Monday, September 27, 2004

Weekend and Monday

Yesterday:

Finally I activated my cable internet and I can get connected at home. It's so bad to send email with attachment through dial-up. But I used dial-up for more than two years and I didn't complain about the slow speed at that time. Well, it just proved again the words: easy to get used to a rich life from poor life, but hard to get used to a poor life from a rich one.

My cell phone plan expired at yesterday. I haven't decided which plan I will buy for future. At most time, cellphone is just a watch and alarm to me. But I think I can't get rid of it now.

Today:

Monday, work at school again. I met with the instructor of my TA class. He told me that it may not be legal to release the homework solutions online. But last Fall I did in that way and the instructor of that class also released some solutions to the homework assignments. I don't think it's illegal. After lunch I created the webpage for the two classes I will teach from this Thursday. I haven't started to prepare the notes for the classes. But usually in the first week (in fact, this is 0th week), I don't need to teach many in the class, because the students haven't taken any lecture classes before my class in 0th week.

Oops, I forgot to get back my I20. It's ready now. Go le.

Friday, September 17, 2004

TA assignment and etc.

I got the new TA assignment. Thanks to the help of Eric, I exchanged one class with him and I will teach two ODE classes in the coming Fall quarter. It will help me to save time in preparation. I will be busier next quarter, so the new assignment will be perfect for me.

I applied for Comcast cable TV and high speed internet. They may be ready in next week. Without internet, the life at home is different. But it doesn't affect me much. I has been so tired these days in the moving and applying services and many other work. The research duty is also heavy. I need to work harder. Last two nights I went to bed before midnight. For me, it's a early time for sleeping. So tired.

Jason and Linda moved into the new office yesterday. Now we have seven people share the new office at IPAM. I will keep the office at MS since I need to hold my office hour as TA at there. That office was crowdy since my officemate was so nice to students that he gave them lots of extra office hours. I couldn't concentrate myself in that office. That's one of the reasons I moved to IPAM.

It's weekend again. Time flies so fast. Tomorrow I will go to Santa Babara to visit a friend and his family. He was my college classmate and he went studying abroad after getting his bachelor degree. He is an assistant professor at UCSB now. Some of my college classmates are postdoc or assistant professors now. I am behind.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

two things this afternoon

1. reserved an appointment for visa renewal at Mexico on Oct. 15th. somebody from UCLA will go to there at the same day.

2. got the TA assignment. same as last Fall, ODE and Numerical Analysis. I may talk with my friend and try to change NA with his ODE, so that I can teach one course only.

new address

I have moved to the new apartment. Oh, maybe I should say new address, since the apt is about 30 years old, not new. It's repainted, clean, and spacious. Not bad. The three things I am not satisfied are: the dirty laundary, small mailbox, and no fan in the kitchen.

Moving is a big project and now it's almost finished. I applied the new accounts for the gas, power, phone. I'm looking for the deal of cable tv and broadband. The life without internet is a little strange to me since I am used to living with internet, or maybe worse, addict to it. Today I sent out some rebate forms with the new address on it. And I submitted the address change in post office, updated address info for all the credit cards and etc. There're still many things I need to do, such as submitting AR-11 form, changing address in DMV, notifing my friends for the address change, etc.

But the most difficult part has already been done. It's not easy to move all the boxes, furnitures, and especially the heavy refrigerator. My previous roommate left here 21 boxes books, unbelivable lots of kitchen stuff, and bunch of kid's stuff. Thanks to the effort of my roommates and two good friends and the god, everything went smoothly. I was worried about how to put all of the stuffs in the apt since we don't have gated garage any more, but finally everything found its palce. When I was laying on my big bed (thanks to Wei Zhu for this gift), I felt so relaxed: hum, this is my new place now.

The new quarter is coming. I haven't received the assignment for the TA work. But I'm hopefully to teach ODE again. I prepared detail notes last Fall when I taught this course. It will help me to save time and be more efficiently. I want to be a good TA, that's why I choose TAship this quarter instead of RAship. Hope that I will have enough time and energy on both my teaching and research. I am working in a new office which is close to the office of my advisor. It "helps to keep me pushed".

New address, new quarter, new beginning.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

911

Today:

(1) the 3rd anniversary of Sept. 11.

(2) I am moving out of the place where I have been for 33 months to a new place. It's hard to say goodbye ... I haven't applied telephone and cable TV and internet for the the new apartment. I'll have a life away from internet at this weekend.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

going home

My friend told me that she booked one airticket to China today. I am also thinking about going back home this winter. And it's time to book the ticket for affordable price.

I planed several times before for the travel back to home. But, I changed all of the plans. My young sister told me in kidding: "don't tell us that you plan to come back in the coming holiday, you have already made us disappointed too many times". My bad ...

Now I am seriously thinking of the travel in this winter. I can not get every thing as good as I expected. In the verse, many things are not good to me. I will be TA in Fall quarter so I can't leave early (possible, if the instructors allow me to ask my friends work as me temporarily, but too complicated). The Fall quarter will end at Dec 17th, which is Friday. And I may only be able to leave from Dec 18th. The airticket will be expensive since it's close to X'mas. And the worse is that the holiday will be very short. The Winter quarter will start from Jan 6th. But I plan to come back a little later, if I will be RA in winter as scheduled.

Another thing is about visa renewal. I am not sure whether I can find someone else going together to TJ to renew the visa. If not, I have to renew it in China. And I may go to Beijing or Guangzhou or Shanghai. I haven't decided my destination yet. I am not worry much about the possibility of being checked in visa renewal, but if I go to renew in China, I have to spend several days in another city before I go back home. The holiday will be even shorter.

So many things are undetermined. But no matter what will happen, I will go back home this time. My advisor told me at last month after he came back from a conference in China: you should go back to take a look, China has changed a lot. I know it. And I don't want to make my parents and friends disappointed again. After I graduate and start working, I will have even less chance to go back China, not only because of the length of holiday period, but also because of the difficulty of renewing visa for Chinese.

I am planning to set down my schedule and book the airticket soon.

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

three years ago

I arrived LAX at noon of Sept. 7th. Wow, I have already been in USA for three years. But I cannot say how much I have learned at here. I was just lazy and I didn't work hard enough.

At that summer I missed the summer school which started from August. It's a review course for the new Basic exam. I thought the exam is just piece of cake for me. But I didn't eat it well. I failed at the first time since I didn't prepare well and most of the questions are from my freshman courses. What a shame that I failed in such an easy exam. I dared not tell my friends. It's good that finally I passed it with a high score at the second chance.

There's an earthquake at the second day after I came here. I am not sure whether my first SPEAK exam is on Sept. 11th or 12th. It should be on 11th since no one worked on 12th. Sept. 11th, what a special date. I still remember that in the morning I called my friend in China as usual and was told: TWO PLANES CRASHED INTO THE WTC!!! Astonished? Not at the beginning. I just couldn't believe it. How could I? I turned on the TV. All the channels were in live show. Astonished! I woke up the other two roommates and we were all shocked. I went to school and then took the exam. I was not nervous in the exam at all since I knew I would fail in the first try, as my friends told me. I remembered that after the exam I sent an email in media room of the library.

It happened three years ago. I have been here for three years. No time can be reversed. But when I look back into the past, some of them seem to happen just at yesterday. Last night I watched CNN. It was broadcasting the terrorist tragedy which happened at Russia few days ago. What a tragedy! Terrorists killed women and children. They are so cruel and inhumane. All the terrorists should be annihilated forever from this world. I talked with my roommate. There may be one person felt happy for this tragedy. That's GWB. He will say: see, what I attacked on terrorism is correct. This may help him to win the Vote 2004.

September is a special month for me since there're some special events happened to me. I am not good in memorizing but every time when I found it's "the date", I recalled something happened before. But, no time can be reversed. All the memories belong to the past. Life goes on and on.

I just realized that 10 years ago, in the morning of Sept. 7th, I arrived Beijing for the first time. What a special date for me!

Hope that I will have many better than better Septembers.

pictures from Beijing

Today I got an email from my GanMa (godmother). She sent me some pictures taken by her recently. They remind me the fall of Beijing. In the university I attended, there were some beautiful pools full of water lily at this season. (I think it's on August, not September). The waterlily is so beautiful that many students sit around the pool at this season. I am not sure whether I will visit Beijing this winter or go back to home directly. But Beijing is always a special city in my memory.


water lily in the Summer Palace, Beijing, China, taken at September 2004 Posted by Hello


Sunset, Beijing. taken at September 2004 Posted by Hello

moving

I got the keys for my new apt at this morning. Now I am ready to move. I plan to move some boxes (of books) first and then move the furniture at this weekend.

This Labor's day is really a labor day for me. My roommates and I packed the books which belong to my previous roommate. Those books filled 20 medium size boxes! And not all, there's still one shelf we didn't notice. The book boxes are so heavy that we plan to move by ourselves before the weekend, when our friends will come to help us for moving.

Now I need to sell the bookshelves. I also want to sell my desktops but I don't think anyone will give me a good price. I have one laptop and two desktops at home. Too much and I seldom used them. I set one desktop as Linux server.

Moving is not easy. Many things are waiting to be done ahead. Packaging, cleaning, U-haul, etc. …

Sunday, September 05, 2004

pictures posted via picasa hello

It's convenient to post pictures via Picasa Hello. I started to use it from today and put some of the old pictures here.


Water Tower Place, Chicago. taken at April 2003. Posted by Hello


Michigan lake, Chicago, taken at April 2003. Posted by Hello


NYC. taken at April 2003. Posted by Hello


The city I am living in, taken at April 2003. Back from east coast. Posted by Hello


Castaic lake. CA. taken at June 2004. BBQ. Posted by Hello


Royce Hall, UCLA. taken at August 2004. Hooding ceremony of my friends. Posted by Hello

Saturday, September 04, 2004

craigslist

Since I will move at next weekend, I need some moving boxes. Today I checked craigslist.com and I found some info in the free stuff board. I was so happy that one lady answered my call and told me that I could get her moving boxes for free. I took it with my friends.

I think American people are nice, at least sometimes. I saw many free stuff info at cragslist. People can throw away their used boxes or other stuffs directly and easily. But sometime they don't. They post the info online and other people who need those stuffs can go and take it, for free. There're some really nice people. I am so grateful for the generosity of that lady. We gave her a Chinese gauze scarf as thank-you gift.

I got to know cragislist few weeks ago. I checked the housing info at there. It helped to find the apt I will move to soon. Thanks to the facility of internet and the nice people.

The link of cragslist: http://www.craigslist.com/

Friday, September 03, 2004

returned to the court

Tonight I went to play tennis with my friends. I had been away from the court for a long time. My racket is still being in my friend's trunk. I left it there at more than one year ago. I am just too lazy.

Now I am glad that I went back to the court and took the exercise. Last summer I played tennis with my former roommate very occasionally. My favorite sport is badminton. But the court in campus requires an additional payment since it is summer quarter now and I am not registered in summer. I am longing for the coming of new quarter when I can play badminton again. This time I have a lot of shuttlecocks.

earthquake?

People are talking about the possible earthquake these days. It has been predicted that a big earthquake (6.2) will come to Los Angeles in this long weekend. Although I don't believe it much and I am not worried about it, I hope it won't come true at all.

Again, the word by Mahatma Gandhi: Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5909167/