Rant: Transmission Problem [General]

My car finally got some problems with the transmission and I was stuck on the road this afternoon. Well it's not very bad. I was not far from home at that moment. But it's kind of embarrassing to wait on the road and let everybody watching your car to be towed.

Well I think I should be blamed not get the oil change done in time. I was warned that there was a leak that may cause the system failure. And I am pretty sure the reason is the low fluid level.

Well I can say the car is probably the most important gear for me. It's more like a good friend but not in very good health.

Since the car can not move right now, I have to ask AAA to tow the car to the garage. This brings more trouble. But I just read the "lesson 101 in America": don't be a crying baby! Be resoponsilbe for every decision you made...sometime life is kind of hard.

Weiwei posted @ 20:43:58 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Diving in the Potter's Cove, RI [    ]

You can not believe it's an almost-November-New England day - it's sunny with temperature hits 70! I joined the Diver's Cove's open water course. We had been to Fort Witherhill. But it's very windy there and we eventually chose the Potter's Cove, which had much better visibility.

I was actually very sick yesterday. And more over I had lots of work to do. I started at about 1pm and finished at 5pm. But anyway, with the time change, I had a good sleep. I feel much better today.

Thanks for Joel giving me a ride. The water is not very cold at all, which is roughly 60F. But the site is not very deep. For the first dive, we swam a long distance before my computer started working. And there is not too many things on the bottom. Just lots of crab.

Any way, I am glad to have a chance to dive in the very late of Octorber. At least a good chance to refresh. With the temperature getting colder and colder, it's hard to find too many chances to dive though.



Click the thumbnail to check out some more photos.

Weiwei posted @ 20:28:48 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Total Lunar Eclipse [General]

How lucky we are! It's the perfect weather to observe the total lunar eclipse. I remember the same thing happened at about the same time last year. However this is the first time I am trying to photograph the lunar eclipse.

According to the forcast, the partial eclipse will start at 9:14 (EDT). I get everything set up at about 9:00. It's not as cold as I had thought. I do wear extra layers and feel quite comfortable. Since it's still not the perfect full moon (the full moon will be tomorrow), it's actually difficult to tell when the partial eclipse really starts. But if you look through the camera's view finder, you can see the moon is moving every fast and the eclipse process is very obvious. It take about one hour from the partial eclipse to the total eclipse.

The total eclipse will take another hour. Well I think the process is pretty much like what happens at the beginning. I think I have had enough. The coolest part is to watch the moon through the view finder. You can feel the moon in 3-D floating in the space.

Weiwei posted @ 20:49:04 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Imaging Graphite Surface [Research]

We finally made some progress in tuning always-has-trouble STM. We got atomic resolution images of the graphite. It's supposed to be easy to image graphite sample - you even do not need to clean the sample. The images we got are not very high quality but it's quite enough to calibrate the STM.

I made a mistake last night to turn off the cooling water of the X-ray source even did not take a look at that Jun was running the experiment. Well bad things happened. The magnesium window of the x-ray source blowed out and the anode was melt. I am extemely sorry for what had happened.

The pain on my neck was getting worse today...well I need to go to the bed to take more rest...

Weiwei posted @ 20:36:51 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

NHCC Competition [Photography]

Tonight is the Octorber's New Haven Camera Club competition. Again my two pictures won the first and the second place of the snapshot category. This result is actually better than I had expected, even though I really like these two pictures.

I planned the trip back to China. This would be my first long trip with my camera. I am sort of psycho recently, worrying about what if something is wrong with my camera during the trip. Well I am doing science everyday and I know this is absolutely possible. But obviously I can not afford the second camera. I will bring my point-and-shoot as the backup. But sometime people are just can not avoid thinking the bad result.

Weiwei posted @ 20:11:32 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Fall Color in New Haven [General]

I guess the foliage in most of the New England area has passed the peak. However, the trees in New Haven along the shoreline just started to turn the color. This is the most beautiful season in New Haven.

I had planned to take some pictures of the buildings in the campus. But it's too early. Most trees are still green. More trees changed the color near the East Rock Park but still not the peak. I took several near the Miller River.

When it's almost dark, Jun and I played tennis. Although it's cold, it's not too bad when we warmed up. After that I went to dinner with David. Well he did not feel very well. I finished my steak in minutes but he asked the waitress to wrap up his un-touched noodle. I could understand why the waitress was so confused. I was really hungry.

Weiwei posted @ 19:31:54 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Trip Back to China [General]

I finally made the decision to go back to China during the Christmas. I was hesitant at the beginning because of the bad visa situation. But I have not been back for more than 3 years. My grandmother is not in very good health. I do need to go back.

Once I booked the ticket and the trip became the reality, a long to-do list came up in my mind. Wow...there is no trip better than going home and to see all the stuff once you were familiar to.

Weiwei posted @ 22:17:10 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Thanks Everyone [General]

For some reason, I don't really like birthday - feel like getting old. Well thanks for the friends around I really had a good time.

I hate to invite friends to dinner. Well they will spend time and money. But for everytime friends go eventually. Thanks for Wang Jun, Zhao Ying, Yueyue, Xia, Liu Shan to go to the dinner. I could not forgive me not bringing the camera. Moreover, thanks Min, Huiqiong and Hui-Ju. I got the gift of the book "under the antarctic" - which I really like.

Xia, Hui-Ju and I went to watch the movie "Shark Tale". I was amazed again by some people's facination. What a lovely movie!

Thanks everyone!

Weiwei posted @ 20:59:12 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Quabbin Reservoir and Winsor Dam [General]

I went to Armherst to visit Hong Rui and Qian Lin again. We went to Quabbin reservoir this morning. I heard it before actually.

It's quite close to where we live. The reservoir is really huge, with 118 miles of shoreline. The Winsor Dam is 24.9 miles long, which is "one of the largest dam in the east".

Well personally I did not find anything special with the reservoir. But I can see the place has a very good view with the mountain and forestry around. So I think with sunset or sunrise light, it will be very beautiful.

Weiwei posted @ 14:18:27 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

A Trip To Vermont [General]

I have seen the foliage for several years in Connecticut and New Hampshire. Even though it's pretty much the same for the foliage in New England, I still want to take a look at it in Vermont, which is generally most praised.


After a heavy thunder storm during the night, it's still very cloudy. I am a little bit suprised that the trees around my home in Connecticut haven't changed the color but in Vermont they have passed the foliage peak.

I have to admit that I am not very good at taking landscape pictures. The fall foliage is especially difficult. Looking far away and taking a close look are quite differenct. I think the best way to enjoy this nature beauty is just to sit in the car and relax.

Sometime I think of the trips in past several years to watch the foliage. Wow...time is flying

Weiwei posted @ 23:48:15 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

The Summer Is Gone [Thoughtful]

I think most of the people in New England area are frustrated by the long long winter time. I called the dive shop this afternoon. Obvisously almost no people are interested in diving now - even it's really a gorgeous day today. Well there is nothing I can do about it. Unless you really like to the adventure part of diving, you won't like to dive in such a cold season.

The autumn foliage season is coming. The foliage is of peak in the whole Vermont area. I doubt if there is significant difference between the foliage in Vermont and that in Connecticut. But obviously the foliage in Vermont is much more famous. I am planning a trip to Vermont this weekend. Well if you have any idea, let me know.

Weiwei posted @ 22:34:13 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

'You be the Judge" [Photography]

I finally submitted three of my pictures to TOPS competition which will be hold at the end of this month. Well I do not have too much expectation for winning anything. This is my first time to participate any competition outside of the club. I just want to have a beginning.

Today, Paul is invited to give a talk of "You be the Judge", introducing some general rules of how judge scores the photo competition in the club. Well my feeling is that people have their own opinions/view points. Sometime you may need to consider how people will judge your picture. But the most important thing I think is that shooting the subject with love from you heart and remember photography is for fun. Keep that in mind and then you will be happy.

Weiwei posted @ 19:55:13 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

TA-ing ME 485 [General]

I was actually a little bit miserable this past weekend. The cause is I was not as active as I am supposed to be for the course that I am TAing. The professor said to me on Friday. "well if you could not do it, we can find another person". It's pretty much like the feeling that you are going to be fired. Not because I really 'like' the position, but it indicates you do not have the ability to accomplish this job - which of course I do not agree.

TAing ME485 is not of the usual way, of which the main job is grading. Everything in the course is project-oriented. So I was quite confused at the beginning about what a role I should play. I do not have too much interactions with the American undergraduate students. So I am not sure how much I should push them.

I joined the meeting of two groups. The first thing they talked is 'we really do not know where to start'. Obviously if you are not pushing, the students will not do anything. I finally decided to set the goal for each step of the project (which I was thinking to let the students themselves to do but it just impossible)and turned out the students begin to know what they should do.

I realize that this TA is actually a good chance for me. Sometime knowledge learned from the textbook is not the most important thing. How you play a role in orgnizing and leading a project usually is a key point.

Weiwei posted @ 19:48:41 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Saturday Update [General]

It's a cloudy day again. I went to Edgerton Park pretty early today and hoped to spot the monarc butterfly again. But unfortunately they are gone. I am thinking monarc butterfly will migrate. Maybe they just went to some other places. I think this is the fun part of photography. You may think if you go to the same place at about the same time, you would expect to see similiar things. But no, generally you do not know what will be waiting for you.

Several friends came from New Jersey and Canada. We played poker at Kirin's home. It's the poker game same as in the casino. We actually set the minimum bet as a dime. That's pretty funny and seemed everyone was enjoying.

I got the foam board to mount my pictures for the TOPS photo competition. Well this is the first time I join this kind of formal photo competition. Well I do not know what will happen but basically I do not have too much expectation.

Weiwei posted @ 23:12:01 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Large Size Prints [Photography]

hey, I have been totally focused on large size prints these days. It is not very easy - if you take it really serious. The point is you will never know when you will achieve the best results - there is no best at all. Here are some issues I have met:

1. Color matching. Today's color working flow is actaully doing pretty good. Unless your prints are monochrome, color matching should not be a big problem. However, the difficult is the matching of monitor/image/printer gammar. What I did so far is to print a series of scaled-down images and choose the best gammar setting. I am thinking eventually I should be able to buy a spider to manage my working flow.

2. Scaling. This is a pretty cool issue. Imaging you can get 30x42 image printed out. What I am using now is Extensis SmartScale. This is a very cool plug-in for Photoshop - very easy to use. I spent sometime to figure out which method is better - stepped upscale or direct upscale to the final size. I found there is not too much difference. Sometime direct upscaling is actually better.

3. Sharpening. This issue will bring lots of argument. I tried PhotoKit SHARPENER Plug-in Module for Photoshop. It's way too complicated and in most cases the results are terrible. The solution -just use the UMS in photoshop - easy to use and easy to see.

4. Framing. The standard size frames in the art store are pretty good right now. I strongly recommend NielsenBainbridge. The mats are very deep and the whole thing has great museum quality.

Weiwei posted @ 12:11:10 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Monarch Butterfly [Photography]

The autumn finally arrived. The patches of red can be seen on the trees. What does the Edgerton Park look like in the fall? I went there in such a cloudy day - perfect for photography.

I was surprised that lots of flowers are still blossoming. Since there will be nothing in the winter, some of the owners obviously give up their taking care of the flowers. The wild grass occupys some of the gardens.

Amazingly, there are a number of monarch butterflies flying around. Monarch butterfly is my favorite. To observe the wonder of their migration is always one of my dreams. The goldern orange color marked with thick black lines makes them especially elegant. My patience paid me off with several good shots. You can see them in my photo album.

Weiwei posted @ 21:49:42 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)