Heavy Iron Stuff

I started going to the gym regularly during my fourth through sixth years at University of Arizona. Weight lifting helped me to lose weight of up to 30lb, and replaced some of my body fat with juicy muscles.

How It All Started

I have been swimming since the second day I arrived in Tucson, but my body looked the same, because my roommate was cooking large bowls of white rice and fatty meats for me. Since I moved to University Arms and started living alone, I decided to change things up. I started running on treadmill and using the elliptical trainer on and off in the Campus Rec. I was thinking to eat less and cut back on ice cream.

I ate only one apple at the breakfast of Oct 14, 2014, and felt hungry two hours later. I wondered, am I eating too little? To find the answer, I decided to calculate how much calories I was eating on that day. I searched online for a "calorie calculator", and found MyFitnessPal. It is not only a "calculator", but also an app to keep track of how much I ate. I made my first entry:

MyFitnessPal food diary on Oct 14, 2014

On Two Wheels

Tucson is walkable when staying around UA campus and downtown area. To go farther, I often ride a bus with six wheels, hail a taxi with four wheels, or drive a rental car behind one wheel, all of which costs money. More frequently, I would ride a bike on two wheels. I enjoy riding a bike because it is free: I can go places without buying a ticket, and I have the freedom to go anywhere without worrying about missing the bus or being unable to find parking.

Rillito River Park, π day, 2015

First Ride on Cat Wheels

Cat Wheels bike sharing program, offered by Parking & Transportation Services, loans bikes to students for free. I can pick up a bike at any parking garage, ride for a whole day, and return by 16:00 the next day. Since garages are only open on weekdays, a bike borrowed on Friday won't be due until Monday, making this a plusgood deal.

my first Cat Wheels rental bike

Share LaTeX Document on Netlify

My dissertation is finally finished. Before finishing my dissertation, I was eager to share it with my classmates so that they could read and give me suggestions. Normally, I would give them read-only access on the Git or Subversion repository containing my dissertation, so that they can check out the LaTeX source files, and then compile the dissertation. This procedure creates a hurdle for them, because LaTeX is normally not installed on mobile devices they might use.

For most people, the solution would be sending PDF attachments. However, when I add more and more text and pictures into my dissertation, the PDF becomes increaseingly large, and I don't want to send large files and use up the quota of my and my classmates' mailboxes. There is a better solution.

Netlify is a free hosting service for static web sites. It provides a Node.js client app, which can deploy a prepared website from the command line. It can also pick up commits into a git repository, and compile the website from source code.

While my dissertation is not a website, hosting it on Netlify is totally feasible. Although Netlify's continuous deployment does not support LaTeX, I can still compile the PDF locally, and upload it to Netlify. To do so, I added a Makefile rule:

REVISION = `git rev-parse HEAD`

dissertation.pdf:
  # normal build steps

upload: dissertation.pdf
  rm -f www/*.pdf
  cp dissertation.pdf www/$(REVISION).pdf
  echo '<!doctype html><title>paper</title><h1>Named Data Networking in Local Area Networks dissertation</h1><a href="'$(REVISION)'.pdf">revision '$(REVISION)'</a>' > www/index.html
  netlify deploy -t ndn-lan-thesis -p www

Meet the World at International Student Association

Most of my social life during my six years at University of Arizona was at the International Student Association (ISA). I made friends, made frenemies, and had fun through events and gatherings organized by ISA.

ISA Trail Dust Town visit, Apr 04, 2013

The Very First Event

Every incoming international student is required to attend the International Student Orientation, organized by International Student Programs and Services (ISPS). In the 2011 orientation, ISPS recruited a group of student workers, called Peer Integrators (PIs), to assist with the orientation, and to plan and participate in orientation social events for new international students. One of the social events was a campus race on Aug 14, 2011, organized by Morris Zhou, a PI from China. I participated in this event because its name sounds like my favorite TV show The Amazing Race.

The goal of this event was to make students familiarize with the UA campus. Each team of two or three students were given a sheet of hints, each referring to a location on campus. Within one hour, the team must visit as many locations as they can, and take pictures of the team members in front of those locations. The team that gets the largest number of correct answers would be awarded the winner.

I am a Moviegoer

I watched over 150 movies during my six years at University of Arizona.

What did I Watch

My favorite genre is action and adventure (paid link). I love seeing superheroes save the world, because they bring hope to our world. My favorite character is Spider-Man (paid link), because he only does good things and is full of positive energy.

I also frequently watch science fiction (paid link) films. I particularly enjoy films set in the outer space, such as The Space Between Us (paid link) and Passengers (paid link), because the weightless shots are breathtaking.

My third favorite genre is drama (paid link). Some of my favorites are National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (paid link), Nebraska (paid link), and Instructions Not Included (paid link). I can have a good laugh out of them.

How I Started Geocaching

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunt game. Participants, or "geocachers", use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", at specific locations marked by coordinates all over the world. I learned about geocaching by accident in Jul 2013, and I was immediately hooked to this game. Since then, Geocaching had a strong influence in my weekend activities, gadget purchases, and travel choices.

selfie with GC5WHZV container

It All Started from Jenny

Grocery stores offer discounts with a loyalty card, but I forgot to bring mine on Jul 12, 2013. I complained on Facebook, and my friends told me that I could give my phone number to the cashier, and they would be able to apply the discounts. Daniel's answer mentioned that I could enter "area code + 867-5309" as the phone number, and there is usually a loyalty card associated with this phone number. I did not understand what's special about this phone number, so I started online searching.

Facebook post about forgotten grocery loyalty card

Hailing Taxis

When I was little, taxis were my favorite form of transportation. I could have my own seat in the taxi, and the taxi would go directly to the destination. I would not need to walk to the bus stop, wait for the bus, get squeezed in the bus, and walk to the destination after getting off the bus. In early 1990s, taxi fare of a 5KM trip was about 30 times the bus fare. However, I didn't understand the value of money at that time, so I always wanted to travel by taxi.

I started attending a boarding school since the seventh grade. Mom would give me ¥65 every week, and I was allowed to spend the money however I wish, but this money was all I have for meals, transportation, and anything else except books and school supplies. While I could spend ¥5 to take a taxi from the bus terminal to the school, I usually chose to walk 20 minutes and save the money for snacks. I got used to bus rides and long walks, and forgot about taxis, when money became a constraint. In fact, I got so used to public transportation that, even if I was on a business trip when I later worked for a company, I would prefer to take a bus instead of a taxi, and I sometimes had to explain to finance why I could not produce a receipt for a bus ride.

When I came to Tucson in 2011, having limited cash and being accustomed to public transportation, my primary form of transportation is of course the city bus. However, the operating hours of city buses are limited. When I stayed in Grant Inn during my first days, the last route 20 bus from UA campus back to Grant Inn was departing at 18:20. If I wanted to stay at school later than that, I would have to find my alternate transportation.

Clint's Taxi

When I was dropped off at Grant Inn, the volunteer gave each student a business card of "Clint's Taxi", and told us to call Clint when we need to go to school. Since buses are cheaper, I took the city bus most of the time. On Aug 14, 2011, I attended a "Campus Race" scavenger hunt activity, organized by an organization called Meet The World, which later became International Student Association (ISA). The activity lasted until 20:00, at which point there were no more buses available. This was when I called Clint for the first time.

Behind the Wheel

Sun Tran bus system was my primary form of transportation during my six years at University of Arizona, but it wasn't my only transportation. Sun Tran services city of Tucson, city of South Tucson, and select areas out of city limits. When I needed to go beyond the service boundary, or to haul cargo, it makes sense to get my own set of wheels.

I decided not to buy a car during graduate school early on. When I attended my first "grad tea", a social event among computer science grad students, I asked an American student the cost of owning a car, and the answer was $200 per month including "everything". A simple calculation indicated that owning a car would not be a good financial decision for me. Owning a car would allow me to rent an apartment far from the campus, but it is unlikely to find an apartment that is cheaper than $439/mo NorthPointe.

Zipcar Nissan Altima Brenton

Arizona Driver's License

Fast forward to spring 2014, when my life at NorthPointe went downhill due to a noisy roommate. I signed a lease at my new apartment, and moving was put on the agenda. I moved from Grant Inn to NorthPointe on a taxi, at which time all I had was two suitcases and two bags. Three years later, I had accumulated many more things than that, and the taxi driver would be charging by minute while I'm loading my stuff into his trunk. Thus, I need a driver's license!

My Story with Sun Tran

Tucson is a "small" town. Compared to my hometown Shanghai, Tucson is 10 times smaller in land area, and has 3% of Shanghai's metro population. Nevertheless, Tucson is still the second largest city in Arizona. You can't reasonably walk to everything, so transportation is a necessity.

America is a country on wheels, but Tucson has a nice public transportation system, Sun Tran. During my six years at University of Arizona, I never bought a car, but used Sun Tran bus system extensively.

Sun Tran bus 3000

City Bus in Shanghai vs Tucson

American city bus system do not have a good reputation: vehicles are old, schedules are infrequent, and operating hours are limited. Nevertheless, the first transportation service I experienced in Tucson is the city bus, when I visited UA campus for the first time.