Excited!

Woohoo! I have seven sign ups to the fundraiser!
You don't want to be left out, do you? Sign up now!

I have had the undue pleasure of spending multiple days down in Homer. I don't know what I did to deserve the torture of having to fly down there for a day and fly right back. The worst part is that the morning flight gets in about the time that all of the baked goods come out of the oven at Two Sister's Bakery. That really is horrible. (I'm surprised I'm not more well rounded)
The sticky buns are amazing. And the savory ham and cheese danish... Mmm... Steps to a great morning: Land in sunny Homer, start company truck, drive to bakery, let truck warm up while enjoying coffee and baked goods.

Of course, after driving around all day with no destination, I get really bored and tired. And when you leave the house at 5am, not to return until 9:45p, it makes for a long day.

Driving around Homer makes me want to take my road bike down there.

Or any bike.

Shoot, I'd take a scooter.

I also want a cabin down there on top of the ridge in the picture.

Sigh... Someday...

If I lived that close to that bakery, I really would be well rounded.

I have high expectations for my upcoming adventure to Chicago. Not that I expect anything out of the travel experience, but I expect every little snowflake to have melted off my favorite trails by the time I come back. Starting that week, no man will be able to contain my desire for running outside. I should be out there already. Gearing up. Preparing for races. Ascending the highest peaks.
Winter, END! Or I am coming to chase you away!

If you see a person jumping up and down on a mountain or kicking snow around, beware. That's me making winter leave...

Announcing!!

I have been holding this in for about a month now.

I was thinking about what sort of goals I want to set for myself in the summer, and I thought that hiking the vertical equivalent of Mt. Everest would be fun. Then I thought, well how do I get as many people as possible to do it too?
So I created a fundraiser and now use bribery and emotions to get people to participate. And you can run, hike, or walk!
From May 1st to August 31st, I challenge you all to do something that seems huge up front, but can be easily divided over the whole summer. At the end, I will give you all a t-shirt. And ice cream if you can make it.

It costs $40.00 and the money will go to Arrowhead Children's Home in Murumba, Kenya. Pretty excited, eh? Can't wait to sign up? Just go to:
sites.google.com/site/arrowheadeverestchallenge and fill out the forms!

There is also more information about this whole thing at that link.

What is Necessary

I am becoming more of an engineer every day. Translation: I am replacing my blood with coffee. I love coffee. I love coffee in the morning. I love it in the afternoon. Sometimes at night. There are now six different ways to make coffee in this house.
And I still sleep soundly at night!

I'm beginning to start to possibly think about maybe moving out, I've come to realize something that I cannot live without: a grill.
As a man, at least one meal a week should revolve around a grill. There's my theory. To grill is man.
Not just any grill, but a wood fired or charcoal grill.

I've been exercising this manly muscle for the last two weekends, making some amazing venison tenderloin last weekend, and chicken this weekend.

The tenderloin was fantastic. I saw that it was thawed (and bleeding all over the fridge) so I took matters into my own hands and made a marinade. Apparently it was from a young deer, and was extremely tender. Extremely. Not quite cut-with-spoon tender, but close. Makes me want to be a hunter and live by "if it's brown, it's down".
The accompaniment to the tenderloin were vegetables (in the tinfoil in the picture), cubed hash browns - that were so close to cookie jar home fries - and mushrooms and onions. Tasty meal

I tried something new with the chicken to try and solve the common chicken problem: dry white meat. I sort of filleted the breast and rubbed in some basil garlic butter. Nothing makes something taste better like fat. More and more fat. Long story short, my brother complemented the chicken.

So wherever I choose to reside, rest assured there will be a grill outside. (And some way to make coffee)

Where's the Textbook?

Again, I amaze myself. You only have to fall down once in order to learn the lesson.
...Okay maybe that's not true. Maybe twice. Or thrice. (I can't believe that's a word)
Anyways.
My brother asked for help on calculus. I stared at the first question. And stared. ...And stared. "Where's your textbook?" *look for an example*
And stare. Blankly. Hmm... I wonder what color I should where tomorrow? (Get the picture yet?)
Wait! Do this, this, this, then this and... voilà!! Oh. Oops. Nope don't do that. Do... This! Whoops. Nope. Not that. Um... "Well I tried this and this, but it didn't work out. Maybe if I did this and..." Hey look, there was a math error back there.
From that point on, I was on top of that assignment! (I bet you never thought you could get a rush from doing math)
Lesson learned: You can always make a math error...
Second lesson: the first derivative of an equation evaluated at a point is the slope of the tangent line. The derivative is not the equation of the tangent line. Duh. If I had realized that sooner, I wouldn't have stared so long in the beginning.

Maybe I should become a regular tutor. I enjoy helping people and doing math and science...

I would be an evil teacher. Probably hated. But I can almost guarantee that my students would know the material. Reasons:
1. In a 60 minute perfect class: 10 minutes for a quiz on the day previous material, 30 minutes answering homework questions, 20 minutes solving the quiz and going over new material. I think its absolutely important to make sure everyone understands what was just covered. And quizzes encourage attendance.
2. I would be the kind of teacher who makes 2 or 3 tests worth 90% of your grade, 10% on class input. The ultimate test grade would be swayed by the quiz and homework scores, but until the end, no one would know by how much. Have to keep the element of surprise. (more on this in a second)
3. My first test would be next to impossible. And on a curve. That way, everyone looks like they're failing throughout the semester. Not failing miserably, but just on the edge of success. Then, they will give 100%, all the time. I will hang the carrot in front your nose to keep you going...
4. I would write a different test for each class, (no cheating, now) but use all quiz and homework questions. (I'll cheat for you) Except on the first test. I have to break everyone down.
Sounds like boot camp.
5. Um... Let's make another number.
6. In a math class, the process matters the most. If you think 2+2=5 like my sister, well then you're an optimistic economist or you tried to drink and derive. Don't go into accounting or engineering.
7. Oh, yeah, almost forgot. That 30 minutes answering homework questions would be taught by the students. Every student will have to answer another person's question. Teaching is the best way to learn. Plus they'd learn public presentation skills.
8. By the end, I would have figured out whether or not you understood what I was teaching, and if you did, well, you passed. If you didn't, see you next year for round 2!

There you have it. Nathan's 8 (7) points to a perfect class.

*Bonus:* 9. If I'm teaching math, pens will be outlawed. If I receive an assignment in pen, all the points you would've gotten become negative and suck away from your total score. Pens suck life away from math.

And my previous math student got 100% on a final.

Time and Travel

My math skills were vindicated. I was asked another math problem that I was able to do and conclusively prove that the answer that was given for this problem was in fact, wrong. The square root of 97 does not come out to be a nice number.
Even better than that, I got to sing the quadratic formula song: (to the tune of pop-goes-the-weasel) x is equal to negative b plus or minus square root of b squared minus four a c all over 2 a.
Now try and forget that.

Last time, I said that I was addicted to coffee. That is not entirely true. I am consumed by it. And I happily consume it.
There is always room and time for coffee. Always. No rush is more important than a chance of sitting back and relaxing to a nice slow bar brew.
This is me taking my 10 minutes to smell the roses as I go by.
I have now gone 4 for 4: been to a coffee shop 4 days in a row. One of those shops I've returned to for the last 3 days. (I'm hoping to go for a 5th)
But all of this coffee does have a use: adjusting to time zones while traveling. I had to switch three hours when I went to Chicago, so I front loaded my day with TONS of coffee. It was great! Maybe not healthy, but after 5 or so shots before lunch, your afternoon is magical. Unless you're trapped inside of a seminar, like I was. Then you just sit there and look left. Then right. Then left. Then right. Then at your watch. Isthisseminaroveryet?CanIleaveandgorun?Hey,thatguyjustsaidsomethingcool,didyoucatchthat?Oooo.Mypencanmakesquigglylines.CanIleaveandgorun? squiggle squiggle*
Then at night, you suddenly think that you are going to fall asl... snore*

Chicago is... a city. That is windy. And chilly. I only got out to explore one night, but I do have to return soon. I left myself a lot of openings for exploring then.

Caffeinated Experiments

First, let it be written, that I, could not help my brother with a Calculus problem.
I feel so out of practice. Ashamed. Inadequate. *Sniffle

That last one wasn't true.

I do feel bad, though.

Wednesday brought the end of all of the relatives at my house. Don't get me wrong, family is nice, but they need to stay in small doses to be good. I.e. 40 of them running around for a week is not good; 2 running around for a week is great. I'd like my cousin who I hadn't seen in 10 years or so to come back in the summer and be my fishing buddy.
But even with that, my life does not return to normal. I've been running around for work and now starts the traveling. First a day out of office, then three days out of state. It's sort of ridiculous that to attend a day and a half seminar, I have to be gone three days.
Let another adventure begin!

Being the coffee snob that I am, or at least the addict, I have decided that when I finally move out, I want some sort of coffee bar in my kitchen. There are one hundred ways to brew coffee, and I want them all. Or a lot of them. On that list of methods is a home espresso machine. I will someday have one, and not just a push button one, a manual pull the shot-steam the milk one. (Just above the espresso machine on that list is barista training - offered at the local Kaladi Brothers company)
Since it is impractical to use more than one method to brew coffee in a rushed morning, I've decided to find the "best" way to brew given time, effort, and, most importantly, flavor.
I tested three this weekend.

On the left, a Bialetti Moka Express; on the right, a Chemex. Unseen is the french press.
I used Kau Coffee from Hawaii for the french press and the chemex in equal amounts and volume of water. They were both brewed for the time that it took to pour the water into the chemex. However long that is.
The results: the french press makes strong coffee. That is black. And kind of bitter. The chemex had a lot more flavor. Only slightly less strong.
Both are better than the brewer we normally use.

This is where it departs from being scientific with control:
I used the Moka Express the next day, and I had ran out of Kau.
This one was much more fun.
A moka express is like a percolator, that makes espresso, and upside down. In other words, it starts with water in the bottom, and ends with water in the top by forcing the steam through the grounds in the middle and condensing it in a neck before pouring into the reservoir.
Trial 1:
I may have ground it too fine and packed it too hard. The very little water that made it through the grounds was black. Very black. With the consistency of lava. The pressure relief valve was going off the whole time. Oops
Trial 2:
After it had cooled down such that I felt safe opening it without it spraying boiling liquid every where...
I ground the coffee less fine, didn't tamp it as much. Viola! I had something between espresso and a very strong cup of coffee. Wasn't too bad. Wasn't exactly a shot, though.
Given these three, depending on how groggy in the morning I am, a moka or chemex should be the normal way to go.
Next up: the V60 pour-over and whatever else I find will make coffee. Except by sock. I have no desire to use a sock as a filter.

Here Comes the Bride

See, I'm making a valiant effort at keeping this ball rolling. When I have time. Maybe.

Picking up where I left off:
By the by, my sister got engaged last July during one of the fishing trips. This is how I found out:
cast...drift...cast...drift... (dad) "Hey! Robin just got engaged." cast...drift...cast...drift... "Oh." cast...drift...cast... "Caught anything yet?" cast...drift...cast...

Back to the New Year, January was the time when the wedding planning was starting to increase. Somehow, coincidentally, I got really into crossfit and started taking housesitting jobs at that time. I was hardly ever home. Wedding planning is actually bearable when you're never home. My simple bachelor life of work, activity, and sleep was at a prime during this period.

February: work, activity, sleep.
I was asked to do a part of a big company project, and was given no deadline. 3 weeks into February, I was told "first week of March". Wait. 2 Weeks??? So I got to fly down to Homer twice, stay the night once, drive all over the place, and create routes for the pipe project. Then I return to the office and fight with drafters to get stuff done. I heroically battle comments such as, "that can't be done", "no way", "shouldn't they have asked us earlier?" Well, yes, they should have, but I was allocated enough manpower and it looks like I actually got it done. Amazing.
It's sort of funny when a department director says "I'm tired of doing the project manager's job."

March: work is exploding. It is not funny when you sit in a meeting with 15 high ranking company people, you are the lowest on the totem pole, and as these titans of companies argue, your task list gets longer. And longer. And longer. I've got so many hydraulic modeling jobs now it is not fun...
However, then you have your year end employee review and your boss says that they really appreciate the work and effort I do and the energy and enthusiasm you bring, and everything is suddenly all better. "Do you have any questions?...Should we change anything?..." No sir, I'm happy as a clam.
Hopefully I'm not the horse that always says "I will work harder" and then gets sent to the glue factory.

As of yesterday, there is no more wedding planning. HOORAY! But my life won't return to normal until... a few weeks from now because I get to travel for work soon. (I love my job)

Out of words for the day.
During the wedding ceremony, my only task was to be the level head. (It would've gone better if I was actually given a plan) so when a wedding supposed to start at 2 hasn't started by 2:10, there's a problem. Solution, I grab the microphone, "SIT DOWN!" The response, "who gave the engineer the microphone???" Hey, I'm getting stuff done. So what if I lack tact.