Handpress flash light

hand press, originally uploaded by hooying.

Occasionally you can come across some interesting gears through the train commercials when you are on board. So I bought this flash light when I took the train to Zhuzhou yesterday. As the name suggests, you’ve probably figured out this flash does not require any batteries. It has two LEDs pointing downward in the picture. I was in the pose of pressing a handle which gears the big wheel to spin the magnetic coil in the center. This spinning coil functions as a generator to charge up the reservoir (a big capacitor in this case) which provides energy to light up the LEDs. Because of the semi-transparent body, you are able to see the internal circuit structures. I was even able to read the color code of a 5% tolerance resistor, and therefore to derive its precise resistance. Really smart and elegant design!

BTW, it costs about a dollar fifty cents.

High School Reunion

Well, these are my last high school friends in China. For some of them our friendship further extends back to the middle school or even elementary school age. For instance, I’ve known the rightmost guy (the one unfortunately got cropped in the picture…) since we were six. Just a few examples of their current career include, from top to bottom, dermatologist, internist for Chinese traditional medicine and business.

Prof. Mingqiang Zhu

After left Dr. Drezek’s lab as a postdoc late March, Mingqiang returned to China and started his own bioengineering career at Hunan University. His current interest is to study the synthesis of Q-dots. I had a chance to visit his lab on a Monday afternoon.

The lab space is housed in a new three-story chemistry building. The wet lab is well equipped with centrifuges, cell incubator etc. His colleague professors showed me some expensive fluorescent microscopes. They are also in the process of purchasing a confocal microscope. The main research direction in the department is bio-sensing.

I asked Mingqiang about his short-term goals. Besides preparing grant applications, he is looking for international collaborations. He is also recruiting two graduate students next spring. He mentioned the biggest difference between researching at Rice and Hunan University is, in China, some chemicals from Sigma can be really expensive to order and the shipping can be a very long wait.

Well, we happened to wear the same polo shirt that day…Does that mean I look like a professor too? ;)

Viewing my blog in China

It turns out I can't view my own blog in China. They are blocking the domain *.blogspot.com. I have to use a proxy server to view my own blog. Good thing that I can still post.

Random pix

I was looking for the trace of an old town in the first picture. I think the harsh texture of the wall gives us rich yet true information, just like the specular reflection from a smooth mirror. The only difference is the wall reflects light in the time span. The curvature emerged from the bicycle constructs a cozy harmony with the straight lines on the door. I also enjoy the subtle lighting conditions such as in the lower left corner.

The second picture was taken under a main intersection. The pedestrian lane was under the street to avoid traffic accidents. I was trying to create a contrast as well as to overlap the focal point in the picture with the gold division point. The picture is by accident amazingly pale so the guy in the red shirt stands out. This is also where I want this point to be.

5-27-07 Changsha - Choir on street

The journey continued as I am in my hometown Changsha now. Changsha is about an hour fly north of Shenzhen. I met mum with Rosa on Friday before she headed back to Houston.

So yesterday, I came across this ensemble on my way to a grocery store. Well, you can see the conductor (commander in chief?) in the front, everyone in uniform, singing and clapping. But, wait a minute, what on earth are they doing on the street? To give you a slightly larger picture, they all seemed to be the employees of a restaurant which is located right behind them.

Later I was told this is a new military-style management strategy originated from Japan a few years ago. The manager recruits everyone on his/her team before the work starts. They line up, sing a song in public and gain high morale (supposedly) before discharged to individual posts. Funny, I think…

The first McDonald's in China

I would say I am writing this blog on a historical site – yes, it’s the first McDonald's opened in mainland China in 1990. I wouldn’t be surprised since then the Chinese have to face new health problems like cardiovascular diseases and overweight. Let me describe for you a little bit about this McDonald's in downtown Shenzhen.

It’s basically a three-story RESTAURANT. The first floor is the desert window. The main ordering and dining place is on the second floor with a dedicated coffee area (McCafe) and a kid’s birthday party corner. The third floor houses another 380 seats (a huge terminal-like place in the center) with an open-air lounge as the smoking area. Of course you can sit there if you just want to get a bird-eye view of the busy crowd on the street. Besides conventional fast food, the menu also offers some Chinese desert. Not bad.

You may ask me why McDonald's chose the city you’ve never heard of as their first base in China. Well, the only reason I could’ve thought of is Shenzhen being the closest inland city to Hong Kong which was still under the British government back in 1990.

The Cartoon World

So I bumped into this place in downtown Shenzhen called the “Cartoon World” - well, I myself is a big cartoon fan. You can find not only miniature figures of various cartoon characters (Transformers for instance), but also *real* costumes and other stage props reproduced from the drawings in the cartoon movies. How sweet is that!

The rain clouds are still following me wherever I am going ;(

Bought a guitar to kill some of my time at the hotel.

5-20-07 Shenzhen

It takes about three hours to fly from Beijing to Shenzhen. It’s rainy here, so everything gets a little excessive amount of moisture. I couldn’t be more familiar with this summer weather where everyone basically “swims” from one place to another.

So, what’s exciting? On my way back from the dinner, I saw this gigantic snail crawling on the curbside in the hotel parking area. Ok, to give you a reference so you have some idea about the scale. I placed a lens cap in the background. I brought a phi=58mm lens with me. The surrounding barrel adds another 15mm to the diameter. So the cap has a diameter of around 70mm (~ 2.8 inch), and that’s at least how long the snail looks to be!

5-19-07 Beijing

So the plane arrived in Beijing five hours late and it’s already mid-night here. We were arranged into a hotel about 30 minutes from the airport. Good things that I am not alone. I met Gale from southern California and she is part of an education team for disabilities visiting China. We went for a walk after we had our shared room settled. My first time in Beijing, wasn’t expecting it anyways.

The next morning, I took some pictures from the hotel window. We were sent to the airport at 6:00. The airport was such a mess and you won’t believe how many people were there at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. The last time I saw so many passengers in the waiting hall was when I was a little kid waiting for a train with my dad in a small rail station during the Spring Festival. So, finally got on board, Shenzhen I am coming!

5-18-07 San Francisco

The connecting flight to Beijing from San Francisco was delayed for three hours. This worries me because I will almost for sure miss the next connecting flight from Beijing to Shenzhen. Beijing is also the place I have to claim all my check-in luggage and go through the Chinese customs and re-check them back on to the next flight.

Well, on the plus side, I got a three-hour layover, which was not initially planned. So I decide to take my time to shoot some pictures in downtown San Francisco. So here I am at the Powell Street and here are my pictures. Windy, sunny, hilly and crowdy San Francisco…