Growth record (March 2015)

Alyssa: 13 yr 0 mo, 166 cm (5' 5.4"), 49.9 kg (110 lb).
Vivian: 11 yr 1 mo, 153 cm (5' 0.2"), 41.3 kg (91 lb).
David: 8 yr 8 mo, 129.5 cm (4' 3.0"), 27.2 kg (60 lb).

Growth record (December 2012)

Alyssa: 10 yr 9 mo, 154 cm (5' 0.6"), 36 kg (79 lb).
Vivian: 8 yr 10 mo, 136 cm (4' 5.5"), 28 kg (62 lb).
David: 6 yr 5 mo, 117 cm (3' 10.1"), 21 kg (46 lb).

West Coast 101, 2012/05/27

• My first time to attend a cycling event. The event has 10,000 people registered, people in Taiwan are really crazy about cycling!
• Riding in a peloton is an amazing experience. Just keep an eye on the guys around me and we can easily ride at 40+ km/h without much effort.
• Traffic control is very cool, there were police at every intersection for the event and we almost always get green lights. This is not something we can get in our daily life and it causes the illusion that we are very important people. :)
• Going for a long bike ride with father-in-law can be a great bonding experience.
• All the time I spent on bike this year paid off quite nicely. It took ~3.5hr for me to complete the ~100km ride and I feel great afterwards. Probably can try a century next time.

Getting ready to go. Ann is very kind and insisted to drive us there at 5AM.

On the way back, thanks to the kind person who provided this picture.

CP is right behind me.

A cute souvenir from the event.

Because the event was organized by the Hsinchu Post Office, the certificate for finishing the ride is actually a sheet of stamps. Very cool!

Growth record (April 2012)

Alyssa: 10 yr 1 mo, 147 cm (4' 9.9"), 34.1 kg (75 lb).
Vivian: 8 yr 2 mo, 130 cm (4' 3.2"), 27.7 kg (61 lb).
David: 5 yr 9 mo, 113 cm (3' 8.5"), 20.4 kg (45 lb).

Phytos and mycos, my 1st independent publication!

The first paper from my own lab is out in PLoS ONE, YAY!

Chen LL, Chung WC, Lin CP, Kuo CH (2012) Comparative analysis of gene content evolution in phytoplasmas and mycoplasmas. PLoS ONE 7: e34407. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0034407

How to ride 114 km home

Here is my brilliant calculation when I found myself in the middle of nowhere and started to wonder how I ever going to get home against the crazy headwind and blazing sun:

(i) Although the trip is 114 km, because I am looking at the big picture here, it is not necessary to concern about the details (such as that pesky 4 km). So, the trip is only about 110 km.
(ii) The last 30 km is along a pleasant bike path that I know like the back of my hand, so that does not really count. With this tiny adjustment, the trip is now 110 - 30 = 80 km (hey, that's nowhere close to 100 km!)
(iii) After I got out of the bed and before I realized what I committed myself to do this morning, I already rode 34 km, so there is only 80 - 34 = 46 km to go.
(iv) If I plan a short break halfway, there is only 46 /2 = 23 km to go before food/drink (and possibly a comfy chair).
(v) 23 km? That's only about half of my usual evening ride! What a piece of cake, of course I can do it! :)

A very wet afternoon

When there are a bunch of young kids (and adults who are young inside), a relaxing afternoon in the courtyard can quickly turn into a crazy water party... :)

















BTW, this little warrior turned 5 today!

Growth record (June 2011)

Alyssa: 9 yr 3 mo, 141 cm (4' 7.5"), 29.9 kg (66 lb).
Vivian: 7 yr 4 mo, 126 cm (4' 1.6"), 24.9 kg (55 lb).
David: 4 yr 11 mo, 107 cm (3' 6.1"), 18.6 kg (41 lb).

Not a baby anymore

Two milestones for Alyssa:

1. Yet again, she claimed to have outgrown her bike. I can't even remember how many times this has happened. This time, she took over the 20" folding bike that Ann and I were sharing, so technically, she is adult-sized now.
2. On our family ride today, instead of going with Ann by car, she rode 4 km with me in Taipei's crazy street traffic to get to the bike path. I am amazed by how well she managed her first ride on the street.

A lab of my own

I found it hard to believe that almost a year has been passed since I started my current job as a principal investigator. What's even more amazing is the fact that the renovation of my lab space has F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. progressed to a point that we (i.e., two research assistants and I) can say goodbye to our temporary office and temporary lab. For the record, it is not really done yet but at least the space is usable (e.g., there's a window with no glass installed in the wet lab...). Here is what it looks like in my brand new lab, yay!

One of the most critical things, a fancy name plate on the door, is not ready yet. This is our temporary solution:


The wet lab:









The dry lab:





The meeting room:



My office: