Lament

I finished my 50 slide presentation 2 days ago. I looked at it again today and realize that there is probably lots of information that no one cares about. I have decided to remove that information and reduced the presentation to 38 slides. According to my estimates, I will be going after a short presentation time of about 30 minutes. Perhaps longer if there are questions.

I did my department wide presentation 3 weeks ago. The funny thing is that I had the chance to talk to someone that listened to my talk to hear his opinion from me. Most of the other presentations by Japanese students have slided loaded with big charts and text boxes with arrows pointing all over the place. The speaker ends up pointing all over the place with the lazer pointer while rambling on.

As for me, I am very different in the sense that I keep my slides sparse with only the few main points that I want to make. The person that I spoke to told me that he liked my presentation but his professor told him that it wasn't good to have slides that are so empty.

Perhaps there is a point to what the professor wants to make. I'm not sure but from my point of view, I'd rather be easily understood rather than just looking grand with fancy text boxes with arrows pointing all over the place.

Presentation complete

I started working on the presentation at about 8:00 pm today... (I went for dinner right before the cafeteria closed [ie. 7:30 pm]). I sat through the group meetings happening and finished my power point presentation at about 12:10 am today. Now, just to fix up some hand outs to give out to for my presentation this Saturday (adapting it from my last presentation) and it'll be all done.

My current presentation currently weighs in at 47 slides; my lab mates are going to hate me when I present on Saturday.

Time is short

Well I just finished my last post, but I felt like I should follow up with another...

In a week, it will be my one year anniversary since my arrival to Japan. In retrospect, a lot (and a little) has happened since I came here. It's already been a year, where did all this time go? Back in Canada, I would probably never have noticed that a year has passed like this. I lived in Richmond for so long and I took my time there for granted in the sense that my time was never limited there.

After comming to Japan, that perspective has changed significantly; now that I realize that I have 1.5 years left over here (1 term into my masters). After watching the graduating masters students get ready to leave the lab, I have mapped out the life of a masters student in Japan.

The first 6 months they sort of bust ass surviving classes and learn how to do experiments (with no real success), the next 6 months they take classes, try and find a job (job hunting season starts 1 year before all students graduate, it's really crazy... I'll talk about it some other time) and do experiments with more success. 1 Year later, they have no classes to take but realize that they need to write up their masters thesis by the end of the year. They start working like mad to get data and experiments down for the next 6 months. The remaining 6 months, they start writing their thesis over a period of 4 months while doing experiments to fill gaps of information from other experiments. After all that is done, they graduate and they're gone (unless they stick around and do a Ph.D).

It's a go-go-go kind of life and seems pretty busy to me. On top of that, I want to learn more Japanese, make friends and hang out with friends... in addition to trying to be productive at the lab. Time is short and it's going to be all done too fast. I'm just starting to have a good time and meeting all sorts of interesting people (with what little time I do have :P)

I still remember taking my time in Japan for the first 6 months for granted. I just had really easy Japanese courses, loads of free time (in the sense that I was sleeping in all the time) and not a real care in the world. I did want to learn more Japanese on my own during that time, I wanted to learn more about my research during that time but I took it pretty easy (well I taught english 6 hours a week at the YMCA during my free time) and I sort of regret it. There is lots of travelling learning that I want to do. Can I do it in the remaining time I have left in Japan?

Only time can tell.

Well, back to work on my presentation.

Night Life (Lab Life)

Been getting home no earlier than midnight for the past few days. I've been sort of making that up by sleeping in till 9~10 am and then heading into lab and then sleeping in between experiment runs recently, I am pretty back to my normal sleep levels. It's 10:00 pm here and I am fairly awake. There is a group meeting going on right behind my seat as I type this, but everyone is staring at the projector screen while I type this (and also work on my weekend presentation).

Turns out for the presentation, I have lots to talk about. At first I was worried all week that I'd have nothing to talk or present about, but fortunately for all bi-monthly lab meetings, I've been making powerpoint slides and saving them that I can quickly review what I have been doing for the past 3 months. Turns out to be much more than I realized and I am very grateful (in the copy and paste sense), I was worried for the entire week that I wasn't geting any real work done for the past 3 months.

I have been working on the presentation, I now have 32 slides as of this moment (I've copied probably 15~17 of them from other presentaitons I have done) and still have about another 10 to go. Then for tomorrow, I need to update a hand out from my last presentation, print things out and then I should be complete for my presentation! Yay.

Looks like I can go out and play this Friday. Yay!

No real updates yet

Life right now is pretty intense, both in the work and play sense. It's the good life and I'm paying for it through sleep.

Last week:

Thursday-- get called out by a volunteer friend of mine to hit a nice restaurant/bar with them. I met an owner of a large food chain (runs lots of cafeterias), a pharmacist and a wine make

Friday-- Graduation ceremony for graduating students (duh!). Go out with the graduating students to celebrate with them

Saturday -- Lab meeting runs from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm, return to my old room to clean out the last remaining things. Stay up till 5:00 am cleaning. Will need to move out remaining things another day.

Sunday -- "All you can eat cake" at a restaurant. Me, 3 other guys and my friend's g/f hit the cafe. We are the only group with men and get lots of giggly looks from Japanese girls. Note that most of the other guys were big and gruffy foreigners.

After, stumble on news of a St. Paddy's event going on at a part. We hit that. I meet a ton load of Canadians and a very wide multitude of European people. We hit the Irish pub in the evening. I find a table to play poker. I mop up really good in the beginning and lost $10 at the end when I didn't expect to see something happen. Very nice people...

This week (planned):

Monday - purchase some furniture for the room and a light fixture. Have mailing address for Cell phone and foreign registration changed. (still more address changes to make)

Tuesday and Wedensday -- Haul ass on experiments, prepare material for presentation on Saturday.

Friday - Check out of my old room, have it inspected. In the evening, got invited by a musican guy I met on the Sunday to attend his live performance at a bar in the evening.

Saturday - Lab presentation (1 hour long). Need to get results this week and make presentation. Took me atleast 3 days last time to prepare, just the writing part. I also need to run a bunch of expreriments.

Sunday - Tokyo. Meet friend comming back in from Hawaii at Narita airport with a few friends that are hanging out in Tokyo for the day. Using Ida's rail pass (will have to pass as a girl.. somehow since the name is written on it), who came a few weeks ago (thanks Ida!).

End Update Snippets

Crunch Time

It's been really busy, but I am still alive.. but sort of. I have another lab presentation to make next weekend (not enough results for me to present!!) and then I have to finish cleaning my room to check out the day before the presentation. This is going to be really tight!

The new appartment is pretty nice. I lack a dresser so clothing is all over the place at the moment. No internet until April 6th at home either (but we will be on a fiber optic connection). Gotta run, it's Saturday meeting time at the lab!

Where'd that go?

Looking for my camera battery charger. I know I put it here somewhere...

Moving is largely complete. Boxes, Skis and Clothes have been moved. A bed and desk has been acquired.

Things needed:

Hanger for dress clothes
Dresser for normal clothes
Light fixture for room
Big ass spice rack/cabinet
Extra shelves for plates, pots and pans
3M wall stickers for me to hang things

Partition wall :

The room between my room and a friend's is only partitioned by a set of Japanese sliding doors. The problem is that sound isolation between rooms isn't so good. Meaning that sound travels to easily. Time for some dry wall and sound insulation research.

It's going to take another 2 weeks atleast before the home is up and running the way I want it to. After that, it's house (appartment) warming party!

Where did all this stuff come from!?

I am now 5 hours in to packing... how did I acquire all this stuff? Drawer after drawer after drawer, it's still going. I haven't started packing my clothes yet and it's 3:30 am. This does not bode well for the hero. Better now than later I guess.

I move things by truck tomorrow, the main objective is to get everything that I can't move on my scooter into the truck and get it hauled off. Get most of my main stuff out of here and I can deal with the smaller things over a 2 week window and clean this place out. Pictures of my stuff later.

FYI, my spice cabinet has been packed-- it took 2 boxes! Pictures of the mess another day (I am taking pictures of it!).

Moving

The amount of stuff one accumilates over the course of a year is amazing. Slowly working at packing most of my belongings into boxes ready for shipping to my new place tomorrow. It's 11:30 now, only fitting that I be packing the night before. It's allright though. My contract in the dorm runs to the end of the month, so it's still good. I'll linger here a little longer before I kiss this room goodbye.

More stories later, I've got stuff to do!

Pack pack pack,
I've got a load of boxes to stack!

Ida was here but I'm not totally

I always tell my friends that the kind of life I'd like to have is one where I can work hard and play hard. It seems that it is comming into a reality. I suffer from lack of sleep.

I took Friday and Saturday off (you read that right about the Saturday), after pulling in some late hours during the week to retrofit one of the machines I use at the lab. Having a friend to show how carbon nanotube growth works was well worth the incentive to get the machine going (it worked ok before, I wanted to install a bunch of things into it). We also got to play with an electron microscope too!



We hit Matsushima, a region famous in Japan for it's views. I'd describe the place with islands with trees growing on them that looks exactly like bonsai. We got to cook our won fish cakes and try out the local oyster.

We then hit Yamadera, the mountain temple (which is starting to become a favorite spot for me). And of course, I had to have her take a picture with the famous post box on top of the mountain.



Finally, the next day (day 3 really), we hung out at the dorms and Ida got to ride my scooter.



If you're reading Ida, the scooter is more stable when you go faster :P. But you did good anyways, 30km/h on your first day is about what I did at first too. Ps. Thanks for the dried mangoes and almond chocolate from COSTCO! I didn't even realize how much I missed those!

The morning Ida headed home. I had a farewell party to attend for the lab for the students graudating out of the lab. We would head out to a ski and onsen resort to spend to days. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much.



We skiied, soaked in hot springs, talked, played games and then soaked in hot springs some more. I got all of 3 hours of sleep on that adventure.

Yesterday, I would not come home till 4 am from lab after going though a full day tutorial (ie. 24 hours+ over 2 days) and then teaching electronic circuits to a friend at the lab. I called it early today and came home at 5 pm to get some sleep. I will go to the gym tonight to unwind.

I start moving this weekend to my new appartment with friends, 2 weeks after I have an in house presentation to give on Saturday to the lab. I'll be spending next week getting results and the week after writing a presentation up (presentation is April 1st, heh heh heh). After that, classes start. Life is intense. Hope I can keep up.

Yarrrrrr!

My hat is off to the boys at The Pirate Bay for their ridicule of the ways that media companies continue to push the little guys around. Seriously though, the little guys definately could use some backbone, and these boys have it.

Wired published an article about these guys in action, most amusing is the legal threats they get from media companies and their responses. Takes some balls to pull it off, apparently there is quite the movement in Sweden that there is actually a political party comming together that supports piracy (see wired article). For all the time it took to finally see this happen, I am comming to the conclusion it is easier to organize a small group of influential people than it is to coordinate a mob of... well less influential people (for the lack of a better term).

I do wonder, how does a small group of media companies have the right to enforce their will upon millions of people? Not that I'm saying it's wrong (I choose not to pick a side for this article), but if this were a battlefield, they'd be crushed a million to one. If this were true, then the death knell would already be sung, the media industry would be dead and the public (most likely) would be at a loss (for me, I probably could care less in most cases). Would the public lament if this were the result? Probably, but let the will of the majority have their way. If they screw up, they'll learn it the hardway and be the better for it. If it doesn't turn out the way we want, then we'd be the better off either way. What is there to lose? Just the rich guys, who don't really care about us.

The Short Date Problem

Excerpt from a conversation from a Canadian friend of mine over a sushi lunch. My friend, finishes her lunch in half the time it takes me to eat my food.

Me: Are your dates short by any chance?

Her: Yeah, I don't know why.

Need I say more?

Hina Matsuri -- Girl's Festival

Hina-matsuri, also known as girl's festival in Japan... also known as doll's festival where the Japanese pray for the well being of their girls. The girls end up getting taken out by their family for a dinner and occasionally dress up in kimonos. I finished my presentation on Friday and jetted from the lab to hit the festival as my way of celebrating for working like mad on my presentation. Enjoy the pictures!


That's Xavier, from France, yeah I guess I can see why girls can dig French guys :)

A normal picture!

Now with 50% more smile!

My presentation suit (western Kimono?) with the ladies

Some people thought we were married :P

The Kimono master putting on my clothes ("Excuse me, you're going to have to take off your clothes!")

General sillyness

More general sillyness!

I've got more but, I'm sure you get the idea :)

Playing with my camera

I was doing some playing around with the lighting in my room this evening, (more like at 3:30 am) and came up with this. Um yeah... I love my camera :)

I'll be posting pictures later on a Japanese event to last Friday later on. I've been up a while and need some sleep.

So I lied... and Comments on Public Speaking

Turns out that I don't have access to the server's webspace at the lab, meaning that I can't post my presentation online. I'll do a write up instead later on. Ooops.

I went to University today to attend the department wide presentation series, where the graduate students will be presenting. I'll eat my words from my previous posts and tell you up front that these presentations *weren't* as stupid as I initially thought. (Note: It's important to keep track of things that come out differently than you initally thought because it keeps you honest, and I personally think that's very important).

Presentation format: 10 minutes to speak, 10 minutes question/comment period. Professors from other labs attend to give comments from a different perspective from instead of just your own advisor. Students are encouraged to be active (and also required to attend 10 lectures and ask atleast 1 question from all of them). This is a decent format because it gets people to stick to the point.

I've found the presentations to have some varience in quality some have been quite good and the rest pretty okay and the good presenters are able to answer questions in a thoughful manner. So I'll have to revise my position on the Japanese students that they're not as bad as I initially thought-- I needed to get out of my little hole and see the world.

My presentation occurs tomorrow morning and I'm currently rehearsing in my room. I am very comforable presenting in an informal situation with just a few penned out notes and a chalkboard or something. I have all the freedom to go wherever I want. The problem with a power point presentation is that I'm stuck to what I've got written down. At different times I'll be thinking differently and often if I were to make the same presentation informally, it'll be subtly different depending on how I am thinking at the time. But I'll still be making the same main points and I don't necessarly have to follow my format.

It's kind of fascinating discovering that my mind works like this. I've written about this once but I'll not bother link to it (it's an essay on language I've written over the summer and I made a link to it last month or so). But say if this post was deleted in a crash right now. I'd still have the same ideas, but you can be sure that it'll turn out slightly differently. It's something like that. I wonder if this is how the brain compresses information (or is it something I learned to do because I like to find ways of remembering the most with least amount of effort [ie. I like to remember the main ideas and re-figure out the details as I go along.. saves on the memorizing]).

Wish me luck on my presentation.

As for tomorrow, I'm going to celebrate in a cool kind of way. I'm going to jet out of the University to check out a festival called "Hina-Matsuri" where girls go out and dress up in Kimonos. So I'll be in my suit after my presentation and I'm going out take pictures with them. Not a bad way to celebrate to me :)

Wanna know what I do? Part 1

I've been saying that I'd tell everyone what my research project is for the last little while. Since I've been preparing for my seminar happening this Friday, I've been spending the week preparing handouts and slides for my 10 minutes worth of fame this Friday. I figure that now is a better time than any to introduce my work to you (sort of).

Let me start with my first research project, (I will post my current project later today when I can post my presentation online).

Since comming to this lab, I was interested in developing micro-machined wireless communication devices and was looking for medical applications. I was initially set to work on a micro-technology implantable based glucose sensor and spent my first month at the lab researching papers and reading online materials to figure out what is going on in the field.

The proposed system was to use a semi-permiable membrane (remember that word from high-school science?) to glucose that would let glucose diffuse into a chamber containing a sensitive fluid. This fluid would change viscosity which is telling of current body glucose concentrations (note: viscosity is how sticky a fluid is). The viscosity could be detected using a vibrating cantiliver (read: vibrating stick) in the chamber that could be excited by an ultra-sonic pulse from outside of the body (think: sound exciting a tuning fork). You see, the viscosity of the glucose sensitive fluid would determine the vibrating frequency of the cantiliver. This means that if I listen to the cantiliver, I can determine the glucose concentration in the body using ultrasound. Get it? I'm sure you did (research doesn't necessarily have to be tough).

After doing some reading on biotech MEMs technology, I had reached the conclusion that this device would *suck.* The human body has an inherent reaction to foreign objects implented the body by covering them in the body with an isolating protein layer from reading bio-tech books. What this means is that the sensitive permiable membrane gets covered after a few months and is rendered useless. Immuno responses to implanted microsensors that require a physical interface to the inside of the body are impractical. This means that until we figure out a way to prevent the body from gumming up the sensors like these, these sensors are useless. But to solve this, is an entirely different problem (which is also not in my realm of expertise).

Had I accepted the projet at face value, I would have been screwed. Remember, do your homework properly because it'll save you from trouble and reward you later. Read on.

So what next? I discovered some technology being developed by Animas Corporation, who have a bright idea (literally) on the subject. They are currently developing technology to use light in an implantable sensor to determine glucose concentration. By observing how much light is absorbed (or was it frequency? I don't remember anymore), they can determine glucose concentration. The smart thing is that this technology is using light frequencies that don't get blocked by the insulating protein later. Smart, no? There is a detail of keeping it powered, meaning they are going to need either a battery or a wireless way of transmitting power, but I think those are more managable problems.

Anyways, I thought that it was much smarter than my idea (and my professors weren't too keen on my idea of using micro-needle patches on the outside of the body as a work around) that I decided to drop the project all together. Animas corporation was bought out by Johnson and Johonson a month later after I finished my analysis, sending the stock of Animas Corpotation to spike by 33% in a day in December of 2005. I was on the money for my analysis. Too bad I didn't put my money where my mouth was.

My real project will be posted later tomorrow.