May 31, 2009(Sunday)

We went out for dinner and also read some comic at night. The weather is very nice (sunny, about 25 degree) and it is a perfect day for an outing. The envirnment is very relaxing too.

May 30, 2009(Saturday)

I got the feedback from the proofreader from one of my papers. Therefore I spent some time to work on the paper. Then I also spent some time to go out and have a walk with Cailyn.

May 29, 2009(Friday)

I did some studying in the morning. Probably too much studying (8 hours) in the last 36 hours. Then I went to the gym to do some work out and also played basketball with church's friends.
At night I led singspiration at the fellowship. I haven't done that for about 3 years! Then I also led the fellowship program of my Cantonese group because the leader has some emergency and not able to show up. I led them some songs and then led Bible study on preaching gospel (Lk19:1-10). I think that I have the gift of coming up with something last minute for the fellowship program, because I have lots of experience so I can use some of my previous experience to help.

May 28, 2009(Thursday)

Today I spent 5 hours to read four or five pages of paper, about stochastic process. I am trying to get over the proof one by one in order to learn the paper. It takes a long time!

May 27, 2009(Wednesday)

Dad went to the hospital for a routine check up for cancer. I am glad that nothing is going on!
In the afternoon, we went to Sears to take the free family portrait. Carmen is so thoughtful that she got a portrait especially for Father's Day! At night, we invited Effie and Elbert to our home to eat because this is their 21st birthday! We had some good sharing time. Then Andy also joined us to have dinner. We used to invite friends to have dinner at our home, but not as much after having baby. It is good to have some fellowship time!

May 26, 2009(Tuesday)

Today is a relaxing day; it is because I am finishing up with my own paper, and I just spent some time studying Cisco exam. I also spent about an hour to walk with her outside to enjoy the nice weather.

May 25, 2009(Monday)

This morning, mom told me that her email account is compromised (and lost). Dad experienced similar thing (of losing email account) about two years ago. This is certainly very painful to change the email address. Just imagine if suddenly the physical home is stolen. Not only the things are all gone, we also need to notify friends to use the new address! Hansel has his web server closed down. And I had my laptop crashed several time and lost info. So computer and internet is a love/hate relationship. It can be very convenient, yet when something went wrong, then it is a disaster.
Today is Memorial Day (holiday). Yet it has no difference to my daily routine. I am still studying and going to workout as usual. At night, the family group in our church organizes some kind of BBQ and we are invited to go. Therefore, we spent some times there hanging out with friends.

May 24, 2009(Sunday)

I preached today on the topic "using cross to build the body of Christ". I am blunt in point out some common mistakes (without point to specific person), e.g. driving habit, sex, gossiping, pride, etc. Hopefully these would have a positive impact to the church. At night we went out to Borders bookstore and I read "Naruto" comic.

May 23, 2009(Saturday)

This morning Carmen, Cailyn and I went to the Farmer's market for 1.5 hours. This is an outdoor market with people selling vegetable, plants and with some live band. This is much like a tourist spot. Living in a small town like Bloomington has the advantage of having some relaxing life style.
I went to play basketball/badminton with church friends. As usual, they are always amazed at my stamina. It seems to them that I have infinite energy, but actually playing recreation badminton with them is just too relaxing for me. Then at night Carmen went out to have dinner with church group to farewell Nicky/Joyce and their son Matthew. At that time I stayed home to take care Cailyn. It is good for Carmen and I have our own hangout time with church friends.

May 22, 2009(Friday)

I had a meeting with professor this morning, then I had a meeting with my own student afterward. The student is from the class that I taught in the Spring semester. She is not happy about her grade and thinks that I marked too harsh. I had a meeting with her to explain the whole situation and hope to have this settle soon. This is a very new experience to me as an instructor, but I am sure that this will be very helpful in the future when I have to handle conflict with the students.
Cailyn is better today, but still having some red dot in her body though. Carmen and Cailyn stayed home at night while I went to church for fellowship.

May 21, 2009(Thursday)

Cailyn probably has the "Roseola" disease. She had high fever, easily tired and now there is red dot on her body. She had three afternoon naps today, which is very unusual. She is also very sticky and wants us to hold her. However, other than that she behaves well. This kind of disease should go away in a few days. At night we went to prayer meeting.

May 20, 2009(Wednesday)

I stayed home the whole day today; I did not go to school and did not go to workout. I stayed home studying and working on paper. Furthermore, Cailyn is better and she is eating more. Good and thanks God

May 19, 2009(Tuesday)

This is the first time that Cailyn is really sick. She woke up around 7 times last night between 3:40am and 6:15am. We are very tired! It feels like the time when she was just born! Then we put her sleeping at our bed and she slept until 8am. Then throughout the first half of the day, she was very tired. Usually wake up for about an hour and need to sleep for an hour. She does not have mood to play, and she refuses to eat or drink anything. At one point, we have to use some needle to pump the water to her mouth, and at another point, we have to ask her to drink water. It takes about half an hour to ask her to drink for 25% of a cup of water! She sips so little each time!
During afternoon, she was a bit better; she ate and drank some milk/food. Furthermore, her fever is more or less gone. At night we bathed her. Hopefully she will be ok throughout tonight. We tried to sleep as much as we can, because we know that tonight will be a long night (since she slept so much during the day)

May 18, 2009(Monday)

Cailyn had a relatively high fever last night (101.4F) and that makes us quite worry. She also woke up several times (2, 4, 5, 6, 7am) so we didn't have good sleep. I am glad that this morning we have a routine check-up at the pediatrician. Cailyn was very fuzzy when the doctor checked her ear and mouth. Anyway, she had middle ear infection, (almost) throat infection and also teething too. All these makes high fever especially more annoying! Her physical shape is almost the same as what happened during the last visit 3 months ago. She is now 20lb5oz (10-25 percentile), 31 inches (50-75 percentile) and 45cm head (25 percentile) circumference. However, her development age is around 19 months. So she is still learning fast.
Cailyn's fever is more or less gone and she is more active later in the day. I was struggling whether or not I should workout today, but decided to stay home and do some studying.

May 17, 2009(Sunday)

Cailyn is sick tonight. She has a fever (around 100F) and some red/swollen cheek. We suspect that she is teething again. It seems to us that there are several white dots at her lower cheek, which means that there is a lot of tooth coming out. Throughout the whole day, she does not like to eat and does not like to drink (drinking helps to cure the fever). Carmen is very patient and tries very best to induce her to eat and drink. We even went to the playground downstairs (calling this a picnic) and eat, while Carmen performs (by playing the slide). Cailyn is also very "Sticky" and want us to hold her most of the day. We will have our routine checkup tomorrow and hopefully the doctor can have a good examination to her.
I just cannot image how a single-parent parent can raise a child!

May 16, 2009(Saturday)

This afternoon I drove Carmen's parents to the airport. They were here since two weeks ago, and from now it is back to the three of us.

May 15, 2009(Friday)

Carmen and her parents went to have a shopping time, while I stayed home to take care Cailyn. Then I also went out for running. At night the fellowship program is preaching gospel. There is a team of 4 people went out to share gospel with a non-believer, while the rest of us stayed at church as a prayer support. I am leading the sharing/praying and it went pretty well.

May 14, 2009(Thursday)

I went to school to do some studying again. And also went to do some exercise. At night, instead of going to prayer meeting, Carmen and I went to have dinner and then walk around the mall and read some comics.

May 13, 2009(Wednesday)

I am grateful that my car is still here this morning. Ever since the towing experience yesterday, I should give thanks everytime I see my car! I was there 7am to 8am because the towing occurred yesterday at 7-something. The meter starts to be effective at 8am. Therefore I read Bible and times magazine this morning at the car.
Afterward, we checked out and had a brunch at the Chicago China town. Then we left at Bloomington time 12:30pm and I drove back (Carmen helped to drive 45 mins while I am sleeping at that time) to Bloomington. We stopped by McDonald to feed Cailyn and also went to Toys R Us to walk around for an hour.
We returned home at 6:30pm. We hurried to return the home back to original shape (because we washed carpet before we leave so we put everything away and stacked everything up at that time). We had to wash things and prepare dinner. Finally things back to normal. Home sweet home! Home is comfortable.
Yahoo is canceling the webpage very soon. I need to find a new place to store my (1) online diary (2) photo (3) video [actually, I will continue to use YouTube, so no change is needed] (4) a centralized site to point to (1) - (3). For (1), I will use the following website: http://hubertpun.blogspot.com/ I am still searching for (2) and (4).

May 12, 2009(Tuesday)

We are staying at a hotel located at the downtown Chicago. I found a parking meter last night to park the car, which is effective 8am - 9pm. I parked overnight and planned to pay the parking meter at 8am. However, when I went to the car this morning, the car was gone. It turned out that there is another sign saying that no parking 7am - 9am (which is the rush hour). I was quite shocked when I can't find my car. This is the first time that my car was towed.
I tried to call the phone number on the parking meter, and all I got was a long auto-attendant. When I went back to the hotel, I talked to the info center and I got some good help. They helped me to find the towing company and I know where my car is. The towing lot is less than $10 taxi ride from hotel; Carmen and I walked for 30 mins to get to that parking lot. However, we planned to walk around downtown today and we have to pay parking fee anyway. Therefore, we decided to leave the car at the towing company, and pick it up later in the afternoon.
After about 1.5 hours walk with Carmen (to find the towing company), I went back to hotel to take care Cailyn (for her first afternoon nap and lunch) while Carmen and her parents went out for a walk. Then all of us went to downtown to walk around. We also went to the Millennium Park. Cailyn was very excited to see lots of people, a horse, and lots of bus. At the park, she also tried to catch the bird (people fed bird so she tried to catch the bird). There was a place with some very shallow water, so she and I walked on water. She had a very happy time then we went back to hotel to put Cailyn for her second afternoon nap.
After Cailyn wakes up and serving her food, Carmen and I went to pick up the car. It costs $160 to get the car back, plus the driving ticket ($60). This is a painful but memorable experience. At night we went out for dinner at China town and went back to hotel. Now I park at the street next to the one I parked today. I have asked Carmen and her dad to help me triple verify that this is a safe zone. Furthermore, I will go to the car tomorrow at 7am, hopefully everything will be ok.

May 11, 2009(Monday)

Before we leave home this morning, Carmen's dad and I cleaned the carpet using carpet cleaner. It is because Cailyn sometimes spilled food on the floor. It is a good timing because since we will not be at home for the next three days, we give enough time for the carpet to dry. It takes about an hour to clean it and to return it.
Then we left home at around noon. We drove for about 4 hours (excluding breaks) to Chicago's Navy Pier. The traffic is very smooth. Furthermore, we stopped twice to get some rest. We walked around at Navy Pier for an hour and then had dinner at China Town. We went to the hotel at night. Carmen booked the Holiday Inn right at the downtown for a very cheap price (Original price is $140/night, but Carmen got it $60/night through hotwire. This one should be a 2.5 star hotel but Hotwire advertised it as 3 star, so Hotwire gave us $25 discount. So we only need to pay $35/night). This is an awesome deal. However, the parking at the hotel is $31. That is way too expensive. Therefore I dropped them off and then I fished for a parking space. It was about 8:15am Chicago time and I find that parking meter only effective between 8am to 9pm. Therefore I only paid for $0.75 cents (for 24 minutes) plus the meter itself has 22minutes. It is way cheaper than parking on the hotel, yet I have to go to move car tomorrow morning.
Cailyn sat most of the day. Therefore she is very excited to see this new environment. She walked around and very happy at this new place. However, it is not easy to contain her. But finally we put her to sleep.

May 10, 2009(Sunday)

Today is Mother's Day. Therefore there are some special flowers offering to the mothers during church today. Then afterward I attended the meeting for Macedonia group. At night we packed for the Chicago trip tomorrow.

May 09, 2009(Saturday)

This morning I went to the bank for some church's bank account signature change stuff. Then at the afternoon we went out to have grocery shopping and at night Carmen and I went out to have some dinner time.

May 08, 2009(Friday)

This morning I helped church friend Chris to move house. Then we brought the car for routine check-up. It is because we will go to Chicago next week and we want to make sure that the car is in good condition. I think that the last time I brought the car for major check up was around October 2007, right before our trip to Toronto. At night, parents-in-law take care Cailyn while Carmen and I went to fellowship.

May 07, 2009(Thursday)

I stated to locate a new place for my website. I have bet my online-life on yahoo for the last 10 years, by using the yahoo website, photo album, briefcase and even email address. Now yahoo is canceling its free services and I think that I will move to something else, probably Google. Email me if you want to know what my new website will be.
I had a meeting with professor today about the paper that I am working on. And also asked them how to handle problem when students are not satisfied with their grade. I also got two afternoon naps today. I find that once I take the first afternoon nap, I would get tired and want the second nap! But then for the rest of today I felt better.
Then I went out to have dinner with the church's new president Chen Yang. And then Carmen and I went to prayer meeting (without Cailyn).

May 06, 2009(Wednesday)

I went to school's cubicle again to work on my paper. I can better concentrate there than at home. Then I had a good workout routine. I also drove one of the fellowship friends to mail package back to HK. For a box of book (size of the box is like an "apple box"), it costs $160! I think that it is cheaper to buy the books instead. In fact, this is always expensive to mail parcel to HK.

May 05, 2009(Tuesday)

This morning I went to school's cubicle to work for 2.6 hours because there are too many people at home and I can better focus over there. Then after lunch with them at IMU's Tudor Room, I played golf with Carmen's father. I haven't practiced the driving range for 7 months but I am not as rusty as I think. Probably mainly because I wasn't that great anyway.
At night I have to due with two students' complain about the course grade. They thought that they deserve a higher grade. I was being too generous all the way for the course. However there are only so many "A" and so many "B" that I can give out. Actually the average grade that people get from my course (more than B+) is higher than for other course (around B). However, most of the students' average grade is before the final exam is more than 90%. And at the final exam, one of the questions is to ask them what grade they think they get, and 80% of the class indicates that they deserve an "A". So I think that I have disappointed a lot of people.

May 04, 2009(Monday)

I did some studying and also went out for exercise.

May 03, 2009(Sunday)

After the Sunday worship, I had some studying on the Cisco exam. I need to recertify it as soon as possible but I have forgotten most of these already! Hope that this studying would not distract my research too much.
At night I went to the airport to pick up parents-in-law. They will be here for the next two weeks.

May 02, 2009(Saturday)

I woke up at 4:30 and then took a flight from 8am to 10:20 am to go back home. I am very efficient on the way to the plane. It is because (1) morning time and not much traffic so I can drive fast and smoothly (2) I have no check-in luggage, so I avoid the long line up at the counter but use the kiosk with no waiting line (3) On the way through the security check point is very smooth too.
I slept most of the time during the plane and I took a shuttle bus and arrived home at noon. It is great to see Carmen and Cailyn again! In the afternoon there is a meeting for the worship department (I am the worship deacon). Then I also marked the final exam for my students.

May 01, 2009(Friday)

Today is a full day of action. I have to drive my roommate to the conference at 7:30 to help setting up. Therefore I woke up at 6:30. Then I had a meeting with some professor at Carleton University (at Ottawa) for 20 mins to discuss about the job there. This is a good chance for me to get in touch with how the job interview will be like. Then I attend about an hour of workshop and got too tired and drove back to hotel. I had some food and then did some studying and slept for 1.3 hours.
Afterward I went back to the conference to prepare for my presentation, and had a 15 mins presentation at 4pm. The presentation part is more or less ok, but I was more nervous than I used to be. And I don't think that I did a good job in handling the question section. I did a better job this Monday at my dissertation proposal. Hopefully next time (end of June) I will do a better job in presenting.
After the presentation, there is 1.5 hours of idle time. Therefore I drove to some souvenir store near by and got some gift for Carmen and Cailyn. Then I went back to the conference for a reception at 6:30. As usual in this kind of setting, professor especially those good ones are always busy, while others especially PhD students like me are usually walking around aimlessly, with no one to talk to. I am trying my best to talk to people, but then people are not really interested to talk to me (because there is no value in networking with me). Still, I talked to a few of the professors and tried to have some conversation. I also got some alcohol drink (because it is free) and also some snack, or else I would look too stupid standing by myself doing nothing.
Afterward there are a group of about 15 people (some IU professor and some from other school) are going for dinner and my advisor asked me whether or not I want to join. This is a good networking experience so I just joined them. We walked for almost 30 mins to the restaurant and waited for almost another 30 mins to get seated. During the walk, I tried to talk to as many of these people as possible. But then by 8:30 they are still waiting for a seat and it is a bit too late for me, especially I have to get back to the conference and pick up my roommate to get back to the hotel. Therefore I just left. Even though I did not have dinner with them, I think that I have accomplished the objective of talking to these people. When I went back to hotel, I sent each of the people that I met today and say thank you to them and hopefully next time when I see them, they will remember me. That's the life of a person in the bottom of the food chain. It gives me some incentive for me to be a good professor so that in the future it is other people coming to me and not vice versa.