY craft slave for an engaged friend. My flight back to SD was cancelled due to extreme weather so I ended up spending the night at SFO. Sadly I did not channel my inner Tom Hanks in the Terminal.

San Francisco, CA

For my final trip of the year, I flew up to northern California to finally visit some friends I've been meaning to see. Spent a couple of days in San Jose and then a few more in hipster San Francisco.  It's so hipster I saw an old man on the Bart with a beret, Ray Ban glasses, skinny jeans, Chelsea boots, and a hardcover book. 

First few days in SF were enjoyable - I figured that after spending time in Denver, nothing in California could be THAT cold. Well I was proven wrong on my last day when bitter, chilly, and intense winds threatened to knock me off my feet and freeze my fingers in place. The weather was so bad my flight back ended up getting canceled so I got to spend the night at SFO. But I got a $200 flight voucher, so I will be putting that to use next year :) 

LPT: say "San Fran" and you'll really fit in with the locals /s

Sorry.

Mushroom, goat cheese, red onion pizza from Cheese Board... aka the only reason for visiting Berkeley. I love how they give two free mini slices with every purchase. 

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, 
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted. 

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed. 

All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way; 
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him. 

Isaiah 53:4-6

Merry Christmas! There is no other savior.

"But he is curiously limited. He is a mechanic of the brain. He has cut it to pieces with his scalpel and found no soul. Therefore there is none. Like the Russian astronaut who circled the earth and did not see God. It is the empiricism of the mechanic, and a mechanic is only a child with superior motor control."

-Stephen King, The Dead Zone 

props and the f-1

I've always loved this photo. 

pin-ups in nature

One of my recently engaged friends told me that she considered having me take her wedding/engagement photos but then concluded from my photos that I'm too awkward for intentional portrait photos. And it's true! If you look through most of my photos, you won't find many pictures of people. I really don't know how to direct people in a creative way that makes them look natural and lets them feel comfortable.  

So when my crazy friend Dan told me he wanted me to take a new profile picture for him, I was a little hesitant. But he gave me his mirrorless Fuji X-E1 and had me take multiple shots of him in shameless exaggerated model poses (his specialty).  It was a bit weird, for sure, but I think it has made me a bit more comfortable with the idea of doing portraits. Not to mention, this whole experience was over the top and absolutely hilarious. 

The Fuji is an amazing camera, so here are some of the more appropriate pictures from the shoot, taken at Rose Canyon Open Space Park with a 35mm f/1.4. 

Apologies in advance for scandalousness. 

I'm just calibrating the scene... 

Denver, CO

Good news: unemployment will soon be ending.

Bad news: unlimited funemployement will soon be ending.

Okay, we all know that the job application process can be quite lengthy. So when I finally scheduled a 6 hour final round job interview for my dream job (which I ended up getting woohoo), I immediately booked a plane ticket to Denver to visit some of my Propulsion Academy friends.  The last time I saw these Props was last year at a propulsion conference and after an overly intense Caltech Space Challenge, so it was nice to see them for a non-academic reason.

Through the power of our Prop Academy group text, we also learned that there was yet another one of us in town! That brought our reunion to an unprecedented total of 5.  Of course we spent many hours reminiscing about our ridiculous summer as NASA interns in sweet land of Huntsville, Alabama. But when we weren't together (which was most of the time aside from one night in an arcade bar downtown), I walked around in the cold by myself and spent some quality time with one of my friends in his rugged jeep singing Taylor Swift while driving through some of Denver's most scenic areas.

 I felt a little bad for going to a Snooze in Denver when I never went to the one in San Diego, even though my friend worked there as a prep cook for almost a year...

Construction workers looking at the crazy crowd of Ferguson protestors below.