Miscellaneous interests and hobbies

Photography

Here and there, pictures I've taken are on the site. I'm currently shooting with a Nikon D7000 (or possibly just an iPhone XS). The book Understanding Exposure has been very helpful for me, though my abilities are still quite rudimentary and my attempts involve lots of cussing.

History

I love military history from most eras (particularly GWOT, Victorian, medieval, and ancient). I am fascinated by strategy, by leadership, by bravery, by training, and everything else that goes into warfare. I get a kick out of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast, and I am usually in the middle of some book of military (or military-tinged) history.

Fitness

One of the primary hobbies that I use to keep myself grounded is pursuing physical fitness. Prior to starting at UCD, I had been climbing, lifting, and hiking multiple times/week each. I mostly stopped during my first quarter at UCD, and could feel my body getting frail and out of shape. I decided that I would not allow that to happen again---that I would treat fitness as a "non-negotiable" for myself. I've experimented with a lot of lifting programs (Greyskull LP, 5/3/1, Starting Strength) and some bodyweight work (Gymnastics Bodies). Currently, I do the Military Athlete programming from Mountain Tactical, which focuses on preparing "tactical athletes" for the battlefield. It's a good mix of different training modalities.

The outdoors

My wife, Charis, and I started dating in part through a mutual love of the outdoors. We hike whenever we can, and going for a long hike through beautiful scenery is one of my very favorite things in this world. When I can, I enjoy climbing at rock gyms, though I am not much of an outdoor climber. Almost anything that takes me outdoors is interesting to me.

Languages

I am currently working on (re-)learning Mandarin. My highest score on the DLPT-IV was a 2+/3, with a 2 on the OPI. I have loved the language since high school and I am gradually banging the rust off and getting better at it. I would love to hear from anyone else working on learning Mandarin when it comes to listening resources, good reading practice, and so forth. What I have been up to: I used Rosetta Stone 1-5 as a comprehensive review of material I learned in 2003-2004, and I am using the RS audio companion CD for listening practice, after which I'll go back to my old DLI listening CDs. For reading, I like the Mandarin Companion series. My primary struggle right now is figuring out the bridge from Rosetta Stone to a level where I can pick up more Mandarin just by watching news reports and movies, listening to music, and reading books. In other words, I want to get to the point that I can improve Mandarin through use rather than merely study.

I have ambitions around Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, Farsi, and Malayalam, but have so far done nothing of consequence to realize these goals. If you have suggestions for any of these, particularly Malayalam, I would love to hear them.

Computer science

In my spare time (whatever that means), I'm working on giving myself a stronger grounding in CS and AI. My focus has been coding in Python (and some C) while learning some fundamental programming theory using the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs book.