What has been going on here?

Well I have been holding off on making any posts because I was hoping to make some rather long posts (with pictures) catching up on what has been going on over here. I do have a long back log of pictures to post and thought it would be fun to throw them up. That just hasn't been wanting to happen the last few weeks and I don't know why. Perhaps a lack of motivation? Energy... I dunno. But anyways I thought I might as well post on how things have been going on here in text instead.

As busy as I sound, I am having quite a lot of fun in addition to doing my masters work (nothing concrete at the moment). The masters work itself (or at least the getting a thesis process it self, will explain later on). For the past 2 weeks, my life has consisted of getting to the labs in the morning, taking classes, reading papers and then heading out at about 6:00 pm to teach Engish to a few students on Tuesdays and Wedensdays. If I don't have to teach, them I'm here usually till about 9:00 pm reading papers or learning more about whatever ideas I have at the time or the Micro Electric Machines (MEMs) field in general. I have already filled 1.25 binders with reading material which I have downloaded the net.

On other days when I don't have to teach, I periodically head home and eat with friends, usually inviting them over for dinner or getting invited out for dinner, baking cookies and etc. Great fun. We have a guy named Mike over here from MIT that can make some pretty mean cookies and Thai curry. Damn good stuff, heck I ate too much of it that I ended up having a stomach aches the next day (since I haven't been eating really spicy food for a long time).

Weekends have been really busy as I have been doing something every weekend. 3 Weeks ago was something called an Imoni-kai in Japan. Which is where groups of friends head out to the rivers to cook a type of stew with Japanese potatoes, an assortment of veggies, meat and a sort of soup base (soy-sauce or miso depending on the region). The interesting thing is that only Miyagi and Yamagata (the neighbouring prefecture) are the only 2 prefectures in Japan that carries out this tradition. And the food was most excellent. I will be having an Imoni-kai party when I do come back to Canada to introduce everyone to this little Japanese event.

I have so far gone to 2 of these events, once with the international club and another time with a friend as guest for a tennis club. I have not played tennis in about 3~4 years but we had Imoni, beer and played tennis (beer has never tasted so good after a hard game of tennis!) During the same weekend it was some person's birthday whom I did not know, but got invited anyways out to the party. Ended up hitting a kareoke bar and then a club for the evening (the second time I've been to a club in Japan). Didn't get home till 4 am. Just as a note, Kareoke is awsome in Japan. Just because you can go with groups of 20+ people and there is a very wide selection of English music (much more than the selections than what I have seen back home when I did have the chance to go). That and when you pay $20 for2 hours of singing, that also include an all you can drink... all in you can drink as in booze! Crazy no?

The week after, on the Friday evening, the dorms here had a roof top party. Though instead of partying on the roof, I held a little party in my room and was up till about 5 am. The next day was a Korean friend's b-day party at the dorm were a bunch of friends and I would surprise her by all cooking a big lunch and crashing at her room. Yay, more food.

Finally, this week, I ended up going out with friends looking for a halloween costume. A friend of mine came up to me and asked me "Um this might sound weird but, where's the porn store around here?" since they were looking for some school girl outfits to wear. Can you imagine the horror of guys with really hairy legs in a short skirt school girl outfit? Scary indeed. I went as a kung fu master with blood and scars on my face.

Ps, if anyone knows how to remove tea stains, a bit of ash and a bit of melted red wax from a white silk shirt, please do tell me. I had a little incident where I got a white silk shirt (bought in Taiwan!) a little dirty and I've been trying like mad to remove a few marks. Gah, I've hand washed the shirt so many times... .

There were a few parties here and there and a little trip I took to a farm I took last month (pictures which I still need to post) and more misc things I have been doing that has been keeping me busy. Yes, lots of work and play. It's the way I like it... just wish the work part was getting a litte more progress however.

What's the itenary for this week? Nov 2nd, going out to a party with the masters students. The 3rd going out on a trip to check out the Autmn leaves in Sendai. This Friday going to be helping out with a Chinese dumpling party hosted by the lab and then on Sunday I'll be going to a hot Spring. Busy busy... in a good way.

No desire for the computer

I stare at my comptuer screen almost all day reading research papers. Right now, I still am in the process of getting a reserach theme down. I'm going to turn down a project for an implantable glucose sensor due to probably complications due to the human immune system most likely rejecting the device.

With that gone, that leaves me with one project one of my professors have proposed -- an electron beam lithography system using carbon nanotubes. Seems interesting but I am rather worried about the feasibility about the system using the proposed technique one of my professors gave me. How I hate to deal with uncertainty in research because I am going to be dedicating myself to a project for the next 2 years for my masters thesis.

So for the past 3 weeks, I've been doing nothing but reading reserach papers on a varety of topics in my field. Many of them on the computer but I've been taking the time to print things out and read them on paper (reading reserach papers on the computer is tiring... I can read entire novels on my computer but not research papers it seems). With all the reading I've been doing, I am getting pretty tired of looking at my computer monitor all day, meaning that by the time I get home, I don't really feel like updating the blog (as it requires me to stare at the screen some more while I write).

What about today? Well today is different because I went to bed at about 10:00 pm and woke up at about 4:30 am. After milling in bed till 5:00 am I was out. Took a miserable shower; the hot water was not on in the building and all I got was some luke warm water that was on the cold side. I was hoping for a nice HOT shower in the morning. Since it's getting cold in Sendai, much how it is like in Canada stepping out of the shower into the hall way on the way back to my room was horrible. I grabbed some food and in the lab by 6:00 am. So before I get tired of looking at the monitor all the day, I figured that I should do a bit of an update. And yes, I am in sort of a cranky mood at the moment.

Life has been busy here. I have been going to parties over the weekend. Hosting dinner get togethers during the week with friends and staying at the lab late from time to time. I can stay out late at the lab a few times a week but do it too often I get tired of hanging out at the lab during the day. (Heh, I even look for a secluded couch somewhere in the building to crash once in a while).

Well it's 7:30 am now... half awake. Going to take a quick break and then do something... which I don't know yet.

Oh how do I miss corny jokes!

Q: What do you call a guy that steals software?

A: You call them a pirate!

Q: What do you call a Swede (or a Danish) that steals software?

A: You call them vikings!

Oh how I miss these. What's going on here? Too many things, just way too many things. This evening I was over at Mike's room (from Boston) grabbing some dinner in the form of Thai green Curry, with Marek (German) and Ee Wen (Malaysian) and then we had a Swede that popped by from time to time named (I'm serious here) "Viking." As you can see, I had a great time playing with his name.

Muah ha ha ha ha.

It is now midnight and I am going to turn into a pumpkin. Good night, good night, to all a good night.

If I only had a brain!

There is an experiment going on over here at the university. What they call for are a bunch of native english speakers and do a fRMI brain scan of them while they take a look at *grammatically* correct sentences (hahaha, I can't spell... and some of you already know that my grammar can really suck sometimes... I hope I don't ruin their experiment :). What occurs after is that subjects will buzz in a yes or no depending on the passage.
The best part? I'll be getting a scan of my brain! Boo yah!

This is the response I got from the Secretary:

***************
I've heard a volunteer of fMRI scans can get copies of their brains.

(It was funny you said you want it for a souvenior!)

Let me ask Prof. Yusa about the copy of your brain.

I will tell you as soon as I get the answer from him.
***************

And there you have it. :)

Still Alive...I think

I knew exactly what would happen to me after the new term starts-- that was that the lab would be sucking me into a black hole of a world in time. I just didn't know it could get even darker then that too.

I'm just kind of tired actually. It's a 9 to 10 kind of job sometimes later with lab meetings and we have meetings on the weekend from 9 to 5, and those are *short* days too! I started classes in Japanese, ran a seminar (it was my turn) today, did some shopping to replenish cleaning equipment, soap and get some utensils.. hosted a party in my room the day before. Stuff like that. 10:30 pm now and It's the first time I had some time to myself.

Heck, my parents are even worried about me because I haven't been able to make the time to talk to them all week. It's a Saturday night... I think I'm going to spend it sleeping.

Taiwan pictures are going to have to wait a little... until I have a little more strength in me. 2.5 hours of cleaning today. I had to catch up on some cleaning since classes started up... now, time for some sleep!

Alive and busy!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I have been exceptionally busy; working and playing.

With Alex and the new international students in town, events and me now officially as a masters student at Tohoku University, it has become pretty busy on this end that I haven't had the time to make many posts. I have a (growing) backlog of pictures to post... got a dessert event I am hosting this Friday (yes, I do like to prepare in advance for events) a seminar to give this Saturday to some labmates (for which I have to review for) and I need to read papers to see if I can get a thesis project going.... in Japan you start your masters thesis research in your first year as opposed to your second year.

Well that sort of sums up what has been going on here (not really... but more posts perhaps after Sunday?)

Alive and really busy.... (and sleepy... we had a lab meeting that went till almost midnight yesterday. These people are nuts).

Oh yeah, one more thing. Vancouver Rules!