The guys in the lab and I started a book club together and the first book we read was Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan.

Summary

The story follows Takeshi Kovacs, an ex-private military, now-turned-investigator hired to solve the mystery behind someone’s suicide (or murder?). It takes place in the future, where humans have the ability to upload our consciousness to chips called stacks. Since the mind can be separated from the body, bodies are referred to as sleeves. This system of switching sleeves and putting your stack in storage are key parts of this world, used in the criminal system, for fashion and as backup plans. As the story unfolds, we learn more about the world, about Takeshi and about the mysteries of the crime.

I was at dinner with my girlfriend and she picked the restaurant based on a TikTok video. We couldn’t decide what we wanted from the menu, so we looked at the reviews on Google to see what dishes other people recommended. After we picked our food, I started to think about how much volunteerism there is on the internet. A lot of the participation on the internet is thankless and without reward. This participation can take the form of a rating, review, reddit post or a comment. Of course, some people are paid to promote, or make content, but that participation by us the viewers isn’t necessary. In the grand scheme, there is no benefit to this additional involvement, one’s life may not improve at all for leaving that message or comment. However, if I hadn’t seen all the reviews raving about chicken wings at that restaurant, I wouldn’t have skipped out on some of the best chicken wings I’ve had. There have been many times I found the comments as entertaining as the videos themselves or learned something cool from a random Reddit post someone made. I think that aspect of the internet is super cool.

In May of 2024, 3 friends and I hiked the Presidential Traverse in New Hampshire!

Route

This route is slightly off. We started at the Mount Webster Trailhead and added Mount Jackson to our hike! We hiked somewhere between 7-15kms a day!

Gear

This is the gear I packed:

• Clothes
  • Shorts
  • Shirts
  • Underwear
  • Socks
  • Sweater
  • Rain Jacket
  • Rain Pants
  • Hiking Boots
  • Hat
  • Sunglasses
• Hygiene - (I don’t think specifics are necessary for these)
  • Toothbrush/Toothpaste
  • Deodorant
  • Hand Sanitizer
  • Sunscreen
  • Toilet Paper
  • Wet wipes
  • Bug spray
• Equipment
  • Tent
  • Sleeping Bag
  • Sleeping Pad
  • Headlamp
  • Stove
  • Fuel
  • Spork
  • Camp soap
  • Rope
  • Dry Bag
  • Compression Sack
  • First Aid Kit
  • Water filter
  • Water bottles
  • Multitool
  • Electronics (battery bank, phone, etc)

We carried 2 tents for the 4 of us (1 two-person and 1 four-person), but we had an issue with the two-person one, so everyone added up sleeping in the four-person one. We had to get cozy! We all carried our own food and water. We also had a Garmin inReach mini 2 with us as a GPS and satalite beacon. My one gear regret was packing my cotton hiking pants. I’ve liked them in the past for their durability but it was a wet start to the trip, and the pants got soaked quickly. I forgot one of the key rules… avoid cotton. They don’t dry at all, so I ended up putting them in a bag and keeping them in bottom of my pack as deadweight for the rest of the hike. Next time, the rain pants, baselayers and shorts would be enough.