My Life at December 2007
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 31, 2007(Monday)
As usual, I am doing some studying today. At night, we went out with fellowship friend to count-down for the New Year. We played the UNO card game and had some sharing time too.
December 30, 2007(Sunday)
We went to Wal-Mart after church with new friends so that they can buy stuff. Now we know at least 9 new Cantonese speaking people coming. 2 of them did not return but at least we are able to reach out to 7 of them. That is pretty good.
December 29, 2007(Saturday)
We helped another three new students to settle down today. Seems like there are a lot of new students coming over during the Christmas break! Especially lots of them are transferring from colleges of Seattle to study third year business.
Afterward we went to the wedding of a coworker of Carmen's previous work. This is a western Catholic style wedding ceremony. This is pretty new to us, especially the Catholic part. I think that this is my first time attending a Catholic Mass. They even have communion too! This is definitely interesting and educating to me! However it is a bit boring and so I don't want to go to this kind of thing frequently.
December 28, 2007(Friday)
We invited Macedonia group people to have potluck at our house and also watched the movie "Facing the Giant". There are about 12 people showed up today; we prepared lots of food. Moreover last night we got some stuff for the newcomers plus some stuff for the baby too. The house is in a chaotic stage and I absolutely dislike about this. I really wish that I can graduate soon and move to a larger place. Carmen kept on cooking for the whole day (in fact she kept on cooking yesterday already because we invited classmates to house for dinner) and I kept on washing dishes (of course not as long as she did). We imagine that, with our baby coming soon, this probably will be the last time because afterward our house will be occupied with the baby stuff.
The movie "Facing the giant" is pretty good and moving. It is about a high school football coach losing games and can't deliver baby. However after trusting God and gives everything to Him, miracles happened. His team started to win and he can have baby. The message is a bit like "prosperity gospel" (if you trust God, you will get rich). Nevertheless the plot is moving and I like the movie.
December 27, 2007(Thursday)
I drove the new students to buy grocery today and then I also played table tennis for about 1.8 hours too. At night, I invited my school/church friend John and his wife to our house for dinner. John is from China and also Canadian citizen. He has worked in some supplier assessment firm in China for several years so he knows about the China outsourcing issue. Therefore, talking to him gives me some idea about dissertation. That is a great brainstorm time for me.
At night we went out to pick up some stuff for the new students and then we went to my classmate Greg's house. He has four kids and so he has a lot of baby stuff to give to us. Even before Cailyn was born, she has a lot of stuff! I can't imagine how much stuff she has, and the importance of having a bigger house, when she grew older.
December 26, 2007(Wednesday)
We went to the routine pregnancy check up and everything is normal. Then we also went to workout; we haven't worked out for 6 days so this is good to get back to do some exercise. At night we helped new students Felix and Vivian to settle down. We drove them from the shuttle bus station to their home. There are several new students this break! I am glad that I am not so busy so I can afford the time to help.
December 25, 2007(Tuesday)
We went to see two movies (at theatre) today: "National Treasure" and "Enchanted". National Treasure is a treasurer hunt, someone to clear the name of his ancestor by finding the treasurer. I think that this movie is only "so-so". The Enchanted is a movie about mixing the fairy tale with real world. It is about a fairy tale princess went to New York City. I think that the idea is good and I like this movie more.
At night we went to church friend Allen's house (we were there last night) to have a Christmas pot luck with fellowship friends. We also played UNO game and had fun.
December 24, 2007(Monday)
We went to buy grocery and then went to a church friend Allen's house for dinner. Afterward all of us went to an American church "Sherwood Oak Church" for Christmas Eve worship. This is a large church and I always like to have worship at English speaking church.
December 23, 2007(Sunday)
After Sunday worship today, the church organized a baby shower for us and for the baby of Nicky/Joyce. First I had a sharing. I shared that I am always a person that like to rush so I am always hurry about having baby. On the other hand Carmen is a person that likes to wait for everything to be ready before committing to something. Therefore she is not rushing at all. We found that for the last year God changes both of our heart. He makes me more patients and made Carmen more willing to take up the step. Therefore, this is a great timing to have baby.
Afterward we had a Christmas Caroling. After 40 mins of practices we went to a senior home to sing for these people. Then we went to the houses of Chenghu, Allen, Dawn/Daisy, Daniel/Yangching and sang for them. It is great to have fellowship time with them in these holiday season.
December 22, 2007(Saturday)
We went to the Baby Childbirth preparation class today at the hospital. We got so much information about the birthing process of a baby. I find that as I expected I am not terribly comfortable with blood or the process of C-section. However I am very uncomfortable with the process of poking needle inside a body. It is because when I look at the DVD about having epidural (noodle poke to the spinal cord to ease the pain of the mother), I felt very uncomfortable. I always fear that someone will trip the cord. I always donate blood even though I don't feel comfortable with this kind of thing, because I really want to save some life! Anyway, the lesson of today is that, giving birth is a very difficult process and I must love Carmen more (even though I should love her regardless of whether the childbirth process is pain or not). At night I also called mom to find out some facts about my birth and Hansel's birth. It will be very different this time, because it is 33 years later, plus US and Canada is much differs from HK.
December 21, 2007(Friday)
This afternoon seven of us church group went to a food bank to volunteer. There is a lot of washroom washer but then all of them have the label written in Japanese. What we have to do is to open each box, and then stick the English label on top and then put it back to the box. This is exactly like a manufacturing firm and a very operation-management style project. I am trying to make sure that there is no waiting time. With my presence and my speed of doing thing, it may make the whole process fast (And it is quite stressful and rush environment). However I had great fun doing this! I am like a floater and which step is slow, I go there to help out. Therefore, we accomplished a lot! 61 boxes (almost 1500 washer) in 1.5 hours! The organizer is very amazed at our speed and I am sure that what we are doing now is much faster than even the professional!
At night we went to have hot pot. I also drove some new friends (who just came to Bloomington yesterday) to buy grocery.
December 20, 2007(Thursday)
After submitting the complementary-product paper, I am working on the other one now. I am working with my American classmate Greg. He is good at coming up examples and writing the document, while I am good at coming up with the mathematical model. I hope that we can have some complementary effect and get something nice published.
Currently I am working on the mathematical model. And this is the more fun part of doing research. I am enjoying it, rather than treating it as a task. Therefore, even though I have holiday mood now, I am still enjoying what I am doing.
December 19, 2007(Wednesday)
After several more hours of work, I finally completed the complementary-product paper and submitted to the reviewer. This is such a relief and I can move on to something else! I will wait for a couple of months and then hear the news again. There are three possibilities. The best is that I get accepted, then nothing should be done and I should celebrate! The second best is another round of revise-and-resubmit. Then I have to continue to work on more things. The worst is a rejected. All work is in vain, but I will try to submit it somewhere else! Let's see how it turns out!
The weather is pretty warm today so we went out for a walk too! And we also watched the Spiderman-3 DVD at home to celebrate that I submitted the paper.
December 18, 2007(Tuesday)
I drove Joe and his family to airport this morning. Then I continued to work on the complementary-product paper for several hours. Now I hate this paper so much. I need to find examples, which is so hard to find. I just want to get over this! Cause me so stressful! I do not enjoy this at all!
December 17, 2007(Monday)
I talked to professors about my project on healthcare research. We are waiting for the hospital staff to give us the cost data for ICU and Acute care beds. We asked this question 2 months ago and we still haven't heard anything from them. This really drags my job application portfolio and I have enough of this! However there is nothing much that I can do, because the professor that is contacting the hospital staff is a patient and waiting type. And the hospital staff has submitted the request to some management and I think that they don't put this as their priority. I am in the bottom of the layer and have to wait for other people. What a shame!
I also talked to professors about having a reading class or some similar thing so that I can learn a bit more game theory stuff. At night, Joe's family came to our house for dinner. His dad used to be a manufacturer, supplier, and distributor in China. This matches my research topic and he shared a lot of case in China and how to improve the quality problem. I hope that I can somehow transform this to be my research question.
December 16, 2007(Sunday)
There is snowing in Indiana and the speaker can't travel from Indianapolis to Bloomington (about 1 hour ride). Therefore we have one of our deacons deliver sermon.
At night we went to the Business operation management department Christmas gathering. It is held at the "Wonderlab", a place like "science world" for little kid. With all those physics or biology (I don't really see any chemistry experiment) around, we don't have to bore each other with socializing but able to distract ourselves by looking at the different "toys". They also offer free wine and I drank one cup of white wine and half cup of red wine. Carmen did not drink any wine obviously. I don't normally drink wine but now I tried quite a lot and I felt a bit dizzy. My face turned a bit red but I am still "under control". We also ate a lot and I am very full.
December 15, 2007(Saturday)
We went to the graduation ceremony of our church friend Joe. Actually we did not go to the ceremony, but only took photo together afterward. Then we had lunch with their families and church friends too. I also worked on the project that I plan to cooperate with Greg for several hours too.
December 14, 2007(Friday)
I had meeting with professor this morning about the complementary-product paper. Then I played badminton with friends; this is the last time this year because people are leaving Bloomington and the gym will be closed starting tomorrow.
At night, I led Bible Study. Joe from our church will graduate soon; his parents and his younger brother came to his graduation ceremony so they joined our Bible study today too. Then they treated every one of us to have dinner.
December 13, 2007(Thursday)
I am brainstorming for dissertation today again. After working on it for several hours, I still don't have good result. Therefore, I have to continue searching.
We also went to see the doctor for pregnancy routine check up again. Yesterday the doctor says that Carmen's tummy is a bit small so we need to do ultra sound again. After ultra sound, we found that the size of the baby is right at average and everything is normal. However since Carmen often does exercise, she has some muscle so it seems that the size is a bit smaller. So this is good news that both the mother and the daughter are good.
December 12, 2007(Wednesday)
We went to see the pregnancy doctor for routine check up. At night, church friend Peiling and Peter went to our home to have dinner. We have dinner at their home for dinner or some kind of parties for several times and this is good to invite them to our house to have dinner and have some sharing too.
December 11, 2007(Tuesday)
I had the last Academic Writing class this afternoon. For the other part of the day, I was reading books to brainstorm for dissertation, reading comic and exercising. A normal day. Yesterday we also finalized the name of our daughter to be Cailyn Pun.
December 10, 2007(Monday)
I attended a "proposal defense" of one of my classmate this afternoon. The professors, especially the external professors asked quite tough question and she had a hard time answer these questions. Nevertheless she passed as well. This shows that it shouldn't be bad even if it looks bad.
I also spent the rest of the day reading Business Weeks, Harvard Business Review. And also reading some comic too as a relief.
December 09, 2007(Sunday)
I am done with my proofread for the complementary-product paper. Therefore, I am able to get back to other papers. Finally. finally.
December 08, 2007(Saturday)
I finished marking the I-Core case for my university job. Marking math is much easier than marking essay!
We had our first young-parent fellowship today. Even though it is in Mandarin and a bit boring, it is still good to have a gathering and peer support. At night we went to bookstore to read comic again. This is our main source of entertainment during a rainy Saturday night.
December 07, 2007(Friday)
The complementary-product project took me lots of time. And one of the hardest parts is to find example. What I need is two competing manufacturers (A and B), each selling two products (so the four products are: Manufacturer A has A1, A2; manufacturer B has B1 and B2). From manufacturer A's perspective, it can either use zero privately owned retailer (i.e. they sell everything by themselves), one retailer (the retailer sells both A1 and A2) and two retailers (retailer A1 sells product A1, retailer A2 sells product A2). My paper is only able to handle the "zero retailer" and "two retailers" scenarios.
There are three overall channel structures: 1. both manufacturers sell through zero retailers (i.e. they sell by themselves), 2. One manufacturer sells by themselves and the other one sells through two retailers and 3. Both manufacturers sell through two retailers (i.e. 4 retailers in total. My paper is not able to handle when retailer 1 sells both manufacturers’ product A1 and B1). I need to come up with examples.
My prior experience in Cisco helps me to find case 3. I had a very hard time to come up with the other two cases and professor has asked me for this for a long time. For the last few days Carmen helped me extensively to do research on these. And Hansel today also gave me great idea too! I am able to fill in the gap for case two and they both helped me tremendously!
I have a hard time coming with real life examples and the model is not clean enough. Therefore this paper is a terrible experience. However, this teaches me that in the future I should find a good motivating story before starting a paper. Moreover, I need to come up with clean model too. Refer to my plan for writing dissertation yesterday. Any help is welcome.
December 06, 2007(Thursday)
I have my game theory final exam this morning and the test is not hard at all and is same as last year's final exam. Therefore, I have no problem with that. Afterward I had a meeting with Prof Seb. It is about the first year paper that we are working on and so far this is a pain to both of us. We had a hard time working with the "ugly" math and also can't come up with clean example. He also told me that in the future when I think about my dissertation topic, I should follow something like this. First, find an interesting problem, which is half of the success. Then find a nice model and write it up nicely.
I will spend my next several weeks or even two months to find a nice problem. Here is some good guideline. Anything to do with "emerging market" (China, Brazil, India, Russia, etc) would be good. Also, with an "interesting" industry that everyone can relate to, such as auto-industry. Then find some motivating story about supply chain management (what I mean by supply chain management is the interaction between manufacturer, distributor/wholesaler, retailer). For example, Dell decides to switch from strictly selling direct (online at dell.com) to selling through retailer. Lastly, I need to come up with some clean tradeoff about why they are doing this (e.g. selling through retailer would increase market exposure but selling through company stores removes some middle-man effect). If you have any good story about this, please tell me and I would be very happy!
December 05, 2007(Wednesday)
I have a flu today and I hope to heal soon.
At night we went to Bloomington Hospital for a "Baby Basic" class. This class teaches us about how to change diaper or bath the baby. It is quite informative and interesting! We learn lots of new stuff and we hope that by the time we really have to do these to our baby, it will be smooth.
December 04, 2007(Tuesday)
I am still working on the first year paper (complementary product) for about 4 hours. I am not doing any calculation today, but simply to draw figure until my professor satisfies. That takes several iterations and it is quite frustrating. I first use Mathematica program to calculate the expression, then use that to generate numerical analysis. The numerical values are exported to notepad, which is then copied to Excel file. Then I wrote a VBA program in Excel file to line up all these 65,000 numerical values to a nicer format, which is then copied to another Excel file for storage. In this second excel file, I zoom the whole spreadsheet to be very small (about 10% with just font size=3) such that it looks like a diagram. I "print-screen" these and copied to Microsoft Paint. After adding the axes to the Paint program, I finally copied the figure to my Word document. Such a long process! Plus I have to do several iterations (for the last several steps) until professor satisfies!
At night we had deacon board meeting. Three of the six deacons will leave US for good in half year! I am sure that there will have lots of new blood.
December 03, 2007(Monday)
I am working on my first year project (the paper about complementary product). I got the revise-and-resubmit during summer time and I have worked on that for a while during September and now my professor is working on the final touch. For the last two or three days I have to redraw some of the figures and run some numerical analysis. The math expression for the result is quite ugly. When I look back now, I do not enjoy this paper at all. This paper (plus my second year paper, which is related to healthcare using queueing theory) has lots of ugly (but not difficult) math and it is so easy to make mistake. I really want to get over this. These two papers also serve as a big warning for me not to do any ugly math in any future paper.
I went to have lunch with classmates this afternoon and this is good to see the classmates again. One of the classmates is in the job market so I asked her how the interview was. I will be in the job market next year so it is good to get some more tips from other people.
December 02, 2007(Sunday)
After going to Sunday School and church today, I stayed home working on paper again. Even though I don't have much pressure from final exam, I am still quite busy nowadays.
December 01, 2007(Saturday)
I am reading books and brainstorming for another dissertation paper today. I spent about 6 or 7 hours and I feel pretty good about the progress. If I am lucky enough to make this idea works, I would be very ahead of the schedule. I also found out that dad has facebook account. This is so up-to-date thing and I am glad that he has this as well. Mom can share this account with him and this is easier to contact others.