The Blog

Notes on life and the world.

  • On Austin’s Conspicuous Lack of Quality Public Space

    writing  ·  · 4 min read

    I’ve been a Longhorn for three years now, but in all that time, Austin’s never felt like a proper city to me. Not even when hanging out downtown, watching the boisterous nightlife unfold in the shadow of the Austonian and the Frost Bank Tower.

    Undoubtedly, a major factor is the soulless character of Austin’s urban form, dominated by subdivisions, strip...

  • Downtown Bakersfield, an Urbanist Perspective

    writing  ·  · 5 min read

    Of all places, is downtown Bakersfield in the midst of an urban renaissance?

    Ten years ago, that claim would have been laughable. Bakersfield’s economic future was clearly to the far west, where affluent new strip malls, subdivisions, and high schools were sprawling incessantly in the direction of Interstate 5. Any neighborhoods east of State Route 99 had been left on...

  • A Murky Future for Self-Driving Cars

    writing  ·  · 3 min read

    Feet-first into fire! This short essay was written in response to the 2016 Report of the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) for CS 343H, Artificial Intelligence Honors.

    Although I am ostensibly a student of computer science, I am also an urban studies minor, transportation geek, and public transit advocate. Thus, the One Hundred Year Study is of...

  • A Tour of Austin’s New MoPac Bike Bridge

    writing  ·  · 2 min read

    A shiny new bicycle and pedestrian bridge opened across Barton Creek in June, right next to the MoPac expressway. I finally got a chance to check it out last Sunday morning.

    Here’s a photo tour, starting from the north toward Zilker Park and moving south toward Sunset Valley. You can also check out my corresponding editorial on The Daily Texan....

  • Placemaking in the World of Grand Theft Auto

    writing  ·  · 5 min read

    Several weeks ago, I came across a lovely article on Kotaku about the opening act of Grand Theft Auto IV, in which immigrant protagonist Niko Bellic first arrives in a fictionalized United States and explores his newly adopted home of Liberty City.

    As the author Kirk Hamilton explains, it’s a rather slow start for a GTA game. Niko undertakes...

  • In Defense of Boost Sonic

    writing  ·  · 10 min read

    Sonic the Hedgehog. A video game franchise about a cool blue hedgehog who runs, jumps, and platforms through a variety of vast, intricate worlds. Sonic’s fast, thrilling gameplay was critically acclaimed during the series’ early days as a 2D sidescroller and won millions of gamers over to Sega and the Genesis console. But Sonic’s transition to the 3D world, marked...

  • Polymathic Scholars Transit Talk

    writing  ·  · 1 min read

    I have been meaning to publish this for awhile, but it sat on my back burner.

    On March 3, I gave a talk to my fellow Polymathic Scholars on the importance public transportation. It’s sort of a hybrid presentation that explains both how to use transit and also how it’s planned.

    Check out the slides here.

  • Self-Driving Cars: a Reality Check

    writing  ·  · 10 min read

    Today, the media is awash with buzz about the inevitable arrival of autonomous automobiles, personal vehicles that could transport passengers under complete computer control. Writing for Forbes, David Galland predicts that ten million autonomous cars will be on American streets by 2020 (Galland). He expects the adoption of autonomous cars to have profound, transformative effects on our society, by...

  • The Ryan Guide to Frugal Air Travel, Part One

    writing  ·  · 6 min read

    Modern commercial air travel is a miracle. Everyday, it whisks thousands of Americans across the country, connecting anywhere to anywhere within a few hours. It’s hard not to admire the mammoth international airport, processing and discharging a never-ending stream of travelers efficiently and comfortably. And it’s hard not to admire the technological marvel of the commercial airliner, soaring 30,000 feet...

  • Cities: Skylines, a New Boring, Lifeless Take on the City Builder

    writing  ·  · 8 min read

    Some time ago, I wrote about 2013’s SimCity, a disappointing entry in a beloved city-building franchise. 2015 saw the release of Paradox Interactive’s Cities: Skylines, a brand new city-builder from a much smaller studio. Much hyped and heavily anticipated, the game has been very well received by the gaming community. Many have praised it as “the SimCity we...