We went up to Putah Creek for the Fourth of July again this year, only without Sean and Lucy’s group this time. I invited a few others as well as my new roommate Stephen. It was a great time!
Hanging out at Putah Creek for the Fourth of July. Hon, Derreck, Matt, me, John, Viet, Alan, Matthew, Stephen, An and Tuvale.
Today marks my 38th birthday. We’re long past the days I could confidently say my age without thinking about it. How time flies! Anyway, I spent the day out running in the San Leandro Watershed. This is Run No. 3 on my super fast ramp up from not running at all to attempting the Burning Man Ultramarathon in three months. I did 6 miles 12 days ago, then 10 miles a week ago, and was aiming for 14 today. Due to confusion around which trails are closed to the public, I made some modifications, but it worked out at 15.8 miles. The only other problem was I expected overcast skies but got completely sunny instead, and I ran out of my 1.7 L of water in the heat. Thankfully it was toward the end!
Trail run starting from Proctor Staging Area up into the EMBUD lands toward Dinosaur Ridge.
In an effort to find a balance between my personal daily note taking and the blogging I used to do, I’m trying something different: a brief summary of the past month along with a selection of photos. In theory I may retroactively make some of these for the prior months, but we’ll start with May 2026!
Out for a run in Reinhardt Regional Redwood Forest
Yesterday I passed a huge personal milestone: shadowing a medical examiner. This may seem to come out of nowhere, as I’ve thus far barely mentioned my career plans after writing of the culmination of my time at Fitbit and Google. But my gears started turning in late 2024 after my Japan and Vietnam trip. Long story short, I’ve been taking classes for the last year and a half and have thus had very little time to write!
Bay Bridge Wednesday morning traffic
Garden status 2025-10-10: Selection of weird squash.
My Duolingo renewal date is this month. I used to love Duolingo, but I have gotten so tired of how they completely screwed up my progress on the Mandarin course several times that I now canceled my subscription. I will probably keep doing a minimal one lesson a day for now, but am close to ditching it entirely.
My last living grandparent passed away in September at age 87. I have thus traveled back home and made my first visit to Oconto in northern Wisconsin in more than a decade. It was bittersweet and surreal to meet so many family members I have not been among since half my life ago, when I last saw Grandma.
Grandma Porath with me and my brothers Ben and Tim and the cats, two of which we brought home, in the mid 1990s.
September went quickly. I got sucked into my new classes, of which I am taking four: Second semester organic chemistry, first and second semesters of physics and physiology. It’s already intense. But over in the garden, some of the squash are starting to be fully developed. Most exciting, I have tomatoes! But they are very small!
Garden status 2025-09-17: Starting to be able to harvest tomatoes. Some of them taste so good!
In August I started to get some mature cucumbers and a few beans and zucchini, but not much else. I upgraded the tomatoes from 5 to 7 gallon buckets and added cages in that process using 4 inch square wire fencing.
Garden status 2025-08-26
July is when most of the squash started growing well, and I realized I planted way too much too close together. I also started getting powdery mildew on the pumpkins and aphids on the kale.
Garden status 2025-07-17: Now we're getting pumpkin flowers every day. So cool.
I am me! I’m also a scientist minded software engineer who loves reading, running, listening to music, and recording photos and videos and data of all sorts. After earning a biochemistry degree, I lived in San Francisco and Tokyo, and now I find it difficult to stay put. Read more about me and my online life.
SF: 91% complete; Oakland: 57%
San Francisco Bay Area running progress
Charlie says: “What a wonderful region!”
30 November 2022
In-N-Out Burger (Fast Food Restaurant)
333 Jefferson St , San Francisco , CA
Charlie says: “It was super hot and we got a taste for salty fries, but by the time we walked there it dropped 35° and was cold. Still tasted good!”
28 September 2020 at 20:32
Taqueria Zorro (Mexican Restaurant)
308 Columbus Ave , San Francisco , CA
Charlie says: “Restaurants are hoppin’ around here, feels weird.”
26 September 2020 at 19:42
碼頭老火鍋 (Hotpot Restaurant)
仁愛路四段409-1號 , Da’an District , T’ai-pei Shih
Charlie says: “Delicious spicy hot pot with Harry. I am so full!!”
25 March 2020 at 08:40
桶好呷滷味 (Asian Restaurant)
, Taipei
Charlie says: “We pick a representative set of ingredients and they build out the rest into a braised soup like thing over noodles.”
23 March 2020 at 06:46
Addiction Aquatic Development (上引水產) (Fish Market)
民族東路410巷2弄18號 , Taipei
Charlie says: “Standing sushi bar at a fish market.”
21 March 2020 at 07:03
ACME Breakfast CLUB (Breakfast Spot)
3F., No. 10, Ln. 27, Chengdu Rd., , Taipei
Charlie says: “Brunch w/ Shawn! Was tempted to get the avocado toast kind of as a joke since I never get it in SF, but resisted, sourdough was good. :-)”
20 March 2020 at 22:27
三甲和風創意料理 (Japanese Restaurant)
Charlie says: “Late dinner with Shawn, at a lovely place!”
20 March 2020 at 09:28
中央藝文公園 Central Culture Park (Park)
北平東路與紹興北街口 , Taipei
Charlie says: “Social distance.”
20 March 2020 at 03:42
虎頭山環保公園 (Scenic Lookout)
Charlie says: “Exploring the hillside in Taoyuan City.”
14 March 2020 at 23:49
Abura-Ya (Japanese Restaurant)
362 17th St , Oakland , CA
Charlie says: “Dinner with Beam before Sarah McLachlan!”
24 February 2020 at 18:55
