Moving Home

After three years of wandering in the desert(s), I'm coming home to the Pacific Northwest! I'll be leaving Midland in just three weeks, on December 10th. 

On January 3rd, 2012, I'll begin work on a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington.

Over the past several weeks, I've been using Craigslist, Good Will and Best Buy's Electronics Recycling Center (which is a really great program - try it!) to pare down my possessions to the point that everything I own in Texas can fit in my Honda Civic for the drive North-west. It's been surprisingly challenging, given I moved down here with a suitcase and a backpack, but I'm almost there.

The actual route I take will depend on the weather forecast and my personal whims of the moment, so the trip could take anywhere from 2-4 days, depending. I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends and family in the Northwest!

Big Bend: Third Time's the Charm

The weather finally cooled off a bit, so I took the opportunity to drive down to Big Bend National Park for my third visit. Packed up the night before, then left straight from work on Friday. Got to the Chisos Basin campground with enough time to set up, eat dinner and relax a little. Last time I was at Chisos Basin, everyone had hammocks. This time I brought my own.

That night I slept for eleven hours.

Saturday I drove around the park and did a bunch of short hikes. The stand-out feature was Santa Elena Canyon:

I spent the afternoon reading in the hammock, surrounded by mountains. Very relaxing.

Sunday I did the Window Trail hike. It's a nice hike down a dry stream bed that cut a "window" into a cliff.

As usual, more pictures here.

Road Trip to Arches

After working a 10-day shift, I took off for a four-day weekend to meet my parents at Arches National Park. They were on the southernmost point of a two week trip, but it still took fourteen hours of driving to get to the rendezvous point. I had never been to Arches before, but I've wanted to go for awhile. The rock formations were worth the drive.

We also saw a big-horned sheep, which apparently is a pretty rare treat:

All told, I drove 1660 miles, getting 38 miles per gallon in my little Honda Civic.

View Arches Road Trip in a larger map

More pictures in my Picasa gallery:

Photo Map

So this is how I spend my Friday nights. After playing with Google Fusion Tables for a bit, I got pretty excited about mapping my photos. Fusion Tables is definitely a beta product, but it's fantastic at turning a table or a Google Earth file into a nice map.

View Larger Map

If you click on a pinpoint, the corresponding photo will pop up.

I've been working on my digital photos for quite a while now, categorizing, getting rid of duplicates and bad shots, and geo-tagging my old photos, and making sure to keep up on that kind of thing with all my new photos. Last night I uploaded a bunch of photos from my college and high school years. You can check out the galleries here. I'm still missing my big European summer of 2006. Cleaning up those photos is an on-going project. I started with close to 2000 photos (almost 200 of which were of the Eiffel Tower) taken by six different people. Getting rid of junk photos (I have sooo many blurry photos of stained-glass windows), sorting them chronologically (nobody had the date/time on their cameras set accurately in 2006) and accurately geo-tagging everything has been quite the chore.

My sister has been working on digitally scanning the negatives of my mom's old photos, so hopefully I'll eventually be able to add photos of the vacation to Hawaii and the two-month RV trip around the contiguous United States.

Oh, and just for the heck of it, here's the Photo Map and the Google Latitude Map overlaid on each other:

View Larger Map

The Last Twelve Months

I've been tracking myself (or more accurately: my phone) with Google Latitude for a little over a year now. During that time I've been in (or at least passed through) six countries on four continents, traveling some 76,000 miles. Not bad. Here are the actual data points for August 2010 through August 2011 mapped out:

View Larger Map

Now I wish I had figured out this geo-tracking thing earlier. When I have spare time, I'll try to import previous years based on geo-tagged photos.

One Country, Many Nations?

I read a post by Tobias Buckell this morning that got me thinking. It seems that when ever I get into a conversation with someone who is not from the USA, I run into the perception that the United States is a single homogeneous entity (and unfortunately, that perception is largely shaped by "Friends" and "The Simpsons"). It's difficult to fully convey how diverse my country really is: that the West Coast is not like the East Coast, that opinions can vary greatly between urban and rural areas, and that sometimes people who grew up in the same country speaking the same language can barely understand each other (I had a fun time listening to a guy from Boston try to talk with a guy from Louisiana a few years ago).

"Pop", "Soda", and "Coke" by county.

In a lot of ways, the US can be thought of as an empire made up of many different countries, unified by a common currency, over-arching federal laws, and television. Common currency allows easy trade between regions, federal laws work to promote equality throughout the country, and television enables cross-cultural pollination and keeps American English from fracturing into a dozen dialects. I'm sure this concept has been around for a long time. It was first clearly stated to me in Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. And after living in Washington State, Michigan, and Texas, the "one country, many nations" idea rings true. Climate, architecture, accent, industry and fashion all showed significant differences between those three locations. I found this image of emerging "mega-regions" from the America 2050 site particularly interesting:

I really like the term "Cascadia" for the Pacific Northwest.

Tobias Buckell has a few more charts on his blog that are worth a look.

So this has all been interesting to think about, but are there any conclusions that can be drawn from this line of thought? Off the top of my head:

• Television is important to the health of our identity as a single country.
• High-Speed Rail proposals have a pretty close correlation to these mega-regions
• In-country tourism should be strongly encouraged so Americans can really understand all that it means to be an "American".

Any other thoughts or ideas? Sound off in the comments!

A Week in Italy

Check out the photo gallery!

Introducing Washington to Brianna (and Vice Versa)

I made it back home during the first week of May, and I took Brianna with me. We did quite a bit, including a family dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the Space Needle, touring Boeing, and driving around Washington State.

Honestly, I've missed seeing clouds in the sky.

The first Saturday, Brianna and I toured around Everett, including a visit to the opening of the Shack Art Center. Sunday we attended the church I grew up in, and all the relatives and family friends wanted to meet Brianna. Later, Dad took Brianna up for a flight in his airplane, so she got to see the mountains, ocean and islands from the air. During the week we visited Boeing and went on the tour. I really enjoyed seeing the "assembly lines" for the massive planes. We also drove up north to Whidbey Island via the Deception Pass bridge on a beautiful day.

On Thursday, we took the train down to Seattle and visited Pike Place Market and the International District. We even got to see some fish being thrown at the fish market!

Friday we went on a drive to Leavenworth, crossing Steven's Pass to Eastern Washington and stopping twice for walks along the river, both of which were new to me.

Saturday was one of my favorites: We met up with my good friends Max and Jess and went to a Star Wars exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. We were all nerds enough to really enjoy it, and I particularly geeked out. In the evening we had a family dinner with Grandma, followed by a dessert where several of my aunts and uncles came over to visit.

On Sunday, we visited a new church my parents have been attending recently before having Mother's Day brunch and leaving for the airport. The entire visit was a lot of fun, and Brianna had a really good introduction to Washington State. I'm looking forward to my next visit!

There are a lot more photos with comments on my Picasa page. And, for a better idea of all the touring we did, you can check out the photos laid out on a map.

A Wedding in California

I flew out to California to go camping and attend a wedding at the same time.

The wedding was pretty unique - it took place at the Selby Campground on Carrizo Plain about an hour west of Bakersfield.

We camped out the day before and the day of the wedding, and both the ceremony and the reception were held outside. And if that weren't unusual enough, here's a shot of what they served for dinner:

Yep, they slaughtered, cleaned and cooked their own main course. Crazy. But pretty cool at the same time.

Before leaving California, we stopped at an ice cream parlour as a large group and had some fun:

The bride and groom were getting married, changing jobs and moving all at the same time. As a result, their cars and possessions needed to be moved from California to Colorado while they were on their honeymoon. I wound up helping to drive one of the vehicles over the 18-hour journey. One of the options for Google Latitude is the "history" function. This map shows where I was during the course of this trip:

View Larger Map

By the time we got in to Colorado, we all pretty much crashed. And the next day, I flew back to Midland. Next trip - Washington State!

As usual, more pictures are on my Picasa page.

Road trip back to Midland

Once my course in Houston finished, it was time to drive back to Midland. Brianna flew down to Houston and joined me for the trip, on the first weekend of March.

On the last day of my course, Friday, the "Check Engine" light in my car lit up. So instead of heading out Saturday morning, the car spent a large part of Saturday in the garage to get the timing belt and water pump replaced, while Brianna and I visited the Galleria Mall and watched "The Adjustment Bureau." In the late afternoon, the car was ready, and we drove to San Antonio, about halfway to Midland.

Sunday we visited the Alamo and the San Antonio River Walk. There was a Re-enactment going on that weekend, so there were a lot of people walking around in period costume, which was pretty interesting.

After touring San Antonio a little bit, we continued on to Midland, and Brianna got to meet my roommate and check out my apartment. (She thought the decorations were very "corporate apartment").

On Monday we went to Carlsbad Caverns, which I think is the most impressive feature within 500 miles of Midland. This was my third visit to the Caverns, and it was a lot of fun to see Brianna experiencing and reacting to the incredible rock formations.

And Tuesday morning I brought Brianna to the Midland airport, where we had to say good-bye, until the next visit!


As usual, there are a few more pictures here.

Valentine's

I didn't have classes this weekend (thankfully) so I was able to fly up to Colorado for a 31-hour visit to celebrate Valentine's day early with Brianna. We had a "fancy date" - dressed to the nines, dinner at a nice restaurant followed by the symphony.

(I had a really great time)

Production Technology and Solutions

I am in Houston for the next four weeks for my third technical course with Schlumberger: "Production Technology and Solutions." Per the course description: 

The Production Technology School is designed to give petroleum engineers a very strong introduction to the Schlumberger Production Optimization workflows and software applications required to successfully identify enhancement opportunities and determine the optimal solution, from a client point of view, to enhance under-performing wells, taking risk and economics into account. The course does not detail all aspects of production technology but rather provides very practical bases in the key areas of candidate recognition and single well performance analysis and optimization. It is the intention, that for detailed design of solutions (detailed frac design and pumping sequences for instance), the production engineer will work with the appropriate segments’ engineers, or will attend further detailed advanced training or Cross-training.

The drive over from Midland was pretty smooth. Eight hours of actual driving time. Gotta love the 80 mph speed limit in most of West Texas. I'm staying at the Doubletree, about a mile away from the Schlumberger office. It's definitely a nice hotel suite, with a kitchen, sitting area and bedroom, but I suspect I'll be tired of it after four weeks.

Vail, Colorado

I took a four-day weekend and met up with some friends to go skiing in Vail, Colorado. I had a great time re-uniting with my college friends Charlie and Brianna, and getting to know Brianna's cousin Nancy. We rendezvoused at Brianna's place and drove up to Vail on Thursday afternoon, where we had rented the bottom floor of a "Bavarian Chalet" - it was a very nice place, and I'd definitely like to go there again.

Vail was absolutely gorgeous, even if the second day had low visibility. The runs were extremely long, so we only took a couple trips on the ski lifts each day. We definitely all had a good time.

I went on a short black diamond run during my last trip down the mountain. I took quite a few tumbles, but hey: I made it!

That's me in the circle.

During the drive back we had a small accident - fishtailed on some black ice, and hit the center concrete barrier at low speed. No one was hurt, and we quickly had the car back in drive-able condition. However, further down the road we smelled burning oil. We pulled off at a gas station and called a tow truck - finally got back to Brianna's place after 2 in the morning.

Even with the accident on the drive back it was a terrific trip, and it was difficult to leave and head back to Midland.

There are a few more photos on my Picasa page.

Christmas and New Year's

The holidays were fantastic, if only because I got out of Texas for a while and left my company laptop behind (on purpose - accidentally leaving it behind would have been bad).

I spent nearly two weeks with my parents up near Seattle, Washington. Having actual scenery again was amazing.

I spent a lot of time relaxing and reconnecting with family and friends. Mostly I just took it easy, including a re-read of "Towers of Midnight", going for a long drive with Mom and Dad, and learning how to ski. Dad and I even went up to visit a Petroleum Refinery near Birch Bay, Washington. We got a very personal tour, and learned a few things. The size of the plant and the production volume were impressive. Even more impressive was how even "waste" products were turned into salable goods. 

Celebrating Christmas was as much fun as always. This year was a little unusual, as Michelle and Simeon flew out to spend Christmas with Simeon's family. Because of this, we exchanged presents earlier in the week and kept the two of them in our thoughts.

Celebrating with the extended Medema family on Christmas Eve at Grandma's is always fantastic. It's great to reconnect with cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandma. That's especially true for me and the others who live out-of-state. Definitely one of my favorite times of the year.

Update: Thanks for the picture Karla!

On Christmas Day, Dad, Mom and I had our traditional breakfast of homemade crêpes (Michelle and Simeon missed out) and then went for a long drive. The primary goal was to visit Snoqualmie Falls but it turned into an extended tour of the area. It was great to see so much green in such a small amount of time. In the evening we had Grandma, Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy over for dinner. It turned out to be a really nice day.

Note Dad's newly clean-shaven face. Mom and I completely missed it.

On the 30th, Dad, Mom and I drove down to visit Mom's side of the family. Michelle and Simeon met us there on their return flight. It was another very enjoyable day of reconnecting with family with lots of good food, talk and laughter.

On the morning of the 31st, I left Washington and flew down to visit the Bultema family in Colorado. Once again they were very generous hosts and I had a great time with the whole family. While there I went skiing at Monarch Mountain with Brianna and her dad. I had taken a couple lessons at Stevens Pass in Washington, so I was able to do passably well on some blue slopes. It was bitter cold up on the mountain, though. The car thermometer read 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and a lift operator told us it was -13 at the top of the mountain.

As usual, there are more photos and additional comments on my Picasa page.

Kinda cool - Here's the photos from this trip in Google Maps:

View Christmas 2010 in a larger map

Colorado Springs

I was in Colorado again this week. However, this time I actually made it outside the Denver Airport.

It was fantastic to see some actual mountains again. Actually, seeing something besides flat brown plains was fantastic all by itself. The mountains really were gorgeous, though.

The Bultema family was gracious enough to host me while I was in Colorado. Their daughter Brianna and I attended Calvin College together in the Engineering Program.

Part of the extended Bultema family.

Colorado Springs is a very athletic city, which was very impressive considering how thin the air was. I was rather glad I had "forgotten" my running shoes when I packed. However, I did get out for several walks, a couple of yoga sessions, and ice skating:

Didn't fall down once!

The Bultemas have three adopted Chinese daughters, who are all sharp and a lot of fun. Here's the youngest daughter, Sophia, "playing" the cornucopia:

Oh, and one more thing: the Bultemas have a lot of pets. By my count there were four dogs, a cat and a turtle. Amazingly, I didn't take any allergy drugs and didn't sneeze once. I'm not sure what happened to my allergies, but this bodes well for putting up with my sister's new cat when I'm home for Christmas!