Three months passed

It's been three months since I had posted my last article on blog.

Three months ago, I passed the Doctor candidate qualifier exam. I believe that would be the last important written exam of my life. I also wondered if that was my most hard-studying summer ever.

This summer vacation is composed of three stages.

The first stage is the first month of it. I went back Taiwan living with my families.

The second stage began from my coming back to USA and continued through the Friday two days before the vacation ended. It's qualifier preparation days.

The third stage only had one weekend. My summer break finally started and came to an end.

And another three months passed. Time flies.

night without computer

Since I wasted too much time with computer, I decided left my laptop in office over night.

After dinner, about 7 thirty, I went back to my room. Instead of sitting down and turning on the screen immediately, I idled for a while. It seemed to me that I am kind of lost.

Nothing came cross my mind, I lied down on bed.

Gosh, what's the meaning of getting rid of computer if I just slept over the night instead. So, should I throw away my bed as well?

Finally, I made up my minding studying the qualifier material. Not until 9 o'clock, I can't stand doing this. My patience is getting short. I grabbed a novel.

Ten thirty, I stopped to exercise.

I did do a lot of things tonight. Without a computer, I felt the leisure and freedom of using time. A little bit bored, though.

戒咖啡第二天

感覺今天對咖啡的慾望消弱了不少

肚子也比較正常了

但雖然是這樣說

下午還是有偷喝一罐可樂來解饞

計劃上禁咖啡的天數是兩天

所以從明天開始我要回復咖啡咽的日子

戒咖啡一天

由於肚子不舒服一陣子了

昨天決定不管如何都不能再喝咖啡了

也不能喝茶

果然，「戒」是不容易的

一整天一直冒出各種念頭、藉口：

「戒咖啡應該循序漸進。先從早上不喝咖啡好了……下午喝可以吧」

「不然Latte好了，Latte比較沒那麼刺激」

……

最後還是都忍住了

恭禧

陽光

陽光超爽朗的

一整個想去海灘

光是為了這陽光

就讓人不想離開美國了吧

練拳

決定昭告天下

這樣比較會有壓力

每天晚上九點

放鬆功、站椿二十分鐘、水肢二百六十下

真是一個很懶的工課表，但總比沒有好

新室友兩個半

第一次看見嘉偉時就有點面善，原來他也是清大工科系畢業的(04級)，很巧。

他在台大唸電子所，不過來UIUC唸的是Finance.

June是韓國人，唸生物方面的大學部。很和氣的一個人，和Michael一起上教會。口頭禪是mess up。

Michael是Matt的combo friends，華裔美國人。異常活潑。雖然晚上常常在客廳大笑害我沒辦法睡覺，但的確是一位相當好的人。因為常常過來我們家，所以是半個室友。口頭禪是fail。

再介紹一下老室友吧

Matt是台大電機所來的交換學生。萬人迷。今年七月就會回去了，但再過一兩年就會回來美國唸博士了。

Adrian，電機博士生三年級。每天早上六點半起床，晚上十二點睡覺。

旅行

大學畢業那年和好友們去新竹湖口玩

途中去朋友姑姑家坐了一下

聊天中不經意聽到的「愛玩」兩字

卻像一把鑰匙開啟了我未來四年出外旅行的日子

當下我默默地下了決定……

///

北京、長春、大阪、京都、神戶

印象很深的是第一次從大阪回來的時候

老師說我有改變

自信和講話的氣勢都不一樣了

原來旅行有這種效果?

///

北京、長春、大阪、京都、神戶、上海、芝加哥、西雅圖、舊金山、波士頓

去旅行像是在吃藥

憂鬱藥

需要它在下沉中的心情中拉一把

///

北京、長春、大阪、京都、神戶、上海、芝加哥、西雅圖、舊金山、波士頓、東京、山形、日光

在台北東區

忠孝東路可能有走過九百九十九遍了

就像呼吸一樣沒有特別的想法

但是轉念一想

如果開始想象我正在旅行

在台北旅行

那車外的街景就變得有趣起來

好像我在國外似的

如果可以的話

把心眼打開

讓每一刻都在旅行

///

北京、長春、大阪、京都、神戶、上海、芝加哥、西雅圖、舊金山、波士頓、東京、山形、日光、台北

桃園機場

去過那麼多國外的機場後
才發現我們的桃園機場真的是有待改善
網路上巳經有了相當多的討論

不過我覺得我們機場有兩點倒是相當可愛
一、免費的無線網路
二、免費的行李推車
在國外的機場，這幾乎都是要收費的

但我覺得最可愛的還是入關處一整排的「持中華民國護照」通道
像是家門
在展開雙臂歡迎國人回家

山形第一天

Last time I visited Osaka, I made a conclusion that Japanese girls are not that pretty. They are merely cute, but not pretty. This fact really disappointed me since I had always expected that there should be many beautiful girls in Japan because they are usually pretty in Japanese drama.

But this time in Tokyo, I found these Japanese dramas did not lie. 

In Tokyo station, beautiful office ladies are so many. Maybe the most pretty ones are always gathered in the largest city. Just like the situation in Taipei of Taiwan. The pretty comes and goes. I really want to enjoy appreciating them but I can't do that too apparently. Because my parents are with me. I better be a good boy XD.

And I think this is the most important thing of the day.

Way back home

As I had expected, it's a terribly long trip home.

Getting up at eight, I went to Illini terminals at nine to take Amtrak train. To my disappointment, the train delayed for one hour. Not until today, I have seen the amtrak as the most reliable transportation to Chicago( I wondered if there is an grammar error of this sentence). This reminded me the rail trains in Taiwan which delay all the time. I wondered if I could ask for a ticket fee return.

And then, I took CTA subway to O'Hare airport. I don't know it's because of my unluckiness or what, the train stopped after one or two stops and all passengers were requested to take off. And after several minuets, all passengers were asked to take on the very same train again. Thank god I had pretty adequate buffer for transferring.

With two McDonald's meals for lunch and dinner, I found I always choose McDonald's in airport.

And now I am in LA airport. This is the most uncomfortable airport I have ever been in USA. It's crowded. Many places are under refurnishing or something( or supposed to be?). It's dark in the check-in hall and , especially, in the food court.

Finally, I were home. To my curiosity, I did not feel very excited. Further more, the humid and warm air made me uncomfortable. Maybe I am really not a homesick type of person I think.

class review NPRE 441 5/4

Regulations
ICRP 26/30 Philosophy( dose equivalent (rem or Sv) and effective dose equivalent,Stochastic and Nonstochastic effect.)

Because different radiations cause different biological effect, so we define:
dose equivalent is equal to dose by quality factor.

Because different tissues respond differently to radiations, so we define:
effective dose equivalent is equal to dose equivalent by tissue weighting factor W(tissue). It only applies to stochastic case.

For nonstochastic case, we consider a 50 year organ dose.
For stochastic case, we consider doses upon whole body.

we also have limitation on intake dose( also stochastic and non-stochastic).

NPRE 441 5/1

Photon shielding:

Secondary protection barrier( for scattered photons and leakage radiation), depending on ratio of scattering to incident radiation scattering field size, exposure rate on scatterer....

Distance between "source and scatterer" and "scatterer and objective place" are related to allowable value as well as occupancy factor and others.

Eventually, I want to find the required barrier thickness. Usually we would find K or B, attenuation factor) first, then we can use some table or figure to find the corresponding required wall thickness.

Beta ray shielding:

Gotta consider both electrons  and bremsstrahlung radiation. To calculate the bremsstrahlung part, we first find the fraction of energy emitted as bremsstrahlung. And then to find the required thickness of wall. 

Neutron shielding:

For fast neutron.

Use table 9.5, we could find the relation of neutron energy and neutron flux that cause a 0.01 Sv/h.

Once we know the attenuation cross section, we can know the flux distribution of neutron in the wall. At the end point of wall, the flux of neutron should equal the required value. This is, we could find the required wall thickness.

For thermal neutron.

Gotta consider gamma capture reaction. Usually, we assume a uniformly distributed gamma source. Then we have equation to fine the dose rate on the surface of the sphere. 

So, we have dose rate from fast and thermal neutrons and gamma rays. One way to reduce gamma ray radiation, we could add some lower energy emitter like boron(0,48Mev).

Spring is coming

When flower blooms, the spring is coming.
I came to USA in summer and now it's spring.
So, I have experienced all of four seasons in America.

This is photo I took this afternoon.

This is in summer, the first day I came to UIUC.

This is in fall.

This is in winter

NPRE 441 4/29

When it comes to photons radiation protection, we should not only consider the originally incident photos but also should take care of the scattered photons and characteristic x-rays that follow because these following photons contribute to the dose as well. A build up factor is called for counting this fact.

Build up factor depends on (1)source (photons) energy (2)the distance traveled and (3)the nature of the medium. With build up factor, we could calculate the dose more precisely.

In order to satisfy the Requirements for structural shielding for X-ray facilities, we consider the following factors. (1)the maximum voltage that X-ray tube is used. This is related to the incident photos energy. (2)maximum current(mA) of beam current, which relate to flux of radiation. (3)work load of the X-ray tube. (4)the use factor. The fraction of workload that the beam is pointed directly to. (5)the occupancy factor.

class review NPRE 455 4/28

By operating integration of energy over E_g to E_g-1 on energy dependent neutron diffusion equation, we can get definitions of some group constant like group absorption cross section, group scattering cross section weighed by flux.

For diffusion coefficient, it's weighed by gradient of flux, not flux itself. It is reasonable because the diffusion depends on gradient of flux, not flux.

It's interesting that we have flux dependence( or gradient of flux) , which we have not known yet, in the definition of group constants. This is called a recursive problem. To tackle this, we assume the spatial part and energy part of flux is separable. And then, we further assume that we know the energy dependence. For example, we assume a Maxwellian-Boltzmann distribution for thermal neutrons.

Since the difficulty of group parameter constants are already solved, we can easily write down the two group diffusion equation. What following is similar in one group. We will have two kind of problems, source problems and criticality problems.

class review NPRE 455 4/23

Topics: Neutron transport equation

Starting from expanding flux dependence to even include direction and energy. ø( position, energy, direction, time), we write down the neutron balance equation. And then, omit direction dependence first and focus on energy dependence from now on.

ø( vector r, E, t)

Notice that not only flux has a energy dependence, some parameters like cross section, velocity or diffusion coefficients are also energy dependent now.
Some changes in neutron balance equation:
1. Fission neutrons come from fission reactions of neutrons of all energy.
2. Losing neutrons by scattering from objective energy to any other energy.
3. Gaining neutrons by scattering from any other energy to objective energy.

Then we define g group of flux ø_g by integrate the flux from E_g to E_g-1. By this, we have the neutron balance equation of group g.

For example, we had taken a look of two group, G=2. Some simplifications are used like up-scattering, fission neutrons being all fast

A video directed by my sister

It's took at my home in Taipei, actually a homework of hers.

The speed of taking notes

These weeks, I found I took the notes too slowly to have them done in time in class.

I wondered if it's just a coincidence  but I happened to sit on the back seats when it happened.

Why the difference?

The only explanation coming across my mind is the TRAVELING of LIGHT!

Since the front seats are much closer to the blackboard, the time the light needed to travel from blackboard to my eyes, positioned in the front seats, is apparently less then it is for the back seats. I need more time to gather information on blackboard if I choose the back seats and that's why I took notes more slowly.

Seven rabbits in a row

Yesterday was a raining day. Not heavy kind of rain, but misty.

On my way home, near the EE quad, I saw rabbits.

Nothing special about rabbits, actually, I had seen wild rabbits on the first day I arrived UIUC.

But this time, oh my, there are seven of them.... That is huge.

Maybe there is  a party of rabbits or something.

Maybe they like the rain.

Maybe the grass in moisture is more delicious.

Or, because of me? Probably not.

Funny Womenizer vedio

原來美國的宅男印像和台灣也差不多啊

Wow~it's already April

Time flies. scaring.....
About one month later, I will jet back to Taiwan.
That also means that it's almost a year for my studying abroad.
Sigh..........
I would only say it's the busiest year of my life.
However, there is not too much exciting new things knocking my brain.
Not much research, not much inspiring ideas....
Most courses I took this year were already taken in Taiwan before. Just a improved skill and a better feeling of the subject. I hope I could take more challenging courses next semester.
On the other hand, I found that I studied faster now, but think things less. Do keep in mind that thinking and curiosity is the most important.

Rhode Island - day three of the trip

We went to Rhode Island today. Rhode Island is about two hours drive away from Boston. When driving on the bridge connecting the continent and the Island, the view ahead of us is so beautiful. You can see large Island with some small Islands around it. Gorgeous mansions are sparsely built, with size and fashion, along the coast. There is even a house built above the island whose area size is exact the same of the house. No bridge connected, the only way to enter and exit the house is by boat.

The most popular place to go is Newport, town dedicated for tourism and a relaxation of life. We ate Dunkkin Donuts, again, for lunch and then went to a fort that has never been used. Unfortunately, the fort is closed for maintenance. After this, we drove along the coast to Berkeley Mansion. It's so Luxurious. I became wanting to own a mansion like this so much. However, it's said that when the old owner lived there, the family need seventy servants to maintain this mansion, which is unlikely possible nowadays.

Freedom trail-Boston Day 4

Freedom trail is undoubtedly the most attractive place to me, so historical and educational. Walking site by site is like reading a vivid history book. One by one, most important events leading to the funding of USA evolve in front of my own eye. In old south church, I can imagine how the crowd gathering angrily and listening the inspiring speech by Samuel Adams. Five bloody dead bodies were in King street where tea were dumping into sea several blocks away. It is Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party.

It took me a long time to visit each exhibition inside, so I can't complete the whole trail. I visited State house, old south church and old state house. State house has a magnificent outlook and a glamorous ornament as well. The state house is built after funding of USA. There is a wooden cod fish hanging in the house of representative. They said that it is a good luck charm for Boston.

Old south church is a puritan church. Compared to several churches we visited days before, it's stunningly simple. It's almost not ornamented at all, both inside and outside. However it played a crucial role in American Revolution.

Old state house is the political center of Boston in the colony period. Both the governor and representative would use this building. To my surprise, though the independence of American eventually resulting in the eruption of revolution, some democracy system heritage from England were already practiced in colony world.

At last, this trip also answered me a question. Ever wondering why there is so many John Hancock Buildings in cities of USA? Who is this guy John Hancock? The answer is, John Hancock is really something. He is the fist man signing in the declaration of Independence. Besides, he is a Bostonian.

There is presense......even in absence. It must be love

The second day in Boston is a day of Churches.

It happened to be mass on Sunday, so many churches opened to public. There are churches all over the city. Most of them are worth taking pictures, both outside and inside. Yet, some churches look nothing. Puritans' church, for example. But they could be important in aspect of historic meaning.

On the other hand, Boston is also a city of colleges. Harvard and MIT are the most renowned. Boston University is also very famous. Besides them, I saw many other universities and colleges reside in the city.

Perhaps it's because of this large amount of churches and colleges, I felt people on street elegant, pretty and thoughtful. However it's completely opposite situation when we drove. The traffics in Boston is bad, but the drivers are even worse. Rushed and rude, they horned all the time even to cars hesitating for only one second after the light turned green. We had been horned for more than one hundred times.

Boston Day one

This is the most exhausted trip of mine ever......

Leaving Champaign 10 p.m. and being transported all along until 10 a.m. next day. It reminds me what we often say " work smart and play hard". This time, I played extremely hard.

Right after taking off the airplane, we were immediately lost in the awful traffics of Boston. Thank god Boston is such a small city, I met my friend in the restaurant on time even though we wasted so much time finding our way.

With two cups of coffee, I was sustained to stand through all destinations today which are Trinity Church, Public Library of Boston, Harvard University and MIT.

Subway at 2 AM. So empty.

Trinity Church in front

Interesting Stair-like wall of Trinity Church

Another view of Trinity Church

Public Library of Boston

funny panda

Pretty old video.

Yet, it's the funniest one I've seen these days.

People say pandas don't know how to raise baby pandas well.

I guess it's more or less true.

The baby panda there is kind of like a thing put on the ground.

Angela Hewitt

Tonight, I went to enjoy Angela Hewitt playing Bach's Goldberg.

It's fantastic. In the beginning, I was kind of not used to the way she performed because I am too used to the Glenn Gould's play.

But after a while, I started to appreciate her sense of touching.

Thanks that I checked the mail at 5 pm today. It's like a gift to me.

The following is the introduction of Angela Hewitt,

Gramophone Artist of the Year Angela Hewitt (2006) occupies the position in Bach keyboard playing today that Glenn Gould enjoyed a generation ago. Completed in 2005, her 11-year project to record all of Bach’s major keyboard works has been described as “one of the record glories of our age” and has earned her a huge following. Hewitt has been extolled as “the Bach pianist par excellence of her generation” and “nothing less than the pianist who will define Bach performance on the piano for years to come” (Stereophile). Over the past decade, fortunate Krannert Center audiences have been immersed in Bach’s Goldberg Variations through the incomparable Murray Perahia and Christopher Taylor. Now they can witness still more facets of the work as Hewitt—perhaps the most elegant interpreter of this literature—reveals them.

Raining days

About 2 days ago, it rained a lot.

Sometimes it's just mild little rain and I didn't need an umbrella .

Sometimes it's pretty heavy like when I was on my way from Krannert Art Performance center to my office on Friday night. 

The former might be my favorite weather. The mist-like air makes people feel comfortable. Walking in this kind of rain is like walking in a poem. I was born and having a childhood  in Keelung, a rainy city. Maybe a raining day like this just reminds my hometown.

The later one, however,  is the one I dislike the most. Maybe it's because of another experience that whenever it rained my shoes get totally wet. Just imagine sinking feet in water with sox sticking on skins whole day long, it's suffering. And this is another memory of hometown.

Taiwan is not a part of China

今天下午Seminar前甜甜圈時間

話題好像是從Liang the Chinese以為Ian和Ruby一樣都是約旦人開始。Ian是埃圾人，但和約旦人一樣都說阿拉伯話。

然後不知道為什麼話題就變成「Is Taiwan part of China? 」

平常碰到這種話題，我都是含糊帶過。因為我覺得這種東西，是要用實力解決的。嘴巴上口舌之快一點意義都沒有。

不過，今天我並沒辦法閃躲。

Liang問阿拉伯的同學：「Don't you think Taiwan is part of China?」

他們的傾向，是的。

然後阿拉伯人就問我了：「Is Taiwan part of China?」

我馬上就回答說不是。

Liang聽了，丟了一句台獨份子給我。

James, the citizen of USA,過來拿甜甜圈，Liang也問他同樣問題。

James說：「Taiwan if not part of China. This is why I support Bush since this is one of his policy.」

我說了一聲：「Thank you」。一個很奇怪的Thank you，幹麻謝謝呢?

最後，為了緩和一下氣氛，我打趣的說：「Actually, we think that China is part of us.」

事後，我對自已的表現很不滿。因為對這個話題，我沒法用強勢的立場來主導最後的結論。而只能微弱的回答：「No, we are different countries.」。

下次若是再碰到這種情況，我要說：

「China is communism, but Taiwan is democracy. Taiwan and China was once a united country, but not right now. 」

Playing soccer

I went to play indoor soccer in ARC with some classmates today.

It was interesting because this is the first time for me to really hang out with foreign friends.

There are James, Ruby, Mohammed, Ian Qiyue and Liang.

The court was busy today. I heard that on Tuesday it's like no body there.

I haven't played soccer for five to six years, so tonight I felt so exhausted. Much more exhausted than it was when playing badminton. Yet, it's exciting and fun as well.

原子層次模擬

這是現在很熱門，但還是在寶寶階段的一項科技。

也就是把原子之間的交互作用，用電腦程式寫出來、運算。

如果這項科技能發展出來的話，我覺得有兩個很棒的地方：

一、以後就不用做實驗即得知材料的性質，省時又省錢。若是再配合演算法，我們就可以讓電腦來設計新材料。想像你在Google裡輸入：「融點>1000K、紅色、密度小於純鐵」，然後Google就幫你開始搜資料庫或是就開始進行運算。然後把設計好最佳的材料組成、結構、加熱退火流程都告訴你。這項技術的缺點就是：一堆材料工程師會沒有工作。

二、若是原子模擬真得到了非常準的話，我會想就直接模擬人類的腦子。一顆原子一顆子的複製、模擬。一旦成功的話，就是一顆活生生的腦子，可以外接眼睛、耳朵、嘴巴等等輸入輸出設備。照理說這應該將是一個有愛有恨、有同情心但又自私自利的人工智慧。接下來，我們可以讓人在不知情的狀況下和它對話，看看是否可以發現他只是電腦。如果不行?那，靈魂是什麼?我覺得這搞不好是人工智慧最單純也最暴力的一條途徑。

The last Samurai

Since my hair got longer and longer, people started asking when I am about to have it cut.

And these days, I started to make my front hair into a bundle. Some Arabic friends saw that and felt interested. They said it's like a Samurai, like Tom Cruise in the Last Samurai. I hope I am as handsome as him. I told them that the hair style of a samurai is much more curious than mine. A samurai not only have a hair bundle but also shave part of hair in front. With this curious shaving, a samurai is hardly more handsome than I.

One Chinese friend also have a comment. He nicknamed me "陳小辮".  I think it's not a good nickname because it really sound like something peeing. Especially in Taiwan.

61 kilogram weight

It's has been a long time not writing blog.....

Several weeks ago, there is a party downstair in Wayne's place, which is said to be a Semester Beginning Celebrating Party. Since I hadn't weighed myself for more than half a year, I took a chance to do that. It seems doomed to gain weight living in USA. In the beginning, People scared gaining fat but immediately took it as a excuse to eat more. It's USA's fault, not theirs. They said, "In a country of junk food, what can I do with it?!"

However, it's really a nice thing to me. Because I always want to gain weight. Even when I was in army, I tried so hard like eating a lot, training my muscle and drink milk. Even so, I could not have my weight more than 60 kg. And that day, it's, not so surprising, 61 kg. I made it without intention.

Alright, I think 61 quite enough. Just keep it.

【Movie】Benjamin Button

只能說又是一部好萊塢電影
故事本身是有創意的
但電影的藝術面完全是好萊塢的樣板模式
了無新意可言

故事上
我覺得Ben在末年時(變孩童時)被描述成逐漸喪失記憶
退化成真正的孩童這點很可惜
若情況是Ben心智仍繼續成長
那麼一個老人的心靈被禁錮在一個小孩的軀體裡的故事會更有意思

Brad Pitt
除了很帥外
Ben被他演的既無感情也不特別
倒是對拋棄他的老爸令人印像深刻

電影中最讓我印象深刻的一幕

是在女主角的舞蹈教室

兩人搭肩看著鏡子

一個人將愈來愈老

一個人將愈來年輕

這一瞬間

彷彿人生的一個交叉口

The way I see San Francisco

San Francisco, a city of art. Many shops, like coffee shops or toy shops provide a space to demonstrate and to sell workpieces for artists. This really makes the city a smell of art. The Golden Gate Bridge is itself a master piece. It's so beautiful. Besides, It may be merely a coincidence that all the old friends I visited and new friends I made are all artists.

Rita, my seiner high schoolmate, studied in fine art. She had been in San Francisco for one year. We enjoyed the whole trip together with her boy friends, Mistu a Japanese. Her roommates are also artists. Hermione from Taiwan graduated in the Institute of Art in Chicago, now working in SF. Kevin from China now studies in the same school as Rita. He had worked in video game industry in Shen-hai for years before being in SF. A-Der is a friend I made when we were in the army. He is now studying in another art school in SF. His goal is to become a director making Taiwanese movies. His roommates are also from Taiwan, studying in movie and media individually.

San Francisco is also a city that has extremely freedom to express opinions. There is Gays/Lasbians area where they speak out their rights through parades every year. Their are area of Hippies where you can see people in long hairs, strange clothes with doggies. When Vienein War, it's historically against the war severely.

On the other hand, San Francisco is a dangerous city. The amount of homeless here is the most I have ever seen. They sleep everywhere in the bus stops, street corners, or under light stands. Some regions is strongly told not to go because of the drugs, robbery and gangsters fighting even in day time.

In the New Year's Eve, we came to the counting and the fireworks. It's so crowded. You can hear people shouting and smell everywhere the cannabis. However it's OK. What's so unfortunate is that we had a robbery report. Kevin is robbed of his camera by a group of black people on our way to the fireworks. I was told that this happened all the time just around the acquainted friends.

I think it's exactly this mixing of the beauty and the dirty, freedom to speak and dangerous to live that makes San Francisco attracted. I haven't known it well and I will be back one day.