Thursday, December 12, 2013

[ 50 / 52 ]

Week Fifty: In That Moment
Week Fifty

I stepped out of a reception for student leaders to take this shot. The view just got better and better every time I caught a glimpse out the window as the sunset until it reached the point where I had to excuse myself, grab my camera, and step outside.

I love love love sunsets, but they are tricky to shoot. It's always hard to know when they're at their best and, once the moment passes, they can drop off so quickly. I invariably find myself with a ton of shots and have to dig through them to find the very best of the bunch. This was the last of the series I took and I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off giving it a minute or two more, just long enough for the blues to darken up a bit without losing the boldness of the oranges at the bottom. I probably could have messed around with the colors in Lightroom to get the effect, but I like trying to keep my photos true to what my eyes really saw.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

[ 49 / 52 ]

Week Forty-Nine: Ol' Blue Eyes
Week Forty-Nine

North Berkeley is home to a lot of cats. It's hard to tell how many of them are strays and how many are just being let run around by their owners. In any case, my roommates Andrew and Shawna have started naming their favorite ones. They dubbed this little fellow Frank because he was like Ol' Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra. On top of being a long hair, he's also a chubby little guy and has no collar or tags. He was munching on some grass when I came across him, so it's hard to tell if someone is keeping him well fed or if he's just doing a great job manicuring people's lawns. Either way, he was super friendly and just chilled out while I fired off a bunch of shots. I look forward to the next time our paths cross.

Monday, December 9, 2013

[ 48 / 52 ]

Week Forty-Eight: A Splash of Red
Week Forty-Eight

The Vintners Market is a wonderful event that happens at Fort Mason in San Francisco twice a year where winemakers from all over California come to show off their stuff. Though a ticket will run you $50-ish, all of the winemakers offer free tastings, which makes for a boozy four hours. You hop from table to table, chatting up the people and trying all kinds of wines. Most of the wines are solid (as long as you aren't a fancy pants wine snob) and everyone is more than happy to sell you a bottle on the spot if you really like something you try.

This particular wine was an impulse (read: intoxicated?) purchase that I'm quite pleased with. It wasn't cheap but it will be a wonderful bottle to bust out when a special occasion comes up. It's also a lovely bottle, so I'm more than happy to have it sitting in my room in the meantime!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

[ 47 /52 ]

Week Forty-Seven: Some Things Last Longer
Week Forty-Seven

Right around the time I first started actually thinking about what I wore, my grandma starting giving away a lot of my grandpa's old clothes to the grandchildren. He had Parkinson's, which caused him to lose a lot of weight, so most of them didn't fit him anymore.

My grandpa was a doctor back in the days when doctors wore suits and was always a well dressed man, so there were a lot of great pieces in his closet. Many of them were the first truly high quality clothes I ever owned and I remember wearing his old Hugo Boss shirts and silk socks, feeling like I was dressed to the nines. I loved that feeling and I think my experience with his clothes was really influential to the relationship I have with clothing today.

One of my favorite items that came from my grandpa was a red jacket from Ralph Lauren. Nearly ten years later, I still wear it fairly regularly in the colder months. I can only imagine how long he owned it before me, but that it is still in great shape and doesn't look at all dated is a testament to both its quality and timelessness. It has been more than six years since my grandpa passed away, but it still reminds me of him. I hope it will be around to continue reminding me for many more years to come.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

[ 46 /52 ]

Week Forty-Six: Up above the static, up above the racket
Week Forty-Six

I have a favorite secret place here in Berkeley. It's usually very quite there with few people passing by and it offers an amazing view of the city and the bay. On one of the rare days where the fog isn't too thick and there are actually a few clouds in the sky, it's a spectacular vantage point to watch the sunset from.

It's also a great place to slip away to and escape life for a little bit. Sometimes that's even more important: a place away from it all where the sounds of every day life fade away and I can just be alone with my thoughts. Life can feel a little overwhelming at times and having a place to step back and take a deep breath is really wonderful

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Lost Cause?

My dearest family and friends,

In a time honored Berkeley MBA tradition, I have once again been taking part in No Shave November. We raise money for some terrific causes, including Special Olympics and Reading Partners. And so, I've been skipping my morning shave for nearly a month now, leaving me with the magnificent beard you see below.

The normal practice is to lose the beard once the month is over and revert back to a proper state of clean shaven-ness. But I've started getting more and more compliments on it lately. People tell me that it makes me look like a manly man, like a lumberjack, or at least like the kind of man who likes to chop firewood for fun.

A few people have commented that I'm starting to resemble Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones.


Personally, I think it shares more of a resemblance to Charlton Heston a la Ben Hur

Except for the days when I look like a crazy person.

In any case, it has now crossed my mind that maybe I will keep this thing. Seriously. I know that I would almost certainly look much better clean shaven but it's still very tempting and I just can't help myself.

By now you are probably convinced that I am entirely delusional, that I've completely lost the plot. Surely he must have more sense than this, I can hear you thinking. Perhaps, perhaps not. Fortunately for you, there is way for you to stop this madness.

You see, the reason I even have the option to bail on the shaving part of this is because I haven't actually raised any money yet (horrible, I know). So, technically, I'm not actually at all beholden to the rules of No Shave November. But if you good people were to donate money to this fine cause on our campaign page (https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/c4c-noshave-november-blue), I wouldn't really have any say in the matter.

So here is your chance to save me from myself. Make a donation, even just $10 or $20, and add "that Peter is going to shave that ridiculous beard" to the list of things you are thankful for this Thanksgiving. If that's not enough, you can also add "thankful for the good work these organizations are doing" and "thankful that charitable donations are tax write-offs" (we're doing this through Challenge 4 Charity, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) to that list while you're at it.

Thank you all in advance for your generosity and support.

Love,
Peter

Sunday, November 3, 2013

[ 45 / 52 ]

Week Forty-Five: A Splash of Fall
IMG_2070

I love Fall. It is hands down my favorite season of the year.

Fall is when soccer starts back up. In Ann Arbor, it is college football season.

Fall is sweater weather. It is raking leaf piles and jumping in them.

Fall is soothingly overcast days with a gentle breeze. It is that perfect degree of cool that opens your eyes and makes your mind sharp, but also feel warm and fuzzy when you go inside.

Fall is apple cider and powdered donuts. It is big roasts and pumpkin pie.

Fall is when the leaves change color.
Even in California, even if only a little bit.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

[ 44 / 52 ]

Week Forty-Four: Food for Thought | Thought for Food
Week Forty-Four

My modest collection of food-related books has been slowly growing over the past couple of years. Some of them are full of recipes, others are just about different ways to think about food and cooking. It's pretty rare for me to cook straight out of one of them; they're really mostly for inspiration. I'll flip through them, looking for dishes that catch my eye. I might try a recipe as-is once or twice, but most of the time I just start riffing off whatever the book says and make it my own. The value of the books doesn't lie so much in its function as an instruction manual, but rather in the thought process behind combining ingredients and techniques.

My current collection betrays the amount of Asian-influenced food that I cook. I've long had a love of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food. Until recently, they've accounted for the vast majority of meals I make. Lately I've been expanding to more Western food, relying heavily on my subscriptions to Bon Appetit and Fine Cooking for ideas. I'm hoping to add a few more books to this shelf in the coming months and look forward to trying some new things. I think it would be cool to

There's nothing terribly difficult about cooking, it just takes a little practice and thought. Most of my meals come in somewhere between solid and good, but every now and then I make something so delicious that it makes me want to fist-pump at its awesomeness. And the more I learn, the more often those wonderful moments happen.

Monday, October 28, 2013

[ 43 /52 ]

Week Forty-Three: What Lies Ahead
Week Forty-Three

I went to a small dinner party up in the Berkeley hills at a house that required me to leave the road and wander up a footpath through the woods. It was almost pitch black save for a few pockets of light here and there. Looking ahead, there was only darkness with no sign of my destination. But I knew I would get to where I needed to be, even if I couldn't see the way right now, and so I pushed on.

That's pretty much how I feel about life these days. I'm not sure where I will end up next, much less what the path to that point looks like, but I'm confident that if I keep driving ahead I will end up where I am meant to be.

Onward and upward.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

[ 42 / 52 ]

Week Forty-Two: Out of the Blue
Week Forty-Two

This picture was never supposed to survive. I was laying on the grass at Off the Grid in the Presidio when a pack of eight military helicopters zoomed overhead. I snapped a few shots simply as a way to get a closer look at them, not even thinking about it as an actual picture. The plan was just to delete them off my camera as soon as I was done.

And yet, something about this image in particular caught my eye as I was scrolling through my pictures from the day. I kept going back to it and wanted to look at it over and over again.

I went on a date with a graphic designer a while back who told me that my photography "wasn't brave enough". Despite a lengthy discussion of this topic, I still don't know what the hell she actually meant (to be fair, I'm pretty sure she didn't either...) But somehow this picture feels a little brave to me. On the surface, it's mostly just a blue sky. There's really not much going on. It doesn't tell a story, there's no secret meaning or metaphor here. But something about it feels beautiful to me and I can't really put a finger on what it is.

I don't know if this makes any sense to anyone or if it's just crazy talk at this point, but that's ok. Every time I look at it, I like it a little more. And that suites me just fine.

Monday, October 14, 2013

[ 41 / 52 ]

Week Forty-One: High Risk, High Return
Week Forty-One

I'm getting more and more into potluck dinners these days. It may make for a little less cohesive of a meal but nobody is burdened with having to produce the whole thing, so each person can put that much more of themselves into whatever they make.

We held a little potluck-style dinner party at our house a couple of weeks ago. Most of the attendees came from the usual crowd, which is a good group who know how to throw down some legit eats. There were also some new faces as we invited a few first years. People who know their food and new friends to impress.

I volunteered to cover dessert for the evening and, for some crazy reason, decided to try a pretty ambitious dish: roasted pear crumble. I've never made a baked fruit dish in my life, but I saw this recipe in Bon Appetit and thought it looked awesome enough to fit in at our party. I was nervous enough about being able to pull it off that I actually did a practice run the night before, just to make sure it wouldn't be an epic failure. My first attempt was far from a success, but it showed enough promise that I thought I just might be able to pull it off.

True to form, my friends put together an awesome meal. A bunch of different crostini, roast chicken and veggies, mushroom risotto. Everyone's plates were covered in deliciousness. It was a festival of awesomeness.

And then it was my moment, to try to cap off this festival of deliciousness with a dessert to pull it all together.

And. I. Nailed. It.

I don't brag about my food very often, but these pairs were damn good. If I'd ordered them at a restaurant, I would not have been disappointed with my choice.

To me, this is one of the best feelings in life. That moment you try a new recipe and it is absolutely fabulous. You take that first bite and just want to start fist-pumping in tribute of your success. No matter how many more times you make that dish and refine the technique, there is nothing quite like that first time. It's pure magic.

I can only hope to have many more of those moments ahead of me.

Monday, September 30, 2013

[ 33 - 40 / 52 ]

バタバタしている (bata-bata shite iru) - To be busy

Working a true 9-to-5 over the summer was quite the experience. Even with a 90 minute commute each way, I found myself with so much time on my hands throughout the week. Though I like being busy at work, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the freedom a little.

Then school started up again and my calendar got completely overloaded. It's not that classes themselves are all that demanding, there's just a ton of things going on all the time. In any case, I kept putting off processing my 52 Weeks pictures week after week after week until suddenly I had almost two months worth piled up. The funny thing is that it really doesn't take long to process a picture; even the more involved ones usually take less than 10 minutes each. I do try to write a little back story behind each one (which I haven't done yet for this batch), but that doesn't really take all that long either. Guess I just have to be more dedicated to sitting down and taking care of business each week.

I'm really pleased with a lot of the shots I'm getting these days. I just watched a slideshow of my first 40 weeks and I really do think there are a lot of awesome pictures in there. I certainly throw out dozens of shots for every one I keep and even then not every single one is brilliant, but I think the general quality of these pictures is pretty damn high. Proof that you can learn anything if you do it often enough, I guess!

Week Thirty-Three: Little by Little
Week Thiry-

Week Thirty-Four: Clothes on Clothes on Clothes
Week Thiry-

Week Thirty-Five: Payment Details
Week Thiry-

Week Thirty-Six: When the Sky Caught Fire
Week Thiry-

Week Thirty-Seven: Another Star Glows in the Night
Week Thiry-

Week Thirty-Eight: A Lazy Sunset
Week Thiry-

Week Thirty-Nine: Look Into My Eyes
Week Thiry-

Week Forty: The Cold Light of Dawn
Week Thiry-

Sunday, August 25, 2013

[ 32 / 52 ]

Week Thirty-Two: When The Light is Just Right
Week Thirty-Two

One of the cool things about doing this project is that, little by little, it is changing how I look at the world. So many of my pictures have come from spotting something interesting about a certain object or scene and exploring ways to capture that. Most weeks, I have to actively seek out those things, but they've been jumping out at me more often recently.

This week's shot came as I was working from home one afternoon and noticed the way the light coming through the blinds hit my bikes wheel at just the right angle to create a burst on the wall behind it. If I had been in this situation before starting this project, it probably wouldn't have caught my eye. I think there is something awesome about the way everything aligned just right to make this really cool scene, but it also would have been so easy to overlook it and completely the moment.

In one of my classes last year, we discussed the importance of being present. Most of us sort of coast through life, missing out on so much of the details. It's only when you are aware and engaged with the world around you, that is when you start to notice the small things and it's those little bits of life that are often the most beautiful.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

[ 31 / 52 ]

Week Thirty-One: Choosing Sides
IMG_1278

Penalty kicks in soccer are a tricky thing. Goalies don't have much choice but to guess which way the shooter will go and fling themselves in that direction. Even then, a well struck penalty is virtually unstoppable. This was my first time seeing pros take PKs live and it is unreal how hard they can strike the ball. The goalies really are left hoping that their opponent messes up and nobody really expects them to make the save, which only makes it that much more amazing when they pull it off.

I read an interesting opinion piece once that really struck me about how it was far more fun to support a team that was not at the top of the food chain. The logic was that there is no upside for a team that is expected to win. If they succeed, nobody is surprised and they have only met expectations, but if they lose their fans see it as a huge failure. Either way, the upside is limited. But if you cheer for a team not at the pinnacle, you're never overly disappointed if they aren't the greatest (you knew that to begin with) but you're over the moon when they exceed expectations. Less downside, potential for huuuuuge upside.

Last week, I got to watch a match between  Everton (my favorite club these days) and Juventus here in SF that illustrated this point perfectly. Juventus are the reigning champions of the Italian league and one of the most storied teams in soccer. Everton also have a lot of history, but haven't really been a powerhouse since the 80s. The game went back and forth before eventually being decided in a PK shootout, with Everton getting the win. None of the Everton fans would have been all that devastated had they lost to Juventus (they're one of the top teams in the world), but were absolutely thrilled to come away with the win. The Juventus fans, on the other hand, would have been largely nonplussed about beating Everton (it's just Everton, after all), but were pretty pissed about walking out losers from the match.

With that mindset, Everton are an easy team to get behind. They've got some really good players, though not many superstars, but they work hard and play as a team. Their style is pretty attractive, especially compared to the super negative approach other teams on their level often take, so they're good fun to watch. They are neither one of the titans of the league (like a ManU or an Arsenal), nor are they even the biggest local team (Liverpool dwarfs them), making them perpetual underdogs. Yet they consistently outperform their stature as a club and often nipping at the heels of bigger sides. Everton's coach put it best in his comments for the game day program: "Underdogs must be brave". You go out knowing you are outgunned, but still have to be brave enough to have a go at it and try to make something special happen. That's how Everton play.

You will find far more fans of teams like ManU or Barcelona, who have rosters full of the world's best players and win championships all the time, but those aren't the teams for me. I'll stick with my scrappy underdogs, shrugging off the bad and cheering wildly for the upsets. Like a goalie defending a penalty, I've picked my side and, though I won't win them all, it will be all the more exhilarating when I come out on top.

Friday, August 2, 2013

[ 30 / 52 ]

Week Thirty: Faceplant
Week Thirty

Sometimes you just have one of those weeks. The kind that make you close your eyes, run your fingers through your hair, and let out the deepest of sighs. Where all you want to do is take a massive faceplant into your mattress and lie there for a minute. But eventually you pick yourself back up, shake it off, and get back to life. There are better days yet to come.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

[ 29 / 52 ]

Week Twenty-Nine: SF Style Symphony
Week Twenty-Nine

The San Francisco played a free concert in Dolores Park a while back, which struck me as so perfectly San Francisco. When I think of the symphony, I usually think of people getting dressed up, of being ushered into velvet theater seats, of sitting quietly with the orchestra getting everyone's undivided attention. This was none of those things. It was San Franciscans laying out picnic blankets, day drinking and basking in the sun, with the symphony providing the soundtrack for the afternoon. It was wonderful.

As I was shooting pictures of the scene, a girl wearing bright blue sunglasses opened a super classic looking parasol  that glowed with the afternoon sun. I thought itt perfectly captured the spirit of the afternoon.

Monday, July 29, 2013

On The Road

通勤 (tsukin) - Commuting to work
Shortly after hitting the one month in my internship, I have broken into the top 90k users on Waze. That puts me into the top 10% of all users, which is pretty crazy considering that, before this internship, I had driven minimally since moving to Japan nearly 5 years ago.

This is, of course, a direct effect of my beastly commute. I didn't land my internship until well into the summer and was left just two weeks from offer to start date. With my employer not offering any support for housing and no reasonable public transportation options to get from Berkeley to Palo Alto, I had little choice but to make the haul by car. With the trip covering 50+ miles each way, I have already put down more than 2,000 miles of road time. While the idea of spending close to 3 hrs of my life in a car each and every day is hardly the most exciting use of my time, I've found a few ways to make it as painless as possible. I've even found myself enjoying the trip on occasion, especially on my way home.

My first key discovery was the casual carpooling community. No matter which route I took to the office, the worst part of the drive was always being brought to a standstill waiting to get through the toll gates for the bridge across the bay. It doesn't matter whether you go with the Bay Bridge, San Mateo Bridge, or the Dumbarton Bridge, you're going to get stuck in traffic trying to get across in the morning. That is, unless you are able to take the carpool lane, which not only bypasses the lines and flies through the gates, it also reduces your toll from $6 down to $2.50. Casual carpooling exists to exploit this difference. Riders gather at designated spots, where drivers with empty seats pick them up, drive them across the bridge, and deposit them in downtown SF. There happens to be a pickup point just a few blocks from my place along my normal route, so it doesn't even take much extra time for me to swing by. It practically eliminates my commute's greatest pain point, cuts down my drive time, and saves me toll fair. It also makes the drive a bit more interesting: I've gotten to chat with a variety of interesting people, from a UX designer at a startup to a guy with a crazy beard who works in the Haight to a lady whose daughter is interning at the same company as one of my roommates. The dropoff spot is just across the bridge, so I just hop right back on the freeway and carry on. Once I'm through the city, I'm essentially making the reverse commute from SF to the South Bay, which means traffic is pretty light for the rest of my drive. Wonderful.

This discovery opened the door for my second discovery: I-280 is an incredibly scenic stretch of highway. Carpooling makes driving through the city is hands down the quickest route for me, which means there is no reason to ever make myself suffer through the shit show that is the East Bay commute. It is almost always packed with cars and there's pretty much nothing to look at besides traffic, cement, and big box retailers that line the highway. Boooooring. In contrast, I-280 is gorgeous, starting with a few miles of tree-lined roads followed by a stretch alongside a range of forested mountains, then finally golden hills. Cruising through such beautiful scenery makes time spent in the car much less of a drag.

Both my supervisor and my boss are out of the office all week, so I'll be working from home more often than not for a while. While I'm looking forward to a morning commute that involves walking 10 ft from my bed ot the desk, at least I know that, on the days I do decide to go in, the drive won't be too bad.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

[ 28 / 52 ]

Week Twenty-Eight: Sweet Dreams Are Made of This
Week Twenty-Eight

There's a little side street in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland known as Temescal Alley. It is home to maybe a dozen eclectic shops selling everything from plants to clothes to art. My favorite of the lot is a tiny one near the very back of the alley called The Homestead Apothecary, which specializes in dried herbs and teas.

The guy who runs it apparently studied this kind of stuff at a small college somewhere in the northeast (I forget the details). A lot of his jars are full of the usual suspects when it comes to homeopathic remedies, but he also has a number of tea blends that he makes himself. One in particular caught my eye: "Sweet Dreams"

The first time I visited the shop, the description said that it was supposed to give you "vivid dreams". I asked the owner about it and was told that the dreams were the result of mugwort, while other components like lavender, rose and chamomile help you sleep restfully. A quick google search for mugwort showed that it was indeed associated with particularly lucid dreams. Shady as buying an ounce of herbs to give me crazy dreams may sound, I decided to give it a shot and headed back to the store a few weeks later to pick some up. The description had been changed to "For epic sleep time adventures" - I was sold.

I have never been much of a dreamer. Most nights I don't dream at all (or, if I do, I wake up with no recollection of them), which is not very exciting at all. I think this is because I'm a pretty sound sleeper and dreaming usually goes down during lighter sleep cycles. In any case, I was looking forward to finally discovering what wild adventures had been locked up in my subconcious.

 For the past week or so, I've been having a cup of the tea every night before bed and it has been working - sort of. I have definitely been dreaming much more than before and remember far more about them. However, they haven't exactly been all that epic. Usually the dreams reflect something that has been going on in my life (which can make things interesting on nights when I've been watching The Wire right before bed!), but they never get too wild. It's good fun, but I'm thinking of picking up a little extra mugwort next time to see if it will kick things up a notch. Hopefully those epic sleep time adventures await!

Friday, July 12, 2013

[ 27 / 52 ]

Week Twenty-Seven: Taste of Summer
Week Twenty-Seven

It turns out that Mark Twain wasn't kidding when he said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." After a glorious May and June where I spent day after day basking in the sun on the back deck, the weather took a sudden turn once July came around. Having always enjoyed warm summer nights, I'm finding it pretty confusing that it's so chilly in the evening despite being the heart of summer.

Fortunately, despite the drop in temperature, there is still tons of delicious fresh fruits and vegetables available in the farmers market every week. Now that I can get breakfast and lunch for free at work, I've started splurging on higher quality produce for dinner. I love walking through the market every Saturday morning, checking out all the amazing food on display. I can't resist corn on the cob (which I have been eating daily for the past couple of weeks) and I've been playing around with summer squash and green beans. So much deliciousness.

The food is obviously great, but there is a flower stand full of amazing colors that always catchs my eye as well. I'd love to have a few stems in vases here and there around the house, though they would certainly look out of place in my current residence. Something to look forward to once I'm done with school and living in a proper apartment...

Sunday, July 7, 2013

[ 26 / 52 ]

Week Twenty-Six: A Hint of What is to Come
Week Twenty-Six

San Francisco strikes me as a city of secrets. It has so much to offer, if only you know where to look. People who live there are almost unanimously madly in love with the place, but from the outside it can be hard to see what is so great about the city. I want to like it, but it's hard to get dug in while living in Berkeley. Nonetheless, I'm trying to give it a fair chance to win me over.

The past couple of weeks I've been going into SF more and more often, letting locals show me what lies under the surface. It has been great so far and I already like the city that much more. I'm excited to see what other adventures it has in store for me.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

California Coast Cruising

旅 (tabi) - A journey or trip

When the school semester ended back in early May, I still hadn't secured a summer internship. That was fine, given that most other schools still had several weeks of classes left and many internships didn't start until June, so I just kept applying for positions and trying to make something work out.

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One can only spend so many hours a day looking for a job, so I had a lot of free time on my hands. I couldn't travel anywhere as I still needed to be around to network and interview and whatnot, so I spent most of my days laying out on the back deck reading. It was wonderfully relaxing, but at the same time never really felt like a vacation.

I finally managed to lock down an internship in mid June, much to my excitement. But there was still a part of me that felt like I needed to get out and go somewhere before starting my job. I didn't have much time to plan anything proper, so it needed to be short.

There are lots of places throughout northern california that would be cool to check out, most of which are just a few hours away. They're so accessible that it becomes an easy excuse not to go. You start thinking that you can go anytime, but end up not going at all. For me, driving down along Highway 1 was one of those things. A few hours of driving will get you a good ways down the coast, so I decided to just go for it and check it off my list.

IMG_0938

I got myself a rental car for two days to make sure I'd have plenty of time, then headed straight for the coast. Before I knew it, I was in in Pacifica, ready to hug the California coast. The weather was beautiful, with nothing but blue skies above. I rolled down the windows and just drove. It was the first time I'd ever been behind the wheel without actually having somewhere I was trying to get to.

IMG_0931

I took my sweet time, stopping to take pictures constantly. The idea that this was the edge of America was stuck in my head. That, as huge as this country may be, the ocean that sat to my side was the very limits of it. The landscape was gorgeous and it reminded me of how beautiful this country is. It made me remember other amazing places I've been, beautiful scenes I've seen. It was equal parts awe-inspiring and relaxing to see.

IMG_0923

I made it as far south as Big Sur. I didn't actually do very much for the two days that I was on the road. Most of my time was spent either driving or taking pictures, though I would occasionally wander off the road a bit just to see what there was to see. But that was exactly what I needed: to just be off on my own. As much rest and relaxation I had got lounging about in Berkeley for the previous weeks, this trip left me truly refreshed.

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These pictures are some of my favorites, but there are many more on my flickr account. I'm not sure that they do justice to what I saw, but hopefully it's a start.

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

[ 25 /52 ]

Week Twenty-Five: Sun Sets on Summer Break
Week Twenty-Five

With my internship finally starting on Monday, I spent a couple of days this week taking a quick road trip down the California coast to cap off my summer break. This is from sunset in Carmel. I'll give more of a recap of the trip once I've finished working through the other pictures.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

[ 24 / 52 ]

Week Twenty-Four: Seeing Color
Week Twenty-Four

I wasn't feeling particularly inspired by anything this week and ended up taking this picture a day late. Part of the reason that I decided to do this project in the first place is that it forces you to find interesting pictures in your everyday life. It makes you think more about what is around you. As I've been going through it, I find that more and more of the pictures I' take come from noticing something small and seemingly insignificant that I would normally have just overlooked.

This one is of the leaves on the bamboo that grows along side my driveway. There's nothing terribly spectacular about the plants themselves, but one day I noticed how many different shades of green they become when the sun hits it from a certain angle. I walked past that bamboo every day for nearly a year but had never really noticed it until then. I really enjoy finding little details in the world like that. They make everything so much more interesting.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

[ 23 /52 ]

Week Twenty-Three: Dig Deep
Week Twenty-Three

On Monday, I was finally offered an internship. I thought about writing a long post on the challenges of changing both industry and function for MBA career switchers. About how much it sucks to constantly plead your case on the basis of nothing more than vaguely tangential experience and mental horsepower in interview after interview. Make no mistake, it is a bitch. But, at the end of the day, none of that really matters.

Truthfully, it just comes down to persistence and commitment. It took me exactly 140 days from my first interview to the day I finally received a formal offer letter. It was a difficult, demoralizing, and painful journey. There was a lot of disappointment along the way. I was fortunate to be surrounded by amazing friends and family to support me and cheer me on. I could have taken the easy way out and switched my focus along the way, but they helped me push on. I stuck to my guns, didn't give up and it all worked out in the end.

 I'll be joining SAP's Global Customer Strategy team for the summer to help them with their sales strategy. It will be work unlike anything I've ever done before. I am sure it is going to be an awesome experience.

Monday, June 3, 2013

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Week Twenty-Two: Side Street Secrets
Week Twenty-Two

I spent an afternoon doing a little exploring in Oakland this past week. The city doesn't have the greatest reputation, but it certainly looks like it's improving and already has some pretty cool spots. One of my favorites was Temescal Alley, a small side street lined with interesting little shops. This picture is of one that specialized in little succulents and smelled absolutely amazing. I'll definitely be back in the not so distant future.

Monday, May 27, 2013

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やっと (yatto) - Finally, at last

It has literally been several months since my last post. In that time, I have spent spring break in Japan, battled through a deluge of school projects, shown my parents around the Bay Area, and finished my first year of business school. I won't try to make this into a recap of everything that has happened because, quite frankly, it would look like a small book. Though I haven't been posting them regularly, I have still been taking my weekly picture, so I will take the easy way out and share them all in one glorious burst of sexy photography. Descriptions/context can be found on flickr.

Week Twelve:  Let the Lights Lead You Home
Week Twelve

Week Thirteen: Upward and Onward
Week Thirteen



Week Fourteen: Lost and Alone in a Sea of Grey
Week Fourteen


Week Fifteen: Red Wine Stained Skies
Week Fifteen


Week Sixteen: Battle Worn
Week Sixteen


Week Seventeen: Goen ga Aru
Week Seventeen


Week Eighteen: Casting Shadows
Week Eighteen


Week Nineteen: Light Projections
Week Nineteen


Week Twenty: In Season
Week Twenty


Week Twenty-One: Summer is Here
Week Twenty-One