Top places in Washington

1.  Mailbox Peak - maybe there was a bit of psychology involved, in that the difficulty of the hike made me want the top to be beautiful and worth the effort, but this was the single most breathtakingly beautiful place in Washington I have been.  The top of the peak offered a view of a mist-filled valley, with wildflowers all around us.  And of course, it was pretty cool that there was a mailbox at the top.

Other note-worthy trails: Comet Falls on Mount Rainier, Tiger Mountain Trail #2 with fall colors, Mount Si, Mount Washington.

2.  University of Washington - the cherry blossoms in the spring are gorgeous - especially when all the pink and white petals fall and coat the ground.  The Burke museum is the best museum I've been to. The basement is filled with colorful artwork from tons of Pacific cultures.  The architecture of the buildings is also nice - and there are many nice views of lakes and mountains from around the campus.

Other note-worthy Seattle spots: Kerry Park in Queen Anne (especially for the great coffee), Seattle Center with the Space Needle, gardens, water fountain, and Pink Floyd Laser show, Washington Arboretum and Japanese Garden.

3.  Pacific Beach - there is nothing quite so beautiful as the sunset on the beach.  The sand here is soft and the shore is so flat that the water comes and recedes quite gradually.  The shores are filled with sandpipers and not too many people - so the spot is quite tranquil.  At night, we could see endless stars and the Milky Way.  

To be honest, there is no beach in Washington that we love so much as the beaches of Southern California and Hawaii (no surprise :-P), but other note-worthy beaches in Washington:  La Push area beaches, Alki Beach, and Golden Gardens beach.  

4.  Kirkland Waterfront - relaxing park on Lake Washington, surrounded by good coffee shops and restaurants, in a very pedestrian oriented and relaxed downtown. 

Other note-worthy parks on the "Eastside": Bellevue Downtown Park,  Lake Sammamish Park.  

Life

Life the last few months has been fun.  I have been feeling restless and craving adventure.

The weather last winter was amazing - in the 40s F every day, warm enough to not need a jacket to walk around.  We're paying for it now with our hot summer - hitting the 90s F. 

Nonetheless, we try to enjoy the beautiful outdoors with its lush greenery.  Today we hiked Wallace Falls State Park with our good friends, B and P.   There is something innately soothing about tall moss-filled trees, ferns, and waterfalls. 

Work: graphics performance analysis

Being an engineer at heart, I love hearing about what people do for work or for their hobbies, because I am fascinated by processes. 

In case you are curious about my job, it is to make my team's product cool 8-).  In the thermal sense.

Program managers provide us with pain points - places where they want less latency or power usage.

We are lucky in that our job is made quite simple by sophisticated tools that have been provided to us, in order to measure, visualize, and understand the factors that contribute to latency and power usage: the utilization of various processors and co-processors, and the bandwidth on various memory buses. This helps us identify bottlenecks and figure out where and how to optimize code. 

I love performance analysis and working on platform code - it is data-driven, and involves a lot of creative thinking and problem solving.  I love getting a chance to take the time to scrub code until it shines. I prefer platform development to application development, which I feel is more fast-paced and feature-driven, and places less emphasis on being solidly written.

There's a time in the mountains, in the morning, when the ground is shrouded in mist, and suddenly it rapidly rises, revealing the shining sun.  I feel so grateful to be alive when I experience moments like these. 

Happy New Year!

Dearest friends - wish you all a happy 2015 - hope that it brings you all that you wish for.

The last year was nice.  Evan sat and crushed the WA bar exam and landed a job.  My brother and his wife gave birth to an adorable baby girl.   Evan and I visited the Pacific beaches in Washington and were astounded.

As for New Year's resolutions, I resolve to be more healthy: drink more water, run more regularly, and meditate more.  I feel that these three goals are reasonable and can be realistically accomplished.

Last year's resolution was to be more comfortable alone.  I think I may have succeeded too well - some days I feel like such an anti-social grouch that I just want to wander into the forest and stare at trees all day.

All in all, I feel pretty happy and content.

I look forward to going on adventures and expanding mental and social horizons in 2015, and wish you many happy adventures - be they external or internal - as well.