As of Sunday evening, I have returned from Tokyo from a 2 night, 3 day adventure spanning from Asakusa, Ueno, Yokohama, Roppongi and Odaba. If there is something fun about travelling in a foreign country, it is also meeting foreign people.
An update on this trip will be published later when I've got pictures to show.
I've got until the end of this week with my internship in Utsunomiya where by the end I will make a short return to Sendai to greet and tempoarary say hello and goodbye to friends before I head off on my next trip to Korea (Seoul and Dae Jong), Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary.
Touch down in Canada on the 26th of Sept. I'll see you guys back home wherever you are!
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Go Watch Keith Olberman
Keith Olberman, a commentator on MSN NBC is remarkable as he is eloquent (though sometimes appearing brash) when it comes down to slamming the current US Bush administration. My words unfortunately cannot even come close to how well this man puts it.
Olberman Special Comment on 9-11: "Who has left this hole in the ground? We have not forgotten, Mr. President. You have. May this country forgive you"
Olberman to Bush "Have you no decency, Sir?" (Bush's attack on Freedom of Speech, following Rumsfeld)
Olberman's Response to Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defence) on America "Fighting a new Fascim"
Olberman Slams Fox News' Bill Oriley (Fox news, screws up the facts and coveres it up)
If only a few more people like him existed to succinctly call out on the stupid things a government does, the world would be a better place instead of the noise you'd hear inside a house which supposedly rules a nation.
Olberman Special Comment on 9-11: "Who has left this hole in the ground? We have not forgotten, Mr. President. You have. May this country forgive you"
Olberman to Bush "Have you no decency, Sir?" (Bush's attack on Freedom of Speech, following Rumsfeld)
Olberman's Response to Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defence) on America "Fighting a new Fascim"
Olberman Slams Fox News' Bill Oriley (Fox news, screws up the facts and coveres it up)
If only a few more people like him existed to succinctly call out on the stupid things a government does, the world would be a better place instead of the noise you'd hear inside a house which supposedly rules a nation.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
In Tokyo Now!
Arrived into tokyo lsat night and now staying at a youth hostel. And wow, it's the cheapest youth hostel I've ever seen (and quite good too)! For 20 bucks you can stay over night, got access to some public washrooms and all the people staying here are pretty nice. I think I've had the most fun meeting foreign people in Japan actually, they really are that easy to talk to. The link to this place is here.
Going out to check out the market around Ueno, Roppongi (the really uptown district) and then Yokohama later today. Going to rent some bicycles and ride them around town today instead of taking the train everywhere. Should be an interesting adventure. Will be here till Sunday.
Going out to check out the market around Ueno, Roppongi (the really uptown district) and then Yokohama later today. Going to rent some bicycles and ride them around town today instead of taking the train everywhere. Should be an interesting adventure. Will be here till Sunday.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Climbing Mt. Fuji
So here is my awaited report on my Mt. Fuji climb. I departed from Utsunomiya to Mito, a large town in Ibaraki located to the South-East of where I am. From there, I would meet up with Natali and the Ibaraki JETs (Japanese English Teachers) who have made plans to climb Mt. Fuji on the weekend of Sept 2nd... convienantly the same weekend I wanted to go. Incidently, Natali is the cool and interesting character I met up at the Yotsukura Beach party a few weeks back and we had remained in contact.
From Mito to Fuji mountain, approx 150 km. Mito is on the top right.
I arrived at Mito on the Friday night to hang out with the JETs, an amazingly cool crew of people. The bunch I'm with had only been in Japan for all of about 1 month but they seem to be getting along just fine. I think it's a thing with international people coming to a foreign country-- they're all extra friendly.
We departed from Mito the next day at 12:30 am on our way to mount Fuji. We had 28 people out for this trip and rented our own tour bus to hit the mountain. Our point man max,
Say hi to Max!
was coordinator for this trip. You'd never think that a big beer drinker like him would be up for a tough mountain climb, but he's a trooper... in more ways than one!
A little about Mt. Fuji
Fuji mountain stands at about 3770 m above sea level. With temperatures at the peak for this season dipping into 2~3 degrees C. The upper most car accessible station (known as the 5th station) is at an elevation of approximatly 2200 m leaving us about 1500 m in elevation to reach. 1.5 km doesn't sound bad when you're walking on flat lands, but going verticle is a different story.
There are several climbing routes up Mt. Fuji depending on what base station you start at. There are 3 base stations each with their own set of stations. For disambiguation, we started on the 5th station of the Kawauchi route. Between the 5th station and the top there are 3 other stations in between, the 6th, 7th and 8th where travellers can make pit-stops, buy supplies and lodge for the night (for $50!).
The climb
The climb takes on the order of 4 to 7 hours depending on the pace you go at. For us, we arrived at the mountain at 7:30 pm, our objective was to catch the rising sun at 4:30 am ish leaving us with plenty of time.
Our 28 people strong group!
What is most often done, is that groups of climbers will climb most of the way out and sit it out there until a few hours before the sun rise. The reasoning is that it's damn cold at the top, so why wait at the top?
We too found it cooler at the bottom of the mountain
Unfortunately for us, the crew of 5 people from our group and the integration of a hiker from a different group of JETs from Hiroshima, we thought that it wasn't cold at all and decided to power through the whole mountain to see how fast we can make it to the top. We did it in about 5 hours. I could hardly keep up with these people and I felt like I just wanted to keel over the entire hike up.
What happened is that as we reached the top the temperature dropped incredibly fast from the 10s of celcius into the single digits making it exceptionally cold. Also as we went further up, the wind suddenly picked up making it really really chilly up there. By the time we made it to the top, we immediately found an outhouse and made our retreat from the harsh environment.
That's us in the outhouse
Sure we might looked all huddled for the picture, but be assured it wasn't for the picture. It was so cold that we had to bunch together to keep ourselves warm using body heat and most of us were shivering like mad. We arrived at the top of the mountain by 12:30 am leaving up with a cold 4 hour wait at the top. Some of us tried to sleep but me and most others, none of us could get a wink.
By 3 am, the legions of other climbers started making their way to the top of the mountain and we were consistently bothered (or perhaps they were bothered by us) by people coming into the outhouse to relieve themselves. After the outhouse got sufficiently stinky, it was time to make our move out of the place and wait for the sunrise.
I bought a $4 shot of hot coffee to get some warmth into my body-- I'm not a coffee drinker but I needed anything hot I could get my hands on. After patient waiting, we were finally greeted by this:
The sunrise over the horizon and clouds
What a sight. After suffering 5 hours on an intense climb, 3 hours wait holed up in an out house, we were greeted by a magnificent sunrise. It was well the struggle.
My moment of victory in the sun!
Me, on the way off the mountain
There is of course more to the story but I could spend forever writing. The long and short after, was that we decended the mountain, taking 3 hours. Decending is far more of a pain then going up because the decending path is different and less steep since going downwards is tougher than going up. We made it back to the 5th station caught our bus and got out of there afterwards.
If you want to see more, I've got a photo album setup with more photos. Feel free to check it out here.
A final word. The Mt. Fuji climb is *not* for the faint of heart -- The climb is long and tiring and you will be brining plenty of supplies throughout the hike. There will be parts where you will have to use your hands to traverse rocky sections. Not only will you have to deal with a tough hike, the air also gets thinner which may lead to altitude sickness. I got mild altitude sickness near the top and felt pretty much like a zombie for most of my time there. If you do decide to climb it, make sure that you are properly read up and prepared!
From Mito to Fuji mountain, approx 150 km. Mito is on the top right.
I arrived at Mito on the Friday night to hang out with the JETs, an amazingly cool crew of people. The bunch I'm with had only been in Japan for all of about 1 month but they seem to be getting along just fine. I think it's a thing with international people coming to a foreign country-- they're all extra friendly.
We departed from Mito the next day at 12:30 am on our way to mount Fuji. We had 28 people out for this trip and rented our own tour bus to hit the mountain. Our point man max,
Say hi to Max!was coordinator for this trip. You'd never think that a big beer drinker like him would be up for a tough mountain climb, but he's a trooper... in more ways than one!
A little about Mt. Fuji
Fuji mountain stands at about 3770 m above sea level. With temperatures at the peak for this season dipping into 2~3 degrees C. The upper most car accessible station (known as the 5th station) is at an elevation of approximatly 2200 m leaving us about 1500 m in elevation to reach. 1.5 km doesn't sound bad when you're walking on flat lands, but going verticle is a different story.
There are several climbing routes up Mt. Fuji depending on what base station you start at. There are 3 base stations each with their own set of stations. For disambiguation, we started on the 5th station of the Kawauchi route. Between the 5th station and the top there are 3 other stations in between, the 6th, 7th and 8th where travellers can make pit-stops, buy supplies and lodge for the night (for $50!).
The climb
The climb takes on the order of 4 to 7 hours depending on the pace you go at. For us, we arrived at the mountain at 7:30 pm, our objective was to catch the rising sun at 4:30 am ish leaving us with plenty of time.
Our 28 people strong group!What is most often done, is that groups of climbers will climb most of the way out and sit it out there until a few hours before the sun rise. The reasoning is that it's damn cold at the top, so why wait at the top?
We too found it cooler at the bottom of the mountainUnfortunately for us, the crew of 5 people from our group and the integration of a hiker from a different group of JETs from Hiroshima, we thought that it wasn't cold at all and decided to power through the whole mountain to see how fast we can make it to the top. We did it in about 5 hours. I could hardly keep up with these people and I felt like I just wanted to keel over the entire hike up.
What happened is that as we reached the top the temperature dropped incredibly fast from the 10s of celcius into the single digits making it exceptionally cold. Also as we went further up, the wind suddenly picked up making it really really chilly up there. By the time we made it to the top, we immediately found an outhouse and made our retreat from the harsh environment.
That's us in the outhouseSure we might looked all huddled for the picture, but be assured it wasn't for the picture. It was so cold that we had to bunch together to keep ourselves warm using body heat and most of us were shivering like mad. We arrived at the top of the mountain by 12:30 am leaving up with a cold 4 hour wait at the top. Some of us tried to sleep but me and most others, none of us could get a wink.
By 3 am, the legions of other climbers started making their way to the top of the mountain and we were consistently bothered (or perhaps they were bothered by us) by people coming into the outhouse to relieve themselves. After the outhouse got sufficiently stinky, it was time to make our move out of the place and wait for the sunrise.
I bought a $4 shot of hot coffee to get some warmth into my body-- I'm not a coffee drinker but I needed anything hot I could get my hands on. After patient waiting, we were finally greeted by this:
The sunrise over the horizon and cloudsWhat a sight. After suffering 5 hours on an intense climb, 3 hours wait holed up in an out house, we were greeted by a magnificent sunrise. It was well the struggle.
My moment of victory in the sun!
Me, on the way off the mountainThere is of course more to the story but I could spend forever writing. The long and short after, was that we decended the mountain, taking 3 hours. Decending is far more of a pain then going up because the decending path is different and less steep since going downwards is tougher than going up. We made it back to the 5th station caught our bus and got out of there afterwards.
If you want to see more, I've got a photo album setup with more photos. Feel free to check it out here.
A final word. The Mt. Fuji climb is *not* for the faint of heart -- The climb is long and tiring and you will be brining plenty of supplies throughout the hike. There will be parts where you will have to use your hands to traverse rocky sections. Not only will you have to deal with a tough hike, the air also gets thinner which may lead to altitude sickness. I got mild altitude sickness near the top and felt pretty much like a zombie for most of my time there. If you do decide to climb it, make sure that you are properly read up and prepared!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Quote of the Moment: On Project Work
The Six Phases of a Project: Enthusiasm Disillusionment Panic Search for the Guilty Punishment of the Innocent Praise for non-participants
--Anon
--Anon
Monday, September 04, 2006
Working at Sumitomo; Internship in a Japanese Company
Since coming to Japan, I have had reservations about working in a Japanese company in the sense that corporate organizations are somewhat formal and rigid from my laboratory experience. It seems from my observation of their working environment has led me to think differently.
Since coming to the Sumitomo Bakelite (a subdivision of Sumitomo), I have found that the staff there is very friendly and very straightforward when it comes to getting work done. I'll lay out what my work experience has been for the past week.
Living in Utsunomiya
I live at the company dorm, which is something interesting to note compared to Western companies. A company dormitory is something that I've never heard of since living in Canada but it seems to be quite common in Japan. Nearly all large corporations in Japan offer living space at their dormitories for exceptionally cheap. Rooms regularly go for less that $80/month in rent. Food in the cafeteria (full meals) goes for approximately $1.5 and $3.5 for breakfast and dinner respectively at where I stay. For a country that is renowned for it's expensive living costs, these prices are on the extremely cheap side.
As I would love to post pictures of the dorm I am staying at, that will have to wait till I get my pictures downloaded tomorrow. I am staying in about a 5x5 meter room with a hallway extending out of it with a kitchen sink, gas stove, washroom+bathtub unit. For all intensive purposes, I can live comfortably in this room.
Electricity is billed at some flat rate and it is "all you can use" (the exact costs are unknown as I don't have the number available to me).
Departure to Work
I depart from the dorm at 8:00 am daily here. As traumatic I thought this would be from my usual lifestyle starting at 10:00 am, the switch was not bad at all. I car pool to work with a member from my group in the simulations and evaluation division to work, which is about a 30 minute commute for a total distance of approximately 10 km. Speeds are a little slow on the roads due to significant morning rush hour traffic. You might be wondering why I am not going to work on a train-- the train lines are most dense with population. Utsunomiya is not one of those places, which is even smaller than Sendai with a population of approximately 600,000 people.
Changing into Uniform
I arrive at work by 8:30 am giving me time to chance into the company uniform which consists of a blue cap, shirt and dress pants... all in different hues of blue. Feels like an institution to me. Wearing the cap is mandatory when you go outside buildings. I have 2 pairs of shoes, one for inside company buildings and one for walking outside.
Morning Stretches ("Radio-Taisou")
There is an 80's movie called Gung Ho made in 1986, if you've seen this then you'll know what these morning exercises might look like. Apparently since the 50's in Japan, a morning exercise program was instituted at schools, which required students to attend exercise events where they would stretch to standardized recorded music. If I were to play this song anywhere in Japan, they'd know what it is in a heartbeat.
Morning stretching consists of light jumping jacks, arm stretches, hip stretches etc etc. Nearly all employees attend but from by observation, attendance is optional. This is something that you'd never see in North America, but I find it quite amusing.
Morning Meetings
For those of you that have been following the debauchery of meetings I have for my lab, working at this company has changed my opinion of Japanese meetings -- they're not all bad! We have regular morning meetings immediately after stretching that runs for approximately 10 minutes where the 5~6 members of the team and boss report in on what they will be doing for the day.
Safety at the Work Place
Occasionally we have a short safety presentation from a book where a dangerous situation is described and a short resolution is presented. In Japanese everyone repeats the problem and solution and ends of with the English of "check" at the end. It's kind of cute actually. I should give a short comment on industrial safety at this company and about other companies from what I have heard.
The motto is "Safety is number one." Since arriving at this company and getting my orientation, the first thing they told me about working here is that safety very important. From what they informed me, they told me that most accidents are a result of reoccurring "close calls." If repeated sufficiently many times, someone gets unlucky and an accident occurs. In general, most obvious accident causes are easily dealt with and that their objective is to reduce the number of close calls by informal reporting to whoever in charge.
They also prescribe to a "danger anticipation mindset" where potential (and even benign) dangers should be anticipated and dealt with. Things like adding ramps on large cables running through a room or carrying a stack of boxes which go past your neck are considered. These people consider a good amount of safety detail.
Some of the doors in the stairwells even have labels noting that people should open them slowly incase people are behind.
Special Meetings for Me
During most morning, right after the morning meetings a second meeting is held where the head of our group and my supervisor come out to discuss what I will be doing for the day. They've had a 3-week plan all set out for me since the first day I arrived. I've never seen such work planning before, but I will be taking that in to note as a technique to organize my own work (I've done it before, but never took it seriously in university for group projects to the degree as these people do, for me at least).
The division leader for my group is an exceptionally nice guy. He had personally given me a map of Utsunomiya, lend me his bike, umbrella and gave me a cup since arriving here. What occurs is a short explanation of what I will be doing, why is it is important and the communication of some peripheral information to me. I, intern have the opportunity to ask questions and make comments which have led to me taking on 2 side projects and have some of my work rescheduled to immediately undertake my projects. This is exceptionally nice flexibility and I appreciate their ability to be so accommodating. This might also be the result of me being an intern and having no responsibilities, meaning that things can be very easily rearranged.
The Work Environment
I work in an office style floor which comes equipped with many cubicles and people working on computers for most of the day. Once in a while there is a bit of chatting that goes on, but for the most part the people there are quite focused. Communication is free and open; members of the team have direct access to each other. Actually I was looking for a memory card reader for my camera just today and asked around and one of the guys had one that will bring it to the office tomorrow. It's great, I like it.
Lunch
We leave at 12:15 to lunch to let the lunch crowd dissipate a little before we head in. I sit beside the group head so we go together with a few other members of the team. The cafeteria at the office is exceptionally cheap serving a full lunch set for $2.50/meal and even less if you just want ramen. The food has to be subsidized by the company for the prices to go this low. I have a small salad, a bowl of rise, miso soup and entree to go with my meal and I am quite full after every meal.
Hours
My official work hours at this company is from 9:00 am till 5:40 pm with a 1 hour break from 12:00 till 1:00 pm for lunch. Most people at the office stay later and I generally see them returning at 7:00 to 9:00 ish after work. They are also paid overtime though. I have tried to work overtime on my second day here on one of my projects but the division head insisted that I go home because I didn't have to do overtime.
I was very amazed to hear something like that coming from within a Japanese company where it is normal for people to do things like this... I was simply working because I thought what I was doing was interesting and I wanted to continue working on it. From what I have heard, some companies encourage people to not stay late working overtime which I think is a good trend and possibly a chance in work culture.
Conclusion/Consideration
From my experiences working at Sumitomo, I have found that Japanese work environments are not as intense as I anticipate they would be. As a result of this, I could possibly consider working here for a few years if something good pops up. Of course this is my experience from one company and should not be taken as a generalization for all Japanese companies, but the existence of one company like this suggests more environments like these exists in Japan.
Wanna Religous Debate?
All I am going to say about this is that you gotta watch this. I want way more of this, way more often!
Return from Mt. Fuji (200th post)
Greetings everyone, I have returned from Mt. Fuji safely (gladly). I wil have photos up later on, suffice to say, this was the toughest hike I have undertaken. My legs are sore and I had an awful time getting out of bed today. I will have pictures up later on, the camera battery is running low on power and I left my charger back in Sendai. One of my co-workers has a memory card reader so I'll be borrowing that and posting a few shots later on.
There is a saying along the lines that:
"You are a fool to have never climb Mt. Fuji,
You are a fool if you climb Mt. Fuji twice"
I heartfuly agree.
There is a saying along the lines that:
"You are a fool to have never climb Mt. Fuji,
You are a fool if you climb Mt. Fuji twice"
I heartfuly agree.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
On my way to Mt Fuji
Arrived last night in Mito, which is abut a 1 hr car's ride form Utsunomiya or a 1.5 hour's ride on train to meet up with Natali whom has been really cool to off me a place to stay. Arrived in at about 10:00 pm the night before and hung out with the JETS in Ibaraki. Really cool people, had a blast and hung out with them till 3:00 am.
We are getting ready to head out to the mountain on bus. Going to be about 23 of us all together so it's going to be quite the hiking party in more ways than one. The peak of Mt. Fuji is 3000m above sea level and currently about 4C. Pretty darn cold, the base of the mountain is about 26C now. Quite the difference hey?
Well, I'm off to catch my bus. I'll be back Sunday ish with a report. That's all for now!
We are getting ready to head out to the mountain on bus. Going to be about 23 of us all together so it's going to be quite the hiking party in more ways than one. The peak of Mt. Fuji is 3000m above sea level and currently about 4C. Pretty darn cold, the base of the mountain is about 26C now. Quite the difference hey?
Well, I'm off to catch my bus. I'll be back Sunday ish with a report. That's all for now!
Friday, September 01, 2006
Getting Work Done in Multiples
As some of you know, I am currently at Sumitomo Bakelite on internship, which started for me on Monday. What Sumitomo Bakelite does, is develop plastics used in IC packaging. 40% to 60% of all ICs fabricated use Sumitomo's plastics to package them. Though as benign as plastic packaging sounds, packaging for IC chips is a significant engineering problem.
What happens as temperature rises, say due to an operating chip, stresses are induced on the chip by the package because of mismaching of thermal coefficients between the chip and the plastic casing. The induced stress can lead to breaking of circuit wiring rendering the chip useless. It seems that Sumitomo Bakelite has done a good job of capitalizing on this problem to make a product and provide the consulting necessary to meet the demands of the IC industry. The way they do it is through a lot of testing and simulation.
I joined the simulation and evaluation team of this company and currently working on some low level work. Mainly, data taking and the operation of equipment for 2 experiments. As I learned from the guy that ran these machines, what he basically did was flip a switch, heat up a sample and hit "enter" on a computer for 4 hours straight in 5 to 10 second intervals. I ran the experiment twice and if I were to do it as a job, I'd go batty. They had scheduled me to run these experiments a few more times... and I thought there ought to be better ways of doing it.
What I did instead was proposed to the team that I make a program to automatically hit "enter" every 5 to 10 seconds and have the computer remotely managed some somewhere conveniant... (ie my desk). After a few inital false starts, I now have the program working today. Now 4 hours of work can be done with about 40 minutes of supervision. Wouldn't it be lovely if I could goof off for the other 3 hours and 20 minutes and still get paid for it?? (Note, I'm paid peanuts for this job! But it's kind of fun).
The next trick which I completed today was writing a little software package would let me strip temperature data out of some recorded files. What these people do was they get a guy to open every file and type that temperature value down for every file. One data set can run upwards of 300 to 400 files. I got through about 60% of a data set in about 2.5 hours and they had 10 data sets for me to get the temperature data. Riiight, can you say "slave labour"??
Well, it tuns out through a stroke of luck that I figured out how and where the temperature data is stored in these files in binary form after about half a day of searching. Once I had that down, all I had to do was write a program that would go into the directory, get a list of all the files, strip the temperature data and dump them convienantly into a text file. In 2.5 hours, a working program was running and I pumped out a script to gather data from 10 directories. The data was stripped out in about 30 seconds using the program. They also told me that they asked the equipment vendor they could do what I did... the vendor told them that it was impossible (ha!).
I still have to do a few more things by hand but it seems that I've gotten all the long and boring work done. All I have to do is strip out some more data, do some calculations in Excel and I'll have the bulk of my work wrapped up nice and tidy. Apparently, I've given these people the problem of finding more work for me to do.
What you should walk away with from this story:
Being paid by the hour sucks if you can work multiple speeds faster than what people can currently do. If I do several days worth of work in a single day my time should be worth at least multiple times what the regulars are paid, because the work was done and time was saved. So here's the question, how do you ask your boss for a 300% pay raise? There is an answer, but I'll let you think about it.
What happens as temperature rises, say due to an operating chip, stresses are induced on the chip by the package because of mismaching of thermal coefficients between the chip and the plastic casing. The induced stress can lead to breaking of circuit wiring rendering the chip useless. It seems that Sumitomo Bakelite has done a good job of capitalizing on this problem to make a product and provide the consulting necessary to meet the demands of the IC industry. The way they do it is through a lot of testing and simulation.
I joined the simulation and evaluation team of this company and currently working on some low level work. Mainly, data taking and the operation of equipment for 2 experiments. As I learned from the guy that ran these machines, what he basically did was flip a switch, heat up a sample and hit "enter" on a computer for 4 hours straight in 5 to 10 second intervals. I ran the experiment twice and if I were to do it as a job, I'd go batty. They had scheduled me to run these experiments a few more times... and I thought there ought to be better ways of doing it.
What I did instead was proposed to the team that I make a program to automatically hit "enter" every 5 to 10 seconds and have the computer remotely managed some somewhere conveniant... (ie my desk). After a few inital false starts, I now have the program working today. Now 4 hours of work can be done with about 40 minutes of supervision. Wouldn't it be lovely if I could goof off for the other 3 hours and 20 minutes and still get paid for it?? (Note, I'm paid peanuts for this job! But it's kind of fun).
The next trick which I completed today was writing a little software package would let me strip temperature data out of some recorded files. What these people do was they get a guy to open every file and type that temperature value down for every file. One data set can run upwards of 300 to 400 files. I got through about 60% of a data set in about 2.5 hours and they had 10 data sets for me to get the temperature data. Riiight, can you say "slave labour"??
Well, it tuns out through a stroke of luck that I figured out how and where the temperature data is stored in these files in binary form after about half a day of searching. Once I had that down, all I had to do was write a program that would go into the directory, get a list of all the files, strip the temperature data and dump them convienantly into a text file. In 2.5 hours, a working program was running and I pumped out a script to gather data from 10 directories. The data was stripped out in about 30 seconds using the program. They also told me that they asked the equipment vendor they could do what I did... the vendor told them that it was impossible (ha!).
I still have to do a few more things by hand but it seems that I've gotten all the long and boring work done. All I have to do is strip out some more data, do some calculations in Excel and I'll have the bulk of my work wrapped up nice and tidy. Apparently, I've given these people the problem of finding more work for me to do.
What you should walk away with from this story:
Being paid by the hour sucks if you can work multiple speeds faster than what people can currently do. If I do several days worth of work in a single day my time should be worth at least multiple times what the regulars are paid, because the work was done and time was saved. So here's the question, how do you ask your boss for a 300% pay raise? There is an answer, but I'll let you think about it.
In Living Memory of Dr. Jin
I decided to hold of on making this post for a while... about a week now but I believe that it is now appropriate to do so.
Last Sunday was Mike's farewell party as his time as he will be returning back to MIT to continue his studies. A beach party was organized by him were we could get together and have a BBQ and hang out. What transpired was very unexpected.
A Post-Doctoral student from China came to join the lab last month, his name is Dr. Jin. I never really had the chance to talk to him that much though I did see him around the lab from time to time. Dr. Jin had come out to join us for Mike's farewell party; it was also a good opportunity to meet and intereact with other people at the lab.
Though he enjoyed swimming, it would be his first time swimming in the Pacific ocean. The water was choppy that day and there were other people around at the time, he went off to go swimming but he would not return after 2 hours. After most other people had left the waters swimming, we were unable to find him.
For you as the reader, you probably know how this story is going to play out. For me at the time, I had no idea. Some people went out an hour earlier to go look for him but did not find him. Others from the group were called into join. While searching for an hour, there was a notable panic in a few people's eyes... for me, I could not declare a person missing after 2 hours of being away, especially for an adult.
A helicopter flew in over us with some of the members waving at the helicopter... I thought it was overkill, soon after a patrol boat arrived. It seems that the members made the call to the coast guard made the right call... I would not have made that call until much later. Searching continues for 2~3 hours with helicopters and patrol boat with no luck. The police, ambulence and even the news crew came out, unfortunately all of them were pretty useless and I was quite displeased.
I wasn't around when the police came around as I was looking around on the beach but eventually returned to find them there. When I got there, they were busy taking names of the members of our group and asking questions. What they asked were things like "did he drink before going swimming? where was the last time did you see him? When did he go in" and things like that. There were atleast 10 of them at the beach. What did they do afterwards? They just stood around looking at their notes. I was incredibly unhappy about this, if you're going to stand around like that then get out there and LOOK. You got the information you needed and you aren't gathering anything more, *do something about it.* That didn't happen.
The news crew came out after and started asking the same kind of questions. What they were most interested in hearing was whether if he was drinking when he went into the water. What are you people trying to do? A person is missing, this isn't the time for a "story!" Unless you are going to do something useful like getting word out and getting people, then great, if not, then what's the point? To do nothing but talk is disgraceful (literaly in the sence of "no grace").
What did they do? They went out to the ocean to take pictures of the crashing water, took pictures of us looking for Dr. Jin they even had the nerve to come out and take pictures of distressed members of our group. I can't seem to get a good image of news reporters at the moment, but I can clearly say this much, it is far better to act then to sit around talking about things. If perhaps the news inspired people to do so, I may hold them with higher regard... but for all I can imagine of a story with crashing waves and unhappy people, what good is this?
I would leave Sendai the day after to Utsunomiya to begin my internship with the hopes of Dr. Jin being found well. I would recieve a phone call today and a messege informing that his body has been found, 10 km South of where we were, the cause is unknown. I was somewhat prepared for this, though sad I was not shocked. I recieved word from one of my labmates and contacted her, she is currently corresponding with his family to figure out what to do. After talking with her, I can tell the impact this has had on her... she was also called out to identify the body and knows Dr. Jin better than I. I feel bad that I don't feel as sad as her, but what am I to do?
The funeral will be held this Saturday in Sendai. Though I had plans to climb mount Fuji this weekend; after consideration I have decided that I will not return to Sendai to attend. After talking with my friend, I don't see much else I can do and prefer not to just attend a funeral ceremony. This is not to say that I will not attend funerals in general, I would not like to attend a ceremony like this if I can't help or make people feel better. Weather permitting, I will pay my respects from the top of Mt. Fuji.
From what little I have met of Dr. Jin, he is a kind and friendly man. As tough it might be to find himself in a new culture with little knowledge of Japanese, myself and others found it easy to welcome his presence.
I would like to end on this:
Life is for those that choose to take action - it is insufficient to to only watch or listen. As important as these activies are, to only do so will have your life or a life will vanish before you in many senses of the meaning.
Last Sunday was Mike's farewell party as his time as he will be returning back to MIT to continue his studies. A beach party was organized by him were we could get together and have a BBQ and hang out. What transpired was very unexpected.
A Post-Doctoral student from China came to join the lab last month, his name is Dr. Jin. I never really had the chance to talk to him that much though I did see him around the lab from time to time. Dr. Jin had come out to join us for Mike's farewell party; it was also a good opportunity to meet and intereact with other people at the lab.
Though he enjoyed swimming, it would be his first time swimming in the Pacific ocean. The water was choppy that day and there were other people around at the time, he went off to go swimming but he would not return after 2 hours. After most other people had left the waters swimming, we were unable to find him.
For you as the reader, you probably know how this story is going to play out. For me at the time, I had no idea. Some people went out an hour earlier to go look for him but did not find him. Others from the group were called into join. While searching for an hour, there was a notable panic in a few people's eyes... for me, I could not declare a person missing after 2 hours of being away, especially for an adult.
A helicopter flew in over us with some of the members waving at the helicopter... I thought it was overkill, soon after a patrol boat arrived. It seems that the members made the call to the coast guard made the right call... I would not have made that call until much later. Searching continues for 2~3 hours with helicopters and patrol boat with no luck. The police, ambulence and even the news crew came out, unfortunately all of them were pretty useless and I was quite displeased.
I wasn't around when the police came around as I was looking around on the beach but eventually returned to find them there. When I got there, they were busy taking names of the members of our group and asking questions. What they asked were things like "did he drink before going swimming? where was the last time did you see him? When did he go in" and things like that. There were atleast 10 of them at the beach. What did they do afterwards? They just stood around looking at their notes. I was incredibly unhappy about this, if you're going to stand around like that then get out there and LOOK. You got the information you needed and you aren't gathering anything more, *do something about it.* That didn't happen.
The news crew came out after and started asking the same kind of questions. What they were most interested in hearing was whether if he was drinking when he went into the water. What are you people trying to do? A person is missing, this isn't the time for a "story!" Unless you are going to do something useful like getting word out and getting people, then great, if not, then what's the point? To do nothing but talk is disgraceful (literaly in the sence of "no grace").
What did they do? They went out to the ocean to take pictures of the crashing water, took pictures of us looking for Dr. Jin they even had the nerve to come out and take pictures of distressed members of our group. I can't seem to get a good image of news reporters at the moment, but I can clearly say this much, it is far better to act then to sit around talking about things. If perhaps the news inspired people to do so, I may hold them with higher regard... but for all I can imagine of a story with crashing waves and unhappy people, what good is this?
I would leave Sendai the day after to Utsunomiya to begin my internship with the hopes of Dr. Jin being found well. I would recieve a phone call today and a messege informing that his body has been found, 10 km South of where we were, the cause is unknown. I was somewhat prepared for this, though sad I was not shocked. I recieved word from one of my labmates and contacted her, she is currently corresponding with his family to figure out what to do. After talking with her, I can tell the impact this has had on her... she was also called out to identify the body and knows Dr. Jin better than I. I feel bad that I don't feel as sad as her, but what am I to do?
The funeral will be held this Saturday in Sendai. Though I had plans to climb mount Fuji this weekend; after consideration I have decided that I will not return to Sendai to attend. After talking with my friend, I don't see much else I can do and prefer not to just attend a funeral ceremony. This is not to say that I will not attend funerals in general, I would not like to attend a ceremony like this if I can't help or make people feel better. Weather permitting, I will pay my respects from the top of Mt. Fuji.
From what little I have met of Dr. Jin, he is a kind and friendly man. As tough it might be to find himself in a new culture with little knowledge of Japanese, myself and others found it easy to welcome his presence.
I would like to end on this:
Life is for those that choose to take action - it is insufficient to to only watch or listen. As important as these activies are, to only do so will have your life or a life will vanish before you in many senses of the meaning.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Got Root?
I am now in Utsunomiya on internship and I am currently at the dorm leeching internet from some wireless access point that has no security setup. I managed to guess the IP of the router and after guessing at some passwords and login names, I gave up... then my browser spat out an error at me in Japanese (translated) "The login is root, the password is case sensitive." I try "root" with no password and bang, I'm in to fiddle with the connection settings -- I'm routing all ports to my computer to get some bit torrent action going.
Ha! These people at the company that I'm working for told me that I'd have no internet at the dorm... muah ha ha ha ha. Well time to get a compiler... I'm going to need it for work tomorrow. Turns out that I might be able to automate some equipment and save a few people 2 hours worth of work everytime they use some thermal expansion measuring machine. More details later... too many things going on.
Ha! These people at the company that I'm working for told me that I'd have no internet at the dorm... muah ha ha ha ha. Well time to get a compiler... I'm going to need it for work tomorrow. Turns out that I might be able to automate some equipment and save a few people 2 hours worth of work everytime they use some thermal expansion measuring machine. More details later... too many things going on.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Presentation Slides Complete
I have as of now, finished making my presentation slides for my in house lab presentation 3 weeks from now. My presentation weighs in at 40 slides and my goal is to do this presentation in under an hour. The material covered in each slide is not dense which should allow me to whip through them fast and concentrate on the results of my work. I have data from 4 sets of experiments I would like to discuss.
I still have to provide a hand out to the lab on my work. I will aim to provide 4 pages of material for the hand outs and leave it at that. It should take me approximately 2~3 days to do working at a moderate pace. I still have to make some images for the handouts which maybe a little time consuming.
Hopefully I'll have everything down by this weekend and can concentrate on my internship and fun on the weekends.
I still have to provide a hand out to the lab on my work. I will aim to provide 4 pages of material for the hand outs and leave it at that. It should take me approximately 2~3 days to do working at a moderate pace. I still have to make some images for the handouts which maybe a little time consuming.
Hopefully I'll have everything down by this weekend and can concentrate on my internship and fun on the weekends.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
This will be a busy next 3 weeks
My objective for this week is to complete my presentation materials for my in-lab presentation this Saturday by Friday, 3 weeks in advance as I will be going on internship for 3 weeks in Utsunomiya at a department of Sumitomo Corporation. The objective for this presentation is to present my 4 months of work in under an hour.
Most presenters typically go for more than hour, though some people that don't have a lot to say might be faster. My goal will be to cover my matieral with people being able to understand the important parts of my reserach and what I have done. I'm already 30 slides into my presentation and I only worked for 3 hours today. I still will have to make more slides. Fortunately, most of these slides have lots of pictures.
As for my internship, I be working in a branch doing R&D on conductive polymers of Sumitomo Corporation. These polymers have applications in flexible displays. Though my real work is currently unknown to me, I will be looking forward to the opportunity to experience Japanese work life. Where I am based, is famous for having the best gyoza in Japan. I will, of course, have to verify this.
For the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of September, my plans are to scale Mt. Fuji and stay over to watch the sunrise. The following weekend I will either be heading into Tokyo to stay over there during the weekend or making a short return to Sendai to catch the Sendai Jazz fesitval. I still have to decide on which I would like to do.
I reutrn from my internship on the 15th of September, a Friday and will make my presentation to the lab on the Saturday, the day after. I have other annoucements to make for after the 15th and will have them posted when I have settled on the details.
For this week, tonight I will be catching a movie from the son of Miyazaki Hayao (the maker of movies such as Totoro, Laputa, etc etc), a dinner with friends is schedules for tomorrow and Friday and a beach BBQ is scheduled for Sunday as Mike's farewell before he returns to MIT.
Keeping busy... in a good way.
Most presenters typically go for more than hour, though some people that don't have a lot to say might be faster. My goal will be to cover my matieral with people being able to understand the important parts of my reserach and what I have done. I'm already 30 slides into my presentation and I only worked for 3 hours today. I still will have to make more slides. Fortunately, most of these slides have lots of pictures.
As for my internship, I be working in a branch doing R&D on conductive polymers of Sumitomo Corporation. These polymers have applications in flexible displays. Though my real work is currently unknown to me, I will be looking forward to the opportunity to experience Japanese work life. Where I am based, is famous for having the best gyoza in Japan. I will, of course, have to verify this.
For the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of September, my plans are to scale Mt. Fuji and stay over to watch the sunrise. The following weekend I will either be heading into Tokyo to stay over there during the weekend or making a short return to Sendai to catch the Sendai Jazz fesitval. I still have to decide on which I would like to do.
I reutrn from my internship on the 15th of September, a Friday and will make my presentation to the lab on the Saturday, the day after. I have other annoucements to make for after the 15th and will have them posted when I have settled on the details.
For this week, tonight I will be catching a movie from the son of Miyazaki Hayao (the maker of movies such as Totoro, Laputa, etc etc), a dinner with friends is schedules for tomorrow and Friday and a beach BBQ is scheduled for Sunday as Mike's farewell before he returns to MIT.
Keeping busy... in a good way.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Arrgh, Sunburn! Itchy back!
In general, my body is typically very resistant to getting sun burn, in the sense that I don't have to wear sun block most of the time. Apparently on Sunday, it wasn't so and I got a little roasted on my back. Nothing really bad, just slight tingling and mild soreness, other then that it's all good.
Come today, I'd head out for a BBQ by the river with friends... which was great by the way. Went to a place called Akiu (which is well known for good hot springs) and BBQ'd by the river. After wrapping up, we hit the hot spring and I wouldn't be able to sit all the way in the hot spring because the hot acidic water would sting my back. It was allright though, I did my best to enjoy the hot spring and then left.
Came home by about 8 pm and now by about 10 pm, my back is insanely itchy... and if I scratch it, it stings! What horrible torture... it's either itching or the stinging. Ugh
Come today, I'd head out for a BBQ by the river with friends... which was great by the way. Went to a place called Akiu (which is well known for good hot springs) and BBQ'd by the river. After wrapping up, we hit the hot spring and I wouldn't be able to sit all the way in the hot spring because the hot acidic water would sting my back. It was allright though, I did my best to enjoy the hot spring and then left.
Came home by about 8 pm and now by about 10 pm, my back is insanely itchy... and if I scratch it, it stings! What horrible torture... it's either itching or the stinging. Ugh
One Awesome Weekend
I get an e-mail a few days ago from a friend telling me that there would be one big beach party happening in Yotsukura, Iwaki. Not knowing where that was at the time, and since said friend lived in Sendai, I assumed that it would be somewhere close by. I would be dead wrong when I told my roomies about it when I asked if they'd be interested in going. Kuni, specifically told me to check a map... I did. Turns out it is *150* km away from Sendai... and that it'd be happening on a Saturday, the day I have lab meetings that typically runs until 4 pm.
Sendai-->Yotsukura = 150 km
I nerfed the idea on the Friday evening thinking that it would be one hell of a ride out. The next day, during the lab meeting I decided "what the hell! A 3000 people beach party with 30 DJ's etc etc doesn't happen all the time now does it?" So as soon as the meeting was over, I scrambled home to drop off all my stuff and called Kuni to borrow his motorbike touring map book. After I told him what for, he proptly replied "are you freaking crazy?" and I told him "shouldn't you know that by now??" And then I was off... I didn't bring anything, except for my wallet, iPod and cell phone.
On the way to the beach party there were 2 things that I knew, the name of the beach and that I wouldn't have a place to sleep that night. Why? Because my scooter has a range of 70 km on a full tank of gas but all the gas stations would be closed past midnight-- I'd be sleeping on the beach tonight and that's exactly what I did.
I scootered without end for 4 hours to make it into Iwaki by night fall. The sun had set while I was scootering and the bugs came out-- I turned into a human bug screen running through the night at 60 km/h. I had to wipe my face a few times after a few good splats!
I arrived at the beach to the smell of BBQ smoke, flashing lights, lots of music and everyone in beach gear. I'm just going to say that I'm really sorry for you guys that I didn't bring a camera with me (come visit me next year in August instead)!!
There was a make shift half-pipe for skate boarders, a motor-bike stunt show, a row of tents with food and DJ's in everyone of them playing all sorts of mixed music. 1 big stage for live DJ performances, a Reggae booth for people to chill out and a couple of fire-dancers hanging out for the evening. There was even 2 beach volley-ball nets setup and a bikini contest, which I missed (unfortunately oh well, life goes on).
So what did I do? I milled about, bought food and drinks and took in the sights for a good hour. I came alone and the friend I was supposed to meet never returned calls or my e-mail (from the cell)-- so it would be up to me to have some fun.
The volleyball nets were open late at night to anyone; they finished a tournament so I hopped into a game over there and made friends with a bunch of JETs (English teachers) from around the world based in Ibaraki and with some of the Japanese people hanging out. Was great fun.
By late evening I crashed on the beach looked into the sky and caught a few shooting stars... until clouds... clouds of smoke from fireworks, that is, cover the sky at about midnight. I hung out with the international crew, went out for a midnight jog just for the hell of it chatting with a new friend and then crashed on the beach by 3 am. I would wake up (not that I really slept) by 4:30 ish to the rising sun... which unfortunately was obscured by the clouds and left at 5 am for Sendai by scooter because I had an appointment at 10 am!
I got a call on the beach, from a friend of mine. I knew that I'd be going to a beach BBQ the next day and was just waiting for the details on when... I got that call to learn that they'd be leaving in the morning to the beach to BBQ in the afternoon. WHAT? All my BBQs usually happened at night... but these people would be leaving at 10 am. Man, oh man. I'd be on a tight schedule.
I agreed that I'd make the BBQ. I got home by 8:30, showered and slept for 30 minutes before I was up again to change into a new pair of shorts and a t-shirt, then I'd leave home running to the subway station with sand still in my shoes from the last beach.
I arrived to meet up with Mari and a guy named Motomu (works at the local TV station) and his director boss (Kame). Who knows, I might be on Sendai TV one day, oh wait, I already was for an inpromptu interview nearly 5 months ago. There were 7 that were supposed to make it out, 3 bailed because they wre hung over from a party the last night. Turns out that I was the man of the day because I came scootering out of Iwaki on 2.5 hours of sleep to make it to their BBQ. A little hard effort really does pay off!
I didn't even bring a pair of swim trunks to the beach... didn't even think that far because I wasn't entirely there in my head at the time. But I went swimming anyways, setup the fire and gilled some meat on the beach. It was good. I got home at about 8 pm, fell asleep by 9 and woke up by 8 am. Slept 11 hours straight, but it was the best kind of sleep. The kind of sleep you get when you went all out, drift off exhaused and wake up the next morning satisfied with everything you did. I want more of those kind of days!
Sendai-->Yotsukura = 150 kmI nerfed the idea on the Friday evening thinking that it would be one hell of a ride out. The next day, during the lab meeting I decided "what the hell! A 3000 people beach party with 30 DJ's etc etc doesn't happen all the time now does it?" So as soon as the meeting was over, I scrambled home to drop off all my stuff and called Kuni to borrow his motorbike touring map book. After I told him what for, he proptly replied "are you freaking crazy?" and I told him "shouldn't you know that by now??" And then I was off... I didn't bring anything, except for my wallet, iPod and cell phone.
On the way to the beach party there were 2 things that I knew, the name of the beach and that I wouldn't have a place to sleep that night. Why? Because my scooter has a range of 70 km on a full tank of gas but all the gas stations would be closed past midnight-- I'd be sleeping on the beach tonight and that's exactly what I did.
I scootered without end for 4 hours to make it into Iwaki by night fall. The sun had set while I was scootering and the bugs came out-- I turned into a human bug screen running through the night at 60 km/h. I had to wipe my face a few times after a few good splats!
I arrived at the beach to the smell of BBQ smoke, flashing lights, lots of music and everyone in beach gear. I'm just going to say that I'm really sorry for you guys that I didn't bring a camera with me (come visit me next year in August instead)!!
There was a make shift half-pipe for skate boarders, a motor-bike stunt show, a row of tents with food and DJ's in everyone of them playing all sorts of mixed music. 1 big stage for live DJ performances, a Reggae booth for people to chill out and a couple of fire-dancers hanging out for the evening. There was even 2 beach volley-ball nets setup and a bikini contest, which I missed (unfortunately oh well, life goes on).
So what did I do? I milled about, bought food and drinks and took in the sights for a good hour. I came alone and the friend I was supposed to meet never returned calls or my e-mail (from the cell)-- so it would be up to me to have some fun.
The volleyball nets were open late at night to anyone; they finished a tournament so I hopped into a game over there and made friends with a bunch of JETs (English teachers) from around the world based in Ibaraki and with some of the Japanese people hanging out. Was great fun.
By late evening I crashed on the beach looked into the sky and caught a few shooting stars... until clouds... clouds of smoke from fireworks, that is, cover the sky at about midnight. I hung out with the international crew, went out for a midnight jog just for the hell of it chatting with a new friend and then crashed on the beach by 3 am. I would wake up (not that I really slept) by 4:30 ish to the rising sun... which unfortunately was obscured by the clouds and left at 5 am for Sendai by scooter because I had an appointment at 10 am!
I got a call on the beach, from a friend of mine. I knew that I'd be going to a beach BBQ the next day and was just waiting for the details on when... I got that call to learn that they'd be leaving in the morning to the beach to BBQ in the afternoon. WHAT? All my BBQs usually happened at night... but these people would be leaving at 10 am. Man, oh man. I'd be on a tight schedule.
I agreed that I'd make the BBQ. I got home by 8:30, showered and slept for 30 minutes before I was up again to change into a new pair of shorts and a t-shirt, then I'd leave home running to the subway station with sand still in my shoes from the last beach.
I arrived to meet up with Mari and a guy named Motomu (works at the local TV station) and his director boss (Kame). Who knows, I might be on Sendai TV one day, oh wait, I already was for an inpromptu interview nearly 5 months ago. There were 7 that were supposed to make it out, 3 bailed because they wre hung over from a party the last night. Turns out that I was the man of the day because I came scootering out of Iwaki on 2.5 hours of sleep to make it to their BBQ. A little hard effort really does pay off!
I didn't even bring a pair of swim trunks to the beach... didn't even think that far because I wasn't entirely there in my head at the time. But I went swimming anyways, setup the fire and gilled some meat on the beach. It was good. I got home at about 8 pm, fell asleep by 9 and woke up by 8 am. Slept 11 hours straight, but it was the best kind of sleep. The kind of sleep you get when you went all out, drift off exhaused and wake up the next morning satisfied with everything you did. I want more of those kind of days!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
In Aizu for the Weekend
At first I didn't think that I'd be going anywhere for the weekend but it turns out that I was wrong.
Tuan (my Swedish friend) left Sendai on Wedensday back to Aizu to his host family in Japan. I had never been to Aizu before so I got a standing invitation to go visit him and his host family... whom are in the Fukushima region about, 160 km away from Sendai. Since I didn't have a lab meeting this weekend since it is the Obon long weekend, I decided that I would head out and visit him. Turns out the night before I left Sendai, the weather reports told me of an 80% chance of *thunder showers.* So, I thought the plan was moot and stayed up late on the Friday surfing the net.
I woke up late today at 10 am to find it just cloudy in Sendai and checked the weather report to find that today there would be no thundershowers and only a 20% chance of rain. I fired out an e-mail out to Tuan and by noon, I was out of the house and on my way to Aizu. Crazy, the day before Tuan told me that it probably it was fate that we wouldn't meet again before he left Japan. Turns out that fate was on my side.
After a 5 hour ride on my scooter (after taking a few pit stops to admire the scenery and check out random places) I would finally arrive at Aizu to be greeted by Tuan at the train station... whom didn't recognize me at first because I had my sunglasses on while I was standing right in front of him. Heh, what a shock he had when I took off my sunglasses.
We headed out around town to visit a local cafe to get a drink and headed out to Tsurukajyo, an old castle in Aizu to check out on the way home. Turns out that there was a Japanese drum performance happening that evening that we caught and had a great time.
We dropped back to Tuan's homestay family and had okonomiyaki (best description is "Japanese pizza/pancake" made by his homestay father who is from Osaka (the origin of this food), yum!
After having a living conversation about all sorts of things in Japanese and a shower... here I am typing away here. We probably aren't going to sleep early tonight and then we are going to spend the afternoon hanging out in town before I make my way back to Sendai late in the evening.
I am going to say that I am really happy to have made the trip on scooter instead of taking the bus (round trip bus is $50, scooter is $15), I pay for it in an extra 2 hours in round trip time --> it's a good deal for me because I can stop anywhere I like~ And I did manage to pick up some really nice peaches on the way in to Aizu which we will eat tomorrow.
So, that is that. More news and pictures when I get back to Sendai.
Tuan (my Swedish friend) left Sendai on Wedensday back to Aizu to his host family in Japan. I had never been to Aizu before so I got a standing invitation to go visit him and his host family... whom are in the Fukushima region about, 160 km away from Sendai. Since I didn't have a lab meeting this weekend since it is the Obon long weekend, I decided that I would head out and visit him. Turns out the night before I left Sendai, the weather reports told me of an 80% chance of *thunder showers.* So, I thought the plan was moot and stayed up late on the Friday surfing the net.
I woke up late today at 10 am to find it just cloudy in Sendai and checked the weather report to find that today there would be no thundershowers and only a 20% chance of rain. I fired out an e-mail out to Tuan and by noon, I was out of the house and on my way to Aizu. Crazy, the day before Tuan told me that it probably it was fate that we wouldn't meet again before he left Japan. Turns out that fate was on my side.
After a 5 hour ride on my scooter (after taking a few pit stops to admire the scenery and check out random places) I would finally arrive at Aizu to be greeted by Tuan at the train station... whom didn't recognize me at first because I had my sunglasses on while I was standing right in front of him. Heh, what a shock he had when I took off my sunglasses.
We headed out around town to visit a local cafe to get a drink and headed out to Tsurukajyo, an old castle in Aizu to check out on the way home. Turns out that there was a Japanese drum performance happening that evening that we caught and had a great time.
We dropped back to Tuan's homestay family and had okonomiyaki (best description is "Japanese pizza/pancake" made by his homestay father who is from Osaka (the origin of this food), yum!
After having a living conversation about all sorts of things in Japanese and a shower... here I am typing away here. We probably aren't going to sleep early tonight and then we are going to spend the afternoon hanging out in town before I make my way back to Sendai late in the evening.
I am going to say that I am really happy to have made the trip on scooter instead of taking the bus (round trip bus is $50, scooter is $15), I pay for it in an extra 2 hours in round trip time --> it's a good deal for me because I can stop anywhere I like~ And I did manage to pick up some really nice peaches on the way in to Aizu which we will eat tomorrow.
So, that is that. More news and pictures when I get back to Sendai.
Friday, August 04, 2006
If the news only had a brain
How many of you are aware of why Isreal and the Arabs always fighting? I'll also admit that my knowledge of the origins of the conflict is rather sparce, all that I know is that ever since that I was young, that Isreal and the Arabs have always been in conflict.
I was poking aroung reddit just a while ago and came across this essay written by King Abdullah, the founder of Jordan in 1947. I am sure that many of you out there are following the current flaring of conflict (albeit war) occuring between Isreal and Lebanon as of this moment. War, like car accidents make for great news--something interesting to look at but you'd rather not be connected with.
This is one of the most interesting essays regarding the Isreali-Arab conflict especially since it dates about 60 years back and from the Arabic point of view which is so very unoften heard from. I was quite fascinated to fine such fine English, articulation and composition of thought which is something quite rare to find in common writing today. If you're reading this now, I suggest that you jump there and read it now. The essay is entitled "As the Arabs see the Jews."
I have noticed that it is always that Isreal is always portrayed as non-agressors when it comes to conflict. You read of stories of "Arab attacks" and then Isreal acting in "self-defence." Can you still call it self defence when 2 of your own people are taken captive and then you start making strategic attacks, then get attacked back and then go in for a full scale ground assult outside of your borders? If that was the case, Japan and North Korea should be at full scale war right now over a handful of captured citizens which were forced to train North Korean intelligence officers.
There is an incredible amount of white noise in the news, that it is almost not worth reading anymore. I have read so much, but so much is about nothing-- the news is incredibly thoughtless. If I were to make a bold prediction about the news, I will predict that the news as we know it will die in the next 20~30 years. Watch news parodies like The Daily Show and you will realize how ridiculus the news is, so ridiculus that it's comedy (John Stewart's impression of what's being said on the news about the Isreali-Lebanon conflict here). How can people take the news seriously?
I since moving out, I've never bothered to buy a TV. I did get one from friend when they left Japan and plugged it in for a little while but couldn't stand to watch anything for a period of time. There are better things to do instead of watching TV or reading "bad news."
I was poking aroung reddit just a while ago and came across this essay written by King Abdullah, the founder of Jordan in 1947. I am sure that many of you out there are following the current flaring of conflict (albeit war) occuring between Isreal and Lebanon as of this moment. War, like car accidents make for great news--something interesting to look at but you'd rather not be connected with.
This is one of the most interesting essays regarding the Isreali-Arab conflict especially since it dates about 60 years back and from the Arabic point of view which is so very unoften heard from. I was quite fascinated to fine such fine English, articulation and composition of thought which is something quite rare to find in common writing today. If you're reading this now, I suggest that you jump there and read it now. The essay is entitled "As the Arabs see the Jews."
I have noticed that it is always that Isreal is always portrayed as non-agressors when it comes to conflict. You read of stories of "Arab attacks" and then Isreal acting in "self-defence." Can you still call it self defence when 2 of your own people are taken captive and then you start making strategic attacks, then get attacked back and then go in for a full scale ground assult outside of your borders? If that was the case, Japan and North Korea should be at full scale war right now over a handful of captured citizens which were forced to train North Korean intelligence officers.
There is an incredible amount of white noise in the news, that it is almost not worth reading anymore. I have read so much, but so much is about nothing-- the news is incredibly thoughtless. If I were to make a bold prediction about the news, I will predict that the news as we know it will die in the next 20~30 years. Watch news parodies like The Daily Show and you will realize how ridiculus the news is, so ridiculus that it's comedy (John Stewart's impression of what's being said on the news about the Isreali-Lebanon conflict here). How can people take the news seriously?
I since moving out, I've never bothered to buy a TV. I did get one from friend when they left Japan and plugged it in for a little while but couldn't stand to watch anything for a period of time. There are better things to do instead of watching TV or reading "bad news."
End of Exams
Exams ended on Wendensday and it's great to be free... sort'a. My last exam was on Wedensday for my controls course. We had 90 minutes to write the exam but I was done in 30 and was the first one out! Boo yeah. The exam was open book too and I heard through out the exam the flipping of papers while people frantically looked for notes on how to solve a certain problem. Unfortunately, it was sort of a cute problem that needed some thinking to solve.
I have to prepare for my in-house lab presentation coming up in September. But the problem is that I will be away on internship for 3 weeks and my presentation occurs the day after I get back. Meaning that I need to get some results together and have the thing ready before I head off. There's always something to do... but I guess it's better that way.
I have to prepare for my in-house lab presentation coming up in September. But the problem is that I will be away on internship for 3 weeks and my presentation occurs the day after I get back. Meaning that I need to get some results together and have the thing ready before I head off. There's always something to do... but I guess it's better that way.
Monday, July 31, 2006
You aren't what you study
For no particular reason, I decided that I would poke around to learn more about a language called Python. What is great about this language is that it is an interpretive language with variables that can be dynamically be typed. What is means in normal English is that Python is a language that doesn't need to be compiled into a .exe program before running, but actually be run as a text-file that can do a very wide variety of tasks. In addition, the language intepreter automatically knows how to deal with what data you put into the program instead of you telling what kind of data you are putting into every variable.
Why is this good? This isn't just good, but it's excellent because you don't need to keep lists of your own modules and compile them into a .exe program to run. If you need to make changes, you don't have to recompile the program-- you just make your changes and run it immediately. It's quick and good... and getting things done quick and good is always a good thing!
My first introduction into an interpretive computer language was Matlab, a math simulation software package which I've used for image and acoustic processing. I would further my work with this software by implementing robotic tracking algorithms (using probability), simulating differential equations and even writing my own poker game as extra projects (or class inspired projects). But this is a slight tangent...
What I would find today while surfing on net is a company that developed a packaged software to make installing python and developing code easier by a bunch of people running a very successful looking company out of BC. More interestingly the CEO is an Engineer, the CTO has BA in Physics and a PH.D in cognitive science, the business and project management guy has a physics degree and there are a bunch more with degrees in Computer science and physics.
What first struck me first is how did a a large chunk of senior management people out of physics make it into a computer software company? Then it struck me that people don't necessarly have to be exactly the things they were trained to do.
For even me as a person that studied Engineering Physics with a specialization in electrical engineering in my undergraduate life, I have so far looked at various problems that are not directly in my field of training. I have worked in a robotics lab building circuitry for a motor control system (unfortuately it didn't work 100%), I've done image processing work (including tracking targets in 3D), I've programmed a robot tracking technique out of description out of some research paper and a few other things that I haven't been directly trained to do.
As I realize now, that my background (as much as I didn't understand it at the time) is providing me with the tools to leap into other problems that are not directly related to my specialty, as I have noticed from these people. This is important, because you can't be trained for problems in the real world-- there are always going to be ones popping that you've never seen before all the time. But what you can be, is trained with experience in dealing with problems you've never seen to deal with more of the same. That is exceptionally empowering because you're never going to be working on the same thing forever; and when something new pops up, you'll have enough background to get started and work in many different fields.
My hat is off to these guys.
Why is this good? This isn't just good, but it's excellent because you don't need to keep lists of your own modules and compile them into a .exe program to run. If you need to make changes, you don't have to recompile the program-- you just make your changes and run it immediately. It's quick and good... and getting things done quick and good is always a good thing!
My first introduction into an interpretive computer language was Matlab, a math simulation software package which I've used for image and acoustic processing. I would further my work with this software by implementing robotic tracking algorithms (using probability), simulating differential equations and even writing my own poker game as extra projects (or class inspired projects). But this is a slight tangent...
What I would find today while surfing on net is a company that developed a packaged software to make installing python and developing code easier by a bunch of people running a very successful looking company out of BC. More interestingly the CEO is an Engineer, the CTO has BA in Physics and a PH.D in cognitive science, the business and project management guy has a physics degree and there are a bunch more with degrees in Computer science and physics.
What first struck me first is how did a a large chunk of senior management people out of physics make it into a computer software company? Then it struck me that people don't necessarly have to be exactly the things they were trained to do.
For even me as a person that studied Engineering Physics with a specialization in electrical engineering in my undergraduate life, I have so far looked at various problems that are not directly in my field of training. I have worked in a robotics lab building circuitry for a motor control system (unfortuately it didn't work 100%), I've done image processing work (including tracking targets in 3D), I've programmed a robot tracking technique out of description out of some research paper and a few other things that I haven't been directly trained to do.
As I realize now, that my background (as much as I didn't understand it at the time) is providing me with the tools to leap into other problems that are not directly related to my specialty, as I have noticed from these people. This is important, because you can't be trained for problems in the real world-- there are always going to be ones popping that you've never seen before all the time. But what you can be, is trained with experience in dealing with problems you've never seen to deal with more of the same. That is exceptionally empowering because you're never going to be working on the same thing forever; and when something new pops up, you'll have enough background to get started and work in many different fields.
My hat is off to these guys.
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