Trip to Hong Kong

Dale Haidvogel invited Kate to help him teach a ten-day ROMS training
in Hong Kong. He had said he would go early with his family, so Rob
and I bought tickets to arrive early. Dale’s family then changed
their minds and they spent New Year’s in Toronto.

We arrived late afternoon on Dec 30 for a class starting Jan 5.

We were met by a taxi driver with a card holding my name - it was so nice.

Gan and two of his students met us at the apartment where they are putting
us up.

The next morning one of the students, LinLin, came and gave us a
campus tour. HKUST has most everything in one enormous building,
with eating establishments on the lower levels, class rooms on the
main level, and offices above. HKUST is only twenty years old, but
has become one of the best universities in Hong Kong, with the top
business school in all of Asia. LinLin took us to meet Gan, then
we went to visit the computer lab where my part of the class will
be held. The two computer guys who run all the computers in the
Math department were there, explaining that the PCs running windows
would have a virtual Linux, then they could connect to Gan’s cluster
for doing the actual work. Seemed dicey to me, plus Gan hadn’t sent
them the list of software I’d asked for (with all the Python modules),
so that was worrisome as well. We agreed to meet with them again
on Tuesday, the day before the class started. Gan then took us out
for a big dim sum lunch.

That afternoon Rob and I went to Hang Hau to buy Octopus cards and
to look for an extra electric plug converter. The Octopus cards can
be loaded with money, then debitted by the buses and the metro, so
you don’t have to carry tons of change around. My last Seattle trip
was filled with scrambling for bus money.

We spent the evenings and some early mornings working on talks while
touring around during the daylight hours. We got out to Tsuen Wan
on Saturday to see a Taoist temple, then to Stanley Market to see
what was there (I wanted a Chinese chop and we were told that was
the place to go). On Sunday we went out by the airport to see the
largest Buddha in the world at the Po Lin monastery . You can get
there by aerial tramway, which happened to have a two hour wait -
we’d have taken a bus if we’d known! Gan told us there were many
tourists from the mainland over for the holidays and said it should
be quiet now until Chinese New Years.

Trip to Hong Kong

Dale Haidvogel invited Kate to help him teach a ten-day ROMS training in Hong Kong. He had said he would go early with his family, so Rob and I bought tickets to arrive early. Dale’s family then changed their minds and they spent New Year’s in Toronto.

We arrived late afternoon on Dec 30 for a class starting Jan 5. We were met by a taxi driver with a card holding my name - it was so nice. A picture from the taxi. Lots and lots of tall buildings. There is an estimated 7 million living in Hong Kong. High rise after high rise. More pictures below...

Gan and two of his students met us at the apartment where they are putting
us up. Tower C also known as the "Uni Lodge".

The next morning one of the students, LinLin, came and gave us a campus tour. A picture from Tower C. HKUST has most everything in one enormous building, with eating establishments on the lower levels, class rooms on the
main level, and offices above. HKUST is only twenty years old, but has become one of the best universities in Hong Kong, with the top business school in all of Asia. LinLin took us to meet Gan, then we went to visit the computer lab where my part of the class will be held. The two computer guys who run all the computers in the Math department were there, explaining that the PCs running windows would have a virtual Linux, then they could connect to Gan’s cluster for doing the actual work. Seemed dicey to me, plus Gan hadn’t sent them the list of software I’d asked for (with all the Python modules),
so that was worrisome as well. We agreed to meet with them again on Tuesday, the day before the class started. Gan then took us out for a big dim sum lunch.

That afternoon Rob and I went to Hang Hau to buy Octopus cards and to look for an extra electric plug converter. The Octopus cards can be loaded with money, then debitted by the buses and the metro, so you don’t have to carry tons of change around. My last Seattle trip was filled with scrambling for bus money.

We spent the evenings and some early mornings working on talks while touring around during the daylight hours. We got out to Tsuen Wan on Saturday to see a Taoist temple, then to

Stanley Market to see what was there (I wanted a Chinese chop and we were told that was the place to go).

On Sunday we went out by the airport to see the largest Buddha in the world at the Po Lin monastery.

You can get there by aerial tramway, which happened to have a two hour wait - we’d have taken a bus if we’d known! Gan told us there were many tourists from the mainland over for the holidays and said it should be quiet now until Chinese New Years.

Triptych

Three years too late, I've got an entry for the Meet the Gimp triptych challenge. We're in the part of the year when we get no direct sunlight. We'll have to get our vitamin D elsewhere!

Last night was an ARSC holiday dinner at the Blue Loon. It was very nice, but just a little sad, considering.

This picture of rime on a rope was taken before the recent rain event. Tonight we watched some early episodes of "Meet the Gimp" and I had to start playing.

In other news, we had a pleasant few days with my family in California, happy (and surprised) to make it out of the ice storm and now we're back to normal temperatures - but still with ice on the roads. Highlights of the trip: chopping veggies for my sister-in-law who cooked up a storm, walking along the arroyo, and lunch at a golf course with my parents. We also showed mom how to get to Google translate.

Rain, rain, go away!

This is our puddle at the bottom of the driveway. It was rather bigger before Rob went to work with the shovel:



















The very end of the stream, where it goes under the snow on the slope. Can you tell those trees are well below me?



















We got the studded tires onto the Mazda, but it's still not winter-ready. This is a terrible picture, but can you tell what's missing? I ran it into the curb...














We got the afternoon off work yesterday and I cleared the porch. Now the snow is sliding off the roof onto it. Last night we were at a neighbor's house and every time the snow fell, the dog would start barking. Enemies at the door!

Bolts

The poor Mazda is a summer car. Even with studded tires, it just doesn't handle as well on the snow. So this fall, it doesn't even rate a spot in the garage.
















The view du jour.
















I stayed home to be here when the Remote Power guy showed up. He came to weld the collar to the main post for the solar panels. The black cap sits on the post where the collar is (but we didn't have the collar last December).




















There should be bolts functioning as set screws to keep the whole unit from rotating. Rob said the threads were stripped, but it turns out the bolts we had were just a tad too small for the job. We should be getting replacements today.














It may be hard to see, but the snow here is roughly six inches deep. The bottom part is gray with mixed-in grit. The winds were howling the night before last, causing the snow to drift. The gray layer is anywhere from this thick to non-existent. The clean snow on top fell yesterday after the wind died down.

Oh, yeah - Rob started working in my department yesterday. This morning he had to pick up his police record and get fingerprints - he's going to have more authority on the systems than I do. He's in the workstation group, not on the big machines.

Snow!

October 6th: Snow falling in the Fairbanks area. Expecting up to 2 inches on the Hill!

Sunrise Oct 3rd @ 8:21 AM

Finished Raised Beds

Afghan square is finished!

Still working on the home power system. Getting some timers into place to allow the generator block heater to warm the generator up before the power system kicks it on. It needs at least a one hour preheat.

Wood splitting is next on deck. Nearly finished reorganizing for winter.