With work really ramping up these past couple weeks, I decided, instead of a long trip, to take the long weekend to catch my breath at home and write some specs. Still, I’ve missed photography enormously, and with few weekends left in the summer, I decided to stop at Jose Rizal Park, on my way home from some chair-shopping at IKEA. The day’s weather vacillated between cloudy and sunny, and hoping that trend continued through sunset, I camped out just above the I-90, waiting for the sun to set.

This is a 3-shot HDR. Exif is for the center exposure. The sunset itself didn’t turn out to be anything spectacular, but I liked how the I-90 to I-5 ramp guided the eye toward the city. I’m going to have to return there in the future. It’s a pretty popular spot as I learned. I met a couple other photographers through the evening, also eager to take in the sunset.

It’s busy time for PMs in the Office org. I’m trying to take advantage of the challenging task assigned to me, but it’s been a steep learning curve. Baptism by fire, if you will. While I might whine about it quietly, I’d much rather be over-engaged than bored with a trivial task.

What’s even better is the Outlook Hotmail Connector for Office 2010 supports contact and calendar sync (in addition to email), so everything’s synced without ever needing to plug in a cable to my computer. As more of these mobile-oriented services light up over the next couple months, my anticipation for Windows Phone 7 builds.

With the wonderful summer weather here in the Pacific Northwest, I set out to Mount Rainier to hike the Skyline Trail with a Waterloo friend. It was my second time at Mount Rainier, but my first to Paradise, on the southern side of the mountain. Last year during my internship, I went to Sunrise (north of the mountain), but never got any good shots of the mountain, as the sun was behind it nearly the entire way. This time, with the sun at my back, I got better results.

I expected a lot of people, due to the weather, but I didn’t realize it was also a free parks weekend, drawing even more. The parking lots at Paradise and the surrounding area were completely swamped, but we happened upon a van pulling out just as we were trolling the area. Lucky us. Skyline is a very popular trail, noted by many to be the easy-moderate trail to hike at Rainier. As a result, we were sharing the paths (and slippery snow) with quite a few hikers, both casual, like us, and more serious ones, perhaps headed up toward Camp Muir and eventually the summit.

The trail ascends approximately 1700ft from the upper Paradise lot (we started at the lower) to Panorama Point, which is where we turned around. The Lower Skyline trail was completely covered in snow, and the Upper looked like it would take us quite a ways around and it was nearing evening. Total hiking time was close to 3 hours, but I stopped numerous times for photos. The trail takes you pretty close to the mountain proper, and is probably one of the reasons why Camp Muir, a popular mid-camp for summiting, is an extension from the Skyline trail. Nisqually Glacier seemed nearly within touching distance at some points along the trail.

It was an absolutely beautiful day, with Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens visible on the horizon. If you looked hard, you could also see the outline of Mount Hood, far in the distance. Although very hot at the foot of the climb, at 7000ft it was much cooler, with a welcome breeze to help cool us. Snow patches dotted the trail and melting snow made for interesting leaps across impromptu creeks in the path.

A few photos are attached below – more over on my Flickr.

Yes, I’m trying to switch over to Fahrenheit. At least I know 90 is warm.

This past Thursday, as I wrung my hands in agony, waiting for technical difficulties to be sorted out during the internet install at my apartment, missing meetings I had booked, I was pretty sure I was screwing up not two weeks into the job. Dealing with situations on my own and being responsible for all my actions (or inactions) are definitely key components to making it in the real world. The minute the tech was done, I rushed back to the office, just in time for a Program Manager specification writing ‘bootcamp’, where I hoped to wash away my time management sins from earlier in the day.

It was during that seminar that the eye-opening line came, “Nobody Knows the Answer.”

Alright, so it was in the context of designing a feature area, but I think the lesson holds true for life. Nobody really knows the answer. Guidance is one thing, but looking for someone to hold your hand, while you walk along the path of life, is not the best idea. Those uncertainties I’ve had? Others have them too. Don’t expect others to know what’s best. Do the research, and make a decision. That’s my advice to myself.

Speaking with some friends, both at work and outside, I’m beginning to realize I’m not the only one mucking my way through.

As a newcomer to the United States, I quickly discovered how difficult it is to operate without any credit. Apartments want a larger deposit, banks won’t (easily) give you credit cards, and car financing or leases are next to impossible at reasonable rates.

So, I purposely scoped out manufacturers with foreign professionals programs, of which Volkswagen’s was most front and center. With plenty of details available online, I could prepare just about everything in advance. With paperwork in hand, the process was fairly painless. With the lease incentives for the 2010 Passat CC’s, I snagged one for a fairly reasonable price. It’s a Sport, 2.0T DSG (automatic), in Island Gray (coincidentally, my former home and high school respectively!).

The exterior looks nice, the ride is smooth and the interior is great for the price. The 2.0T engine provides a good amount of power, with a nice meaty torque band, due to the turbocharger, but it’s not a tire-scorcher. I can slide in an SD card with my music, pair up my phone to the Bluetooth and I’d be all set for a nice long drive, which likely won’t happen for a week or two, unfortunately. So far, there are two concerns: there’s a bit of a rattle in the dash at a certain engine/road noise frequency, and due to the shape of the vehicle, the rear window provides terrible visibility. I’ll get them to look at the former problem at the initial break-in servicing. I’ve only had it for a week (still have the temporary vehicle license!); there will be more thoughts on the car as I drive it more.

Above is a 3-shot HDR, taken near Issaquah, WA. The light was a bit harsh, with many reflections off the car. The following shots are also 3-shot (+/- 1EV) HDRs, but I didn’t do anything terribly aggressive with them – I simply wanted to flatten the exposure a bit.

I’ve moved into an apartment, completely unfurnished, which has been a change from my university experiences. Household goods have never been on my radar much, so buying pots and pans, furniture, cleaning supplies and so forth is a bit foreign to me. It’s been interesting finding out approximately what that something should cost. Yeah, this is the real world. University life has been so sheltered in comparison.

And I think that’s the one thing that I’m beginning to discover. I’m now fully independent; everything that needs to be done, I do myself. I now chart my own life and decide the wisest choice of action. It’s intimidating and there’s no ramp. It’s just a big wall I have to climb.

GEICO makes it amazingly simple to purchase auto insurance for Canadians residing in the United States. I can carry over my perfect driving record painlessly, all the quotes I do online are instantly seen by the salespeople manning the phones, and pricing is the lowest I’ve come across.

Makes me a believer in Berkshire Hathaway, too. Warren Buffett really knows how to pick’em.

Hopefully, if everything goes well, I’ll be able to share which car I ended up with.