November 30, 2006(Thursday)

I get a chance to talk to Hansel in the morning today. It is great to be able to communicate with him. Not only the one way communication (reading each other's on-line diary) or slow communication (through email) but a voice phone call. This is great.
I easily spent 3 hours on the PhD Project #2. I will have a presentation and also a paper due in two weeks. I think that I have completed the presentation and I have a rough idea about what I should write for the paper. However, the biggest fear that I have is the paper and presentation for another class (the class that requires us to go to Indy, which is also the class that I don't read much and only BS during class time). I have spent so few time in that class that I am not sure what I can get in two weeks. I am sort of procrastinating for this class by spending more time on the PhD project #2 but not on this class. I need to get back to this project soon.
At night we went to prayer meeting. We haven't been to prayer meeting for a while and it is good to go there again.

November 29, 2006(Wednesday)

I worked quite extensively on the PhD project#2 in the last 24 hours. I found out that someone has done the approximation method that I am going to use. Therefore, I am quite frustrated with this. However, professors are not as pessimistic as I am during the meeting today. They keep on saying that I am doing fine, yet I really worry that I may overlook some literature and turn out that someone has done that already. It increases my stress but there is nothing that I can do. For now, I will hold on to their word, keep on working and hope that something nice would turn out.

November 28, 2006(Tuesday)

After a long break, today is a full day of school. In fact, the next two weeks will be really busy because I will have a lot of work to be done: a paper, a presentation, a final exam for K635 PhD seminar, a paper and a presentation for P602 PhD seminar and also a final exam for G601 Econ class. In addition, there is about 20+ I-Core final project that I need to mark, each of them worth about an hour of work! All has to be done within the next 17 days. I think that I will be really busy!
At night, we invited my PhD classmates Wenbin to dinner at home. He is one of the very few non-Christian that we know and we brought them to church ever since he arrived to Bloomington. I am glad that he has a good relationship with church people. Hopefully one day he will accept Christ too.

November 27, 2006(Monday)

This morning, I drove Carmen to work, and then drove her parents to the airport and back home. The traffic on the way back is smooth and it only took 60 mins to drive 53miles from airport back to home, which is quite fast.
Today also marked a milestone for the first PhD project that I started to work on since last November. After slightly more than a year (600 hours in total) of hard work, I finally completed the first draft of the paper during the meeting with professor today. Now we passed this paper to other professors to review before sending it to journal at the end of the year. Now I can move on to the next project, which is the queueing project for the health care system. I have already spent almost 80 hours, but still lack a lot of content.
At night, Jo, Joyce and Nicky came to our house for dinner. Nicky and Joyce went to Chicago for an interview and he got a job so they will leave us next spring. There are other important members of our group, such as Jo, Joe will leave by that time too. We need to regroup and think about what to do for our group.
I took my laptop to fix in HP center for the last two weeks. I got it back yesterday and I spent some times reinstall different software today. I purchased the laptop this February but the fan is making lots of noise in the last couple of weeks. Therefore, I FedEx the laptop back to HP Center to fix. They even change some other hardware because it does not pass the test. All of these are free because they are covered under the standard one year warranty. I am quite pleased by that. In the last two weeks, I was using the laptop from Desca that I have used for several years. That laptop has crashed several times and was extremely slow and unstable. Nevertheless, I got through the last two weeks with it.

November 26, 2006(Sunday)

Today's weather is extremely nice: warm and sunny. After Sunday Worship today, Carmen went with her parents to Super-Wal-Mart while I went with Shangmin and other church friends to play tennis. Shangmin used to be a professional tennis player in Taiwan and it is great to learn from him. I have only play tennis for less than ten times in Venezuela, and no other time. However, even though I cannot serve, I can sort-of keep up with him when we are valleying. It is because I have a good foot work. Afterward, we also played American football and baseball with some other church friends. Other than playing catch-baseball with Hansel 8 years ago in Vancouver, I have never played baseball. Therefore, it feels great when I hit the baseball to a far place.
In terms of recreation sports, I think that, I am a quick learner and above average in many sports when compare to people who have only played that kind of sport the same number of times as I do. My running really builds a great foundation for me to play different type of sport, no matter it is basketball, badminton, tennis and so on. I also learnt to throw thing well, such as Frisbee, baseball or football. I also got some quick reaction too. I am quite all-rounded ;) However, I am not good at any of these, when compare with people who really play that kind of sport (probably because I don't devote any time in any sport, other than running). "The body is equipped with knife, but none is sharp" (Chinese phase) best describe my situation, and this is even true when it involves musical talent, gift in church, or even academic (I used to study Engineering Physics in undergrad, which is a subject that allow me to "almost" triple-major in Math, Physics and Electrical Engineering)
At night, we went out to have dinner. I also worked on the PhD project for about an hour.

November 25, 2006(Saturday)

Today I went with Carmen and her parents to Indianapolis Zoo. I went there Aug 14, 2003 when I was taking my MBA. Therefore, I have been there before. We were there for 2.5 hours and then walked around the downtown for about an hour. I am really tired from walking today. Even though I walked fewer step (only 5200 steps, vs. 6400 steps for each running I had), shorter step distance and less intense, my leg is really tired by the end of the day and I can't run. Probably my physical body would stop working if I am walking relax or aimlessly. The 1 hour drive home is tiring and I want to fall asleep, but did not. Nevertheless, today is the main day that I accompany Carmen's parents. We are glad that everything is smooth.

November 24, 2006(Friday)

Carmen and her parents went to have thanksgiving shopping in the morning. After some studying, I have enough and I went to play table tennis and badminton with a church friend Chris. I once again confirm that, my advantage is not skill, but very energetic. Because of the three-times-a-week workout, I can play everything, run everywhere easily.
At night, it is the thanksgiving dinner at church. There were about 100 people showed up and afterward there is a praise and worship. My responsibility is to wash dishes, voluntarily. This is my lowly and secret serving to the Lord. I can also motivate others to help out cleaning up as well. I washed a lot of dishes today and it makes me quite tired. The praise and worship program was pretty smooth and I am happy about that.

November 23, 2006(Thursday)

Today is thanksgiving holiday. Carmen accompanied her parents to tour around the university and went to movie. As for me, this is another normal study Thursday. I worked on my homework and project as usual, but with lots of break and afternoon nap. I think that this break certainly came too late, because when I am very busy during mid or late October, there was no break. But now when I am not as busy, there is a break. Nevertheless, this is better than nothing. Everything will be downhill for the rest of the semester.

November 22, 2006(Wednesday)

I had some exercise in the morning and had meeting with professor. Carmen's parents went to visit us today. They arrived to the airport at 7pm. Therefore, we left home at 5:30 and then arrived to the airport at about 6:40. Then after picking them up from the airport, we drove for about 15 mins to eat Vietnamese noodle as dinner. This is something that is normal back in the days in Vancouver. However, to have decent Asian food, it does take lots of effort to get there! The server is really slow so it takes about 30 mins to have the food. We arrived home at about 9:30.

November 21, 2006(Tuesday)

This morning I helped out a professor for a MBA class. MBA students are certainly more motivating and mature than undergrad students, more similar to the students I taught previously in the Cisco class. The class today is playing a game called the "Beer Game". This has nothing to do with beer. This is a game to illustrate the "bullwhip effect" of the inventory along a supply chain, and is a famous game for supply chain management. The idea is that, the small variations faced by the downstream retailer became a huge variation of demand when viewed by the upstream supplier or factory. The game is designed such that "structure determines the behavior". I always like to have some mechanism such that once people are within this mechanism (or rules), then you can pretty much expect what the behavior will be. (This idea can be used *to some extent* to explain people's freedom and God's choices) Hence I like this game.
There is no PhD seminar today because the professor went to conference. However, I still have the Econ game theory class, the class that I sometimes fall asleep but sometimes ask lots of questions because this probably will be the core of my dissertation. I stayed behind to ask questions to the professors.
At night, Daniel from fellowship came to my house to discuss about the fellowship constitution. Previously we had worked on a church constitution. However, in order to make the fellowship a club of IU, hence able to enjoy the benefit from IU, we need to have a constitution.

November 20, 2006(Monday)

I had a good workout today. I returned to the physical level before summer. Usually I run for 14+14+8 mins. Before I returned to HK, I can complete the whole thing without a problem. However, afterward, I always had a hard time and the situation getting worse after my birthday. This is one of the few occasions that I can complete my task. I feel good.
I also spent several hours on learning how to use Matlab and implement to my project. This is a pretty nice Math program and I enjoy using it.

November 19, 2006(Sunday)

We celebrated people birthday this morning after Sunday School. And after Sunday worship, Jo, Carmen and I went to visit a church friend George, who just had a new baby girl Oct 27. Then from 6 to 11:30, I spent time at library with other fellowship magazine committee to color print the cover and last page to 5 huge sheet of paper (36 * 108 inches) and later cut it to have 96 cover and last page of the magazine. It surely takes a long time because we need to learn how to use the adobe Photoshop software to put all the images almost 40 times on a huge piece of paper and then cut it later.

November 18, 2006(Saturday)

I changed all four tires today, and also purchased grocery. Then I went with church friends Desmond to play table tennis, squash, racquet ball and badminton. I am a lot more physically in shape then he is; I am able to run around and with energy. Probably jogging three times a day really help me to stay in shape. At night, Carmen and I had hot pot. At the same time we watched the DVD "X2" (X-Men #2).

November 17, 2006(Friday)

I went to auto shop to check with the flat tire, and they suggested me to go to Wal-Mart to buy a pair of new front tires because my tire is almost all worn. Then when I went to Wal-Mart, they said that the wait will be 3 hours! That is too long so I went to a place called "Sam's club" next door. However, they said that I need to be a member in order to buy new tires, and the membership costs $40. That is too expensive so I did not do it today.
At night I went to fellowship and Carmen led Bible study. Last night Carmen and I had a deep discussion on the Bible Study Ephesians 4:1-16 and reflect on our own life and family life. Therefore we are able to have fruitful sharing today.

November 16, 2006(Thursday)

The front right wheel of the car is flat. However, Carmen still able to drive the car home during lunch. Therefore, I went to change the wheel while she went back to work. I need to fix the wheel tomorrow. Other than that, tomorrow is a peaceful day.

November 15, 2006(Wednesday)

There is no class today and I stayed home today! However, at night, I have to go proctoring for the undergrad class. Their exam is from 9-11pm! Poor kids! When I receive their exam back and check their ID, I tried to be personal or funny. For example, I told them "this is nice photo", or "is it really you?" or "how was the exam". I think that I am a pretty good instructor. It is also nice to associate the face to the name because when I am grading their homework I have no idea who they are. Now I finally know a few of them. However, the end of the semester is approaching, that means, I have to know another group soon.

November 14, 2006(Tuesday)

I had lunch with a potential PhD student with other fellow PhD students. Then I fell seriously in the Econ class again, because the professor is talking about some philosophical stuff ("The Theory of the Firm"), which is not my cup of tea. So I let myself relax and fell asleep.
At night Joyce, Nicky, Jo, Joe, Desmond came to our house for dinner. And then we had pre-study and discussed about the problem of our group. That is a pretty neat sharing.

November 13, 2006(Monday)

I woke up at 7:30 this morning to drive Carmen to work. Then I pumped air to the car's wheel, went to the bank. This is one of the very very very few instances that I did not shower or play violin in the morning.
After meeting with prof, I went to workout and run as usual. However I am dying today, probably because I donated blood last Friday. I am so tired and without any energy. For the rest of the day, I do homework as usual. I also shipped my laptop to Compaq to fix because there is problem with the fan. I am now using the laptop that I got from Desca in 2004, one that crashes many times. I am saving files in the network drive because I know that this computer will crash anytime.

November 12, 2006(Sunday)

After Sunday School today, I am the MC of the worship and Carmen is the song leader. This is the first time that we tried to separate the song leader from the MC so that people who are more gifted in leading song can serve, which would improve the worship quality. Afterward, we went to the new Super Wal-Mart. Using a reference from Vancouver, this is about twice the size of Superstore. It is selling many different type of goods, such as the combination of food (Superstore), electronic equipment (future shop), car equipment (Canadian tire), and gardening (Timberland). This is probably because Wal-Mart finds the land cheap in Bloomington. That is fascinating.
At night, I marked I-Core homework for 1.2 hours. I also backed up the information of my laptop. It is because I am going to ship my laptop to Compaq center to fix the fan that generates a lot of noise. The noise is annoying. But then I would be without my laptop for 2 weeks. That is forever. I hope that I can survive this time and do something else.

November 11, 2006(Saturday)

Today is one of the toughest days in this semester. After INFORMS last week, make up class and outside speaker yesterday, we had to go to Indianapolis to attend the PhD Seminar from 9:30 to 5pm. Therefore, we left home at 7:45 and returned at 7pm. There are 11 articles to read which is as thick as one inches double-sided. I simply do not have the time and the motivation to read it during the last few days so I just read the two articles that I present in detail, skim through three more and skipped the rest. Luckily I am able to "blow water" (Chinese term) throughout the class. However, my comments are more "general type of questions" and not specific to the article. I may have said too many things. Nevertheless, I am glad that I finally get over today.
I originally planned to do some studying after I return home. However I am simply too tired and overwhelmed with the tired day of class so I watched DVD "X-Men: The Last Stand" with Carmen as a well deserved relax time.

November 10, 2006(Friday)

After meeting with prof this morning about project #2, I donated blood. Oct 24, 06 I tried to donate blood but then the computer network connection was down at that time. When I tried to donate blood, it takes a long time before getting to the registration. I have class shortly after so I am really frustrated. When the nurse was doing registration with me, I told her that I have 20 mins more before class. I explained to her that I tried to donate blood last time but the computer network was down. And I want to do it now but then I have been waiting for a while. "I am just trying to donate blood...". And then, the whole process is smooth and quick. I got it down in the next 25 mins and I was only 8 mins late for the class. I am glad that I can finally donate blood.
There is a make up class for this past Tuesday because I went to INFORMS. And then there is an outside speaker came to give a talk and we have to go. And then we have to meet with the outside speaker for 1.5 hours to talk about the PhD program to occupy his time. What a waste of time!
At night, the fellowship for our Cantonese group is Praise and Worship. That went pretty well. At night, Xinlei, Xiaohu, Jo went to our house to have meeting with the fellowship magazine.

November 09, 2006(Thursday)

Since attending the tutorial three days ago about game theory, I think that it is a good idea to pursue game theory as my dissertation methodology. Therefore, I am starting to meditate about this. I also went to the game theory class today. I used to fall asleep in the beginning of the semester, but right now I am very enthusiast and ask lots of question. I find the purpose of my academic life, at least, right now.
I went to the bank to do some investment change. Then Carmen and I went for dinner at a Chinese buffet. During the last several days, I am hungry most of the time, because I don't enjoy the continental breakfast and I cannot eat too much at dinner. However, after the buffet today, I am very full! I have to walk slowly because of too full! Then we went to prayer meeting and returned home.

November 08, 2006(Wednesday)

The workshops today are boring and I slept through most of them. During lunch time, I went out for a walk in Pittsburgh uptown and downtown. Then I left the conference at 3:30 and returned to the hotel. I left Pittsburgh at night and returned home at 11:30pm.

November 07, 2006(Tuesday)

Rather than arriving there at 8, I arrived there at 8:30 because there is nothing really interesting going on. There is a job-search panel discussion for finding academic job. This is quite interesting, and I am still far away from my graduation though. Therefore, people are amazed to know that I am still new to the program. And then I skipped the second workshop and walked around the downtown area and took some picture. The area that I am at is not that big and I am able to walk around it within 20 mins.
In the afternoon, I attended a section on Operation Management with Game Theory (idea by John Nash, the movie of "Beautiful mind") by two professors from the Wharton (U of Penn). I am currently Taking a game theory class (one which I sometimes fall asleep and I did not really prepare for my mid-term yet got an "A"). I really enjoyed this section and gave me some idea about my future research. This section alone worth the whole conference fee! I think that I will probably go after this stream of research in my future. The only drawback is that IU does not have professors that are good at this area. So I may have to fight through the difficulties.
Greg and I skipped the last section and left at 4. He did some homework while I went to workout. At night, we went to the reception at the PNC Park. This is the home for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. I am sure that Hansel would love to be here! They served us great food and drink (even wine!) again. Also, the experience of eating inside the club of a baseball court is unique! I really enjoy the experience! I also used the night function of the old digital camera (one that I won after getting CCIE in 2001) and took really nice picture. On the down side, throughout this conference, I find that IU has a very small presence in the INFORMS conference. Therefore, it would be very hard for me to do the networking. At night, we returned to the hotel at 10.

November 06, 2006(Monday)

I presented this morning. Even though there are more than 150 seats in the room, there are only 7 audiences, 3 of those are the speaker following me, 2 are the advisor of the presenter, 1 session chair and also my classmate Greg. I feel bad for the other people not able to listening to my talk. However, I still gave all I have. My time control is quite well and I spoke quite slowly. I think that I did a better job than my first year presentation 10 days ago, although not as humorous as last time.
My professor Seb treat me for lunch. He took me with his previous classmates from his PhD University. They are all new to me but I got to meet some of the new people. However, they are all professors so I am one "gap" below they are. When they asked me whether I am his colleague, I said that I am his students. Not only that I am a new PhD student because I am only in my second year and not graduating in a long time.
I skipped some of the section today and had some nap and read some papers. At the end of the day at 6pm, one of the workshops has some snack, fruit and wine serving. So I got myself some food and drank some wine. It turned out that this is actually a department meeting, and the food is to attract more people to go to their meeting. So we stayed for a while.
At night, there is a general reception at the Carnegie Museum. There is some food. Together with my other two classmates Greg and Vikram, we walked around the museum and checked some display. That is quite interesting and relaxing. However, by the time we returned to the hotel, it is 10:50 and I am tired.

November 05, 2006(Sunday)

I went to bed at 10:20 last night because we have to catch the 7am shuttle bus this morning, and my roommate Greg has slept already. I have not slept so early for a long time.
I arrived to the conference area at 7:20. There are about several thousand people, I think, in this conference. Each moment there are 55 different workshops going on, each workshop consist of three or four speakers each giving a talk of 20 to 25 mins. I am one of those people. Everywhere there are people and I am fully occupied with checking what university they are coming from, according to their name tag. I have seen people coming from everywhere, such as Stanford, MIT, to HK University, or university in Netherlands. This is surely the biggest event in our field of study. I wonder, if there is a bomb or the whole building collapse, then this field is totally whipped out. I kept walking around and there are many people around me. However, there is no one that I know so I was just by myself the whole time. I attended several workshops but fell asleep during that time. Only a few of the speakers are interesting (to my standard). I also spent sometimes during the day to study for my homework because I am not being productive listening anyway.
I walked around in the street during lunch time to get some food. Today is Sunday and the street is really quiet. There are only two kinds of people on the street. One is the people who dressed nice and attending this conference. The other is black people who obviously are poor. Most of the upscale restaurants are full of the people who attended the conference. When I purchased my lunch from McDonald, I saw a lot of black people though.
I returned home at 6:30. Originally there is a general reception for the student. However, I am not too interested. I stayed home doing some homework and work out instead.
I also did not bring the mouse of my laptop with me. The touchpad of my Compaq laptop is extremely annoying. It always scrolls to somewhere else when I am typing. I will break this computer some day, if there is no mouse pad-lock. Also, the fan of this computer has problem and whenever it runs, it is very loud. I hate this laptop and I need to ship to the Compaq center to ship it, which will take 10 business days. I don't know when I should do it.

November 04, 2006(Saturday)

This morning Jo and Carmen drove me (actually, I drove them) to the Indianapolis airport. Then they drove to Indianapolis to tour around, while I took a 1.5 hours flight to Detroit and then 1 hour flight to Pittsburgh. I arrived to the hotel at 4:30. I am sharing room with my classmate Greg because he will be presenting as well. At night, we went out for dinner and then continue to study.

November 03, 2006(Friday)

Fellowship at night is separated to male and female sharing. I am responsible for the male sharing using the "pick and tell" method. I had different type of questions, such as "requirement of spouse", "perfect spouse", "why she should love you", "a strange habit", "your nickname", "what do you want to accomplish when you are 40 years old, in terms of career, family, faith, friendship", "the most serious sin that you have committed", "the accomplishment that you are most proud of", "which part of your body you want to change", "which part of your body that you are most happy about", "the most serious physical fight that you have committed", "the best friend or west enemy", "relationship with mother", "the most respected person", "what do you want to do if you have an extra $100, and what if $1million", "secret love", "got rejected when pursue girl", "the thing that God changes you the most". I am pretty creative in thinking different type of questions.

November 02, 2006(Thursday)

I had the PhD class on the manufacturing strategy again. I did not read in detail at all. However, I tried to "BS" as much as I can and I am pretty good in that. I treat it like a MBA class that needs lots of discussion. And for next week we have to read almost one inch of double-sided papers. That is ridiculously a lot! It discourages me to read any! I think that, since I am decent in "BS", I would rather skim through (or skip) some of the articles and only focuses on the two that I need to present. That is just too many papers that I need to read. Unbelievable.
At night, Carmen stayed home because she was sick while I went to prayer meeting. There are only several people that went but then we had good sharing and praying time.

November 01, 2006(Wednesday)

Carmen is still sick so she just went to work 8-9 and then went home and take a rest. I had meeting with professors about my second PhD project. There is a huge set of linear equations that I need to solve (at least 10 equations and 10 unknown, which as the system grows larger the size will grow exponentially too!). I think that it is going to be very hard.
At night we had a surprise birthday party for one of the members Nova. Then Desmond, Chris and Enoch of our group went to our house to eat congee that Carmen prepared. They were also playing piano and guitar too. We are thankful that people feel comfortable to be in our home and we continue want to be household of faith.