For a variety of technical reasons (more control over the domain, ability to run entirely custom PHP, potential future tech projects), I recently moved this blog from WordPress.com to its current home, a “self-hosted” WordPress installation on a Bluehost server. While the process was fairly straightforward and instructions are available, there are some “gotchas” with workarounds that bear explaining. This article gets fairly technical, so read on if you’re so inclined.
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Migrating from WordPress.com 1 comment
Flying the NYC Hudson River Corridor Leave a comment
The Hudson River runs through the heart of New York City and between four large commercial airports. The river carves out a VFR corridor from the highly regulated airspace otherwise encompassing the city, allowing sightseeing flights by any prepared pilot.
I’ve been meaning to take this flight for a while, and Lisa and I got the chance on Sunday evening. We flew north from Baltimore, over Philadelphia’s airspace, and descended to 1,300 feet by the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. We called the approach controllers and were cleared through the controlled airspace to fly along the lights of the Manhattan skyline. Upon reaching the George Washington Bridge, we turned around, descended into the VFR corridor (below 1,300 feet) and flew southbound along the New Jersey side of the river. We circled the Statue of Liberty at 800 feet before exiting the corridor to the south. From there, we turned back toward Philadelphia to land and enjoy a restaurant week dinner at Garces Trading Company.
Seeing the NYC skyline from just a few hundred feet was breathtaking. Though it was a bit bumpy, Lisa managed to get a few great pictures. And the flight planning and flying itself, while it took a bit of attention, wasn’t too daunting. Altogether, a fantastic night!
Instrument Flight Rating Leave a comment
Home and Key West for the Holidays Leave a comment
After living across the Atlantic for a couple of years, I’ve really enjoyed being a bit closer to home in 2013. And at no time of year is this more special than during the holidays, when my brother and sister came home from Durham. It was fantastic to have the family together sharing stories about our respective years’ adventures.
After Christmas, I set out to the Florida Keys on a New Year’s trip with some scuba divers from Penn State and the University of Maryland. I had attended this annual trip regularly before moving overseas, and after a few years absent, it was great to be back. We had a chance to dive The Eagle wreck off Key Largo, enjoyed New Years festivities on Duval Street in Key West, and generally enjoyed a bit of the break from the mid-Atlantic winter. On the way back north, Lisa and I visited Robert is Here, a combination fruit stand and petting farm, and then stopped in North Carolina where she interviewed at UNC and I finished my instrument flight rating.
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Baltimore Lights Leave a comment
One of the many joys of the holiday season can be found in the crisp air and sparkling lights in the long nights. Here are pictures from two examples.
First, Lisa and I went to Baltimore’s 34th Street, where for the past 66 years, (most of the) residents take it upon themselves to put together a pretty impressive holiday light show. The block really stands out against most of downtown Baltimore’s rowhouses, where a few lights in the window are the norm.
Next, Grace, a friend from DukeMed who originally hails from Baltimore, took a flight with me to see her hometown from the air. The air traffic controllers let us fly around the downtown area, and Grace was able to get a couple of great pictures of the Inner Harbor and Johns Hopkins Hospital.
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Baltimore Aquarium Leave a comment
Saturday afternoon, I visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore with Lisa. It’s been at least seven years since I’d visited this renowned aquarium on the Inner Harbor, but its collection of over 17,000 fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and marine mammals is as breathtaking as ever. Although we couldn’t cover the whole site, we did see plenty of fish, a Giant Pacific Octopus, seahorses, jellyfish aplenty, coral, urchins, rays, dolphins, turtles, and more.
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Richmond Marathon Leave a comment
Billed as “America’s Friendliest Marathon,” the Richmond Marathon was the culmination of my running efforts this year. The event was huge and well-organized; there were over 6,000 marathoners and another 13,500 runners in the half marathon and 8k events. In addition to the standard water and electrolyte drinks along the route, the Richmond team had “party zones” with live music, wet wash cloth stations, and friendly pacing teams.
Though the day started out a bit dreary, and the first several miles were run in light rain (British English: “aggressive mist”), the rain cleared away after about an hour and left a beautiful, cool, overcast running day. I was able to stick with the 3:35 pacing group for the first 20 miles (an 8:11 pace), only dropping off in the last few miles. The final mile of the race was fantastic, with a gentle downhill slope and a mass of cheering spectators giving the runners energy. I managed to finish in 3:37:22, a new personal best and a 10 minute improvement on my Baltimore Marathon time from last month.
The inspired supporters’ signs in Richmond included “Run like someone just called you a jogger“, “Run faster, the half-marathoners are already done”, “Worst parade ever”, and “Go, random stranger, go!”
Chicago Weekend 1 comment
On Friday, I took Step 2 CK, an 8-hour multiple choice exam that is part of the US medical licensing process. Lisa, with whom I had shared many a practice question session, took her test on Wednesday and was interviewing for an internship in Chicago on Friday, so we decided to celebrate by spending the weekend in the Windy City.
We started Saturday by wandering the downtown area. We made it to Millennium Park and saw The Bean, which has been my favorite sculpture since I first encountered it almost ten years ago. After getting our fill of the leguminous wonder, we went for a run along the Lakefront Trail. Saturday night, we had a fantastic dinner at 312 Chicago and then walked over to the Oriental Theatre to see the touring production of Wicked. The show was very impressive; an extremely strong cast really put their hearts into the performance.
On Sunday, we wandered some more, revisited The Bean, and had brunch at Wildberry before Lisa flew off for her next interview in St. Louis. I set out for the Ravenswood neighborhood where I saw Nick, one of my best friends from high school, and met his wife Amanda. We spent the evening playing board games and talking about old and new times over Kyrgyz food.
Baltimore Marathon Leave a comment
The latest of my running escapades was the Baltimore Marathon. Part of the huge Baltimore Running Festival, the race is 26.2 miles through downtown Baltimore, beginning and ending at Camden Yards. The festival draws quite a crowd: about 3,100 finished the marathon, 9,700 finished the half-marathon, 3,400 finished the 5k race, and 1,100 teams finished the marathon relay. The city is supportive as well; several neighborhoods come out in full force to cheer on the runners, and local schools and businesses organize cheering sections and displays.
My goal for the race was to finish in under 4 hours, get comfortable with the distance, and try not to injure myself before the upcoming Richmond Marathon. I’m very happy with the result — I finished in 3:48:56 and was still able to walk the next day. I went out a bit too fast and was slowed after the first third — especially by a bathroom break at 13.5 miles and the long uphill segment from miles 14 to 19. But the sub-4 result gives me confidence that I can do a little better at Richmond, where a flatter course will be on my side.
The spectators were fantastic, with signs that said “Run like you stole something” (appropriate for Baltimore), “Chuck Norris never ran a marathon” (though the Internet disagrees), “Run like a Kenyan, Drink like an Irishman” (there is no political correctness after 16 miles), “Smile if you peed a little” (cruel trick!), and of course “You’re running better than our government.”
Parks Half Marathon Leave a comment
Without Wolfson rowing to keep me going, I’ve taken to a bit of running in the States. My goals this year are to run the Baltimore Marathon on October 12th and the Richmond Marathon on November 16th. As half-way training benchmark, I ran the Parks Half Marathon from Rockville, MD to Bethesda, MD on Sunday.
The weather was perfect for the race, cool and partly cloudy. The start was very well-organized, staggered by pace minutes and with lots of professional pacers available. I attached myself to groups of people who seemed to be going a reasonable pace for most of the race, and then started to speed up a bit towards the end. Water and Gatorade were available every two miles, and a surprising number of people turned out to urge us on. The most memorable supporters were a piano player at a local park, and a guy in a Mr. Incredible outfit playing music. The course wound through Rock Creek Park and then along the Capital Crescent Trail.
I finished the 13.11 miles in 1:46:35 (an 8:08/mile pace), which was just about what I’d planned. Running details are here. (The GPS pace isn’t overly accurate and tends to fluctuate quite a bit. Hopefully a stride sensor will be in the mix soon.)
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