Pretty excited about the data visualization course at UW this winter.
Category: Post
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Code for Seattle meetup this evening. Big plans for the year.
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DPRK Roundup
I recently answered questions on reddit about spending the fall in Pyongyang. It was really rewarding to get to share the experience with so many interested people.
Business Insider has also publicized a bunch of instagram pictures I took over the fall. -
CCC
I spent the last four days at 30C3, the annual Chaos Communication Congress. It was great to put faces to names, and to get to interact with a bunch of people I’ve met online. It was also really interesting to compare the congress with academic conferences I’ve been to previously, and to think about which model does a better job of making connections and sharing ideas. -
The Train
I highly recommend spending a week riding the transsiberian across Russia. There are very few opportunities to reflect with nothing to do or that you can do for that long. The food is passable, the scenery is incredible, the people are nice, and the beds are unexpectedly comfortable.
I read war & peace, and found it enjoyable. I made more progress on research, both immediate code and long term priorities, than I have for quite a while, and I feel well rested and ready to jump in to 2014.
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On the Return
I dropped off my passport at the Russian embassy this afternoon to get a Visa. I hope to spend time there and in western Europe in December before returning to Seattle. Plans don’t seem to crystallize until they are already in progress in this part of the world, so details may be somewhat slow to emerge.
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A unique time
The last couple weeks have got to be one of the most interesting times in my life so far.
Specifically, I am currently in a Beijing hostel waiting for it to be late enough to be late enough to go to sleep. I spent the last hour talking to a conspiracy theorist about why the Whitehouse being colored pink for breast cancer awareness month was actually a sign of collusion with the Chinese. Its nice that my Chinese is good enough that I can follow conspiracies in both English and chinese, I guess. The middle aged conspiracy theory lady was interspersed with a teenage girl from Jiangsu taking pictures of me and giggling. Once the lady left she told me it was because a friend thought I was cute, rather than my ineffectual attempts to change the topic of conversation.
This is on the other side of an airplane ride from staying up all night in New York and somehow getting dragged to Korean food at 3am (the rationalization was that I had to leave at 4 for the plane anyways). This was my first trip to new York as an adult, and it seems like a fun place – if somewhat expensive/fast paced.
The conferences were excellent. Bigger media deals than I had come to terms with previously, but a very good set of connections to start making.
The only glitch so far is that I was planning to bring a bottle of mustard back with me since it seems almost impossible to acquire it at PUST, however the supermarkets I visited this evening didn’t stock it either. I guess it doesn’t have quite the following here as elsewhere in the world.
