Thursday, November 8, 2012
I am 38-year old now.
It has been awhile for me to come back to this blog after three years. A lot of things happened in the past three years. I started my first job as an assistant professor at computer science and computer engineering department at University of Arkansas in January 2010. I bought a house at the end of 2010. When we came to Fayetteville, I had a daughter and a son. Each bedroom in the house was occupied. Now three rooms are empty......
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Bye-bye, Alaska
It was 10:45PM. I was at the front door of Bartlett hall waiting for the ARSC van. It had been raining for all the day.
In the afternoon, I brought the bicycle back to ARSC and then went back to dorm to pack. Although it looked that I had only a few items to pack, it still took me a lot of time to have everything in good shape.
I took a nap around 6:30PM and was waken up by some stupid girls in the hallway. They were very annoying and had a very noisy chat for a long time. Actually, they did the same thing again later around 9 PM. After I got up, I re-heated some rice with water. I almost put everything into the big luggage and was ready to leave at 10:00PM. The resident assistant came to check me out and took the key away. However, he still let me stay in the room until 11:00PM and left the door locked.
The ride to the airport was scheduled on 11:00PM. However, the other 6 guys didn't show up until 11:20PM. We packed all the luggages into the back of the van. It was raining very hard. So I got into the car. Jose, the guy from University of Pueto Rico, drank some alcohol. We chatted a little bit in the van on the way to the airport.
After I was charged for $15 for the luggage, I proceeded to the desk to check in my luggage. It was 60 pounds. The lady asked to remove some items into the carry-on. I took the book out, however, it still weighed 58 pounds. The lady was nice. After she checked my stuff and found there was no easy solution to remove other 8 pounds, she let me go without paying any extra.
I passed into the security checkpoint and waited for the boarding of Flight 128 to Seattle. At 12:50PM, the boarding began.
In the afternoon, I brought the bicycle back to ARSC and then went back to dorm to pack. Although it looked that I had only a few items to pack, it still took me a lot of time to have everything in good shape.
I took a nap around 6:30PM and was waken up by some stupid girls in the hallway. They were very annoying and had a very noisy chat for a long time. Actually, they did the same thing again later around 9 PM. After I got up, I re-heated some rice with water. I almost put everything into the big luggage and was ready to leave at 10:00PM. The resident assistant came to check me out and took the key away. However, he still let me stay in the room until 11:00PM and left the door locked.
The ride to the airport was scheduled on 11:00PM. However, the other 6 guys didn't show up until 11:20PM. We packed all the luggages into the back of the van. It was raining very hard. So I got into the car. Jose, the guy from University of Pueto Rico, drank some alcohol. We chatted a little bit in the van on the way to the airport.
After I was charged for $15 for the luggage, I proceeded to the desk to check in my luggage. It was 60 pounds. The lady asked to remove some items into the carry-on. I took the book out, however, it still weighed 58 pounds. The lady was nice. After she checked my stuff and found there was no easy solution to remove other 8 pounds, she let me go without paying any extra.
I passed into the security checkpoint and waited for the boarding of Flight 128 to Seattle. At 12:50PM, the boarding began.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Today is my last day of my PhD program and the last day at Alaska
Today, August 14th, 2009, is the offical last day of my PhD program. And it is my last day at Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
I should be joyful. But I am not. Actually, I am very sad and deeply lonely in my heart. I already want to write something in the past several days. However, I could not find a lot of free time to do it. Today, as the final presentation to report my project is finished, my dissertation revision is uploaded, and Dr. El-Ghazawi is gone, I can grab some free time at night to write some feelings.
The past summer was a tough one. I needed to finalize my dissertation with Dr. El-Ghazawi, prepare the defense presentation, look for jobs, take several phone interviews, and do my project with ARSC. I didn't do any excursion this summer, not like the summer in 2007. I did once bypass Denali National Park on the ride from Anchorage to Fairbanks due to diverter of my return flight from Washington DC after the dissertation defense on July 27th. I didn't go to WalMart by bicycle. I didn't go to downtown by bike. What I did was to stay at the office in ARSC, sleep in the dorm at Bartlett hall, and go to grocery store occasionally. I had no passion to have any fun at all.
My project is regarding the new type of data storage device, solid-state device. However, in the most time of the summer, I was not able to focus on it because the dissertation defense. Eventually, after I came back to Alaska from the trip to DC on July 31st, I kind of was able to concentrate on the project with only less than two weeks left. I had developed the routine to have a jog around 10:00PM every night before I went back to DC. However, I found I could not follow the same routine in the last two weeks. I stayed in the office until midnight and always went to bed after 1:00AM. I was worried so much about the final presentation because I was afraid that I would have no good result to report and look weak. Finally, the breakthrough took place at the last week. Olivier helped me write the framework of the writing cache for SSD and I was able to do some simple simulation and develop my presentation slides on top of that. Yesterday, I prepared the presentation until 2:00AM and finally my topic caught a lot of attention.
However, I am not happy at all. Actually, I feel so lonely for one moment and I break into tears. The loneliness is mainly the result of the combination of several things. The first thing is the huge pressure to find a satisfying job. Until today, the future is not very certain. I am not sure when I will be in a stable situation and start living a normal life. I will write the job hunting experience more in the future when the situation is settled. The second thing making me feel bad is the pressure from my wife, Yujuan. Yujuan is a good wife. She loves me, loves Lisa and Patrick. However, she becomes mad for the lack of a stable life occasionally. When she is in bad mode, she will blame me and say I am worthless, the last word a man wants to hear.
Worthless!!!
I agree that I am not a perfet man. Maybe I am not working hard enough to transfer to a better university. Maybe I am not very smart. But I am a good and responsible person. Sometimes, when I feel the pressure and depressed, I have no person to talk to. My mother passed away when I was nine-year old. My father is a typical Chinese man, working hard, however, lack of the fine feeling a young kid needs most. My grandmother was kind of mean to both me and my brother. My aunt always cares me, but she lives very far away. In tv or movies, I always see a man can cry in his mother's arms. I have no this luxury. I have to deal with the pressure, the depression and loneless by myself. I studied from high school to college by myself, without any suggestion from parent. I decided to study overseas and carried out it alone. My daugher and my son don't have go through the same tough process again.
It is late again. It is 1:30AM of August 15th, 2009. I cried again when I was writing the passaway of my mother. I didn't have chance to visit my mother's grave in the past six years. The first thing I will do after I go back to China is to visit her tomb.
I should be joyful. But I am not. Actually, I am very sad and deeply lonely in my heart. I already want to write something in the past several days. However, I could not find a lot of free time to do it. Today, as the final presentation to report my project is finished, my dissertation revision is uploaded, and Dr. El-Ghazawi is gone, I can grab some free time at night to write some feelings.
The past summer was a tough one. I needed to finalize my dissertation with Dr. El-Ghazawi, prepare the defense presentation, look for jobs, take several phone interviews, and do my project with ARSC. I didn't do any excursion this summer, not like the summer in 2007. I did once bypass Denali National Park on the ride from Anchorage to Fairbanks due to diverter of my return flight from Washington DC after the dissertation defense on July 27th. I didn't go to WalMart by bicycle. I didn't go to downtown by bike. What I did was to stay at the office in ARSC, sleep in the dorm at Bartlett hall, and go to grocery store occasionally. I had no passion to have any fun at all.
My project is regarding the new type of data storage device, solid-state device. However, in the most time of the summer, I was not able to focus on it because the dissertation defense. Eventually, after I came back to Alaska from the trip to DC on July 31st, I kind of was able to concentrate on the project with only less than two weeks left. I had developed the routine to have a jog around 10:00PM every night before I went back to DC. However, I found I could not follow the same routine in the last two weeks. I stayed in the office until midnight and always went to bed after 1:00AM. I was worried so much about the final presentation because I was afraid that I would have no good result to report and look weak. Finally, the breakthrough took place at the last week. Olivier helped me write the framework of the writing cache for SSD and I was able to do some simple simulation and develop my presentation slides on top of that. Yesterday, I prepared the presentation until 2:00AM and finally my topic caught a lot of attention.
However, I am not happy at all. Actually, I feel so lonely for one moment and I break into tears. The loneliness is mainly the result of the combination of several things. The first thing is the huge pressure to find a satisfying job. Until today, the future is not very certain. I am not sure when I will be in a stable situation and start living a normal life. I will write the job hunting experience more in the future when the situation is settled. The second thing making me feel bad is the pressure from my wife, Yujuan. Yujuan is a good wife. She loves me, loves Lisa and Patrick. However, she becomes mad for the lack of a stable life occasionally. When she is in bad mode, she will blame me and say I am worthless, the last word a man wants to hear.
Worthless!!!
I agree that I am not a perfet man. Maybe I am not working hard enough to transfer to a better university. Maybe I am not very smart. But I am a good and responsible person. Sometimes, when I feel the pressure and depressed, I have no person to talk to. My mother passed away when I was nine-year old. My father is a typical Chinese man, working hard, however, lack of the fine feeling a young kid needs most. My grandmother was kind of mean to both me and my brother. My aunt always cares me, but she lives very far away. In tv or movies, I always see a man can cry in his mother's arms. I have no this luxury. I have to deal with the pressure, the depression and loneless by myself. I studied from high school to college by myself, without any suggestion from parent. I decided to study overseas and carried out it alone. My daugher and my son don't have go through the same tough process again.
It is late again. It is 1:30AM of August 15th, 2009. I cried again when I was writing the passaway of my mother. I didn't have chance to visit my mother's grave in the past six years. The first thing I will do after I go back to China is to visit her tomb.
Friday, July 31, 2009
The 10-hour trip from Anchorage to Fairbanks
July 31st (Friday), 2009
I left the airplane with my two bags. At the gate, there was one representative from Northwest and she didn't provide any further information.
Because the aircraft was using a gate that was not scheduled to in service, there was no any staff there. I and other passengers just walked through a series of closed doors and pushed open many alarm doors. Then we were welcomed by TSA, who were alarmed by these doors. One police officer came and let us go.
In the baggage claim area, most of the passengers gathered and didn't know exactly where to go. Then one agent from Princess Cruises came to pick up tourists. It turned out he was very helpful. He told us that there were several other Northwest flights due to Fairbanks diverted to Anchorage too because of the heavy smoke at Fairbanks. Those Northwest flights were landed at south terminal. Northwest offered them free coach to Fairbanks. He suggested us to take the free coach if the airline would allow us to do so (it turned out there was no any checking when passengers boarded the buses). After he talked to his colleagues at south terminal and told us that we were OK to take the bus at the first-come-first-serve base, passengers started to rush to the south terminal. I was the first one to reach there.
There was a crowd of passengers waiting for the coach at the south terminal. Soon one bus came and I got onto it. I asked several passengers to make sure it was heading to Fairbanks. One old Chinese couples were sitting next to my seat. It turned out that they were both from Taiwan. The husband got his PhD degree in mathematics from Cornell University and now is a professor at Orkland University, an institution at Michigan. They told me that their daughter is studying at American University because I mentioned to them that I am studying at The George Washington University. Their flight, NW403, had been waiting at Anchorage for more than 3 hours and the airline eventually gave them $25 check and a food stamp. Later I found several passengers from NW405 at the same bus.
There were three buses and one truck to load luggages. It took a long time before the fleet started moving. There was some argument whether the fleet should stop at Denali National Park so that some passengers can get off the bus and avoid the unnecessary trip to Fairbanks. However, some passengers were eager to reach Fairbanks as early as possible because they needed to catch the cruise at Fairbanks. Other passengers basically just took the train over there.
The fleet finally started to move at 11:45PM. It was pretty dark at midnight. I got into the sleep very quickly and was waken up by the light. The fleet stopped at a gas station at 1:00AM and the driver, Steve, told us to take a break since there would be a long drive after that. Since the lavatory in the coach was in very bad shape, all the passengers tried to use the bathroom in the snack shop. So quickly, there was a long line forming inside the shop. I didn't want to wait and tried to find some alternatives. The FredMayer next to the gas station was closed and I was not sure the Safeway cross the street is 24-hour or not. However, I found there were other gentlemen who had the same idea. So I urinated behind a big metal bin. Before I took the spot, the guy who was using it previously said to me, "It's a good spot".
The fleet started moving again at 1:45AM and moved very slowly. It stopped twice briefly on the road. Eventually, the three buses arrived at Denali National Park at 6:00AM. Half passengers got off the bus happily. I had a nice talk with the Chinese couple outside the bus before I stepped onto the bus heading for Fairbanks.
This time, the third bus went first and the bus I was with followed the first bus. We stopped again at one motel to drop off one couple with a kid.
The weather was pretty good at Denali National Park. I saw a double-rainbow on the road. Quickly we found the first bus had some engine problem and it rided extremely slow when it climbed a up slope. Eventually, it stopped before the peak of a steep slope. All the passengers with the first bus got off and waited at the road side when the empty bus rode to Fairbanks, followed by our bus.
Eventually around 10:00AM, the bus arrived at Fairbanks airport. I got off the bus, wished good luck to these poor tourists and rode the bike back to University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The whole trip took around 30 hours, way beyond the expection.
Today, the smoke becomes even heavier. NW405 was not able to land at Fairbanks due to the low visibility and diverted to Anchorage again.
I left the airplane with my two bags. At the gate, there was one representative from Northwest and she didn't provide any further information.
Because the aircraft was using a gate that was not scheduled to in service, there was no any staff there. I and other passengers just walked through a series of closed doors and pushed open many alarm doors. Then we were welcomed by TSA, who were alarmed by these doors. One police officer came and let us go.
In the baggage claim area, most of the passengers gathered and didn't know exactly where to go. Then one agent from Princess Cruises came to pick up tourists. It turned out he was very helpful. He told us that there were several other Northwest flights due to Fairbanks diverted to Anchorage too because of the heavy smoke at Fairbanks. Those Northwest flights were landed at south terminal. Northwest offered them free coach to Fairbanks. He suggested us to take the free coach if the airline would allow us to do so (it turned out there was no any checking when passengers boarded the buses). After he talked to his colleagues at south terminal and told us that we were OK to take the bus at the first-come-first-serve base, passengers started to rush to the south terminal. I was the first one to reach there.
There was a crowd of passengers waiting for the coach at the south terminal. Soon one bus came and I got onto it. I asked several passengers to make sure it was heading to Fairbanks. One old Chinese couples were sitting next to my seat. It turned out that they were both from Taiwan. The husband got his PhD degree in mathematics from Cornell University and now is a professor at Orkland University, an institution at Michigan. They told me that their daughter is studying at American University because I mentioned to them that I am studying at The George Washington University. Their flight, NW403, had been waiting at Anchorage for more than 3 hours and the airline eventually gave them $25 check and a food stamp. Later I found several passengers from NW405 at the same bus.
There were three buses and one truck to load luggages. It took a long time before the fleet started moving. There was some argument whether the fleet should stop at Denali National Park so that some passengers can get off the bus and avoid the unnecessary trip to Fairbanks. However, some passengers were eager to reach Fairbanks as early as possible because they needed to catch the cruise at Fairbanks. Other passengers basically just took the train over there.
The fleet finally started to move at 11:45PM. It was pretty dark at midnight. I got into the sleep very quickly and was waken up by the light. The fleet stopped at a gas station at 1:00AM and the driver, Steve, told us to take a break since there would be a long drive after that. Since the lavatory in the coach was in very bad shape, all the passengers tried to use the bathroom in the snack shop. So quickly, there was a long line forming inside the shop. I didn't want to wait and tried to find some alternatives. The FredMayer next to the gas station was closed and I was not sure the Safeway cross the street is 24-hour or not. However, I found there were other gentlemen who had the same idea. So I urinated behind a big metal bin. Before I took the spot, the guy who was using it previously said to me, "It's a good spot".
The fleet started moving again at 1:45AM and moved very slowly. It stopped twice briefly on the road. Eventually, the three buses arrived at Denali National Park at 6:00AM. Half passengers got off the bus happily. I had a nice talk with the Chinese couple outside the bus before I stepped onto the bus heading for Fairbanks.
This time, the third bus went first and the bus I was with followed the first bus. We stopped again at one motel to drop off one couple with a kid.
The weather was pretty good at Denali National Park. I saw a double-rainbow on the road. Quickly we found the first bus had some engine problem and it rided extremely slow when it climbed a up slope. Eventually, it stopped before the peak of a steep slope. All the passengers with the first bus got off and waited at the road side when the empty bus rode to Fairbanks, followed by our bus.
Eventually around 10:00AM, the bus arrived at Fairbanks airport. I got off the bus, wished good luck to these poor tourists and rode the bike back to University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The whole trip took around 30 hours, way beyond the expection.
Today, the smoke becomes even heavier. NW405 was not able to land at Fairbanks due to the low visibility and diverted to Anchorage again.
The Heavy Smoke
Thursday July 30th, 2009
Today is my return flight back to Fairbanks, Alaska. The flight from Dullus airport is on 2:17PM. Because Yujuan is afraid of driving on the highway, I decide to use the 5A metrobus, just like the way I got back to DC one week ago. There is one bus at 11:09AM leaving the Rossyln metro station.
After eating some spring rolls Yujuan prepared for the breakfast, we drived to the bus station at around 10:30AM. The traffic was good and it only took us around 10 minutes to arrive at the Rossyln metro station.
Several people already waited there with a lot of luggages. It was pretty hot. So most people were standing in the shadow instead of sitting in the Sun light. After saying goodbye to Yujuan and Lisa, I joined the group waiting for the bus.
11:09AM passed, however, no bus showed up. People started being anxious. Eventually, one 5A bus came. It was an east bound bus. The driver told us there was a big accident on the I-66 and caused a huge traffic jam. After a while, another 5A bus arrived. It was east bound again. People started to losing patience and were afraid of missing their flights. One family left the bus station with a taxi. Another two young people, a man and a woman, left with a same taxi moments later.
Although I had enough margin, I started to worry about the bus as well. The next bus is due 11:49AM.
I called Yujuan and told her to drive the car to the bus stop in case the bus didn't show up. I told her to drive back home if she would not see me at bus stop when she arrived.
Around 12:00PM, the west-bound bus showed up. People started to food into the bus. The boarding took another 7 minutes because most people used cash and had to insert the bills into the money reader slowly. The bus was already half occupied even before we boarded. I was in the first several people who got on and was lucky to get a seat. The phone rang and it was Yujuan. She was just outside the bus and waving to me. Since I had enough margin, I let her drive back directly.
After all passengers got on the bus, the driver started driving to the airport. It took another 50 minutes to reach Dullus airport. I quickly got off the bus and rushed to the front deck to check in. There was no line and I spent only minute to get the boarding pass. The security line was short too. Therefore, I was at the gate around 1:15PM.
The flight was on time and I moved into my seat. One old lady was already sitting on the aisle seat. My seat was in the middle. After a while, one lady came and brought a dog case with her. There was no enough room underneath the window seat to put her dog, so the lady moved to the seat at the back and gave the seat to me.
The old lady at the aisle seat was pretty happy because both of us had pretty space now. We talked a lot during the flight. She told me she was going to attend a wedding of a relative at Minneapolis, which would take place on Saturday. She told me she was working for South Bell just next to Dullus airport for 30 years and now she lives near Ranoke.
The flight arrived at Minneapolis on time and I said goodbye to the old lady and wished her good luck. The flight to Fairbanks took off on time too. Because I got the seat next to the emergency door, I got onto the airplane quite early. The couple sat next to me were quite funny. I read the C++ book for a moment and then started sleeping.
During the flight, the captain indicated one large smoke, which looks like clouds, to us due to wild fire. I saw another one later. I didn't expect the smoke would give us some trouble at that time. Time quickly approached 8:00PM and then bad news arrived.
The captain told us that there was heavy smoke at Fairbanks and visibility was half mile at the airport. Because the Fairbanks was under developement, it was required to have at least three-mile visibility. So, the airplane had to be diverted to Anchorage airport.
It was very cloudy at Anchorage. But the landing was quite smooth. At first, the passengers were ready to get off the airplane. Yet the captain kept everyone on the airplane to wait for the final plane. At first, the captain told us that the airplane would head to Fairbanks soon and everyone applaued. Yet 20 minutes later, he told us that the original plan was not working because the condition at Fairbanks was not improving. Northwest airline cancelled the plan to fly to Fairbanks the same night and offered to fly to Fairbanks on second day moring at 11:00AM. However, the airline didn't provide any accomodations and food because they considered the cancellation was due to weather. Now, all passengers had to figure out the hotel and food on their own. (to be continued)
Today is my return flight back to Fairbanks, Alaska. The flight from Dullus airport is on 2:17PM. Because Yujuan is afraid of driving on the highway, I decide to use the 5A metrobus, just like the way I got back to DC one week ago. There is one bus at 11:09AM leaving the Rossyln metro station.
After eating some spring rolls Yujuan prepared for the breakfast, we drived to the bus station at around 10:30AM. The traffic was good and it only took us around 10 minutes to arrive at the Rossyln metro station.
Several people already waited there with a lot of luggages. It was pretty hot. So most people were standing in the shadow instead of sitting in the Sun light. After saying goodbye to Yujuan and Lisa, I joined the group waiting for the bus.
11:09AM passed, however, no bus showed up. People started being anxious. Eventually, one 5A bus came. It was an east bound bus. The driver told us there was a big accident on the I-66 and caused a huge traffic jam. After a while, another 5A bus arrived. It was east bound again. People started to losing patience and were afraid of missing their flights. One family left the bus station with a taxi. Another two young people, a man and a woman, left with a same taxi moments later.
Although I had enough margin, I started to worry about the bus as well. The next bus is due 11:49AM.
I called Yujuan and told her to drive the car to the bus stop in case the bus didn't show up. I told her to drive back home if she would not see me at bus stop when she arrived.
Around 12:00PM, the west-bound bus showed up. People started to food into the bus. The boarding took another 7 minutes because most people used cash and had to insert the bills into the money reader slowly. The bus was already half occupied even before we boarded. I was in the first several people who got on and was lucky to get a seat. The phone rang and it was Yujuan. She was just outside the bus and waving to me. Since I had enough margin, I let her drive back directly.
After all passengers got on the bus, the driver started driving to the airport. It took another 50 minutes to reach Dullus airport. I quickly got off the bus and rushed to the front deck to check in. There was no line and I spent only minute to get the boarding pass. The security line was short too. Therefore, I was at the gate around 1:15PM.
The flight was on time and I moved into my seat. One old lady was already sitting on the aisle seat. My seat was in the middle. After a while, one lady came and brought a dog case with her. There was no enough room underneath the window seat to put her dog, so the lady moved to the seat at the back and gave the seat to me.
The old lady at the aisle seat was pretty happy because both of us had pretty space now. We talked a lot during the flight. She told me she was going to attend a wedding of a relative at Minneapolis, which would take place on Saturday. She told me she was working for South Bell just next to Dullus airport for 30 years and now she lives near Ranoke.
The flight arrived at Minneapolis on time and I said goodbye to the old lady and wished her good luck. The flight to Fairbanks took off on time too. Because I got the seat next to the emergency door, I got onto the airplane quite early. The couple sat next to me were quite funny. I read the C++ book for a moment and then started sleeping.
During the flight, the captain indicated one large smoke, which looks like clouds, to us due to wild fire. I saw another one later. I didn't expect the smoke would give us some trouble at that time. Time quickly approached 8:00PM and then bad news arrived.
The captain told us that there was heavy smoke at Fairbanks and visibility was half mile at the airport. Because the Fairbanks was under developement, it was required to have at least three-mile visibility. So, the airplane had to be diverted to Anchorage airport.
It was very cloudy at Anchorage. But the landing was quite smooth. At first, the passengers were ready to get off the airplane. Yet the captain kept everyone on the airplane to wait for the final plane. At first, the captain told us that the airplane would head to Fairbanks soon and everyone applaued. Yet 20 minutes later, he told us that the original plan was not working because the condition at Fairbanks was not improving. Northwest airline cancelled the plan to fly to Fairbanks the same night and offered to fly to Fairbanks on second day moring at 11:00AM. However, the airline didn't provide any accomodations and food because they considered the cancellation was due to weather. Now, all passengers had to figure out the hotel and food on their own. (to be continued)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
What a relief!
Eventually, I defended my PhD dissertation on July 27th, 2009.
However, I felt I didn't do a good job during the presentation because I almost read the slides during the first half. Sometimes, I was not able to understand the question and just had to say something that I was not sure a good or correct answer.
Actually, there was a very short break in the middle because the projector belonging to the ECE department failed. Fortunately, I had a backup projector from the HPCL, which I called Esam to bring on Friday night. Therefore the presentation was quickly resumed.
After I finished the presentation, I didn't find my wife and the food. Then I called her and found she just started driving away from home. Later she told me that she was not able to cook the food quick enough because there is only one wok at home.
The food arrived a little bit late and all the faculties just tasted a bit and then headed to the restaurant for a more formal lunch. Because it is in the middle of the summer, there are not many people in the department. So more than half food was left and I brought some back with the big cake.
I arrived at home around 5:15PM and then brought Lisa to the Glen Echo park for a pony riding. However, it was figured out that the pony riding was closed on Monday. We decided to come back on Wednesday.
Finally, it is over.
However, I felt I didn't do a good job during the presentation because I almost read the slides during the first half. Sometimes, I was not able to understand the question and just had to say something that I was not sure a good or correct answer.
Actually, there was a very short break in the middle because the projector belonging to the ECE department failed. Fortunately, I had a backup projector from the HPCL, which I called Esam to bring on Friday night. Therefore the presentation was quickly resumed.
After I finished the presentation, I didn't find my wife and the food. Then I called her and found she just started driving away from home. Later she told me that she was not able to cook the food quick enough because there is only one wok at home.
The food arrived a little bit late and all the faculties just tasted a bit and then headed to the restaurant for a more formal lunch. Because it is in the middle of the summer, there are not many people in the department. So more than half food was left and I brought some back with the big cake.
I arrived at home around 5:15PM and then brought Lisa to the Glen Echo park for a pony riding. However, it was figured out that the pony riding was closed on Monday. We decided to come back on Wednesday.
Finally, it is over.
The post should be posted on July 23rd regarding the second flight back to DC
The flight from Fairbanks to Minneappolis/Saint Paul arrived at MSP international airport on time at 5:40AM. Then I walked to Gate F2 for flight NW 1914, which is supposed to depart at 7:00AM.
Then a series of interesting things happened. First, the airline staff said there is some battery problem and it was supposed to depart at 7:30AM. After a while, the same lady announced that the battery problem could not solved and the maintence has to manually change the battery. The flight was further delayed to 8:41AM.
Well, you have nothing to do. And my luggage was with the airplane. I guess I made a mistake to check in the luggage because now I have to take the same plane. Otherwise, I may lose it.
Anyway, I waited until 8:00Am and then walked to the gate to check the status. The scene was not promising. When it was 8:20AM, the lady announced again that the battery problem was still not solved and the maintence guy were bringing in a new battery, which will further delay the flight to 10:00AM.
After a short while, the lady opened her mouth again and said the airline is going to change the aircraft for the flight and the gate is changed to C1. The good part is that the departure time is moved ahead to 9:30AM.
So I rushed to Gate C1 again. However, I didn't see the airplane at 9:15AM.
The whole day (Thursday) was completely scewed up because of a small booking mistake. I should be at DC now.
Then a series of interesting things happened. First, the airline staff said there is some battery problem and it was supposed to depart at 7:30AM. After a while, the same lady announced that the battery problem could not solved and the maintence has to manually change the battery. The flight was further delayed to 8:41AM.
Well, you have nothing to do. And my luggage was with the airplane. I guess I made a mistake to check in the luggage because now I have to take the same plane. Otherwise, I may lose it.
Anyway, I waited until 8:00Am and then walked to the gate to check the status. The scene was not promising. When it was 8:20AM, the lady announced again that the battery problem was still not solved and the maintence guy were bringing in a new battery, which will further delay the flight to 10:00AM.
After a short while, the lady opened her mouth again and said the airline is going to change the aircraft for the flight and the gate is changed to C1. The good part is that the departure time is moved ahead to 9:30AM.
So I rushed to Gate C1 again. However, I didn't see the airplane at 9:15AM.
The whole day (Thursday) was completely scewed up because of a small booking mistake. I should be at DC now.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A mistake discovered at the last minute
Today is July 22nd (Wednesday). I am supposed to take the flight back to DC to defend my dissertation. I booked the flight two weeks ago. In my mind, I thought my destination airport is Reagon National Airport (DCA). Even I have checked the itinerary several times, I still believed that I was heading to DCA.
Then, I arrived at the Fairbanks airport by riding a bike. I checked in and got the boarding pass. The lady with Northwest airline was very nice and changed my seat to an asile seat. Then I walked into the security check point. Then I looked into the boarding pass and was shocked to find that the destination airport is Dulles.
I quickly brought out the itinerary copy I print out and checked again. Unfortunately, it is the same. The airport agent didn't make the mistake. It was me who booked the wrong flight in the first place.
I walked back to the check-in desk and wanted to find the possibility to change the flight to DCA. The same lady met me again. She felt sorry for me and told me she was not able to change the flight at the desk. I had to call the 800 number to change the flight. However, it may cost me a big amount of money. Anyway, it was not a big deal. There is a bus between Dulles airport and Roslyn. However, the lady was realy nice and offered me to check in my bag for free. Maybe she wanted to compensate a bit for my mistake and it costed her nothing anyway.
Of course, the return flight is from Dulles airport as well and I have to figure out how to go there now.
Then, I arrived at the Fairbanks airport by riding a bike. I checked in and got the boarding pass. The lady with Northwest airline was very nice and changed my seat to an asile seat. Then I walked into the security check point. Then I looked into the boarding pass and was shocked to find that the destination airport is Dulles.
I quickly brought out the itinerary copy I print out and checked again. Unfortunately, it is the same. The airport agent didn't make the mistake. It was me who booked the wrong flight in the first place.
I walked back to the check-in desk and wanted to find the possibility to change the flight to DCA. The same lady met me again. She felt sorry for me and told me she was not able to change the flight at the desk. I had to call the 800 number to change the flight. However, it may cost me a big amount of money. Anyway, it was not a big deal. There is a bus between Dulles airport and Roslyn. However, the lady was realy nice and offered me to check in my bag for free. Maybe she wanted to compensate a bit for my mistake and it costed her nothing anyway.
Of course, the return flight is from Dulles airport as well and I have to figure out how to go there now.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
2009/01/21: After a long break of inauguration of Obama
After a 4-day break due to Obama's inauguration, finally the life is back to normal track, I guess.
Last week, I got the acceptance notification of the paper submitted to RAW 2009. The conference will be held at Italy, Roma and Dr. Tarek will attend it in the May. In the meantime, I am preparing a new paper targeting FCCM 2009, which has a due date of Jan 23rd.
Sometimes, I feel the submitting a paper to a conference is like gambling in a casino. You never know what the result will be. However, it all depends on whether you can be persistent or not. As long as you insist on it, you eventually will get through.
Last week, I got the acceptance notification of the paper submitted to RAW 2009. The conference will be held at Italy, Roma and Dr. Tarek will attend it in the May. In the meantime, I am preparing a new paper targeting FCCM 2009, which has a due date of Jan 23rd.
Sometimes, I feel the submitting a paper to a conference is like gambling in a casino. You never know what the result will be. However, it all depends on whether you can be persistent or not. As long as you insist on it, you eventually will get through.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
July 2008 Trip to Las Vegas
Due to the ERSA 2008 conference, I paid a short visit to Las Vegas from July 14 to 17.
I was supposed to fly on Sunday (13th) night from National Airport (DCA), however, the flight was cancelled due to the weather. At that moment, I have spent one hour waiting at the airport.
However, it was good for me actually since the new leather shoes were hurting my feet.
After I got back to the campus, I made a phone call to my wife and let her pick me up. Nevertheless, there was a miscommunication about the exact location. So, I waited at the the Vernon shuttle stop on H street and she expected to meet me in front of Tompkins Hall on 23rd street. Anyway, I finally found the car because she was blowing the horn.
The next day, the flight successfully departed from DCA with one hour delay. After a 4 and half hour flight, I arrived at Las Vegas. The first thing I had to do was to find my luggage, which I checked in Sunday night and arrived at Las Vegas with the first flight on Monday morning. It took me another 45 minutes to find it.
Then the bad thing happened. The taxi driver started playing scam on me. Instead of using the shorted route, he used the unnecessary I-15 and made a big circle. The price on the meter was 22, which I was pretty suspicious since one local told me it would cost around 12 dollars. I paid full without tip because I was overcharged already.
After checking into the room, I prepared for the presentation for a while before go to sleep. The presentation on Tuesday went quite well.
On Wednesday I decided to walk through the city. The Las Vegas Strip is not quite long and there are around 20 mega resorts and casinos standing along the Las Vegas Blvd South. I had no interest to the casinos and they look pretty much same to me. On the map, there is a downtown area and I decided to pay a visit as well. Therefore, I decided to keep walking after I passed the Sahara casino. Then I entered the original city before the development of the Stip. All of a sudden, you could not find any people on the street and feel like walking in a ghost city. Occasionally, you may encounter some homeless. Finally, I reached the downtown and saw a lot of tourists again. However, they all crowded in the same block. I took the bus, the deduce, as the most tourists did and back to the strip.
The next day, I decided to walk back to the airport since it is not very far. After the lunch at a Chinese buffet near the hotel, Monte Carlo, I started walking with my bag and luggage. Again, there is no people after one block away from the strip. Since it is hot and dry at Las Vegas, there is almost no tree and grass over there. It took me more than one hour to reach the airport.
At last, I get one the plane at mid night and head back home. I don't like the city at all.
I was supposed to fly on Sunday (13th) night from National Airport (DCA), however, the flight was cancelled due to the weather. At that moment, I have spent one hour waiting at the airport.
However, it was good for me actually since the new leather shoes were hurting my feet.
After I got back to the campus, I made a phone call to my wife and let her pick me up. Nevertheless, there was a miscommunication about the exact location. So, I waited at the the Vernon shuttle stop on H street and she expected to meet me in front of Tompkins Hall on 23rd street. Anyway, I finally found the car because she was blowing the horn.
The next day, the flight successfully departed from DCA with one hour delay. After a 4 and half hour flight, I arrived at Las Vegas. The first thing I had to do was to find my luggage, which I checked in Sunday night and arrived at Las Vegas with the first flight on Monday morning. It took me another 45 minutes to find it.
Then the bad thing happened. The taxi driver started playing scam on me. Instead of using the shorted route, he used the unnecessary I-15 and made a big circle. The price on the meter was 22, which I was pretty suspicious since one local told me it would cost around 12 dollars. I paid full without tip because I was overcharged already.
After checking into the room, I prepared for the presentation for a while before go to sleep. The presentation on Tuesday went quite well.
On Wednesday I decided to walk through the city. The Las Vegas Strip is not quite long and there are around 20 mega resorts and casinos standing along the Las Vegas Blvd South. I had no interest to the casinos and they look pretty much same to me. On the map, there is a downtown area and I decided to pay a visit as well. Therefore, I decided to keep walking after I passed the Sahara casino. Then I entered the original city before the development of the Stip. All of a sudden, you could not find any people on the street and feel like walking in a ghost city. Occasionally, you may encounter some homeless. Finally, I reached the downtown and saw a lot of tourists again. However, they all crowded in the same block. I took the bus, the deduce, as the most tourists did and back to the strip.
The next day, I decided to walk back to the airport since it is not very far. After the lunch at a Chinese buffet near the hotel, Monte Carlo, I started walking with my bag and luggage. Again, there is no people after one block away from the strip. Since it is hot and dry at Las Vegas, there is almost no tree and grass over there. It took me more than one hour to reach the airport.
At last, I get one the plane at mid night and head back home. I don't like the city at all.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The existence of alien intelligent life form.
Two thousand years ago, people thought the Earth is the center of this universe and human was the only intelligent life form in this world. Later, people discovered the vastness of the universe and found the Earth is only one of the countless planets. Then, logically it becomes interesting to find whether there are some other intelligent life form in other planet.
Personally, I believe there are some other intelligent life forms existing at remote planets in the universe, just like us. However, I don't think we are able to find them and contact them, and vice versa. Human, as one species living on the Earth, faces the same fate as other species. Eventually, human species will start extinguish one day and the culture developed at that time may not reach the level to perform inter-planet journey in an efficient way, i.e., we are not able to go to other planet as described in the movies.
The other intelligent species at other planets face the same situation.
We are not alone, however, we are lonely from the sense that we cannot contact other intelligent life form in other distant planets.
Personally, I believe there are some other intelligent life forms existing at remote planets in the universe, just like us. However, I don't think we are able to find them and contact them, and vice versa. Human, as one species living on the Earth, faces the same fate as other species. Eventually, human species will start extinguish one day and the culture developed at that time may not reach the level to perform inter-planet journey in an efficient way, i.e., we are not able to go to other planet as described in the movies.
The other intelligent species at other planets face the same situation.
We are not alone, however, we are lonely from the sense that we cannot contact other intelligent life form in other distant planets.
How to get accurate and balanced information in today's world?
Everyday, we get the information about the events happening in this world through different channels, such as news paper, radio, TV, Internet. It is impossible to witness these events in person; therefore, it is necessary for us to know what are happening through the media. However, media are produced by people based on the information they collect. There are several factors that may affect the accurancy of the information what they give us.
Firstly, the information they collect may not accurate or complete at the very beginning. In today's media market, different companies are competing against each other in order to get the eyeballs from the audiences. Hence, all the media are forced to provide the information to the public as quick as possible. Once something happens, the journalists working for different companies rush to the scene and start releasing information as soon as possible based on the information they can obtain at that moment. Therefore, the stories they tell may change as the time goes. For example, during the reporting of the Virginia Tech Massacre last year, the media was not able to provide the correct information about the exact number of casualties and kept telling different versions of the story.
Secondly, the information they give us is interpretated by the people working for the media. In the interpretation process, they inevitably add their personal opinions. Sometime, they even change the story by covering the truth. The extreme case is how CNN made news based on one picture, which was cut into half intentionally, for the event happened in XiZhang (Tibet) following 3.14. The right part of the original picture shows the rioters were throwing stones to the military trucks. What CNN did is to cut off the right part and only showed the left side with the trucks and then started making stories on the top of it.
Thirdly, the people who work for media even make the news based on nothing. Before America invaded Iraq, media kept telling the public that Iraq owned the MDW and chemical weapon by quoting the voice from the government instead of investigating the truth. Because their continuous effort for broadcasting the fake story, the public started to accept it as a truth until later the report from the government itself claimed that there was no any this kind of weapon at all in Iraq.
Because it is impossible for us to witness all the events in person, it is necessary to get information from today's media. However, it is very important to get the correct information from the stories provided by these media. In order to get accurate and balanced information about any event as much as possible, the public can do the following.
1) Do not assume the information given by media is always correct and complete, particularly for big event. It is better to wait for enough time, such that we can get enough information before making the conclusion or judgement.
2) It is good to obtain the information about the same event from different channels. You may first hear some news from the radio or TV. Then you can check the Internet to see whether they are telling the same story, or there is something conflicting in different versions. It is always a good strategy to look for information from different sources and verify each other.
3) Use individual's own judgement. Once the individual hears some news, it is necessay to look at the logic behind it. If the logic does not make any sense, the information we get may not correct or complete at that moment.
Actually, the public can not completely blame the media itself for the inaccuracy. Most of the time, media is driven by the desire of the public to get news as quick as possible. Therefore, all the media companies always rush to provide the information to the public under pressure. If the public are able to give media enough time to collect information and acknowledge the accuracy and completeness, the media itself will start changing the way providing and interpreting information eventually
Firstly, the information they collect may not accurate or complete at the very beginning. In today's media market, different companies are competing against each other in order to get the eyeballs from the audiences. Hence, all the media are forced to provide the information to the public as quick as possible. Once something happens, the journalists working for different companies rush to the scene and start releasing information as soon as possible based on the information they can obtain at that moment. Therefore, the stories they tell may change as the time goes. For example, during the reporting of the Virginia Tech Massacre last year, the media was not able to provide the correct information about the exact number of casualties and kept telling different versions of the story.
Secondly, the information they give us is interpretated by the people working for the media. In the interpretation process, they inevitably add their personal opinions. Sometime, they even change the story by covering the truth. The extreme case is how CNN made news based on one picture, which was cut into half intentionally, for the event happened in XiZhang (Tibet) following 3.14. The right part of the original picture shows the rioters were throwing stones to the military trucks. What CNN did is to cut off the right part and only showed the left side with the trucks and then started making stories on the top of it.
Thirdly, the people who work for media even make the news based on nothing. Before America invaded Iraq, media kept telling the public that Iraq owned the MDW and chemical weapon by quoting the voice from the government instead of investigating the truth. Because their continuous effort for broadcasting the fake story, the public started to accept it as a truth until later the report from the government itself claimed that there was no any this kind of weapon at all in Iraq.
Because it is impossible for us to witness all the events in person, it is necessary to get information from today's media. However, it is very important to get the correct information from the stories provided by these media. In order to get accurate and balanced information about any event as much as possible, the public can do the following.
1) Do not assume the information given by media is always correct and complete, particularly for big event. It is better to wait for enough time, such that we can get enough information before making the conclusion or judgement.
2) It is good to obtain the information about the same event from different channels. You may first hear some news from the radio or TV. Then you can check the Internet to see whether they are telling the same story, or there is something conflicting in different versions. It is always a good strategy to look for information from different sources and verify each other.
3) Use individual's own judgement. Once the individual hears some news, it is necessay to look at the logic behind it. If the logic does not make any sense, the information we get may not correct or complete at that moment.
Actually, the public can not completely blame the media itself for the inaccuracy. Most of the time, media is driven by the desire of the public to get news as quick as possible. Therefore, all the media companies always rush to provide the information to the public under pressure. If the public are able to give media enough time to collect information and acknowledge the accuracy and completeness, the media itself will start changing the way providing and interpreting information eventually
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Temperature Figures
Although there were some fluctuations in the middle, the main trend of average temperature of each decade is rising, from 13.8 Celsius degree in 1890 to 14.6 Celsius degree in 2005. There was a small dip at the beginning in the curve. Then the average temperature kept climbing gradually until 1950, followed by a down trend. From 1970, the average temperature of each decade started rising again until 2005, however, at a rate much higher than before. The fluctuation seems reasonable in the first half of this century. Nonetheless, the recent temperature rising is rapidly enough to warn us the emerging of Global Warming.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Spam Email
One of the most annoying things about internet is spam emails. Most of them are unsolicited advertisements, and some of them are scams, which pretend to come from your banks, online sellers, or even government. I once received one scam email which claimed coming from Bank of America and let me give my account information. I almost trusted the email and was about to release my person information before I called Bank of America and found it was a fake.
Most of time, I will trash them right away without reading them. However, I may scan through the list of titles to make sure the mail server does not put some "good" emails into the "spam" folder by mistake before I delete them permantly.
In terms of sexually or inappropriate emails for kids, parents should set up the filters properly in order to filter those email before the kids access them. In the meantime, parents should educate them and make sure they are aware of the existence of these kinds of emails and deal with them appropriately in case they have access to them.
Spam emails are difficult to fight against. More intelligent softwares are needed to develop to deal with them. However, it is impossible to remove them completely because the technologies at both sides develop at the same time. Hence, the more viable way is to let people be aware of it and able to handle it in a correct way.
Most of time, I will trash them right away without reading them. However, I may scan through the list of titles to make sure the mail server does not put some "good" emails into the "spam" folder by mistake before I delete them permantly.
In terms of sexually or inappropriate emails for kids, parents should set up the filters properly in order to filter those email before the kids access them. In the meantime, parents should educate them and make sure they are aware of the existence of these kinds of emails and deal with them appropriately in case they have access to them.
Spam emails are difficult to fight against. More intelligent softwares are needed to develop to deal with them. However, it is impossible to remove them completely because the technologies at both sides develop at the same time. Hence, the more viable way is to let people be aware of it and able to handle it in a correct way.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
March 13th, 2008, EAV 7b #1
According to Chernicoff, Fox, and Tanner in What Caused the Extinction of the Dinosaurs, paleontologists are very interested in the factors contributing to the massive extinction 65 millions years ago, including 75% of all live forms on the earth and dinosaurs in particular. Some early hypotheses focuses on single factor, however, other proposed that global environment changes were the reasons. But none of them was able to explain why 75% species were lost and the other 25% species survived. One possible factor, which is agreed among several hypotheses, is the catastrophic collapse of the global food chain preceded the widespread extinction because of the "impact of winter". One group suggested that the massive volcanic eruption sent enormous ashes and gases into the atmosphere. The other group proposed the same phenomenon, yet, trigged by the strike of a meteorite. The third hypothsis combined both as trigger factors for the wordwild food shortage. Although there are numerous evidences demonstrating the correctness of these hypotheses, none of them has attained theory status. Hence, scientists are still searching more evidence to support their hypotheses.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
March 6th, 2008 English Learning Experience
Although I have spent almost 20 years to learn and improve English, I am still not satisfied with it . In terms of the four basic skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, I am able to read well and very weak with three others. First, I was not able to follow the news in the radio or the talking in the movie before I came to US. Most of the time, I heard the words, but I could not find the meaning very quickly. In another words, I had to translate English to Chinese in my mind for understanding the listening English. After five years of continuous listening, my capbility for this skill finally improves. Second, my English writing skill is still horrible. I am still not able to tell the minor differences among synonyms and feel difficult to find accurate word in writing. Very often, there is no natural connection between two contiguous sentences, which makes it suffering to read my writing. Notwithstanding I know that it is necessary to keep on writing to improve it, and I write English everyday, I still feel what I write is very awkward in terms of grammar and word selection. Finally, I have to say my English speaking is not acceptable at all. I keep making mistakes about the timing issue, the pronunciation, and plural form of nouns, which do not exist in Chinese. I am only able to speak in very simple form using simple words; hence, I repeat using same word when I present. Further, my voice always sounds dry and clumsy. The only way to improve my English is to practice and this is what I am going to do.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Assignment on March 4th, 2008
1. Name some types of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources that are used by researchers in your field.
Field: Computer Engineering
Primary source: the original publication of new data, results, and theories; or, own first-hand result, such as simulation result, the output of a program.
Secondary source: interpretation, commentary, analysis and criticism of primary sources; examples include the validation or disapproval of a new theory.
Tertiary source: bibliographies, library catalogs, directories, and survey articles; particularly, a good survey article will give a comprehensive coverage of a particular field and list the most important publications in the field.
2. When you research a topic, how do you keep track of information
In scientific fields, Computer Engineering in particular, the main method to keep track of information is to build a bibliography which consists of all the citations the researcher once used in technical writing. Each item in the bibliography includes the authors, publication name, the original place, published time (year, month), and abstract.
Field: Computer Engineering
Primary source: the original publication of new data, results, and theories; or, own first-hand result, such as simulation result, the output of a program.
Secondary source: interpretation, commentary, analysis and criticism of primary sources; examples include the validation or disapproval of a new theory.
Tertiary source: bibliographies, library catalogs, directories, and survey articles; particularly, a good survey article will give a comprehensive coverage of a particular field and list the most important publications in the field.
2. When you research a topic, how do you keep track of information
In scientific fields, Computer Engineering in particular, the main method to keep track of information is to build a bibliography which consists of all the citations the researcher once used in technical writing. Each item in the bibliography includes the authors, publication name, the original place, published time (year, month), and abstract.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Feb 28, 2008 Identify the three parts of introduction
Red: Move1
Blue: Move2
Green:Move3
Article 1.
Three recent publications serve to illustrate the growing interest in the teaching and researching of Business English (BE) amongst language teachers and researchers: the 1993 bibliography compiled by Kennedy, Hewings and Dudas, which lists research into various aspects of business communication, Dudley Evans and St. Johns’ review of BE research and teaching materials, and the 1996 special issue of English for Specific Purposes edited by St. John and Johnson, which contains articles relating to BE research and teaching, and the implications of research for teaching.
As these and other publications show, there as been a gradual but steady increase in Business English research during the 1990s in cross-cultural and intercultural studies, investigating the English used in business settings by native and non-native speakers (Yamada, 1990; Maier, 1992; Yli-Jokipii, 1994; Akar and Louhiala-Salminen, 1999). This no doubt reflects the fact that not only in English the language of international business but also that “as an international language, English is used as the means of communication in business transactions between people none of whom is a native user of the language” (Robinson, 1991, p. 98).
Despite the interest in both teaching and researching Business English in general, and in cross-cultural research in particular, little is known about the effectiveness of using hands-on cross-cultural and intercultural research as way of raising student awareness of the problems native and non-native speakers may experience in intercultural business encounters. This paper therefore outlines a course we have developed in research methods for intercultural text analysis for final year masters students in the business communication department at the University of Nijmegen. It begins with brief details of the background to the course, and it presents the literature we discuss and the types of activities we use during classroom sessions together with several examples of past student research projects. The paper concludes with discussion of some of the methodological problems we have encountered whilst developing and teaching the course, and, wherever this has been possible, the solutions that we have found and incorporated into our teaching.
Article 2.
An elaborate system of marking social distance and respect is found in the morphology of Nahuatl as spoken in communities of the Malinche volcano area in the Mexican states of Tlaxcala and Puebla. The complexity of the morphology involved, the semantic range of the elements, and the variation in the system in use raise questions of considerable interest for our understanding of the form and function of such systems, both in Nahuatl itself and in other languages.A system of elements usually referred to as 'honorifics' or 'reverentials' is reported by all the grammarians of Classical Nahuatl (cf. Olmos, 1547; Molina, 1571a; Carochi, 1645; Simeon, 1885; Garibay, 1970; Anderson, 1973; Andrews, 1975). Similar systems are reported for several modern varieties of Nahuatl (cf. Whorf, 1946 for Milpa Alta in the Federal District; Pitman, 1948 for Tetelcingo in Morelos; and Buchler and Freeze, 1966 and Buhler, 1967 for Hueyapan and Atempan in northern Puebla). None of these reports, except for Pittman's, describes the system in much detail. The present account is based on materials collected in 1974-75 and during the summer of 1976 in a linguistic survey of Nahuatl-speaking communities on the western and south-western slopes of the Malinche volcano.
Article 3.
In recent years applied researchers have become increasingly interested in the interpersonal relationships with manager-subordinate dyads. The majority of studies have focused on actual similarity between managers and their subordinates as related to managers’ appraisals of subordinates’ performance, subordinates’ job satisfaction and subordinates’ evaluations of their managers.
A few studies have examined the extent to which subordinates congruently perceive their managers (referred to here as “subordinate’s perceptual congruence”). These studies suggest that subordinates who are more perceptually aware of their superiors’ work-related attitudes receive higher performance evaluations and are more satisfied with their superiors.
Each of these previous studies has researched only a part of this complex dyadic interpersonal relationship. First, none of the studies has examined the effects of a manager’s congruent perception of a subordinate’s work-related attitudes. Second, no studies can be found that directly compare the relative importance of actual similarity with that of perceptual congruence. Third, none of the previous studies has looked at interpersonal perception by the manager and by the subordinates simultaneously within the same dyad.
The purpose of the present field investigation was to study both actual similarity and perceptual congruence and to examine them from the perspective of both the manager and the subordinate. The study investigated the relationships of these perceptual processes in two important organizational outcomes: subordinates’ satisfaction with work and supervision, and managers’ evaluations of subordinates’ job performance. Specifically, the study examined: (a) the relative magnitude of perceptual congruence and actual similarity with these two organizational outcomes; (b) whether the more congruently a subordinate perceives the manager (subordinate’s perceptual congruence), the more satisfied the subordinate will be; and (c) whether the more congruently a manager perceives the subordinate (manager’s perceptual congruence), the higher the subordinate’s performance will be evaluated.
Article 4.
Over the past twenty years there have been a number of significant changes to the health care system in Australia. These changes have occurred at the local, state, and federal levels. This paper will examine reforms at the state level for Victoria. This focus has been chosen because it is at this level that changes have had the most impact. Rather than superficially describing a large number of reforms, a detailed description and analysis will be presented of three revisions: the Workcare system, the deinstitutionalization of mental health patients, and the introduction of case-mix funding.
Article 5.
The thermal properties of glassy materials at low temperatures are still not completely understood. The thermal conductivity has a plateau which is usually in the range 5 to 10K and below this temperature it has a temperature dependence which varies approximately as T. The specific heat below 4K is much larger than that which would be expected from the Debye theory and it often has an additional term which is proportional to T. Some progress has been made towards understanding the thermal behaviour by assuming that there is a cut-off in the photon spectrum at high frequencies (Zaitlin and Anderson, 1975a, b) and that there is an additional system of low-lying two-level states (Anderson et al., 1972; Phillips, 1972). Nevertheless more experimental data are required and in particular it would seem desirable to make experiments on glassy samples whose properties can be varied slightly from one to the other. The present investigation reports attempts to do this by using various samples of the same epoxy resin which have been subjected to different curing cycles. Measurements of the specific heat (or the diffusing) and the thermal conductivity have been taken in the temperature range 0.1 to 80K for a set of specimens which covered up to nine different curing cycles.
Blue: Move2
Green:Move3
Article 1.
Three recent publications serve to illustrate the growing interest in the teaching and researching of Business English (BE) amongst language teachers and researchers: the 1993 bibliography compiled by Kennedy, Hewings and Dudas, which lists research into various aspects of business communication, Dudley Evans and St. Johns’ review of BE research and teaching materials, and the 1996 special issue of English for Specific Purposes edited by St. John and Johnson, which contains articles relating to BE research and teaching, and the implications of research for teaching.
As these and other publications show, there as been a gradual but steady increase in Business English research during the 1990s in cross-cultural and intercultural studies, investigating the English used in business settings by native and non-native speakers (Yamada, 1990; Maier, 1992; Yli-Jokipii, 1994; Akar and Louhiala-Salminen, 1999). This no doubt reflects the fact that not only in English the language of international business but also that “as an international language, English is used as the means of communication in business transactions between people none of whom is a native user of the language” (Robinson, 1991, p. 98).
Despite the interest in both teaching and researching Business English in general, and in cross-cultural research in particular, little is known about the effectiveness of using hands-on cross-cultural and intercultural research as way of raising student awareness of the problems native and non-native speakers may experience in intercultural business encounters. This paper therefore outlines a course we have developed in research methods for intercultural text analysis for final year masters students in the business communication department at the University of Nijmegen. It begins with brief details of the background to the course, and it presents the literature we discuss and the types of activities we use during classroom sessions together with several examples of past student research projects. The paper concludes with discussion of some of the methodological problems we have encountered whilst developing and teaching the course, and, wherever this has been possible, the solutions that we have found and incorporated into our teaching.
Article 2.
An elaborate system of marking social distance and respect is found in the morphology of Nahuatl as spoken in communities of the Malinche volcano area in the Mexican states of Tlaxcala and Puebla. The complexity of the morphology involved, the semantic range of the elements, and the variation in the system in use raise questions of considerable interest for our understanding of the form and function of such systems, both in Nahuatl itself and in other languages.A system of elements usually referred to as 'honorifics' or 'reverentials' is reported by all the grammarians of Classical Nahuatl (cf. Olmos, 1547; Molina, 1571a; Carochi, 1645; Simeon, 1885; Garibay, 1970; Anderson, 1973; Andrews, 1975). Similar systems are reported for several modern varieties of Nahuatl (cf. Whorf, 1946 for Milpa Alta in the Federal District; Pitman, 1948 for Tetelcingo in Morelos; and Buchler and Freeze, 1966 and Buhler, 1967 for Hueyapan and Atempan in northern Puebla). None of these reports, except for Pittman's, describes the system in much detail. The present account is based on materials collected in 1974-75 and during the summer of 1976 in a linguistic survey of Nahuatl-speaking communities on the western and south-western slopes of the Malinche volcano.
Article 3.
In recent years applied researchers have become increasingly interested in the interpersonal relationships with manager-subordinate dyads. The majority of studies have focused on actual similarity between managers and their subordinates as related to managers’ appraisals of subordinates’ performance, subordinates’ job satisfaction and subordinates’ evaluations of their managers.
A few studies have examined the extent to which subordinates congruently perceive their managers (referred to here as “subordinate’s perceptual congruence”). These studies suggest that subordinates who are more perceptually aware of their superiors’ work-related attitudes receive higher performance evaluations and are more satisfied with their superiors.
Each of these previous studies has researched only a part of this complex dyadic interpersonal relationship. First, none of the studies has examined the effects of a manager’s congruent perception of a subordinate’s work-related attitudes. Second, no studies can be found that directly compare the relative importance of actual similarity with that of perceptual congruence. Third, none of the previous studies has looked at interpersonal perception by the manager and by the subordinates simultaneously within the same dyad.
The purpose of the present field investigation was to study both actual similarity and perceptual congruence and to examine them from the perspective of both the manager and the subordinate. The study investigated the relationships of these perceptual processes in two important organizational outcomes: subordinates’ satisfaction with work and supervision, and managers’ evaluations of subordinates’ job performance. Specifically, the study examined: (a) the relative magnitude of perceptual congruence and actual similarity with these two organizational outcomes; (b) whether the more congruently a subordinate perceives the manager (subordinate’s perceptual congruence), the more satisfied the subordinate will be; and (c) whether the more congruently a manager perceives the subordinate (manager’s perceptual congruence), the higher the subordinate’s performance will be evaluated.
Article 4.
Over the past twenty years there have been a number of significant changes to the health care system in Australia. These changes have occurred at the local, state, and federal levels. This paper will examine reforms at the state level for Victoria. This focus has been chosen because it is at this level that changes have had the most impact. Rather than superficially describing a large number of reforms, a detailed description and analysis will be presented of three revisions: the Workcare system, the deinstitutionalization of mental health patients, and the introduction of case-mix funding.
Article 5.
The thermal properties of glassy materials at low temperatures are still not completely understood. The thermal conductivity has a plateau which is usually in the range 5 to 10K and below this temperature it has a temperature dependence which varies approximately as T. The specific heat below 4K is much larger than that which would be expected from the Debye theory and it often has an additional term which is proportional to T. Some progress has been made towards understanding the thermal behaviour by assuming that there is a cut-off in the photon spectrum at high frequencies (Zaitlin and Anderson, 1975a, b) and that there is an additional system of low-lying two-level states (Anderson et al., 1972; Phillips, 1972). Nevertheless more experimental data are required and in particular it would seem desirable to make experiments on glassy samples whose properties can be varied slightly from one to the other. The present investigation reports attempts to do this by using various samples of the same epoxy resin which have been subjected to different curing cycles. Measurements of the specific heat (or the diffusing) and the thermal conductivity have been taken in the temperature range 0.1 to 80K for a set of specimens which covered up to nine different curing cycles.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Feb 26, 2008 EAV Chap12, 7b(#2)
Dear Mom and Dad,
It has been for a while without hearing from you. How are you doing at the countryside?
I am still working on the coal mine that I have been working for in the past ten years. The owner of the mine is a very mean person. He always provides us the worst food, which is stale and cold. I and another 9 young colleagues have to share a small room, which has not bathroom. There is no running water here; hence, I generally take a bath once a month. The winter is very cold in northern England; however, the owner even doesn’t give us the coal for heating in the room.
Everyday I work sixteen hours underground and I don’t have weekend. Even I am very sick sometimes, I am forced to work. I and other miners do the work manually. We dig the coal using pickaxe and shovel underground, put them into carts, and then pull them up. It is very dusty and wet at the scene, and I even can’t breathe sometimes. In addition, it is very dangerous for working underground. Two of my colleagues have been killed in the past year because of cave-in. However, the owner doesn’t care our lives and spends almost nothing to improve the working conditions and safety. Furthermore, I am paid very low.
In order to change this kind of bad situation, we form a worker union and are on strike now. Unfortunately, I don’t expect these mine owners are going to accept our requirements. The government is on their side. Moreover, it is very easy for them to find new workers to replace us since young fellows are flooding into this area from countryside to look for jobs.
In the meantime, I heard a lot of stories from the new continent, the United States. It is very easy to find a job there because the country is expanding fast and the labor is scarce. Even for the same job, it is paid much better than here. Maybe I will find my own fortune in the new continent. At the same time, I will be far far away from you then.
Yours son,
Tom
It has been for a while without hearing from you. How are you doing at the countryside?
I am still working on the coal mine that I have been working for in the past ten years. The owner of the mine is a very mean person. He always provides us the worst food, which is stale and cold. I and another 9 young colleagues have to share a small room, which has not bathroom. There is no running water here; hence, I generally take a bath once a month. The winter is very cold in northern England; however, the owner even doesn’t give us the coal for heating in the room.
Everyday I work sixteen hours underground and I don’t have weekend. Even I am very sick sometimes, I am forced to work. I and other miners do the work manually. We dig the coal using pickaxe and shovel underground, put them into carts, and then pull them up. It is very dusty and wet at the scene, and I even can’t breathe sometimes. In addition, it is very dangerous for working underground. Two of my colleagues have been killed in the past year because of cave-in. However, the owner doesn’t care our lives and spends almost nothing to improve the working conditions and safety. Furthermore, I am paid very low.
In order to change this kind of bad situation, we form a worker union and are on strike now. Unfortunately, I don’t expect these mine owners are going to accept our requirements. The government is on their side. Moreover, it is very easy for them to find new workers to replace us since young fellows are flooding into this area from countryside to look for jobs.
In the meantime, I heard a lot of stories from the new continent, the United States. It is very easy to find a job there because the country is expanding fast and the labor is scarce. Even for the same job, it is paid much better than here. Maybe I will find my own fortune in the new continent. At the same time, I will be far far away from you then.
Yours son,
Tom
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Homework on Feb 19, 2008 Positive and negative effects of monopoly
Most of the time, monopoly brings negative effects. First, monopolies tend to become less efficient and innovative over time because they do not have to be efficient or innovative to compete in the marketplace. Hence, the technology advancement is comparatively slow when one company controls a particular market. Second, monopolies generally overcharge the end consumers because there is no alternative on the market and companies are always greedy. Third, consumers have no place to complain if they are not satisfied with the products or services since those monopolies most often ignore these voices and do nothing. Most of monopolies become complacent giants eventually. Sometimes this very loss of efficiency can raise a potential competitor's value enough to overcome market entry barriers, or provide incentive for research and investment into new alternatives.
Hence, if one monopoly wants to keep its status for a long term, it behaves as if there were competition because of the risk of losing their monopoly to new entrants. Sometimes, consumers feel more comfortable if the market is controlled by one responsible monopoly because the product value will stay steadily, therefore, their investment is safe for a long term, particularly, in terms of these luxury, however, without any intrinsic value, jewelry such as gem-diamond.
From my point of view, the best business model is that the market is dominated by several (less than 5) major players. Hence, these companies are able to collect enough revenue to invest on research and development. In the meantime, they have to compete against each other to improve their product and service in order to stay in the market. These kinds of case can be found in the soft beverage market (Coca-cola and Pepsi), the computer microprocessor market (Intel and AMD), and the civil aviation market (Boeing and Air Bus).
Hence, if one monopoly wants to keep its status for a long term, it behaves as if there were competition because of the risk of losing their monopoly to new entrants. Sometimes, consumers feel more comfortable if the market is controlled by one responsible monopoly because the product value will stay steadily, therefore, their investment is safe for a long term, particularly, in terms of these luxury, however, without any intrinsic value, jewelry such as gem-diamond.
From my point of view, the best business model is that the market is dominated by several (less than 5) major players. Hence, these companies are able to collect enough revenue to invest on research and development. In the meantime, they have to compete against each other to improve their product and service in order to stay in the market. These kinds of case can be found in the soft beverage market (Coca-cola and Pepsi), the computer microprocessor market (Intel and AMD), and the civil aviation market (Boeing and Air Bus).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)