Weekend Update [General]

It's really enjoy - writing my journal while watching the Oscar Ceremoney. I like people with inpired heart - do their job to the extreme - I mean extremely professional.

I feel very good for the weekend. I pretty much could do what I like. I spent the whole last afternoon in the Long Whalf Drive. Winter is tough for taking picures so I am glad to get something. I finally met David and had an Indian Buffet for lunch today. We got in the J. Crew when we passed by it. Oh..gosh...I just feel I am old for those clothes - but just could not remember was there anytime that I was NOT old? haha...

I met Mark in the gym this afternoon. He asked my to join his course and get my diving refreshed. That's a cool idea because the winter is just way too loooong. I still need to sharpen my skill while I am saving money for the trip. Plus...I got the response from Boston Sea Rover. I will join them to work on next Sunday morning as the room monitor. I am glad I can participate.

There is going to be a big storm tomorrow...endless winter in the New England. Even the photo club cancelled the meeting for tomorrow. Craving spring!

Weiwei posted @ 19:42:53 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Swans at Long Whalf Drive [Photography]

Swans become a big topic of my photography. Not to say their elegant beauty. They are not shy, very easy to approach. I still remember how excited I was last year to see a group of swans at Long Whalf Drive. After a boring search of subject at Miller River today, I went to the Long Whalf Drive again.

As soon as I got there, I spotted several swans and dozens of seagulls and ducks. At other places, I can usually see at most two swans hanging around. But here, I can see larger group. However, since the tide was really low, I had to go about 50 yards all the way to the water.

The most exciting moment was the sunset. The sun cast very beautiful light to the ocean surface, plus the open view, providing a very beautiful background for the swans. I know it's not easy to see such beautiful light and it would not last long. I was so devoted that I did not realize that my feet sank into the mud. Gosh...after it's totally dark, I had to try very hard to pull my shoes out of the mud. But any way, it's so worthy.

When I came back, washed my shoes and pants and sit in front of the computer, I found there was a big issue for the twillight shooting. The subject is kind of dark. Because I was using 200mm, even I used the flash it's not very effective. That's a small pity...

But any way, I think the real fun of photography is the interaction between people and it's subject. As to the nature photography, it's about finding subject, putting it in the right light and capturing it. It's fun.

Weiwei posted @ 23:39:49 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Science Saturdays [General]

I helped Professor Ramirez to design a web page for her "Science Saturdays" program. So far it's just a one page showing the full schdule. Now it's hosted on my server. And I think the page is really neat and professional. I do make lots of progress in designing the web page.

The program is for kids and it has lots of fun. During my search of the public science program, I found a refreshing feeling of how interesting the science is - well compared with staying the lab and collecting data! I strongly recommend the NSF and NOVA site. NOVA is actaully a companion program with NATURE. I will add link to NOVA from my site later.

Weiwei posted @ 15:00:15 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

LaAlO3 (101) Surface [Research]

Now I started my final bit of research project. It is more related to the anatase TiO2 and the using of STM. I think it's not a big task and I should have plenty of time to do it.

The image on the right-hand side is the LEED pattern of the annealed LaAlO3 (101) surface. It shows a very clear 1x3 reconstruction. This is some supplement research. But since few people has studied this surface, we might be able to get something interesting.

Weiwei posted @ 14:46:49 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Brothers [General]

I just found the song from the internet. I do not know too much about the background of this song. Seems like it is sung by BEPA of Russia for a musical and the name is Brothers. Here is the Chinese translation.

Weiwei posted @ 16:40:08 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Blog, Gym, Swimming Pants and the Snow [General]

When surfing the internet today, I was kind of surprised that there are so many free weblogs. The internet is constantly changing people’s life style. It’s kind of a fashion now to have your own blog and share part of your life with everyone else. I even found several blogs of my friends. The web really makes this world even smaller. But it’s great that I found Xiao Su and started to read his articles again.

Since I came back from China last month, the research and the everyday life are kind of lazy. But looking at the people around ?busy with the deadline and looking for the job ?I am sort of worried. But I think it should be fine after tomorrow’s talk. I can be more focused on what I like to do.

Recently I went to gym very often (partly due to the lazy life). I am glad that after several years of constant exercise and smart diet I am not like the balloon as before. But I also realized that you would never beat your gene. So I transformed from the eat-less-and-workout-more style to eat-more-and-workout-more style. I know I could not get slimmer but I should be able to get stronger.

What happened yesterday is really embarrassing. I think I am a veteran in the swimming pool. However, I still forgot to tight more of my pants yesterday when I dove into the water. The water like a big hand... you know what happened…So do remember to check if your pants are tight enough before diving into the water.

It’s snowing again. I just had some hope for spring…now it’s the damn winter again. I took some pictures on the way to school. Well not too bad.

Weiwei posted @ 14:23:07 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Edgeton Park and Weekend Update [General]

February is kind of boring to me. I have some work to do for each weekend, which ties me to stay at home. I will give a research presentation next Tuesday. So I have to prepare and pratice the talk. But I found it's really low efficient. It's much more like the feeling before when I had to prepare an exam. But any way, after this I should have more control of what I am going to do. And I will have a couple of photo trips in March.

Again I took some pictures in Edgerton Park today. Every time I go, there is something new. I brought the flash and also tried to make better background. Click here to see pictures.

It's going to snow again tonight...sigh...this is the winter of the New England....

Weiwei posted @ 18:23:08 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

TA ME285 - A Sad Evaluation [Thoughtful]

It is until today that I saw the evaluation of my TA for ME285 of last year. Well I feel pretty sad. It's hard to say that I got much positive comment. Everyone said that I was an "extremely harsh grader". The professor mentioned to me that the students thought I was a little bit too harsh to their homeowork. I thought it might be okay but did not think that everyone had that much strong comment.

I asked Min and Hui about what I should do. Well they told me that the golden rule is to give them score as high as you can so they will feel much better for their hard working homework and generate good impression. Hmmm...I think I already gave as high as I could!

I do need to have more interactions with the students. I was really really busy in 2004, trying all my best to do everything well. Sometime, people say: "Weiwei, excellent, you did a good job!" Well sometime you hear "Weiwei? hmmm...he did not contribute too much...not accessible!" Kind of frustrating...Well the only thing that I can say to myself is :"hey...WW...work harder!"

Weiwei posted @ 20:28:14 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Chronicle of a Blood Merchant [Books]

I stayed up to almost 3 am to read the book Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (Xu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji). I bought this book when I was in China this January. It is not very long and I guess many people have read it.

Xu Sanguan is a Chinese everyman - a cartpusher in a silk mill struggling under the cruelty and hardships of Mao's leadership. His meager salary is not enough to sustain his family, so he pays regular visits to the local blood chief. In a series of heartbreaking reversals, Xu Sanguan decides to risk his own life to save Yile, his wife's bastard son, and comes to understand that in a society ravaged by suspicion, hostility, and poverty, blood money not only pays debts, but forgives them as well. The graphic portrayal of the Xu family's struggle in one of the darkest epochs of Chinese history is riveting.

Living in US, I have another angle to look at China, to look at people of my parents' generation. Very few society likes China, which has changed so much in such a short period of time. This change dropped so much pressure on the shoulders of the people who belong to that time.

Weiwei posted @ 10:14:07 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

All Meat, Speed Dating and Valentine's Day [Thoughtful]

Zhao Ying came back from China and brought a lot gifts to everyone. They are all nice traditional Chinese snacks. Everyone gets some cakes, cookies except me - all I have are meats...hehe...well everyone knows that I like to eat meat...well I do need to change my diet. Everytime I talk to my mom and she always asks me to eat more vegetable. Well I am trying...

Hui-Ju sent me a very interesting email telling her and her roomate's experience of speed dating several days ago. Her email is so interesting that I do not want to leave it in my mailbox. So I made a link here. You can read it even you have no Chinese on the computer.

What she tells me is exactly the same as the scene in the Hitch. I watched the movie with Xia and Shan last weekend. It's so funny. I just did not think the speed dating was really very popular...hehe...well it reminds me the word in the movie - "What the hell is the reason that people are so hard to fall in love?" - "they just do not have the chances to understand each other" - well maybe that's just the so called "destiny".

hehe...Happy V Day!

Weiwei posted @ 21:39:46 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Short Program - Close Up In Nature [Photography]

The New Haven Camera Club held a program of "member's favorite place". I joined the program with a flash movie of "Close Up in Nature". Wow...it's really wonderful.

It's been a long time since I had the idea of put several pictures, narration and music together in a flash movie. And finally I had a chance. These pictures are all a summary of what I took in the year of 2004. I worried about the narration at the beginning but it turned out very good.

Here is the link that you can find the movie. I just modified the code of the "slide show" section. It should be very good in both IE and the Netscape.

Weiwei posted @ 21:21:40 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Edgerton Park - Sarah T. Crosby Conservatory [Photography]

I am so tired of the winter in the New England. Well I believe most of people will be tired of it. It's not because it's very cold but because it's so loooooong.

I went to Edgerton Park again, trying to find some view of life. There is nothing in the garden. But the conservatory is very beautiful. A lot of cactus flowers are blooming. You can see what a different feeling to see cactus flower in such a winter.

The conservatory is running all by volunteers. The old lady there still remembers me. She was very nice and showed me some of the nicest flowers.

Weiwei posted @ 19:49:29 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Meet With Sandia [Thoughtful]

Well it's hard to say it's an interview because the people from Sandia is just to collect the resumes. I start to realize that the PhD job searching is totally a need-based interaction. If there is an opening, there should be no problem to hire you. But if not, nothing more to say.

I sent out a bunch of resumes to companies that I am interested with. For quite a long period of time, there should be opening I believe. So I am pretty optimistic with that. But I do not know what will happen eventually - I will cross the finger.

Well looking for a job means to start a new life...that's kind of exciting.

Weiwei posted @ 19:55:15 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Happy Spring Festival [General]

Happy Spring Festival!

Well eventhough it seems that there is not too much atmosphere of the spring festival, I still prepared some very nice food. But unfortunately, I had a very bad rhinitis and hardly smell anything. Hehe, what an interesting holiday dinner!

I called my dad and mom in China. I can not believe they stayed up all night to play poker and will spend the first day of the new year to sleep! Anyway, I am glad that they had a very good time.

Happy Spring Festival!

Weiwei posted @ 18:59:22 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

STM Tip Reflection and Approaching [Research]

We had very difficult time before when doing STM experiments. The problem was that we could not find the very clear reflection of the STM tip to do the tip approaching.* Several months ago, Min and I spent four days trying to solve the problem. Four days seemed very long. We constantly found parts that need to be modified. But eventually it works very well. Now we saved a lot of time to finish this work.

Tip approaching is only a very small part of the experiment. But anyway, we have made the progress.

*ps: When STM is working, the tip is so close to the sample surface that the tunneling current can go from tip to sample or reverse. To do so we need to set the tip to a very close position to the sample surface. This is the tip approaching.

Weiwei posted @ 18:48:39 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Qi Shu-Fang Peking Opera Company [General]

Formed in 1988, under the leadership of Qi Shu Fang, the Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company consists of top leading musicians and actors from China, and maintains the highest professional standards in performing and promoting the Chinese theatrical tradition - Peking Opera.

The Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company has not only performed before appreciative audiences in the Chinese community, but also played to sold-out house at the Symphony Space in 1990 and for six consecutive years, participated in Lincoln Center's "From Chinatown with Love." Ms. Qi started studying Peking Opera at the age of four. After winning first prize in a competition for rising actors, she was praised by the legendary female impersonator, Mei Lan-fang. Historically, Peking Opera had been a masculine art form with female roles played by males, but after 1949 women began to emerge as performers and Qi Shu Fang was central in that movement.

Weiwei posted @ 00:58:43 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Show Of The Spring Festival [General]

The Spring Festival is coming very soon. The ACSSY (Associate of Chinese Students and Scholars at Yale) has a Chinese culture show tonight. I am glad that I am the 'official' photographer of the event.

The program is actually much the same as those of last year. However, since I can sit in the very front, I get much better conditions to take the pictures.

Some of the programs are really fantasitic. I really like the Peking Opera, which is performed by Ms. Qi Shufang. She is a very famous actress in China. Moreover, the string puppet show is also fabulous, which shows the traditional folk activities in Quanzhou during the Latern Festival.

Click the images to see more!

Weiwei posted @ 00:23:24 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Paper to Thin Solid Films [Research]

I just heard that my paper of "Growth of anatase films on vicinal and flat LaAlO3 (110) substrates by oixygen plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy" has been accepted by Thin Solid Films and will be published soon. Although the minor revisions are needed, there should be no problem.

Weiwei posted @ 12:17:15 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Update: Trip to China [Photography]

I finally made the pages of trip to China live. There are still several empty links right now and lots of pictures to be processed. But any way, the big part of it is there.

p.s. I also modified the codes of most pages so that they look pretty well now in Netscape Navigator. I am very happy with this.

Weiwei posted @ 13:20:43 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)

Growing WO3 Film [Research]

This is the first time I worked so intensively in the lab since I came back. Min and I grew a new tungstern film. We met several problems during the process and nearly gave up. However, we solved all of them and the film turned out pretty good. The problems of the heater and the substrate are also solved, which is very good.

Weiwei posted @ 13:14:20 || New Haven, CT || Comments (0)