tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65389612024-03-06T22:38:59.970-06:00Umbilicus 1.0The germinating seed of the blog this one will become.Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-30871593148836799232012-04-20T22:25:00.000-05:002012-04-20T22:25:37.570-05:00Homeward boundIt feels like I've been gone a month! However, tonight we head back to the states, arriving in LA before we leave Shanghai. Yeah, crossing the international dateline messes with the space time continuum.
I'll write up some more experiences when I Get home to a normal internet connection. For now, more pictures. These are from a walk in the Pudong side of Shanghai on Thursday as well as a long Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-81495779247347803772012-04-17T21:44:00.001-05:002012-04-17T21:44:21.035-05:00Hair ProduceOn Tuesday, Dawn and I went to the Bund. This is the most popular tourist attraction of the city. It is a view from the older part of Shanghai to the newer part called Pudong across the Huangpu River. It's really quite something - a broad sweeping area overlooking the river and the amazing view of the steel modern high-rises across it.
The Bund - looking from the old city to the new
We Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-62535189712636974272012-04-17T20:12:00.003-05:002012-04-17T20:12:46.222-05:00FridayWow, sorry for the delay; it ended up being a very busy work week. Last week was 100% devoted to work. I had my morning commute, the day of work, and then the evening commute. Then I would often have meetings in the evening to overlap with my cohorts in the US morning. Lots of activity at work right now.
So as a consequence I worked a lot, took a few photos, and absorbed a lot. But I didn't Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-10764527919209888892012-04-10T08:43:00.000-05:002012-04-10T08:43:11.547-05:00Day 3 - The SubwayToday, I'd like to tell you about the Subway. No, I don't mean the sandwich shop (I am told it tastes exactly the same in Shanghai as the US, and this frightens me). No, I mean the mass transportation system that is 100% on time. Consider the number of people in Shanghai: 22 Million. Consider how people get to work on time. The Subway here is amazing - it's very organized and well documented. Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-50180633551196476452012-04-09T03:27:00.000-05:002012-04-09T03:27:38.771-05:00Day 2 - WorkGreetings. I am logged into a US server and using that server to connect to my blog in the normal way. Now I can upload some photos and such. :)
Yesterday I spent largely in the hotel; I did a lot of schoolwork because I had a paper due in the morning... no the evening ... no, wait, the early morning. :) Yeah. And then there was the mandatory nap in the afternoon. Wow, I had no choice. I went Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-42977803774326964132012-04-07T23:29:00.001-05:002012-04-07T23:34:56.697-05:00Day 1... The AdjustmentE <p>Greetings. Today I am spending the day partly in the hotel. For one thing I am trying to set up my safe zone, and for another I am still somewhat tired. However, i slept fairly well last night, getting about 7 hours. I woke up once at about 4am and took a benadryl to sleep more.</p>
<p>About 8:30 am I got up and got breakfast. It was largely westernized food, but made up inMichael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0Shanghai, Shanghai31.230392 121.4737tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-15354480678783760372012-04-07T10:05:00.001-05:002012-04-07T10:05:31.363-05:00ReplicantsI have landed in Shanghai and made my way to my hotel! It's been one really long day. My body is vibrating in a way that's not usual. The flight to LAX was quick and uneventful. The flight from LAX to Shanghai was surreal.
To begin with, we were flying north and east. We basically flew the coastline from LA to Vancouver, Alaska, crossed the Bering sea and then went down along part of Russia and Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0Shanghai, Shanghai31.230392 121.4737tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-90052533327414356892012-04-06T16:09:00.001-05:002012-04-06T16:09:45.296-05:00Long HaulI arrived in LAX, and am waiting for my flight to Shanghai, which starts boarding in 10 minutes. Quick layover!
The previous flight was quick and quiet, 3 hours. I did accidentally spill my ginger ale. I spilled it on me as well as the leg of the guy next to me. He had a hole in his pants and this is exactly where the ice and ginger ale went. This guy was also asleep. Good times.
Not much to Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles33.9435 -118.40887tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-23539987850222114982012-04-06T11:09:00.001-05:002012-04-06T11:09:58.068-05:00On the wayI am sitting in terminal A at DFW, waiting for my first leg to LA to depart. I am tired... I stayed up pretty late last night to hopefully be tired for my long haul flight this afternoon.
Turns out my phone may work in China, but I am keeping data services off to avoid a horrendous bill. But I can use it for the free wireless all over Shanghai.
Gonna miss Dawn and Beryl and my normal Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-63004670531159871182012-04-05T11:51:00.002-05:002012-04-05T11:52:28.015-05:00By the way...If you have gmail, you can connect with me as a friend on the links on the right side of the page ("Join this site").
Also, you can use the Feedblitz "get notified by email when I publish" option a little further down.
You can also subscribe by RSS/Atom.
Or just click the link in the email each day. :)Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-54464781125484098592012-04-05T11:50:00.000-05:002012-04-05T11:50:02.774-05:00Packing for ShanghaiI've gotten very used to domestic travel - throw stuff in a suitcase and be done with it. However, international travel is a little different. Today I called all my credit cards and let them know of travel plans. It was important to tell them Dawn is traveling a week later because their fraud department would be like "hey, charges in China AND Texas? No."
I'm also having to pay all the bills inMichael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-2165264032452112152012-04-04T15:54:00.000-05:002012-04-04T15:54:48.853-05:00ShanghaiI haven't written in about 2 years. I haven't really had much to reflect and talk about because I've basically been in "go" mode with work and school.
School is wrapping up after this semester, and I'll complete my Associates in Science (despite having a Bachelor of Science already). I'm taking a philosophy class this semester, which seems appropriate as a last class for my unique mentality. Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-28148106218155469102010-03-30T09:27:00.002-05:002010-03-30T10:31:42.099-05:00LearningI'm reclaiming a little space to write today, despite being so busy my head has been spinning lately.Tonight I have a huge test in Chemistry over three chapters: ionic bonds, covalent bonds, and stoichiometry - the main calculation base for equations in chemistry. These calculations involve conversions from mass (grams) to moles (number of molecules in a unique element's molecular weight), and Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-21361693589060817562010-02-14T20:54:00.002-06:002010-02-14T21:08:38.625-06:00MichaelscopicWeek 4 came to an unexpected close: Dallas got record-levels of snowfall so my chemistry test scheduled for last Thursday is postponed until this Tuesday. I DID take the biology test on Wednesday and I think I did awesome on it. I knew at least 90% of the answers, and several others I did a little process of elimination based on what I did know. I expect a good grade on that, and this cements me Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-54270485804834619952010-02-05T14:10:00.002-06:002010-02-05T14:28:13.449-06:00Go ahead. Be explosive.Week three of classes is complete, but the studying must go on. The first three weeks of biology and chemistry were reminiscent of things I learned in high school, and as dim as that past is, I still found that I understood what we were talking about in these classes. Now, however, the realm of the really unknown is creeping in. For example, we're learning about electrons in much greater detail: Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-83744690387481976602010-01-26T23:13:00.002-06:002010-01-26T23:36:37.501-06:00Uncommon commonalitiesMonday came too quickly this week after studying pretty much all weekend long. My first homework of the semester was due on Monday - some practice questions for extra credit in Biology. They were over Dimensional Analysis, a way of converting from one unit to another that involves the metric system. I love it and wish I'd known about it in high school. It's entirely possible I was taught it then.Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-20789502748337227112010-01-21T20:18:00.002-06:002010-01-21T20:28:52.941-06:00Week 1 doneI'm really looking forward to chemistry lab, and tonight was going to be the first one, but there was no lab because it's the first week of class and they are still organizing and need to train us on safety and stuff. So I got to go home after the lecture tonight; no opportunities to blow shit up. It's probably for the best - I feel like hell. The poor girl next to me in chem lecture kept lookingMichael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-51245605736040390012010-01-20T22:13:00.002-06:002010-01-20T22:25:09.101-06:00Biology and ChemistryIt's on now. I have now had two classes: Chemistry on Tuesday (lecture), and Biology (lab + lecture) tonight. I am excited! I really like both professors, and I think I'm going to do well. The mean age of the students in class is "fresh out of high school" with a few of us old-timers there trying to learn something new.And some of it is new. Some of it is common sense. My first homework Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-47599941535671312812010-01-18T22:41:00.002-06:002010-01-18T23:07:00.671-06:0029 pounds to go.What can I say? It's been over a month since I promised to post about school and I've already finished one class. It was a beast of a class.It's not that I don't like statistics. In fact I found it very interesting and extremely useful in processing information in a more mathematical way. But several things impeded my progress at a smooth learning process.First, it was an accelerated class - 4 Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-57289685191663811062009-12-01T19:03:00.002-06:002009-12-01T19:18:59.297-06:0030 pounds of schoolbooksSo I have all these books on the floor by my desk. They are school books which arrived this past holiday week. I don't want to talk bad about my last school, but these books seem harder and they are for a community college. Maybe it's the content: Statistics, Nutrition, Biology (this book alone weighs about 10 lbs), and General Chemistry.All these books are for pre-requisite classes for the Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-14386081651969226502009-09-08T11:22:00.003-05:002009-09-08T12:18:10.896-05:00My cologne smells like some kind of animalI haven't been writing a lot lately, and it hasn't bothered me much. But every now and then I want to write about my life and that's when the conflicting beliefs rush in. I'm unemployed right now and this suddenly makes public writing seemingly different.There seem to be several camps of people, and hence corresponding beliefs that when you are unemployed, you should be publicly present in Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-58236506675663311472009-05-11T16:40:00.003-05:002009-05-11T17:02:58.555-05:00My odds are improvingWow!Today I saw my 2nd shuttle lift-off live, on my 4th attempt. It was astonishing.We started the day at 4am and left the hotel at 5:15am to drive 11 miles to Kennedy Space Center. They opened at 5:30 on this special day - launch day - and we only spent a little while waiting outside in a tired stupor.We had breakfast with an astronaut at 7:30am (Mark C. Lee, who worked on Hubble once before andMichael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-58001794933456345402009-05-11T03:45:00.002-05:002009-05-11T03:52:13.967-05:00We are go for launch... part 1It's 4:45am EDT and Dawn and I are about to leave to head over to KSC. Yeah it's early, but we're supposed to be there by 6am to have breakfast with an astronaut. That's actually going to happen at 7:30 or 9:00 or something. But it was our suggested arrival time and we're going to try and not get caught up in the crowds. It's easier to wander around there in the morning than fighting traffic all Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-25664989374128150682009-05-10T14:04:00.002-05:002009-05-10T14:05:51.458-05:00PostscriptIf you are a member of Facebook, you can find pictures from the last two days on my profile. I think that link will get you in.Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6538961.post-56047730637141479132009-05-10T13:27:00.002-05:002009-05-10T13:39:17.553-05:00SiestaToday is a quiet day after the busy-ness of yesterday. Yesterday was go go go, exertion, walking, etc. This morning after a languid breakfast at Waffle House (right next to our hotel), we drove out to the Merrit Island Nature Preserve to go on the Blackwing nature drive.I did this drive with Tom a couple years ago, and it was a nice quiet drive with a lot of waterfowl, other birds, alligators, Michael Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143826636324353236noreply@blogger.com0