Although the process itself is simple, it took us a hour or so to finally get success. The main reason is because I’ve never messed with the battery of my own car and because my car is designed differently than most cars. Unlike most cars where the battery is under the hood, the battery of the Mercedes ML 350 is in the floor behind the front passenger seat. There are leads for the battery accessible in the engine compartment, but they have plastic covers and it took me forever to remove those covers. I guess the original owner never touched those leads and that might be why they were so hard to pull off. When we finally got everything hooked up and tried the jump start, it didn’t quite work. The Jetta made the cranking noise instead of the clicking noise when it wasn’t connected to my car, but it couldn’t start. Thankfully, another friend returned and offered up his VW Golf, and with the Golf we were finally able to jump start the Jetta. I guess it takes one VW to jump start another VW.

Anyways, this was a good learning experience. I’m not sure why we couldn’t jump start with my car, but it might have something to do with the design of the car. Perhaps Mercedes cars aren’t built for jumping other vehicles. If my car ever gets a low or dead battery, hopefully my friends’ cars can jump start mine. I’ll make sure to take my car for a spin every few days to make sure the battery doesn’t drain though.

So what have I been up to during my time back in Vancouver? Not much as usual. In terms of research related things, I had some assigned reading to go through, but I don’t think I really understood anything I read. I don’t think I was that productive with my projects either. I mostly just stayed home and relaxed, and I didn’t go anywhere far. I went shopping a few times, and also hung out with some friends from college. Since I was back in Vancouver with its excellent selection of Chinese restaurants, I couldn’t resist eating out. The area that my grad school is in has some Chinese food places and they aren’t horrible, but they are not comparable to what Vancouver has. The fact that I ate more while at home in combination with less exercise meant that I gained around 10lbs during the break. It’s not that I didn’t exercise, but I didn’t exercise as often or as hard as when I am at school. I did play more badminton while I’m back, but that wasn’t quite enough to make up for extra intake. I don’t think my badminton skills has gotten any better or worse than before, and I probably need to train a bit to become better.

In terms of things that I actually accomplished while back at home, I helped my father replace a heating element on my family’s flat top stove. The element burnt out some time during the year and my father didn’t get around to fixing it. I am no handyman, but in this age of the internet it’s easy to find information online on how to fix stuff, and replacing the element wasn’t a particularly difficult task. I also helped my dad’s trusty but aging Toyota Echo pass its emissions inspection. I bought a car diagnostic trouble code scanner back from the States to investigate the check engine light on the Echo. The Echo is getting a bit old and has high mileage, so it’s not really worth it to spend hundreds of dollars to fix anything. The check engine light was a persistent problem though, and I thought the car would have trouble passing even if we turned off the check engine light with the scanner. However, by some stroke of luck, our trusty little Echo managed to pass its emission check against all odds, and now my dad can keep on driving it for two more years.

So that’s all for my boring little winter vacation. Staying at home over the break has been very nice, but I still have a Ph.D degree I need to finish. It’s time to get back to class, get some research work done, and also to work off the pounds that I’ve gained during this vacation.

Power Dispatch and Markets
This was a power systems course, but it was a bit different than the other power courses I’ve taken because this course focuses on some of the economic aspects of the power grid. The course talked about how electricity generation is dispatched in a deregulated market and some of the other functions of independent system operators (ISO). I found the material to be pretty interesting since I didn’t know much about the area.Most of the math was involved with solving optimization problems for generation cost. The math is not hard, but it can be a bit tedious, and sometimes you have to use computer programs such as MATLAB to do the work. Overall it was a good course, and the fact that I got a good grade is even better.

Electromagnetic Fields
One topic that I don’t like very much in power systems is electromagnetic fields, but it is important to know the physics behind electricity and all of the equipment that keep our lights on. This was a graduate level course on fields but with focus on power system applications. In particular the course looked at numerical methods that solves Laplace/Poisson’s equations in terms of potentials. However, numerical methods can’t really be assigned for homework or test problems because it’s impossible to do those problems by hand. In the end, most of the grades came from solving problems based around basic Maxwell’s Equations (Ampere’s Law and Gauss’ Law), and so the course wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be and I received an A for my efforts.

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That’s all I have to say for my fall 2011 courses. Next semester I’ll go back to taking three courses, and one of them looks extra tough. I don’t have to worry about classes quite yet though since I still have a few more weeks to relax before school starts again.

I don’t have any big plans for my winter break. My adviser expects me to do work, so I can’t just bum around and do nothing. I’ll probably just stay around Vancouver/Richmond. I’ll likely be eating out a lot given that the town I go to school at can’t compare with Vancouver in terms of the Chinese food. On the other hand, it means I’ll probably gain a few pounds during my vacation. I’ll have to make sure that I get enough exercise even when I’m at home.

I wish all of you a Happy Holidays .

I was pretty happy to finish my thesis before Thanksgiving, because it meant I had more free time to enjoy the holiday and go shopping for Black Friday deals. I went to the nearby outlet stores on Black Friday midnight to buy some clothing, and I bought a couple of t-shirts, two pair of jeans and a pair of runners for about $100 which is pretty good considering that they are all from decent brands. There were a fair number of people braving the winter chills at the outlets, but it’s not really crowded or crazy like some Wal-Marts and big box store that sell electronics. I don’t think I’m ever going to those places to line up for Black Friday sale. On the downside for shopping in the wee hours of the morning, I was pretty much half-asleep during the day time on Friday because I didn’t get enough sleep. Besides clothing, I also picked up a vehicle GPS from an online retailer because my car doesn’t have navigation. I’ll probably write a post on my new gadget once I receive it in the mail.

I hope all of you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend as well.

The qualifying exams were one of the bigger obstacles in my pursuit of a doctoral degree and it’s a big weight off my shoulders now that I’ve passed, but there is still plenty more to do. Now that the qualifiers over and done with, I need to focus on writing my Master’s thesis and making sure I get my degree on time.

After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in late May, I’ve been taking things easy. I didn’t have to work co-op any more, so I had more than two months off and I intended to enjoy what would probably be my last extended vacation for a long time. My relatives visited and we had a nice family get-together, but mostly I just relaxed and didn’t much of anything. Of course, I had to study up a little and find a place to stay near the university that I’m going to for grad school, but luckily I have an aunt living nearby who helped me find a place. All I really needed to do was book my plane ticket and pack up my stuff and then wait for the date of departure.

I left home in late August and arrived in the new place a week before class started. Once again, my aunt and uncle who lived nearby were very helpful, and I moved into my apartment and settled down without too many hiccups. I didn’t have much money, but I made sure I got a comfortable bed and task chair and a nice big desk. It’ll probably take me over 4 years to get my PhD, so I want to make sure I sleep well and had a good place to study in my apartment. On moving into my apartment I met my roommate for the first time. I never met the guy before and we became roommates by chance, but he turned out to be a nice guy and (perhaps more importantly) wasn’t a slob, and we get along well enough.

Leaving home for grad school marked the first time in my life that I would be living on my own for any significant amount of time, but surprisingly I wasn’t that scared or excited. I guess I’m just not a very excitable person . Although I’ve lived at home for so long, I always had that tendency to hang out by myself, so the transition from living in my parent’s house to staying in an apartment wasn’t too drastic. This doesn’t mean I don’t miss home, but moving away and starting my life as a grad student wasn’t as daunting as I had once thought.

While settling into my apartment, I also went to school for various orientations and welcome sessions. I met my adviser and colleagues, and they were all nice people. My adviser gave me a master’s project that mostly involved programming, and I didn’t mind that at all. The fact that the project was mostly computer work meant that I could work in the office or from my apartment, and thus my hours were fairly flexible provided I get my work done. Over the months, I concluded that my adviser is probably one of the nicest professors one can ever meet. The prof is approachable and helpful, and the best thing is that he is not the pushy, slave-driver type. I like to work with a bit of independence and without having someone perpetually haggling me, so I don’t think I would get along too well with the pushy types. I believe I’m responsible enough to get my work done even without close supervision; if not I wouldn’t have pursued graduate studies.

A bit about the school itself, my graduate school is much smaller than UBC both in terms of student population and campus size. I could walk around the main campus area in about 20 minutes, although I rarely needed to venture out of the engineering building since my office and most of my classes were located in the same building. The school has been around longer and many of the buildings have a similar style which was kind of neat. Although the school is located in a smallish “city”, the student population is very multicultural. White people probably make up the majority of the undergrads, but the graduate student population has quite a few Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and Middle Eastern members. Being Chinese, I usually hang out with other Chinese students. My Mandarin is a little spotty these days, so I suppose talking with students from China is a good opportunity for me to brush on my verbal Mandarin skills.

Back to main topic, the fall semester classes started in late August/early September. My classes weren’t that different from my 3rd and 4th year technical courses from undergrad, and that goes for both the graduate and undergrad level courses at my new school. I knew I’d be find as along as I took the time do the homework and study. Other than the classes, I also had to work on my research project, but the good thing was that my adviser wasn’t expecting a lot of progress during the fall and spring semesters due to my classes. I made incremental progress during the semester and also had some help from an undergrad computer science student my adviser had hired, but I would end up getting a lot more done during my winter and summer breaks.

While not too much was new on the academic front, I had some new experiences with regards to everyday living. In particular, I now had to shop and cook for myself. Going out and buying stuff turned out to be a bit of a challenge mostly due to the lack of transportation. I didn’t have a car until March of this year, and the so called “city” I live in is really more of town, and public transit isn’t very developed. I could get to school easily by city bus or the school shuttle, but without a car of my own my shopping destinations were limited to a nearby Wal-Mart and two supermarkets. Any place further would be a half hour bus ride each way at the very least. My aunt would come and ferry me to the Chinese supermarkets and stores in the neighboring towns and cities from time to time, but I can’t exactly have her drive me around everywhere. During the first semester I mostly took the bus to the nearby supermarket and/or Wal-Mart which worked okay, but taking a bus meant that there is a limit of how much I can carry, and also waiting for a bus can be a pain… especially in the cold winter, but I’ll elaborate on that a little later.

Although I have a roommate, we usually buy groceries and cook separately. Part of it is due to difference in our schedules and part of it is because we had different tastes. I need a sizable portion of meat for lunch and dinner, while my roommate is more into spicy food. Agreeing on what to buy, what to cook and how to split the costs was probably going to be a pain in the behind, so we decided that buying and cooking on our own was the best for both of us. I did influence my roommate into eating cereal for breakfast though. Anyways, cooking for myself is actually kind of fun. Even though I almost never cook at home, I didn’t find cooking to be that difficult. Of course, my cooking is nowhere as good or has nearly as much variety as my mom’s, but I don’t think my cooking tastes bad. The key is to put lots of soy sauce and chicken powder (MSG) . I cook Chinese food most of the time and I usually make one meat dish and one vegetable dish with white rice. Sometimes (usually on weekends) I also cook some soup as well. I mostly cook for the weekdays since I bring lunch to school, so I make sure I cook enough for at least two meals. For Fridays nights and weekends I get a bit more lazy. If I feel up to it I cook steak for dinner, but for lunches it’s usually instant noodles, sandwiches, frozen pizza or hot dogs. The only downside to cooking is that it takes up time, but other than that I don’t mind cooking.

Another first I experienced during my first semester as a grad student was going to a conference. My adviser likes to take students to conferences, so a colleague and I went to a conference near Washington DC. For students like me, conferences are mostly just to listen to people in the industry talking about stuff. It’s not the most exciting thing, but it’s an useful experience. The good thing about attending conferences is that the costs are paid by the school, so there’s free food at least. I would go to two more conferences in 2011 and probably more in the future. My adviser said that he would make an expert traveler out of me. We will see how that goes.

The 13 weeks of the fall 2010 semester passed by very quickly, and before I knew it was final exam time. Autumn had given way to winter, and the weather was getting a bit chilly, but the worst was yet to come. Things had gone pretty well for me during the first semester. I did well in my courses, made some progress with my thesis project, and thanks to my flexible schedule I had time to go to the gym and lose some of that weight I gained during my last year in undergrad. The school has a very well equipped gym considering the student population. The weight room was better than UBC’s main weight room, and UBC was a much bigger school. The best of all was that there was no membership fee, but on the other hand since the school charges 20 grand per semester for tuition, gym use had better be included. Of course, since I have an assistantship I don’t have to pay tuition .

The only notable hiccup I had during the semester was my quest and failure to buy a car. I had hoped to buy a car before winter, but I was very picky because a car is such a big investment and I don’t want to be saddled with a crummy car. I was in the market for a used vehicle, preferably something newer, reliable, good on gas, and roomy enough to fit my 6’2″ frame. After test driving a number of cars, I almost bought a 2007 Pontiac Vibe, but in the end it didn’t quite work out and so I was still car-less at the end of 2010.

My adviser was nice enough to let me go home for the holidays, so the day after my last final exam of the fall semester I flew home. Even though I was only away for four months, it was good to be home. It was a typical rainy, dreary Vancouver winter, but it was multitudes better than what was going on near my grad school which was getting snowed out. I missed my parents, and I also missed the food: both my mom’s cooking (which is still a lot better than mine) and the variety of Chinese food that Vancouver has to offer. There were some Chinese restaurants in the area of my grad school, and they were actually better than I expected. However, they are not really comparable to what’s in Vancouver. My winter break was highlighted with going to lunch and dinner in various restaurants, and I think I gained a few pounds while back home due to eating out and getting less exercise than during the semester.

Other than enjoying delicious cooking and spending the holidays with my parents, I also spent a considerable amount of time working on my thesis project. Because I didn’t have to worry about classes, I could concentrate on the project. I ended up accomplishing more during my three week break than during the entire fall semester. It was really nice being able to VPN back to the school network and do work from home.

The always busy Times Square.

New York City

The first destination we went to is NYC, mainly because I have never been there before. Upon first arrival, New York (more specifically Manhattan) was exactly how I thought it would look: busy, lots of tall buildings, and a bit grey and grimy. I guess most of the depiction of NYC on TV and other mass media are mostly accurate. We spent the first day walking around midtown Manhattan, to the public library, Time Square and Grand Central Station. Time square is a very, very busy square, and that was about it. The public library and Grand Central were very nice with elaborate decorations and fixtures throughout the buildings. Those are the kind of things that you find in cities with a fair bit of history, and they don’t build buildings like these in modern times.

The New York Public Library. I remember this from the film The Day After Tomorrow.

It wouldn't be Grand Central without a grand interior.

A photo of Flushing's "Chinatown" area, lined with Asian shops and eateries.

We stayed in Flushing while we were in New York. Flushing is a neighborhood in Queens and also has a Chinatown (lots of Korean places as well). There are plenty of Chinese stores and restaurants in Flushing, and that’s convenient for my family. We had some Szechuan cuisine for one night and it was very good (and also very spicy). Flushing is a bit away from Manhattan where many of the attractions are, but the subway connects to there so travel isn’t too bad. Speaking of the subway, NYC’s extensive subway system is a very convenient way to get around the city. There are lots of lines and lots of trains, and we found that the crowding wasn’t too bad as long as we avoided peak hours.

The lobby of the American Museum of Natural History with the giant dinosaur skeletons.

Back to the trip, on the second day we went to the American Museum of Natural History. The museum is located on the west side of Central Park, and it is very large. The museum was so large that at first we couldn’t figure out where the main entrance was and instead we went through a side entrance. The museum was doing some repairs, but there were plenty of thing to see through the five floors of exhibits. I used to be one of those kids who loved animals and dinosaurs, and so I was eager to see everything, but the museum proved to be quite the walk and we were all a bit tired after going through all the floors.

A part of Central Park near the American Museum of Natural History.

After visiting the museum, we walked a bit in Central Park. It was a nice piece of greenery in the otherwise busy NYC. We stayed mostly near the streets and didn’t go to any of the notable places inside the park, and so we’ll be sure to come back next time.

The busy Chinatown in Manhattan

For dinner, we went to the Chinatown in Manhattan. The Manhattan Chinatown looks more like the classic Chinatown: lots of people, old buildings, and dirty streets. The Chinatown in Vancouver looks more or less the same too. Still, if you can get past the crowds and the look, Chinatown is still a good place to go to especially for food. Needless to say, our dinner was delicious.

A photo taken of the famous Statue of Liberty while we were on our cruise.

Some of the skyscrapers of Manhattan seen from the tour boat.

Because we walked too much on the second day, the next day we took it easy and went to west side ports to take a cruise around Manhattan. The cruise dock is near the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum featuring the World War II aircraft carrier the Intrepid, but due to time constraints we didn’t go into the museum but just took photos from the outside. We first went south down the Hudson to the Statute of Liberty and downtown Manhattan before going back north and around the island. The first half of the cruise was pretty good and we took lots of photos, but after that it started raining and we all had to retreat into the interior of the ship. There wasn’t that much to see in the northern end of Manhattan either. The bad weather continued after the cruise, and we decided to go watch a movie to kill time. We watched Thor in 3D, which wasn’t the worst superhero movie I’ve ever watched, but certainly wasn’t the best either.

For dinner, we tried the famous $1/slice pizza. It wasn’t bad, but I probably need to eat four slices to be full, and I didn’t want to eat just cheese pizza, and so we went to another place and had some sandwiches and fried chicken.

On our final half-day in NYC, we returned to Chinatown again for some dimsum. We’ve heard that New York’s dimsum is good and inexpensive. The place we went to was certainly inexpensive compared to Vancouver, but the food wasn’t as good as the top restaurants in Vancouver either.

We left NYC after dimsum. Our four day/three night trip to the city was enjoyable except for the bad weather during one of the days, and I’ve finally been to New York. There are plenty of places we didn’t get to visit this time around, but I’m sure we’ll back some time in the future.

The US Capitol

Washington DC

My family drove to Maryland to visit some family friends, and since we were close to DC we decided to go look around during one of the days. We’ve been to DC before, but the Mall area of the capital city has so many museums and attractions that there were plenty of places that we haven’t been to. We first walked around the Capitol building before heading into the National Gallery. The National Gallery was an impressive place with many paintings and other pieces of art. It’s too bad that nobody in my family is a real art connoisseur, so we mostly just walked through gallery. We only saw about half the gallery this time, and so perhaps we’ll return to see all of it in a future trip.

The National Gallery at DC. This is probably the center area on the main (second) level of the gallery.

Later during the day, we headed out of DC and to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is an annex of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC and is basically a large hangar for displaying planes, spacecraft and other related items. Unlike the main museum at the Mall, this center is not very crowded and I’m guessing it’s not as well known either. My family didn’t know about the place until someone mentioned it to us. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has a number of notable exhibits, including the space shuttle Enterprise, the Enola Gay (the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima), a SR-71 Blackbird and more. It’s a very cool place to visit especially if you are into aviation and that kind of stuff. As with all Smithsonian institutions, admission is free, but parking is $15. So unless you go there by bus there is an admission fee of sorts, but I think it’s still more than worth the visit.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has planes displayed on the floor and hanging in the air.

The space shuttle Enterprise is one of the many notable items on display at the museum.