I missed a few weeks of checkin posts, so I’m doing one big one to catch up! It’s been a busy month, full of so many highs and lows.
Recent Locations#
- Location 1: Eastern Oregon
- Highlight: We visited Hart Mountain, Steens Mountains Wilderness, and the Alvord Desert for a long weekend of camping with Grace Ann and Sascha. We had a great time exploring and catching a lot of beautiful fish. Read more about the trip’s big surprise here!
- Location 2: Portland, OR
- Highlight: We went up to the big city for college roommate Alex’s wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and party! Added bonus was catching up with other old college friends Paul, Ben, and Meredith.
- Location 3: Bend, OR
- Highlight: Haleigh’s childhood friend Cambria was visiting us for like a week in June, so we took an overnight trip to Bend to catch some music and show off a bit more of Oregon to our visitor. We watched the band Surfhat lay down some killer rock music to a very enthusiastic crowd, I’ve never seen so many crowdsurfers in a single show. We stayed in a funny little hostel, it was cool but i hope i never have to pay that much to share a room with 3 other people again.
- Location 4: Salem, OR
- Highlight: My A-priority race this year was the Ironman Oregon 70.3, a half ironman distance triathlon in Salem. This race is known for being fast thanks to its downriver swim and very flat bike and run courses. I went into the race with an ambitious goal time of sub-5 hours, and thankfully I just pulled it off, finishing in 4:57. I’ll be doing a more in depth race report in the next few days!
- Location 5: Agness, OR
- Highlight: I’ve written about Agness before, my favorite little Oregon river town. I had to head out there for a night a couple weeks ago and had such a great time chatting with the locals and eating yummy BBQ at Cougar Lane Lodge and being by the rivers. I spent a few hours exploring a little creek just outside town, and I think it is my new favorite waterway: lots of fun fish, great swimming holes at perfect temps, and miles of remote creek to explore. I will definitely be bringing friends back to Agness on a weekend this summer.
- Location 6: Denver, CO
- Highlight: I flew out to the Mile High city to help instruct a class for work. I’ve never really spent time in Denver proper, just driven through in my younger years, on my way to or from the West. The class was alright, but the real highlights were the evenings after class. I hit a couple of awesome creeks and caught a really nice brown trout, went to a Rockies game, and caught a lot of World Cup action at little dive bars. Would definitely go back!
Some Cool Pictures I Took#
Work This Month#
- Helped instruct the Surface Water Records class in Denver. The other instructors were great techs and they are all doing such cool stuff. Besides learning more about records myself, I learned about Salt Dilution discharge measurement methods, more camera tricks, and AutoSA which is a way to improve our records working process.
- Vibe-coded a Camera Component Selection Tool. It works by first defining the site characteristics, and then it outputs exactly what you need to install a new camera system there.
- Made progress on routine field work and maintenance projects. Having all these new sites means its taking several years to dial in all the installs and harden them for long term deployment. Fixing lots of broken pipes, installing better sensors, making sure nothing is moving around, etc.
Personal Projects This Month#
- Current Focus: General Improvement of Self-Hosted Stack
- Progress: I am trying to go back through my containers, structures, backup routines, etc. to make sure everything is secure and robust. I have been busy with all kinds of non-computer stuff lately so I haven’t taken on any new projects in awhile.
- Next Steps: Install Immich. Been a goal for a long time to get my pictures off of Google.
The Month in Training#
- Training Phase: Taper, Race, and Rest
- Key Workout: In the last month I prepared for and then completed my main race of the season. I signed up for Ironman Oregon 70.3 back in Nov. 2025 so this has been a long time coming. I ended up doing even better than I was expecting, finishing in 4:57. I’ll be writing a full race report, come back later to check it out!
- Feelings: I am proud of myself and suprised in myself that I was able to break the 5-hour threshold for the 70.3 distance. However, it’s a complicated feeling because the success was motivated by grief I was feeling during the race over the illness and passing of a dear friend. I was pushing myself so hard because I felt inspired by the strength, pain, and sadness I was feeling for losing a friend and his family losing a father and husband. When I crossed the finish line I couldn’t do anything but bust into tears. So yeah… complicated feelings.
Media This Month#
- Song / Podcast of the Week: Paper Trail by ProPublica
- Always love an investigative journalist-run podcast. This one is produced by Propublica and exposes institutional wrongdoings.
- Current Reading: Sad to say that I have not been doing much reading lately… have listened to a couple of audiobooks though about my usual topic of crimes and history in technology.
- Quick Thought: Been feeling like I want to pick up a good fiction book, got any recommendations?
A Cool Website I Visited This Month#
- Cool Site: openalternative.co
- Why it’s worth a click: There’s no need to get trapped in proprietary platforms that will abuse its users! Use open source alternatives!
Rose And Thorn:#
🟢 The Best Thing#
It has been a very busy start to the summer, full of all kinds of rewarding activities. The best part has been traveling around making memories with old and new friends.
🔴 The Worst Thing#
It has been challenging facing the sudden loss of a close family friend. Luckily, I have Haleigh and family to support me.
End of Log.