[ 11 / 52 ]

Week Eleven: Walk A Mile In My Shoes

I bought these shoes a few years back and have used them as my go-to pair whenever I travel anywhere that takes me a little off the beaten path. They're little more than a thin layer of canvas attached to a thin sole, but they're tough SOBs. They've withstood taifuns in Taiwan, explored the Temples of Angkor Wat, patrolled the streets of Saigon, and much more. Suffice to say, they've taken a bit of a beating.

But none of it was as brutal to them as my trip down to Central America. Our first day out, we headed out to climb one of the volcanoes around Antigua in Guatemala. A little boy at the base told me that my shoes were no good. I laughed an carried on. The shoes survived the volcano. They survived when I ran through jungle forests with them. They survived hiked up mountains and when I went swimming in caves. That little boy couldn't have been more wrong.

They might look a little worse for wear these days, but they're still holding up strong..I'm not sure where my next adventure while be, but I know I can count on these shoes to take me there and back.

Conviction

放置される (houchi sareru) - To be put on hold or left alone

Yesterday marked exactly one month since I last heard from Google, when they asked for my interview availability.

Google is my dream job. It's where I told people I wanted to end up back when I was still applying to schools. It's the company that, above all others, I want to end up at. Being stuck not knowing where I stand is difficult, but I will wait as long as necessary.

Back when I was in middle school, I was a huuuge geek. One of the nerdiest things I did was play the card game Magic: The Gathering, and I was really good at it. So good, in fact, that I qualified for the Junior National Championship tournament when I was in 7th grade (yes, there is a Magic National Championship. We can't all be cool kids).

I won that place playing with a strategy that was simple, ruthless, and effective; one that I had fine tuned and modified tirelessly throughout the qualifying process. There was nothing fancy about it, but it worked incredibly well. Come time for the big tournament, however, I felt like I needed a style that was more sophisticated. Somehow I came to the conclusion that what I had being doing wasn't good enough and that the occasion called for something more. So I changed my entire game plan for the finals to a much more complex approach. In the end, the new strategy worked out just ok, but I knew deep down that my original style would have done better.

It was a choice we often face in life: stick with your convictions, or do what you think others expect of you and hold more highly. In my experience, compromising to meet the values and expectations of others is rarely the best choice.

Truthfully, Google is a tough job to land and there is every possibility that it doesn't work out. I'm looking around for backup plans, but I'm being very picky about it. Some would say beggars can't be choosers, but I refuse to accept that mindset.

There are a lot of tech companies out there hiring, many of which are very prestigious places in the tech world, but aren't really of interest to me deep down. Likewise, there are plenty of positions available at great companies, but not necessarily for the roles that I want. As difficult as it is to still not have a summer internship lined up, I am committed to standing my ground as long as possible. This summer is a chance for me to try something new and see if  it is the right career for me. Taking a job just for the sake of having an internship defeats the whole point of that.

I remain hopeful that Google will still give me a shot. And while I can't count on a positive outcome from them, I refuse to go after stop-gap positions that are a Plan B at best. If I can stay strong and hang in there long enough, I am sure the right opportunity for me will turn up eventually.

[ 10 / 52 ]

Week Ten: Drink Deeply

Even though it's early March, we're already getting amazing weather here in Berkeley. I love to spend the afternoon out on the back porch, laid out on a lounge chair, my Jambox providing the tunes while I read or do homework. Today, I was out there studying for exams and decided to grab a glass of cranberry juice to cool off a bit. As I was heading back outside, the sun shot through my glass and lit it up in the most brilliant shade of red. It was hard to capture that in a photo, but I'm really pleased with how the color and the shadows came out.

[ 9 / 52 ]

Week Nine: California Sakura

About a week ago, trees all over Berkeley suddenly burst into bloom. I'm not sure if they are actually cherry blossoms (their red leaves make me think no), but they reminded me of sakura season in Japan. I always loved sitting with friends, eating and drinking away a weekend afternoon under the trees. I hope they are in bloom over there too when I visit in a few weeks...

Back in the Game

やりなおす (yarinaosu) - To do over or try again

I'd made it a goal in 2012 to complete the 52 Weeks Project - posting one picture every week for a year. I had made it about a third of the way through and was making some of the most interesting pictures I have ever taken. And then my computer died.

With just a few months left before I was set to move back to the US, buying a new computer with a Japanese OS (or paying a ton to get an English one) didn't make sense, so I got by borrowing my girlfriend's under-powered Sony netbook. Unfortunately, it didn't have anywhere near the horsepower to run Lightroom and its tiny screen meant checking the quality of my images was nearly impossible. Unable to process my RAW files, I was forced to abandon the project.

Over eight months later, I decided to have another go at it. I spent most of January travelling and it took me into February to share those stories, but I've finally cleared enough time to start posting my weekly photos to this blog. So far, I'm pretty pleased with the shots I've taken (even if some of them were done at the last minute on Sunday night) and have started taking my camera out with me more often in search of cool images.

This post is meant to share my shots from the first two months, and hopefully I'll be posting new ones on a weekly basis from here on out. I am really excited to see where the project takes me and my photography.

Week One: Looming  

Week Two: After-Dinner Thoughts

   

Week Three: Blue Sky, Blue Water, Blue Suit  

Week Four: Rubix Cube Domination  

Week Five: What Color is Your Hair?  

Week Six: For Whom the Bell Tolls  

Week Seven: Yukata Blues  

Week Eight: Noodle Soup for the Soul

Consumption

気付く (kizuku) - To notice

I have an eating problem.

The truth is, I don't need to eat very much to get by. Most days I just eat a very small breakfast and a relatively light dinner. I've been skipping lunch ever since moving back from Japan to this world of enormous servings. Some days I don't eat anything until 8 or 9pm, if at all - it's easy for me to just forget meals. This isn't an eating disorder - I don't eat this little because I think I'm fat (though I do love being skinny) - it's just that this is the amount of food my body craves on its own.

The reason I'm writing about this is that my lifestyle has become unsustainable. Over the past six months or so, I've honestly felt like I've been getting dumber. I wasn't as sharp, it took longer for concepts to stick, and it felt like my brain just seemed to work slower than usual. At first I simply wrote it off as not being used to being back in school again but, rather than improve, it got worse with time. It wasn't terrible during the fall term, but I finally hit a breaking point this semester.

On top of feeling mentally dull, I started to find myself often just generally lacking energy. There were even a few days where I would get really lightheaded later in the day. In hindsight, that shouldn't have been a surprise. I've been going to the gym three or four times a week recently and, according to my wonderful Jawbone Up, burning something close to 2,500-3,000 calories a day on average. In contrast, my normal diet is probably closer to 1,500 calories a day tops, so you can see how there would be problems.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to up my food intake in a reasonable way. Lots of fruits and vegetables, bigger breakfasts, snacking on almonds, walnuts and baby carrots in the afternoon, making sure to always have rice with dinner. So far I've been feeling better, but it's not easy. Even today, I've nibbled on food all day without ever eating a proper meal. I think at this point it's just a matter of keeping it front of mind and working to turni it into a habit, so all I can do is stick with it and hope for the best. Hopefully I can get myself up and running properly and bring back my A game again!

CA Trek 2013 - Manuel Antonio

After two weeks of constant traveling, sleeping in hostels and riding in vans for nearly the entire length of Central America, we were all ready to treat ourselves to a few days of luxury. Enter Manuel Antonio.

Getting there wasn't easy. The Nicaragua - Costa Rica border I has for to be the most poorly conceived border crossing in the world. In fact, if you asked me to design the worst international border in the world, I probably still wouldn't come up with something as bad as this. After three hours of maneuvering our way through that mess, we were finally in Costa Rica and rented a car to take us the rest of the way to Manuel Antonio, six hours south on the pacific coast.

What awaited us there, however, made it well worth the hassle.

We spent the remainder of our trip in the most magnificent house, built on the side of a hill overlooking the Pacific. The house itself was expansive and gorgeous, but the best parts were the spaces on the edges.

The first floor opened up into a triangular infinity pool, where I spent the vast majority of the time. On one side, there were swinging chairs and chaise lounges to lie around in. On another, bar stools inside the pool, in front of a grill where we often ate dinner. And on the final side, an endless view of blue skies and ocean as far as the eye could see.

The house also had a third-floor lookout with a thatched roof and two big hammocks. As awesome as the view from the pool was, the view here was even better. We didn't have the greatest luck with sunsets during our stay, but there weren't many better places to watch them from than those hammocks.

For four straight days, we did little more than lounge around the house, soaking up rays by day and partying at night. We bought groceries and cooked delicious meals. We drank bottle upon bottle of rum. We sang, we danced, we loved life.

After two weeks on the road with packed schedules and tiny hostel rooms, this was the perfect way to end our trip. It's hard to find the words to capture the simple pleasure of the carefree time we spent in that house. I could have stayed there for weeks and was really bummed when the time came to leave.

Our three weeks in Central America were an amazing time and we all became much closer for the experience. There are people I had barely spoken to before the trip that I now count as friends. Together, we explored new countries, had glorious adventures, and shared unforgettable experiences. I'm so grateful to all the wonderful people who helped make it all that it was. The trip will go down as one of the most memorable I have taken.