Basics

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Photos are added here and to deviantart.  I like photos of textures, patterns, and details.

After reading /u/ciscomd's comment on reddit, I take fewer photos without people. /u/ciscomd said,"One time I found this old home movie my grandma made of their visit to the Grand Canyon back in the 50s. She's filming the scenery and a couple times you can barely see my dad and uncles run by. We're watching this in the mid '00s - 50 years later, near the end of her life. She goes "Why didn't I point the camera at them? I don't care about the Grand Canyon." That's when I quit taking pictures without people in them."

Buffalo Mountain

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Today my family and I hiked a few of the trails on Buffalo Mountain. We hiked to White Rock (3,100 feet) along the White Rock Loop and then to Huckleberry Knob (2,500 feet). The total hike was 4.2 miles. White Rock has great views over Elizabethton and Huckleberry Knob has views over Johnson City. We could see our house!

Nashville Marathon 2014

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I finished the 2014 Nashville marathon in 5 hours and 12 minutes with my friend Guin Shaw.  What a lot of running.  My average pace was 11:50 minutes per mile, a little slow but I just wanted to make it.  I finished 7th in my age group, 106th male, and 212 overall.  The race ended with a half mile of downhill toward the river on Broadway, the strip of country music bars and neon signs.  It was such a rush to see the finish line and all my friends cheering. Thank you Guin for pushing me to keep running and not letting me walk.

Abroad

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In the spring of 2012, I studied at the University of Nottingham, England on an Alcoa College of Engineering Study Abroad Fellowship.  I studied abroad to challenge myself to learn in a system with different teaching methods, to expand my interpersonal skills, and to enrich my self-reliance.  The motivation and process of finding, studying, and learning course material was largely an independent effort.  Another key reason to study abroad was to take control of my education.  Independently completing the entire process, including the logistical arrangements, was very gratifying.  I met many wonderful friends who I still keep in touch with.  I kept track of all my travels on a Tumblr, pcaveneyuk.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe beautifully summarizes this accomplishment, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”