About
Blog Mission
I started this blog for many reasons, the foremost being that I had surgery for a patellar tendon rupture and was thus no longer wasting my free time with exercise and fresh air. After spending my first day post-surgery setting an unbeatable high score on cookie clicker, I realized I may need something else to do with the remaining 8 months and 29 days of recovery…
So, welcome to my vanity project. Let’s pass the time. Some secondary goals of the blog are to…
- Introduce people to interesting math/logic puzzles.
- Learn python.
- Improve my writing.
- Learn how to build a website.
- Create a digital footprint of work that I’m proud of.
- Solutions to interesting problems I encounter in daily life.
- Math puzzles sourced from colleagues, books, websites, etc…
- Video attempts of logic puzzles.
- Occasional life event updates.
About me
I love the outdoors and enjoy running, hiking, (not biking), rafting, ski mountaineering, and being in sailboats (I don’t know how to sail, but I enjoy being in boats with people who do). I’ve worked leading backpacking trips in the White Mountains, spent 25 nights rowing through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado river, and have climbed up (successfully) and skied down (unsuccessfully) Mt. Shasta.
I read sporadically and rely heavily on audible to keep my annual book count at a respectable level. I enjoy fiction as well as fantasy/sci-fi, and some recent favorites of mine are The Dark Forest (sequel to the equally good The Three Body Problem), Demon Copperhead (I like almost everything by Barbara Kingsolver) and the Lies of Locke Lamora (I’m convinced this book is the most fun you can have while reading). Checkout my goodreads for more recs!
I play soccer, tennis, and ultimate frisbee, although a couple of knee injuries (the first being the aforementioned ski down Mt. Shasta) have kept me from lateral movement sports for the past 2 years. I also enjoy watching sports, but prefer hockey, football, or basketball if I’m spectating. I don’t gamble on sports but I’ve been told “I’m the type that would.”
In my spare time I enjoy cards, board games, and logic puzzles. My favorites, in no particular order, are backgammon, bridge, Catan, chess, Dominion, Magic the Gathering (limited, not constructed), Wingspan, variant sudoku (shoutout Cracking the Cryptic), and crossword puzzles.
I currently teach Mathematics at The Branson School, a high school located in Ross California. Before pivoting into teaching, I worked as a data scientist for Wealthfront, a fintech company based in Palo Alto. It’s probably not up to date, but here’s my linkedIn.