My name is James. I'm a Geotechnical Engineer. Outside of work, I enjoy running, playing D&D, and being angry about car dependent cities.
Background and Professional Life
I grew up and currently live in Colorado. My educational background is in geology and geological engineering, focusing on landslides and volcanic deposits. I lived in Aotearoa/New Zealand for four years while completing my Ph.D. work. After that, I moved back to Colorado to be near family and starting working professionally, first for a local geotechnical consultant, and then for the government. I'm currently a Senior Geotechnical Engineer for a transportation agency, responsible for helping supervise six other engineers and geologists.
Hobbies and Interests
Outside of work, I have a few hobbies. I'm an avid runner, currently training with the goal of a sub-40:00 10km race. I've gotten very close to this goal, and hope that with another year of training, I'll be able to do it.
I listen to a lot of podcasts. Here are my top 5:
Other hobbies include Dungeons and Dragons and other TTRPGs, video games, and reading, primarily non-fiction about urban design.
You can follow me on 🦋 BlueSky
Ongoing Projects
Running
At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to run 2,000 miles. This is an ambitious goal. I came within about 50 miles of hitting the goal last year, so I assumed that I could just be work a little harder this year and make the goal. Little did I know that I'd be forced to return to office 5 days a week this year. With one less hour to run each day, my challenge has really been pushed into hard mode. Below is a graph that I'll update periodically to show my progress. You can also check out my blog for updates on how things are feeling to me.
Japanese
I'm working to learn Japanese, with a goal of taking another trip to Japan in a few years. I'm doing a few different learning methods, but the easiest to track and report on is my progress in learning kanji. WaniKani has been extremely helpful in learning to read kanji as well as building up my vocabulary. Other things that I'm doing include listening to some beginner level Japanese language podcasts and playing Lingo Legends to get some more practice on sounds and grammar.
