New Page 5

Want to comment? Please go to Xin's Message board/Guestbook HomePage

Upcoming Events: To be determined.

Highlight Stories: ►My first visit to Japan, ►My spring vacation in China, ►My idiom collection, ►Attending the 2005 MRS Fall Meeting, ►My friend's cycling trip across Canada, ►Beautiful Vancouver

Our first car (2006-3).

Yuze and Xiaoyan's wedding (2006-2). Wish I had time to attend. I would have taken many wonderful pictures and written a great story for the trip. But what I could do was just making a phone call and write a little poem to bless them.

Enjoy the summer during long weekend (2006-2). Rent a car for the second time. Not for long trip. Just review how to drive.

D'oh! My second hard drive is dead after less than one and a half years of service, without warning (2006-2). That is a 80GB Seagate hard drive. Regardless of the good reputation of Seagate hard drives, mine is just fed up with working for me. There are two senior hard drives in our lab that have been working for about ten years and they are still happily working. I am so lucky to collect more bad examples than average computer users. Hopefully, Seagate will replace mine with a working one since the company offers a five-year warranty for hard drives. But again, my important data won't come back. Maybe I should have a try in buying lotteries.

Experience as a "soldier"----playing Paintball (2006-2): The North Shore Paintball Field is really like a hole in the wall----Rui and I had a little trouble finding it. Google Maps doesn't recognize the address. Buses don't even go to any streets nearby. When we asked for directions, people usually responded "Is there such a place?". Surely, it would be better if we drove or looked for a car pool. Lucky enough, we finally found where the Paintball Field is and we were actually not too late. I became one of the first educated and armed "soldiers". And then, I started experiencing what an inexperienced soldier might do during combats ...

Attending the 23rd Conference of Photopolymer Science and Technology----my first visit to Japan (2006-2): I wasn't very excited when I planned the trip. More or less it was because I imagined that cities in Japan would be very crowded and now I am not very comfortable with noisy and crowded surroundings after being in Canada for more than five years. I was more looking forward to attending the conference since I would be presenting in another international conference. However, it turned out to be a lot different from what I expected. This time, I enjoyed the local culture, food, people and society a lot more than the conference, although, I have to admit the conference was a nice one as well, especially for learning the cutting-edge research undertaken by the world leading microelectronics companies such as Intel, IBM, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and so on. I owe thanks to Simon for his efforts on planning the trip (two extra days staying in Japan was a great choice), getting us three helpful local tour guides, and more importantly creating the chance to make Japanese friends. I also owe thanks to Grace for having us a smooth start in Japan by her proficient Japanese. See here for a detailed story.

Spring vacation in China (2006-1): Time flies! Great times are always shorter than you expect! When I was young I didn't want to spend much time with my parents. Out of their reach was my primary goal. When I grow up, I don't have much time to spend with my parents. Back within their reach is my primary goal. Talking about the old times, walking on the streets, and visiting the markets together with them are among the happiest elements in my life. Each of my visits to hometown is a new season of happiness.

Teaching Chem122 Tutorial (2006-1): Bravo! Just like my Chem121 teaching site, I also got more than 700 hits from students for my Chem122 teaching site.

My driving trips after getting my Class 7N driver license (2006-1): Some stories about my experience-gaining driving trips.

Learning how to drive (2006-1): Finally, I can drive independently. Many thanks to my coach, Mr. Wu. He is a good coach, even though sometimes his comments are overwhelming. Now I know his comments were so helpful that I did very well in the road test. Click here for a detailed story.

Chinese New Year 2006 (2006-1): Parade in Chinatown. CSSA Chinese New Year celebration party.

Christmas 2005 and New Year 2006 (2005-3): Rui and Xin were fooling around in shopping malls and eventually bought perfect gifts for each other. What are they? I'm not going to tell you here. You will see them in upcoming pictures. :-)

The 10th Annual Meeting for Pacific Centre for Advanced Materials and Microstructures (PCAMM)-UVic (2005-3): This meeting enabled me to visit Victoria BC in winter. I also happened to see a Christmas Parade. Click here to see some pictures from the trip.

Attending the 2005 MRS Fall Meeting----my first visit to the US (2005-3): I have been looking forward to attending such a meeting for a long time. Not only can I meet quite a few of the top materials scientists in the world and have a close contact with some cutting-edge researches, but also attend some great tutorials on materials science. Since I am a student, learning is still most important to me :o). Things didn't go very smooth though, for past years. Fortunately, in this summer I have two abstracts accepted by the 2005 MRS Fall Meeting and one of them is an oral presentation. Therefore, I have this great chance to visit the US for the first time. Here is the detailed story about the trip.

Vancouver Autumn picture collection (2005-3): All Vancouver lower mainland was covered by the "sea of clouds". Therefore, people had their cloudy day down the hill whereas we had our sunny day up the hill for more than a week. My photographing skill wasn't enough to fully reveal the beautiful views. However, these pictures do serve well as a record to remind me of what I have seen.

The Construction Celebration of for the New Technology and Science Complex Module 2 (TASC 2) at Simon Fraser University (2005-3): Ross, Simon, Corbin and Xin all got chances to have pictures taken with Minister Coell. Xin was given a chance to present the Hill's group's research advances to Minster Coell and also to other invited guests from funding agencies and industry. Oh my, I should have worn a suit and a tie!

MS³ Introduction Meeting (2005-3): There was a huge turnout. Many students considered the creation of MS³----the Materials Science Student Society at SFU as a great idea. And it would encourage a lot more collaborations among SFU materials science students and a better utilization of the state-of-art facilities in the 4D Labs. (The 4D Labs, located at SFU Burnaby campus, is going to be a center of ideas and experiments for the cutting edge of materials science.) I am glad to be part of the Society and the 4D Labs and to do something for them before I finished my Ph.D. degree here at SFU. In the future, I hope I could get a chance to work in the 4D Labs but not as a student anyone.

The Mid-Autumn Party by UBC-SFU (2005-3): It was a just so-so party. Most performances were not very impressive. People are singing a lot better though. The show of Dong(1)bei(3)er(2)ren(2)zhuan(4) was a nice one. Click here to see some pictures.

Terry Fox Walk/Run (2005-3): It was 3.8km! I made it. I was happy to be able to stay in the middle of runners. The 2005 Terry Fox Walk/Run was also an important event in celebrating the SFU 40th Anniversary. Therefore, the turnout was quite large. I was glad being part of the event and that was the only event I was able to attend for celebrating the SFU 40th Anniversary. Click here to see some pictures.

Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Vancouver (2005-3): Rui and I spent the whole afternoons of Sep. 16 and 17 outside the Vancouver International Airport joining the rallies to welcome President Hu and see him off. Unfortunately, we were not able to see any very important person except a whole bunch of cars. No reporters interviewed or videotaped us so we were not able to be on the CTV night news either. It was still fun though, talking with other people, seeing different Chinese clubs and organizations and waving flags. There were of course quite a few protesters, but both supporters and protestors were quite calm through the events.

Summer vacation in China (2005-2). Seeing huge changes everywhere in China, I find myself somewhat a stranger in the society where I grew up. I am not old but my thoughts are a little bit reluctant to accept some changes. Feels like I am having a culture shock, an experience similar to what I had when I started living in Canada! However, there are things that never change...

40th IUPAC Congress (2005-2). This is the first international conference I have ever attended! Wider topics and more presentations, more people and more registration fee! I expected to give an oral presentation, but it turned out to be a poster presentation for me. I understood the reason for that when I noticed there were no students assigned with oral presentation. There were too many experts and professors in chemistry coming to the Congress. The poster sessions were very crowded, full of presenters and visitors. One had no time to enjoy every and each of the interested posters, especially if he was presenting a poster too. More interestingly, I had to explain my research in Chinese since I only got Chinese visitors. And I didn't know the accurate meaning of quite a few words. One thing that made this trip more fruitful was that I met several people from universities that were recruiting faculty members. Yes, it is the time for me to think about jobs. See here for picture collections.

17th Canadian Materials Science Conference (2005-2). This time I had given a talk and also a poster presentation. I actually got more audience than expected in my talk. I felt a lot better during my talk since I was more experienced. This conference covered a different spectrum of topics than CSC 2005 Conference. Therefore, it broadened my knowledge on material research quite a bit. UBC is such a huge and beautiful university that I never have enough time to give the campus a full visit and I will definitely visit UBC many more times. See here for picture collections.

CSC 2005 Conference (2005-2). It was a great conference! Many interesting papers and many nice people. I had my first formal presentation at Saskatoon Centennial Auditorium. Same as other first-time presenters, I was nervous but also excited. From the conference, I learned many things that I could not obtain from reading. City of Saskatoon is a small and quite city. I had familiarized myself with the city by hours of walking. University of Saskatchewan is a big and beautiful university, where the Canadian Light Source is also located. See here for picture collections. It was not a bad idea to go for a trip by (greyhound) bus. You can have lots of time to enjoy the beautiful sightseeing.

SFU-ZU Dual Degree Program in China (2005-2). Simon Fraser University in Canada and Zhejiang University in China are now jointly offering a dual degree program in computing science. Hope SFU and ZU are also proposing to offer a dual degree program in chemistry or material science so that I could teach in both universities in the future.

My friend's cycling trip across Canada (2005-2). Gary set out his cycling trip in Victoria. And now Ross seems to have a plan catching up with him, starting his practice in Burnaby. Please see here for Gary's wonderful stories and pictures collected during his trip. For more cyclists' stories and pictures, you can go to "Crazy Guy on a Bike", a website for bicycle tour journals, forums and resources, to take a look.

Trip to Victoria BC (2005-2). My deepest impression of Victoria is its many peaceful bunnies and beautiful coast lines. I didn't have time to go to the Miniature World, the Royal London Wax Museum and many other famous attractions in Victoria. Therefore, I will definitely go to Victoria again to have a more complete visit. When will that happen? Well, it depends on the weather, my schedule and the most important----my budget :).

Group Rock Climbing (2005-2). Unbelievably, I managed to finish all three climbing sites. The moment when I reached the ending point of a climbing site made me feel like a hero, even though my moves during climbing were not decent. Rock climbing helps me to exercise both my body and my mind.

Go crabbing (2005-1). When, where and how to go crabbing? No worries. We have experienced friends and there are good websites teaching you everything about going crab fishing.

A tearful story of my friend (2005-1). Let's help and bless the family... See here for the tearful story.

Good Friday-Easter Monday (2005-1). Just found out that shopping is quite fun when the weather is rainy. The weather is rainy. My shopping goes crazy. My pocket becomes empty.

Vancouver Spring picture collection (2005-1). Vancouver's Spring is definitely more beautiful than what I can show in my picture collection. However, since there is too much rain in this season, especially, the rain is usually "scheduled" on the weekends, I don't have much chance to fully enjoy the beautiful Vancouver's Spring.

TSSU 2005 Spring Election (2005-1). Too many things are happening. So I quit. I am happier now since I am not the TSSU Trustee I anymore.

Shoot! My three and half years old hard drive stopped working when I tried to start the computer on a cloudy morning (2005-1). No warning! No clue! I have not done backup for years. The estimated loss is far more than CAN$1000, considering our valuable writings, data treatments, picture collections and a lot more. It was a 40GB Maxtor hard drive. Now I decide to use Seagate hard drives. Crying!!!!

A great experience to be in the court (2005-1). A simple matter becomes more and more complicated, because of lack of understanding. I unexpectedly got involved in a small claim lawsuit against the TSSU. As a witness of the TSSU hiring process that resulted in the lawsuit, I was one of the three TSSU representatives to present in a pre-trial settlement hearing. The hearing happened in March 22 2005 at BC Provincial Court. Unfortunately, no compromise was achieved between the two involved parties. There were also some technical reasons holding the parties from reaching a solution. The judge had to redirect the case to another judge for another pre-trial settlement hearing, which will be held in the middle of June. I really learned a lot from the story. First of all, not everything is suitable for a lawsuit. There are rules discouraging people from bringing every complaint into court. Claims that have no legal basis may result in a fine up to 10% of the claims on the plaintiff. Second, get some legal advise and be prepared no matter how correct you are in your mind. Note: later on, the plaintiff had withdrawn the lawsuit.

Great visitors of the year: uncle and his wife (2005-1). Coming from Edmonton, uncle and his wife rushed into our as-planned Vancouver sightseeing without a good rest. They seemed to enjoy the beautiful Vancouver landscapes very much, except that there was too much cold rain. Another thing in Vancouver that bothered them was the tax return for international visitors. The tax return policies are so picky and the application procedure is so tedious that they lost interest in doing the tax return. (Note: Only if the visitor's total purchase in Canada is more the CAN$200 before tax, he is eligible for the tax return. Only the receipt that has more than CAN$50 purchase before tax and dated within 60 days before the day of leaving Canada, is eligible. Show proof of leaving Canada, have the eligible receipts stamped at Canada Custom and mail the stamped receipts from the visitor's country, and blah blah blah blah) Click here to see picture collections.

Celebration of the Chinese New Year (2005-1). We had a short break amid busy working. Hope the Chinese New Year could be an official holiday in Canada so that we can enjoy the happy time together with our families in China. We also attended a wonderful party organized by CSSA at SFU. There were many wonderful performances in the party, especially the martial arts and songs. Unfortunately, I didn't take any picture for the party. What a pity! I will be prepared next time.

I finished my last annual research report. (2005-1) Good links.

Winter vacation in China (2004-3): Back to China, Meet with friends. I am seeing a huge change everywhere in China. Just like visiting a strange city, I am shocked by the new look of Shenyang city. Too much rearrangement happened in Shenyang. I found myself get lost so easy in the city. I didn't even remember how to call a taxi. The city looks newer, cleaner and tidier. My hometown got a new look too. All our families, relatives and friends are leading a happier life. See my picture collections to enjoy my happy trip with me.

Teaching Chem121 Tutorial (2004-3). Bravo! My teaching webpage got more than 600 hits from the students.

In the 9th annual meeting of PCAMM, Xin and Rui had some unpleasant experience in UBC. I found no campus map or directory (Surely I should first blame on myself for not having printed a campus map of UBC). All the buildings including the campus security were closed. Only a few people we met are kind enough to tell us where to find the conference site. As a result, we walked in the rain for more than 40 minutes. The organizer didn't reserve a poster space for me even though I had sent my abstract twice two days before the deadline. On the contrary, some presenters who sent their abstract days after the deadline got spaces reserved. As a result, my poster was put up on the hallway wall facing to a bathroom. Of course, there were something nice such as the coffee and pizza. I also met some friends in the conference. See pictures from the conference.

Burnaby mountain's heavy snow 2004 and a beautiful day after the snow.

The TSSU welcomed its 2004 Fall Election for Executive positions, following the US Presidency Election 2004. In the TSSU 2004 Fall Election, another non-contested election, 24 votes were returned. Xin won his second term as TSSU Trustee I. Bravo! What a great election!

The 2004 Chemistry Departmental Halloween Social (2004-3). It was my show time. Can you recognize me in the pictures from the Social? Want to know the origin of Halloween?

The Athens 2004 Paralympic and Olympic Games: In the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, China ranked the first both by the gold medals (63) and by the total medals (141). In the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, China ranked the second by gold medals (32) and the third by total medals (63). Chinese Taipei won its first 2 gold medals (5 medals in total) in the Olympic Games. Chinese Hong Kong won a silver medal. Welcome to the Beijing 2008 Paralympic and Olympic Games.

CSSA MID-FALL / NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATION PARTY (2004-3)

Our group's 2004-2 indoor rock climbing; Gardening; My flowers and golden fish (2004-2)

Trip to Canadian Rockies----Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper. Selected pictures (2004-2)

Joining Simon Fraser Student Society Constitution and Policy Review committee (2004-2)

Joining TSSU's Collective Agreement negotiation 2004 (2004-2)

A/BC 2004 Inorganic Chemistry Colloquium (2004-1)

Hiring TSSU Privacy Officer and Organizing TSSU Spring 2004 Executive Elections (2004-1)

Our group's 2004-1 rock climbing: Jan. 18th, 2004 (Cliffhanger) No picture.

Running for SFU TSSU Trustee I. (2003-3)