Quick takes in pictures

1. The Sun came out yesterday! It was glorious.

2. I took this beauty out for a photo adventure yesterday. I hope the photos come out well, it was a pleasure to shoot.

3. The cat enjoys it when we watch something on the TV.

4. My sister invited us out to the Coast last weekend. It was so lovely to be by the ocean and the weather was perfect!

5. I was playing around with the binoculars and my phone while at the Coast.

6. Coast vacation puzzle time.

7. One more Mimi picture. We are really enjoying having a furry buddy around again.

Washington DC

A few weeks ago, Matthew had to go to Goddard for work and I flew out to meet him at the end of his work week. It turns out I took A LOT of photos on that trip. Here is a selection.

DC at Night:




DC in Day




Botanical Garden



Sculpture Garden and Women's museum



Birdz.



Alexandria, VA

February Quick Takes

1. This Sunday, I'm purchasing all the equipment I need to process black and white film. There is a place locally with an attic full of photographic supplies that you can dig through. I'm going with a friend to check it out and pick up all the equipment I need. Shooting film lately has been really enjoyable and I'm excited to be more connected to the process.

2. Work is a bit stressful lately. Managing people is not my favourite thing to do and having to take people off projects is heart wrenching. I am re-evaluating the way I manage in hopes that I can curb problems in the future before they bloom into something major.

3. Tonight was my group's holiday party. Matthew came at the tail end and my boss took the time to tell him how great I am. It was a nice round about way for him to say that I am awesome because, dude, I am awesome at my job.

4. I started doing a one minute plank every night about a month ago. For the first couple of days, I couldn't do the full 60 seconds, but now I am able to make it through the minute without any problems. It is really satisfying to progress is something physical because I am not a super physical person.

5. On Thursday I woke up early and decided to do 45 minutes of yoga and 20 minutes of meditation. It made my stressful week so so much better. I was not as irritated by little things, I was happier in general, and everything felt so much easier. I took the time to do a 20 minute meditation on Friday and again my day was really great. I am going to try to get up at 6am so I have enough time to meditate before getting ready for work. It totally makes a difference in my day.

6. Speaking of meditation, a friend introduced me to Tara Brach. I added her podcast to my feed and I really enjoy the meditations. Her voice doesn't irritate me the way some other meditations do (Headspace, I'm looking at you). I also joined a group at work that meditates every Tuesday for an hour. I'm excited to meet with them next Tuesday.

7. I joined Instagram recently and I am really enjoying using it. It fulfills the Social Media aspect I desire without being overwhelming or fake. Please follow me! https://www.instagram.com/source.decay/

Learning Python

I like to casually peruse job openings just to make sure that I am learning all the skills I need to move to another job if needed. I'm not planning on leaving my job any time soon, I just like to keep myself marketable. A lot of other data analysis positions ask for knowledge of Python and R. I am getting some R experience at work doing statistical significance, but there isn't a lot of call for Python, so I thought I would actually sit down and really learn it after dabbling in it for a few years.

I looked through a couple of "Learn Python" websites before finding this Reddit post where the person was looking for exactly what I wanted. I dislike the websites where your code has to match the key EXACTLY and I would rather have the key just check my result against expected. I am working through the "missions" on Check.Io and am really enjoying it. I thought I would document my journey through learning Python on here mostly as a reference for me, but maybe it will be fun for other people as well.

One of the first tasks is to write a program to convert numeric values to Roman numerals. For my solution, I decided to create a dictionary that holds the numeric to numeral translation (1 = I, 5 = V, etc) and then set up a function that takes each place (one, ten, hundred, thousand) and converts it to Roman Numerals.

Good in the world

Indexed is one of my favourite webcomics. It is a daily drawing on an index card that can be sad, happy, poignant, witty, or all of the above.

Here are few that I loved.


Source

Source

Source

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In other news, we are moving offices and I am now going to be the cool kid with the corner cube. Two windows for me!

Picture Quick Takes

1. I am growing out my hair. Well, the hair on one side of my head. We have finally found a hair dresser we like! And now I can do fun projects like growing out my hair in an asymmetrical fashion. Next hair cutting time, I'm coloring my flippy bit blue!

2. This past week, Matthew and I celebrated 8 years of being together. Today we made our anniversary dinner and drank a stupid delicious bottle of wine to celebrate.

We made Japchae, Curry Tofu Cakes, vinegar dipping sauce, with rice and ate on top of our Grandma Trudy placemats. It was so so great.


3. As part of a team building exercise at work, we painted parts of murals that will go into our hospitals. I got to paint the turtle butt. My job doesn't normally entail painting, but it is still pretty awesome.

4. We bought a house last month on our 95/12 anniversary! We took a week off work to paint, clean, and do construction work. We moved (or rather paid movers to move our boxes) into our new place last weekend. We love it a ton.

5. As part of the move, we purged our old college notes and text books. Does anyone need a lot of physics texts? We tried to sell them at Powell's but they wouldn't take them.

6. For my birthday this year, my sister bought me Ferment Your Vegetables and we did a great job of using our vegetable garden at the rental to make some ferments. Sauerkraut! Fermented Tomatillo Salsa! Cucumber Pickles!

7. A few months ago, Matthew and I went to Rockaway Beach and got Prontopups. So, of course, I had to get a picture of Matthew riding the Prontopup...!

Saturday Quick Takes

1. We bought our tea plants today! As soon as we buy a house we will plant them in the ground, but for now we will watch them slowly grow in the pots.
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2. I volunteered through a woman volunteer Meetup Group to usher at the Northwest Children's Theatre anime reimagining of Snow White. The show was interesting and it was nice to meet and chat with some nice women.
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3. Our sugar snap peas have been coming in and growing like crazy. They are incredibly tasty, as all garden vegetables are.
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4. On my way back home from the theatre today, I stopped by Powell's, as you do, and picked up a couple of new books. The Pattern Magic books are to help with the sewing funk. It is crazy fabric manipulations for things that range from completely unwearable to I could probably wear that to work.
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5. A few examples from Pattern Magic:

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6. These lentil meatballs are on my list of things I want to cook this week. We picked up some rhubarb and strawberries at the farmer's market this morning, so I'm planning on making a couple of tarts as well.
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7. Are you watching the Americans? I love it so much and I found out that it was based on this story of Russian Spies living in the US. A commenter on Metafilter lived down the street from them and reports that they were not out of the ordinary, as you would expect from spies trying to blend in.

Quick takes back again

1. I am updating my food blog with pictures of what I am bringing to work for lunch. It has been a fun exercise to decide what to eat for lunch every day, especially since the cafes at work are not fantastic.

2. I moved to a new cubicle a few weeks ago and I am now by a window, but unfortunately, I now face my boss.

You can see his monitors poking over the top of mine. My old desk is the one in the far background. My goal for the weekend is to buy a tall leafy plant to put between our desks.

3. I went to ACT-W last weekend and it was fantastic. It was wonderful to be around so many smart, nerdy women.

4. I am going through a sewing funk right now. I bought some bra making supplies, but the fabric I bought (from an online store) was so terrible to sew together, that it threw me into a funk. I am trying to decide what to make next. Maybe I'll try bras again with a different fabric.

5. I bought all the ingredients last weekend to make Watermelon Tuna, but never got around to making it. That will be this weekend's project!

6. I need to get new glasses.

I wear mine on top of my head any time I need to do something close up, otherwise my eyes are strained. Time to use my vision insurance!

7. Matthew went on a quick trip to Shanghai this past week and he brought back the most delicious green tea I have ever tasted. He bought it at a market where they were roasting the tea leaves. It tastes amazing. I can't wait to be able to make my own tea!