Author Archives: Matt

Life Changes

It’s occurred to me that I haven’t updated this thing in almost a year, and a lot has happened in that time. My last post left us on the North Dakota prairie during the peak of the spring wildflower bloom. … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

The Prairie in Bloom

With the school year over and nice weather upon us, I’ve had some free time to get out and explore the landscape beyond Williston. I’ve been out on the prairie twice to discover the array of early wildflowers in the … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

A Spiritual Moment

My trip to the Redwoods had a profound effect on me. I can’t really explain what it was or why. I’ve been to many amazing and beautiful places never come back as humbled and rejuvenated as I had on this … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

What’s your travel style?

When I think about the way I travel and the way others travel, there are two extremes at the ends of a spectrum: on one side, we fit in everything we can see during our limited time at a destination; … Continue reading

Posted in Travel Stories | 0 Comments

What have I been up to?

It has been quite some time since I last made a post here, so I’d say I’m a bit overdue for an update. For the past two and a half years, I have been living in northwestern North Dakota. Saying … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

Fourth of July

For many years, I have spent my Fourth of July basking in the part of America that I enjoy the most: its wild and natural beauty. It started in 2011 when I explored the Hobo Cedar Grove for the first … Continue reading

Posted in Hikes, Personal Updates | 0 Comments

Why you’re working from home, Part 2: A Shiny Model

Immediately after I published my last post, I wasn’t content with the manner in which I conveyed the SIR model. Simply posting graphs from scenarios that I ran isn’t exciting. It’s passive, and it doesn’t actively demonstrate for the reader … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

Why you’re working from home: An introduction to epidemiological modeling

The COVID-19 virus is sweeping the world causing an equally contagious pandemic of fear and confusion. Depending on where you live, you may be ordered to stay home, going out only when necessary, or there may be no restrictions on … Continue reading

Posted in Science News | 0 Comments

Sand Mountain Trail

I don’t get out hiking or geocaching often these days. With geocaching, it makes sense. I’ve found nearly all of the geocaches in a close distance to home and town, forcing me to travel farther distances just to make a … Continue reading

Posted in Hikes | 0 Comments

Geocaching

In case you weren’t aware, Geocaching is one of my hobbies turned obsession that fills my life with joy. Geocaching is a game in which people hide containers and post the coordinates on the web for others to enter into … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 1 Comment

Adventures in Sourdough

When life prevents you from going out and adventuring, you make your own adventures at home. My latest adventure is making sourdough. Now, I could go out and obtain or buy a starter from a local bakery, but what’s the … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | Tagged , , | 0 Comments

An update for 2018

It’s occurred to me that I haven’t been good at writing posts recently. My last update was from May, and that was subsequently my last big hiking trip. Since then, I have been incredibly busy, and that means I haven’t … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

Hells Canyon, Episode 2

Happy Memorial Day everyone. I had originally planned to spend the long weekend down in the Alvord Desert of southeastern Oregon with friends and the family. We would have been camping, hiking, birding, herping, and soaking in hot springs. But … Continue reading

Posted in Hikes | 0 Comments

Moscow Mountain Snowshoe

Saturday, January 14, 2017 It’s not often that I get out to hike these days. But we’ve had a fantastic winter so far, and after a week of insanely cold temperatures and clear weather, I just had to get out … Continue reading

Posted in Hikes | 0 Comments

Jerry Johnson

We’ve gotten a lot of snow this winter. And then it got cold. Like, really cold. Night time lows below zero, and daytime highs hovering around 20.  So the only thing to do with this kind of weather is go … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

December Update

When I started this site, I never expected to make daily posts. Weekly? Maybe. Monthly? Less desireable. I’m kind of ashamed that it’s been three months with no updates, but there hasn’t been much of excitement to talk about. There … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

Camping at Hazard Lake

In May we bought a new tent to accommodate our growing family on camping trips. I guess the two-person backpacking tent just won’t do it anymore for thee people and two large dogs. So after we bought it, we took … Continue reading

Posted in Personal Updates | 0 Comments

Adventures with Clara: Hobo Cedar Grove

The Hobo Cedar Grove is a nice easy 1-mile hike through a grove of giant old-growth trees. It is the perfect hike for toddlers to explore nature, which is why we brought Clara up there on Sunday. She enjoyed the … Continue reading

Posted in Hikes | 0 Comments

Grandmother Mountain

I finally got some time to get up to Freezeout to hike Grandmother Mountain. The flowers are out and it’s quite pretty, though it’s not the best year for flowers that I’ve seen. It could be that I got up … Continue reading

Posted in Hikes | 0 Comments

July 4 Update and Clara in Spokane

It’s been over a month since my last update. There haven’t been any major adventures due to time and financial constraints. As I aim to write and finish my dissertation, the time for such outings decreases and thus this summer … Continue reading

Posted in Research Blog, Travel Stories | 0 Comments