It was during quarantine that I discovered my love for cooking and pasta making! I find that making good food for myself and my friends gives me genuine pleasure. There's such an art to this. You tend to rely less on strict measurements and more on your senses. It never ceases to bring me happiness when I get to cook for my friends and family, and when I get to share the art of pasta making with others. Fantastic way to relax, have fun, and I'll be honest, kneading out pasta dough is a real arm workout!
Here's a conversation I've had with my dear friend, Adam!
Adam: I bet you save a lot of money making pasta yourself.
Me: Oh no! It's waaaaaay more expensive!
Adam: Oh, well I'd bet you save a lot of time then?
Me: Nope! This takes a loooot more time!
Adam: Oh... well I bet it tastes better than box pasta...?
Me: Oh yeah! It's so much better!!
Hockey has certainly become a favorite sport of mine! I'll even teach wearing my Hurricanes jersey during game days. There was one semester where a couple students would join me, supporting their own teams. My rapport was well established enough that we could trash talk each other teams during class, which was always very entertaining.
Here's some footage I took when the Hurricanes played the San Jose Sharks on January 27th of 2023. What an amazing game! The Canes were down by 2, then they scored two more goals within the last two minutes of the third period. This NEVER happens! The game went into overtime where the Canes secured the winning goal!
I often travel up to Boone, NC for fly fishing trips. We'll fish in catch and release rivers full of rainbow trout, hiking to different bends which all seem to require a variety of techniques and approaches.
I've learned that this sport is not trivial. One needs to observe the behavior of the water and the trout and make decisions quickly. Fly fishing is a sport of patience. If you're not changing your fly 10 times before getting a bite, or trying to reel in a fish for over 5 minutes only to have your line break right, then you're not doing it right!
There is also a profound respect for wildlife in this. Each time I catch a fish, I'll spend as long as it takes making sure they're good to swim on their own before letting them go. I've been fishing for years and haven't lost a single one!
I'm a self taught artist and electric guitar player. I use art to show the nerdy side of myself from time to time, and have had the chance to use this skill in professional settings. For instance, my roll as Website Manager and Presentation Organizer for the UNCG Partial Differential Equations Conference (2023 and 2021) originated from Dr. Ratnasingham Shivaji who was looking for a graduate student to design him a banner for the website. I've also use this to make my own banner for my Canvas page, as seen on my Teaching Page. This also gives me a fun talking point with students of time, as it's becoming more and more common to find people interested in creating their own artwork. My guitar playing certainly isn't great, though it is a lot of fun to practice! It is a pretty cool feeling to play some AC/DC on my own. With guitar and artwork, I'm often able to relate the concept of "practice makes perfect" to students of mine who are struggling in math. I also love to play racquetball, get a lot of enjoyment out of video games, and love Dungeons and Dragons!