Progress check #1.

So it has been a little bit over three weeks since I've moved here. I figured that I would do a progress check every so often (maybe once a month?) but also post if I did something or went somewhere interesting. Anyway, let's see how I've progressed on my goals so far (rated as Better, Same, or Improvement Needed):

1. Eat healthier
Definitely a lot more fresh food and home cooking. Lauren and I signed up for a website called the Fresh 20 which provides a grocery list and recipes for meals every week based off 20 fresh ingredients (and staples that should be stocked in your pantry). These meals are simple and meant for busy families on a budget and have been, for the most part, pretty delicious. We've especially enjoyed the sesame noodles, ginger shrimp fried rice, creamy shrimp pasta primavera, and cucumber bulgur salad (substituting roasted chickpeas in for pine nuts due to my allergy). I actually haven't eaten out at a restaurant in... 2 weeks maybe? Pretty amazing, although I do get some serious cravings for Asian food, especially pho and sushi.

Yaki Soba, recipe from Step-by-Step Asian, bargained priced at Barnes & Noble

Status: Better

2. Exercise a lot more
Although we have yet to climb a wind turbine (due to a current safety situation), I have been hiking a bit. The weekend before I stayed in town and did a short (but some good elevation) 5 mile hike on Chenowith Rim, and visited the Eagle Caves there. Last weekend Lauren and I did a 12.7 mile hike on the Angel's Rest-Devil's Rest Loop. It was strenuous and I especially sucked at the uphill climbs, but the views were amazing and I definitely felt like I had accomplished something afterwards. The next day, I could feel the soreness in my legs.

Just last Tuesday I received my first road bike (2012 Fuji Newest 2.0) and have been taking it out on short spins on The Dalles Riverfront Trail to get used to it. Still too scared of traffic to really ride out on actual roads.

And finally, went frisbee golfing (frolfing) at Tree Top Disc Golf at Sorosis Park a few weeks ago on their 18-hole course. It was fun, not as interesting and varied like Joralemon near Albany. Still nice to have an 18-hole course in town, only a few minutes away from home! It's not really strenuous exercise or anything, but a nice way to relax, get outside, and walk around a bit after work.

Myself on the cliffs of the Eagle Caves

The nooks are the Eagle Caves. Chenowith Rim provides a great view of the entire city of The Dalles

A panorama (thanks, Photoshop Photomerge) of the Columbia River Gorge from Angel's Rest

View from a lookout near Devil's Rest

Tree Top 18-hole disc golf course at Sorosis Park

Status: Better

3. Read more books
Have only read maybe a book or so when bored at work... too cheap to buy eBooks, in queue for 5 library books... need to get into this.

Status: Improvement Needed

4. Learn new things
Have been (very slowly) watching videos on the Model Thinking course on Coursera and signed up for the Python class which still has not started. We signed up for a Culinary Arts class at the Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to lack of interest. Bummer, was really looking forward to that. I'm still on the lookout for more culinary/arts courses either in The Dalles or in Hood River that can be done after work.

Status: Better

5. Develop hobbies
I drew the snow-capped portion of Mt. Hood one day out of boredom at work and Ben thought it was pretty good. Maybe I should get a little more serious about drawing and pick up some drawing pencils. Continuing playing Starcraft almost every night... does that count as a hobby? Not the most "feel good" hobby I suppose...

My sketch of the snow capped portion of Mt. Hood, based on this photo

Random screenshot from recent 4v4 win (Sean, Robert, Alex, myself)

Status: Same

So 3 "Better", 1 "Same", and 1 "Improvement Needed". Not horrible, but certainly room to grow. And almost 1 month down, 5 to go!

Time and time again

Well, for some reason my old blog was deleted because on my old account (this "khubax" account), Google detected some "suspicious activity", so who knows what happened... not that I had more than two or three posts on that blog anyway. I will play around with the layout to beautify it later.

So after moving from the Southwest to the Northeast, I have now moved to the Pacific Northwest, at least temporarily. I am currently living in The Dalles, Oregon, a city of about 12,500 about an hour and a half east of Portland. I'll be here for the next 6 months as one of the rotations in my current role and will be working on the Field Services team for a large wind farm about an hour from The Dalles.

Since my apartment-mate and I will have a lot of time to ourselves and don't know anybody in this area, I've thought of some personal goals during these six months.

1. Eat healthier - more fresh food, more home-cooking, self-control of one's diet (i.e. eat less)
2. Exercise a lot more - besides climbing wind turbines, planning to buy an entry-level road bike and ride around, ski a lot during the winter (partly in order to make the cost of a season pass at Mt. Hood worthwhile), and hike when the weather permits
3. Read more books - I think I will have much more time to sit down and enjoy some books. Hopefully.
4. Learn new things - signed up for some online courses about model-based thinking, learning Python, maybe see if the nearby community college offers anything interesting
5. Develop hobbies - I have not been doing anything really on the creative side since... middle school? So I want to do some art, have some fun, and do something not too stressful on my time off. I miss doing a lot of hands-on stuff

Hopefully I can update this blog every so often with things I've learned from the five goals above, since I am a noob at all of them.