2015 report card and 2016 resolutions

In 2015, I resolved to:

1.) Stop working so much.

I think I did okay in this area. I still put in many hours and got ridiculously stressed by work at times. But looking back, I think the bigger intent of the resolution was to not let my job take over my life and to start looking for meaning and goals outside of my career. This year I certainly took some strides in that direction, mainly through the move to Denver, which was entirely a lifestyle-driven decision and one that involved me resigning from ThoughtWorks at one point - luckily, we were able to work things out and I'm still with the company (and very happy to still be a ThoughtWorker). In 2015 I also took on new types of challenging work both for my clients and internally within the company, so I feel good about that and I want to continue pushing myself out of my comfort zone. B.

2.) Find and promote females who are doing awesome things, including reading 8 books by female authors this year.

I read 6 books authored by women last year. They were:

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling's pen name)
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

Reflecting back, choosing to read books written by women seemed like a good idea in theory but was a strange and to some degree, uncomfortable resolution in practice. I felt more restricted by it than like I was learning or hearing more about women. I think that a better way to go about this is to pick some genres and to read books about women or women's issues, of which only Lean In and The Invention of Wings focused on (and to some degree, Mindy Kaling's book). I suspect most of those would be authored by women as well, and would yield more meaningful results.

In terms of supporting women elsewhere, in 2015 I joined an organization called Chicago Books to Women in Prison where I volunteered a few times a month on weekends. As the name describes, the group sends used or donated books to incarcerated women. I encountered upon the organization after reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and finding myself desperately wanting to do something to help out those who are incarcerated. I had a wonderful time volunteering with CBWP and organized a book drive in our ThoughtWorks Chicago office. I miss the group of volunteers there - I need to find something like that to get involved in here in Denver! See this year's resolutions. B.

3.) Run a marathon.

I did this! And without injury or being completely turned off from running (though I did take a nice two-month break from running afterwards). A+.

In 2016, I resolve to:

Read and write more. In 2015 I read and blogged less than I ever have before, especially in the latter half of the year. I grew to view both activities as chores rather than hobbies. Much easier to turn on Netflix and veg out to an episode of Dexter. I also feel like as I am growing older, the range of what I blog about is very much narrowing into just the realm of accomplishments and vacations - I used to blog more about recipes, movies and books, restaurants, or just whatever the hell was on my mind. I miss the pleasure of reading for fun and writing or showcasing goofy things in this blog. I resolve to read 12 books this year and to blog at least 3 times a month in 2016.

Make friends & get involved in the Denver area. Okay, let me just say that making friends in your late 20's is weird and difficult. Without some consistent activity or classes to bring you together, it can be really hard to summon the time and energy to form a meaningful relationship with someone you barely know. While we have gotten plenty of social interaction from friends coming in town, I don't want to rely on out-of-state friends as an excuse not to make new ones here in Denver. This year, I definitely want to get more plugged in to my new home town - joining a run club, or finding another volunteer position, or even making myself a regular at the neighborhood bar - and to make some local connections.

Just two resolutions this time, and approximately a million others floating around in my head that I'd probably like to get done but don't necessarily want to commit to. 2015 was an awesome year for me and I think 2016 will be even better. Life is good!

The Land of Ice and Fire (but mostly just ice) - part III

Day two of our vacation brought us to the Westman Islands, an archipelago off the southwest coast that is home to a little over 4,000 residents.

Iceland is roughly the size of Ohio. Ohio has 12m inhabitants. Iceland, 320K.

While waiting for our ferry, we explored one of Iceland's famous black sand beaches.

Flappy Derek

The classic Captain Jack Sparrow pose

On the ferry ride we caught a glimpse of the house on Elliðaey island, which is also sometimes referred to as the loneliest house in the world. We actually had no idea that the island was part of the Westman archipelago so it was a real neat, hey-would-you-look-at-that, just-look-at-it moments.

As the ferry pulled in closer to the main island, Heimaey, the views got better and better. It felt like Scotland and Mars made an island baby and plopped it in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

First order of business: find one of them famous hotdogs that people here are so nuts about.

The verdict: very good. They add lamb meat for extra yumminess and the topping choices include two kinds of mustard, ketchup, and two kinds of onion - raw and crispy. All of it was delicious and terribly convenient. And at $5 apiece, inexpensive by Icelandic standards. 10/10 would scarf down again.

Bellies full, we turned our attention to learning more about the Westman islands, which came to international attention in 1973 when one of its volcanos, Eldfell, erupted without much warning. (Sidebar: Eldfell means "Mountain of Fire" in Icelandic. That's like naming a waterfall "Water falling down a ledge") Everyone on the island had to be evacuated to the mainland and much of the town was destroyed following the eruption. According to Wikipedia, the lava flow from the eruption was threatening to destroy the island's harbour, which provided the island's main source of income as a fishing hub. So the Icelandic pumped 6.8 billion gallons of sea water to cool down the lava and slow its path of destruction.

We rented bikes and checked out some of the houses that were destroyed by the eruption and preserved in their original state. It sounded like a cool idea in theory but it was actually rather depressing to see these ruined homes and to imagine what they would have been like before the eruption.

After that we biked toward the coast of the island to see some puffins. Heimaey was a joy to bike around on - the roads were well paved, there were very few cars, and there were enough hills to keep things interesting (and my back sweaty).

One of my favorite areas where we stopped was at Herjolf's Valley, where we explored a replica of an old Icelandic home.

Hobbitses

The inside reminded me of Crastor's Keep from GoT

We reached the coast just a few short minutes later (the island of Heimaey is only around 5 square miles), admired the view and scanned the skies for puffins.

We ended our day on the islands with a good old hike up the valley. There was no trailhead or anything, just a small, steep meandering pathway that led us to increasingly breathtaking views of the island. Ad-hoc hikes with zero expectations are always the best.

Ravenous, we returned the bikes and headed to downtown (a little strip of restaurants and stores) for a meal. We found a cafe that was absolutely excellent. I didn't take pictures of my chicken burger because I was too preoccupied with consuming it as fast as humanly possible. Then we boarded our return ferry where I think all of us fell asleep in about five minutes' time.

Our evening began with a journey to yet another epic waterfall. Along the way, we passed by many smaller waterfalls. They were inferior only in comparison to the huge and incredible ones elsewhere in this country; I would have stopped for and taken a zillion pictures of the smallest ones if we were anywhere else in the world.

Skogafoss - flawless.

I woke up like this

Too good not to share

We ended the evening with a visit to an unmarked natural hot spring which required quite the trek to get to. It was dark and absolutely freezing by the time we found it. Slipping into the warm water felt amazing and we had it pretty much all to ourselves. We stayed for an hour or so, admiring the stars above and taking turns sitting on the "throne" where the hottest water was gushing from. I don't have any pictures from the experience but it was one of the best things we did in Iceland, and a stellar way to finish an amazing day in this otherworldly place.

The Land of Ice and Fire (but mostly just ice) - part II

The next stop of our Golden Circle tour took us to the origin of the world geyser, where we visited the first one ever described in a printed source.

The OG

Geysir's eruptions are more or less nonexistent these days, but we did see others that were happy to perform, some as frequently as every few minutes.

Waiting to capture the precise moment of the eruption

Mother Nature saying hi...explosively

The fellas, starting to scheme up something silly.

After we got enough of the geysers, we turned to other forms of entertainment.

Wise gey(ser)

Deeply appreciating the beauty and conservation of the site

Life imitating art

We were starting to lose the day's light, and we definitely didn't want to see the next part in the dark, plus we were kinda parked illegally - so we sped off in our camper to our next and final stop of the day, Gulfoss waterfall ("Golden Falls").

Gorgeous Gulfoss

See those three people running below with the camera? Yeah... one of them ended up taking off all his clothes and rolling around in the grass.

Draw me like one of your French girls

A ballsy move

I wasn't sure if it was for art, or for a prank. In any case, I was impressed - if you're gonna pose for a naked picture, might as well do it in front of an incredible Icelandic waterfall.

Gulfoss waterfall #iceland #goldencircle #travels

A video posted by @adidav9 on Sep 13, 2015 at 2:56am PDT

Throughout its history, the ownership of Gulfoss waterfall changed hands several times; at one point it was even rented to foreign investors who were hoping to harness its power to generate electricity. We read about Sigríður Tómasdóttir, the daughter of one of the original owners who lobbied very hard to preserve the waterfall from becoming a commodity. Today, Gulfoss belongs to the country of Iceland and is a protected site. 

Gulfoss kind of looks like California

It was a very liberating experience to be able to walk up to this waterfall and admire it without tons of other tourists around, or waiting in long lines, or having to pay, or being told to stand a certain distance away from the edge. I feel like I admired the same raw waterfall that an Icelandic person did hundreds of years ago. No tacky light show involved, either.

All in all, it was a very good start to the trip, but we were definitely in need of a recharge, some more than others.

We found a restaurant in a nearby town for dinner (hamburger and fries - a very common menu item. Approximately $30, ouch), then a campsite, and then caught up on some much-needed shut-eye.