Photos from SLC trip

Salt Lake City Day 5 and 6

I did not have anything to see in the morning. Just attended David's (James' friend from UNCS) talk. Then we (James, David, Arash, and me) headed out for lunch at a mall. After that James had to go talk to someone at the exhibit. I also wanted to attend NVIDIA's show about CUDA 5 and Kepler's new features. David was also interested in NVIDIA as well. I did not know where Arash went because he splited from us when we went to Rite Aid (James needed a toothbrush).

NVIDIA's new technologies were so interested that kept me engaged for the whole hour. (I had not focused on something that long for a long time.) The galaxies colliding simulation was awesome!


After the show, David and I did not know where to go because the exhibit was closing. Everyone was packing up. Then we decided to attended some talks that we were not even interested although we ended up hanging outside the room, checking email and whatever. But my computer could not get the connection again. Moreover, it could not even see any hotspot. I thought the hardware was broken, or it was the driver issue. So David let me use his tablet to check email.

At the end of the day, Franc Mueller (These guys' advisor) invited his students to have beers. James invited me as well. We went to Squatter's pub again. I did not call my hotel's shutter tonight because I wanted to walk. And it was not too far to walk as well.

The next day was the last day in Salt Lake City. I packed up and checked out at 11am. Then headed to the airport. James showed up at the airport about an hour later. So we had lunch together, talked a little bit. Then splited because I had to get on board.

Salt Lake City Day 4

Today's highlight was Student Job Fair. I was there, talking to people from many national laboratories, like Firmilab, Sandia, LLNL, etc. I told them about my research in GPU cluster resiliency and performance modeling. They seemed to be interested and asked for sample papers, or apply for postdoc/research positions. They seemed to be impressed my resume as well.

I also had an opportunity to talk to a guy from Argonne National Lab and followed up my postdoc application. The only thing I can do now is waiting for the final decision. And I am waiting for a "Yes".

In the evening I met Dr. Putchong at the exhibit. We had a chitchat about academic situation in Thailand. It was good to know those politic things.

I did not have an issue with my shuttle today because I called them to pick me up around 6:30 which was way ahead of their leaving time.

Salt Lake City Day 3

The internet in the hotel was still not working in the morning. Anyway I had to go to the convention center early to attend the Keynote. The speaker was a famous theory physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku. He had appeared on many medias including news, documentaries, etc. The talk was, of course, very good!

The internet at the conference was also lame. I could not get the connection until sometime later in the afternoon, and lost it quickly afterwards.

I attended poster sessions in the evening. Most of the works were about exascale (huge dataset). I did not pay much attention on the posters. James and I were there to wait for his adviser, Dr. Frank Mueller and his group. We went out for dinner together.

At 10pm, we (James, his two friends, and me) walked back to Shilo hotel where James stayed. I called my hotel asking for a shuttle, but the lady at the front desk said that no more shuttle going to the convention center anymore because the driver had to go pick up people at many places and by that time it would be the time she left her duty. So James talked to her and argued with her on the phone, but there was no use. Good thing was a guy at the front desk at Shilo hotel offered me a ride since James was a guest at the hotel. I ended up paying him $10 for it. That Econo Lodge's shuttle and front desk did it again!

Salt Lake City Day 2

It should be day 1, but since I got some rest, about 3 hours, I would consider it Day 2.

The technical program had not started yet. So I did not have access to any available sessions. Still I hung around the convention center, figured out which talk I would attend until an alarm burst out. Everyone in the convention center slowly evacuated from the building. Most of us were just confused and wondered what was going on. I met James and Clayton during that time. So we went out for lunch afterwards.

I went back to the convention center, tried to check email, but could not get access. The signal was strong but for some reasons, I could not go anywhere. Then I thought that there was no point to be there anymore. So I came back to the hotel and took a nap for an hour, and went to an art building which was right next to the convention center to attend NVIDIA's talk about new technology, K20.

Then I hung around with James at the Opening Gala event. Clayton did not join us. He had been invited to somewhere else. We did not hunt for free stuff like the very first times we had come to SC.

After the gala, I tried to call the hotel's front desk to ask for a shuttle bus back to the hotel. I had waited for so long before a lady and the front desk finally picked up. Also when I reached the hotel, the internet did not work. I still could not check my email. And those were the second and third unimpressions about this hotel.

Salt Lake City Day 1

First, my flight from Monroe to Dallas was one and a half hours delayed. Second, the flight from Dallas to SLC was about 2 hours delayed. I was supposed to reach SLC by 10:30pm, but the flight arrived at around 12:30am. I missed the shuttle to the hotel. So I had to take a cab. Fortunately a girl that I had talked to at Dallas airport while waiting for the fight was in the line, too. So I asked her if we could share the cab. I was gladly wanted to share. Then we rode together. I reached the hotel eventually, and saved $10.

I went to bed around 2:10am and woke up at 5:30am this morning. How on earch! It would be because of the time difference. =(

LA-SiGMA Symposium 2012

I went to a conference again. It was a one-day conference on July 23. We left Ruston on Sunder afternoon, reached Baton Rouge around 6:30 and had dinner with the group led by Dr. Ramu. Since there were many Indian and Dr. Ramu was also Indian (I also wanted to try Indian food), we went to Indian's restaurant. It was fun but I was so tired from traveling. So I did not eat much.

This time I was also presenting a poster entitled "GPGPU Performance Modeling".



The conference was boring because it was like an annual report. So we slipped out in the middle of it and headed back to Ruston before dusk.

LA-SiGMA Graduate Student Retreat

I went to New Orleans last weekend for participating in Graduate student retreat, which is a part of my grant, LA-SiGMA. The talk by Peter Feibelman, the author of A PHD IS NOT ENOUGH was good. It was about why we might need a postdoc, what was the different between working in academia and industrial labs, etc.

Here are some photos I took in New Orleans downtown.

I am Growing Basil!

After dinner at Dr. Box's house on the graduation ceremony day (see here), I had got some basil cuttings which are actually the leftover from cooking. Then I soaked them in water right after getting back home.

Six days later I started noticing some roots came out from two of them.


More on the next day.



After 10 days, another two cuttings with small buds from the start blossomed.






Today; after two weeks and four days, there were obviously more roots.

Congratulations to My Friends/Labmates

Three of my friends just graduated this quarter, Narate, Mon, and Apurba. So I went to the commencement but did not take any photos with them because I had to go to Dr. Box's house to help him prepare some food for a party to celebrate them.

The commencement here is totally different from the one in Thailand. Here, people cheer and scream for their kids/brothers/sisters while in Thailand, it is so strict that no one other than the candidates is allowed in the ceremony.

Narate's parents also came to celebrate as well. His father is a governor of Chonburi province. We did not talk much. I just listened to them talking with Dr. Box and his son.

After the party, Dr. Box also gave me, P Noon and Bell the leftover since he was going to leave for Thailand next early morning and was not going to eat it. Well I was also going to give him a ride.

The True Final Exam

Last Thursday, I had a final exam. It was the last coursework that I had to take in order to complete my plan of study as well. So it could be considered as the true final exam in my school life, couldn't it? Nonetheless, I still have to work on my research which I have two more works to do. (weep~)

A Creepy Night

Since summer is coming, some bugs are coming out of their hidings as well...

On Tuesday night, or you can say Wednesday's early morning since it passed past midnight already, I was sleeping while something woke me up. At first I thought it was just my imagination. Then I heard a noise like something crawling in my bed. Suddenly that something bumped on my arm!

I jumped up. My heart was beating so fast. In the dark, I pictured so many creepy creatures that it could be. I was too scared to even turn on the light to see what it really was. After gather my courage for a while, I turned on the light to see nothing in the bed. I moved it a little bit and found a HUGE COCKROACH in the corner between my bed and a tiny box that I used as a bedside table.

It took me over half an hour to remove it. The tools that I used were just a broom and a dust pan (both with 3-feet handles). Once I swept it, it squirmed which startled me. Oddly it did not crawl or run away. It moved as if it was a cripple or too weak. There were many times that I thought of calling my friends (they live next door) for help. Although I could eventually get it out of my apartment.

However, in the next morning, I found another HUGE COCKROACH in my bath tab. This time I could remove it really quick with a 3-feet handle dust pan.

Hopefully they will not come back, and none of their friends wants to get into my apartment again. I am so scared. T_T

Life Update on Mar 25 2012

Alright! It has been a long time since the last update. I just finished editing the paper to submit to a conference in Thailand. Nonetheless, I will not attend the conference. My advisor will go to present the paper. So I will not go to Thailand this year.

Also, I will have to prepare an abstract for another event on July 23. Lot of things to do.

Life Update on Feb 9 2012

It has been over a month since my last post. I am so busy with my research. I just submitted an abstract to a conference in Thailand. So now I am trying to extend it to a full paper. And hope it will get accepted so that I can possibly have a trip home for free this summer.