Sometimes maybe it isn't better to understand the local language???

They probably thought I could not understand them. The men in the elevator's conversation was about women, getting drunk, throwing up, and it being disgusting.

Park on a little mountain, "18 peaks" in Hsin Chu

Got some exercise by walking to what might be called the "top of Hsin Chu" yesterday and again today.

Saw that many people from the city were doing the walk to the top. Was very pleasant, with pretty scenery. Even was able to do pull ups, with bars all over. I did eight yesterday, but only six today.

There was even a guy cutting hair up here. People pushed parents in wheel chairs all the way up. I learned how to say "Do you speak Mandarin?" in Fukenese ("Taiwanese") from one of the sons who brought his Mom up (not everyone of that generation knows Mandarin, but most people do now. When I was here before, people spoke a lot more Fukenese.

[Sorry: I do not know how to put these pictures in the right order, so will figure that out next time]

Even was able to get a bunch of baojaos (plantain?) and a baked sweet potato on the walk down the mountain and home.

In Front? Way over there? The far front?

Today I found out just how different "in front" is in English from the Chinese "qian mian" ("前面“)。In English, "in front" means close to the speaker... but in Chinese, it means the direction you are facing. But I learned when going to swim laps at the pool, that the lanes "in front" actually meant the far lanes. In English, the lanes in front would have meant the close lanes, closer to, well, right in front of me.

Different perspective!

Returned to Astronomy by Going to Taiwan

I have returned to research as an affiliated astronomer! I resume my blog about my experiences getting back in, of going to live in another country, and of being newly married yet having to live apart from a lovingly patient new wife. I write about seeking career and family.

I am grateful to some wonderful people and an extremely pleasant institution in Taiwan for hiring me to to astronomy in this successful pleasant comfortable country that I grew to love when I was able to live in Taiwan for two years while younger. I am grateful to be hired without having published papers because not being given credit or participation after the "personal incident" that the Director of the global telescope forced on me. I use his label, "personal incident", for the events that he did not let me report, and for the events that were so ruinous for my career. A personally funded institution means no recourse for its members when it is the funder who gets personal when it is unwelcome. This blog is to chronicle overcoming this incident, not just for my career but also to have family. Career disruptions distort the process of seeking family given the oft-ignored fact of how nature does not allow for arbitrary delay of family. While working I had been clear of my intentions that my priority outside of work was to date as part of seeking marriage, with some urgency to do so at an age when we could have children. What this meant to me was how I didn't want to feel like if I should seek someone much younger, because such a consideration could mean passing up someone wonderful. It did turn out just this way, that I did meet an ideal someone that I wanted to grow old with. To give nature a chance to have children meant not delaying marriage. But the dominoes from the global telescope forced us to wait another year to be married. Now we are married, after the wonderful event in 2010 July. It is not good that we have had to live apart, though through sacrifice we manage to see each other monthly. It is hard writing about this personal priority, but it is essential to display what happens in science careers if science is going to change. I am grateful to a group of astronomers that unknownst to me submitted a contribution to the US decadal report on astronomy seriously challenging the astronomy profession's family unfriendly nature. So I write to document the result of seeking to have children along with my seeking to be in astronomy.

I also chronicle the experience of going to live in another country with different culture and language. My experience in Taiwan is more unusual given how I have worked strenuously at learning Mandarin Chinese as a hobby, and so come here with more than the usual ability to communicate. It is truly wonderful to be able to dive in and go anywhere without worrying too much about finding someone who speaks English (like in Italy or Thailand). There are still huge limitations with using another language, mostly given how in any new situation in which you don't know the vocabulary you suddenly become unable to communicate. It brings many unexpected results, most good, but I have had the occasional person wrongly take me to understand everything. There have been a few instances when I actually needed to be "babied" as a foreigner but wasn't given that chance because "he speaks Chinese." But the people of Taiwan are wonderfully generous, tolerant, and patient, and with only rare exception are delightfully eager to help.

My return to astronomy has been accomplished by starting a completely new project on "planet destruction." I have my first paper submitted and posted: I have gotten good attention for how "aborted" planet destruction, with planets migrating back away from the brink of Roche lobe overflow demise, may explain the pattern of a short period "pile up" that we see in planets being found today.

Hate it when the floor breaks under your feet!

Sufficiently uninteresting post to move from the top, but still interesting enough to keep. It's just out of context. But it was still strange to have the floor pop out from under me.

This posting from 12/17/10 has been moved to fit in at 11/01/10 because I don't want it to be on the top.

Hate it when the floor breaks under your feet!

Especially in your own home!

--

Was just sitting on the couch and the floor starts making all this noise under my feet! All this cracking and breaking. Felt like things were moving! I've been hearing sounds like there was someone in my apartment dropping things for weeks, but I don't believe in ghosts. The weather today is beautiful, and it's been a few weeks since the little earthquake, so I didn't know what was up. Could there be people or animals under the floor?

The cracking and breaking gets so loud I unlock the door and run out into the hall. POP! goes the floor, and with a big puff of dust the floor tiles came up. Made me think the floor was going to cave in. I suppose it's just that the floor tiles were put in too tight, but I was left with a upside-down V-shaped floor. After calling around to be sure I was safe, I am back inside, but hate to walk on it. I had to a little, and some tiles fell back down a cm or so. Now the ground doesn't feel solid below my feet!

Sometime I need to add the pictures of the floor.

It felt pretty scary.

Sleeping on couches to Santa Barbara planets conference

I am so grateful to the kind people who have hosted me on their couches so that I could attend the Exoplanet Conference in Santa Barbara, California. Some astronomers even gave me some help paying the conference fee. I am deeply grateful to the people helping me stay in the field -- and the conference talks have been wonderful. So exciting to hear the work on the planets being found, and the expectations for what habitable planets may be like. My planet destruction project is also receiving a good welcome!

Hilo on the "Big Island" of Hawai'i, in the state of Hawai'i, where there are many astronomers

I am grateful to many astronomers and staff in Hilo for accommodating my visit during my unexpected opportunity to visit Hilo. I enjoyed talking to several astronomers at the University of Hawai'i' at Hilo Institute for Astronomy (IfA), the Imilioa Planetarium, and the Subaru Telescope. The staff and astronomers at the Gemini telescope were doing their best but were prevented by a telescope emergency from coming out. I ran out of daytime to visit the submillimeter array and the Keck Observatory was too far away (in Waimea).

The Subaru outreach top scientitst and the outreach astronomer showed the gracious courtesy typical of Japan that clearly is adopted by Americans working there as well. Emily and I were staying at a place where there were more Japanese than any other group, so I couldn't help notice the considerate manner in which Japanese always interact with others. It strongly tends towards being very genuine.

Emily and I greatly enjoyed the happy, culturally rich visit of the Hilo area. The farmers market was the most fun of any I've been to in the U.S. We also enjoyed the natural features of such a volcanic island.

Coming: Pictures of my Hawai'i professional visits, and I'll put some nature photos on facebook.

Honolulu Talks and visits with astronomers and public

Had a wonderful time in Honolulu visiting the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and visiting the Bishop Museum Planetarium. I talked at the planetarium on planet destruction, life in the universe, and the meaning of astronomy for humanity. I displayed my campaign to return to astronomy. I appreciate my parents for providing an opportunity to take my efforts to the most difficult state to reach that is so very important to astronomy.

The audience was a good active group with many good questions. The museum has some very nice displays, including their "science in the sphere." I enjoyed talking with the three staff members/volunteers who came that night to run the talk.

I took some good photographs of the visit and hope next week to post them.

I also presented my professional research talk to several astronomers at UH IfA. We had some good discussions particularly regarding what may happen with protoplanet destruction, and what these events might allow astronomers to learn.

Scientific Talk at Arizona State University, in sunny Phoenix

Just got back from an enjoyable visit to Arizona State University, where I again talked about how planet destruction may be observable. I still am talking about the most luminous events, from the most massive planets, but I talked more about the likely less rare events of smaller planets and even protoplanets spiraling in to Roche lobe overflow (as opposed to encountering the photosphere as the largest planets will).

I appreciate Steven Desche for hosting me. I also got some good information from several faculty, and will be better able to incorporate the earlier work of Sumner Starrfield, who long ago studied what happens when material from a stellar companion accretes onto a star (or falls onto a star).

ASU has many interesting projects organized around a university-wide emphasis on interdisciplinary research. I was able to hear a fascinating talk on the mineralogy of Mars from a scientist working on the Spirit rover. He showed how it is not completely stuck and just might get out yet.

Next week: Hawaii.

I will talk about Planet Destruction at the Bishop Museum planetarium in a free public talk.

See
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/calendar/february.html and click on the
lecture on Feb 16
( the text is http://www.bishopmuseum.org/calendar/events/feb16.html )

My father is taking my family, all 16 people. It's far more of a fancy thing than he has ever done since he has always been very careful with money, though growing up my parents did a wonderful job of driving us to see much of the U.S.

It will be great talking astronomers with people in the Aloha state!

Presentation at Washington DC American Astronomical Society Conference

I presented my work on observing planet destruction during a visit to Washington DC to attend and speak at the American Astronomical Society conference. I also used my flipbook to get in a 2nd presentation on my transit observation work, starting from my contributions to the TrES-3 discovery paper as LCOGT's astronomer at the telescope (Faulkes Telescope North, or FTN), and I presented my continued efforts to contribute to the global telescope observations of some of the most fascinating transits, including HD 17156 and HD 80606.

There were many exciting developments on planet migration, tidal theory, and transits that were presented.

I am grateful for kind people from couchsurfing.org for stepping in and giving me a place to stay after I have been unable to get new institutional support following the failure of the funder of LCOGT to follow through on expected support. A very kind husband and wife hosted me for two nights, and I especially enjoyed their company in those evenings. Nick is originally from Taiwan, so we shared our memories from there, since I lived in TW for two years. I practiced a little Mandarin, also with Nicolle who is also learning Mandarin.

The other nights were spent at a dorm in the Washington DC HI hostel. Most people were very nice, and I slept well every night except one. Even the worst night was not horrible, but I did wish that the roommates wouldn't continue to dry their hair until nearly midnight.

I am grateful to myself for having been a good saver and my parents who taught me to save. Credit for my support is borrowed against my future. I am grateful for American Airlines and United Airlines having good frequent flier programs where flights can actually be redeemed. A wonderful astronomer in Maryland was also kind to let me stay the night of a wonderful New Year's Eve party. The support of the AAS allowing me to volunteer in place of registration fees cannot be forgotten. I appreciate my wonderful fiancee Emily's continued patience and moral support while I seek to replace the missing publications credit with work done entirely on my own without a salary.

It was very good to interact with other astronomers and to try and regain the sense of professional community when one is a scientist without his papers credit and being kept unemployed.