Friction Ahead

I've been reviewing thin airfoil theory in Aerodynamics this week.

There are two forces that act on an airfoil (think: wing) - Lift and Drag.

Lift is created from the pressure acting normal (perpendicular) to the surface of the airfoil.

Drag is created from the shear stress over the surface of the airfoil (acts tangential or parallel to surface of airfoil)

If we were to assume a world of inviscid (frictionless) flow, drag would not exist.  (Makes sense, right?  Drag is pretty much just a measure of the friction on the airfoil anyway).

And since, lift acts perpendicular to the direction that friction acts, it is independent of the friction that exists.

Wouldn't that be nice to live in world free of friction?  We'd have all the lift we wanted to soar and fly without worrying about being held down or dragged back in our progress.

But here's the clincher: If we lived in a world of perfectly inviscid flow, we would never experience lift.

Turns out that nature requires friction in order to create the environment for lift to exist.  (It gets technical here so I will spare you the details - but it involves the Kutta condition)

Likewise in our own lives: Those stresses that threaten to halt our progress and pull us back can actually be the stresses that create the environment that allows us to lift us above our present circumstances and to soar.

2 Nephi 2:11: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.  If not so...righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad..."

I Can Soar by JYJ's (TVXQ's) Junsu:

Click on the CC and then on English subtitles if you have trouble understanding his English.

"A man can never know how strong he really is until he is beaten, torn, shattered...until he is broken, beyond despair, on his knees in pain...and without even knowing how or why...stands back up."
~ Thomas F. Lerchenfelt, Jr.

For my dear friends who are struggling with great forces against them,

Please remain strong.  You will rise above this.  You will.  And you will become all the better for it.  In the meantime, lean on your friends and your God and we can make it through this together.

Love,
Me

I might be biased

Last year, one of my friends attended a Kpop concert in which she was immediately asked by some very eager and excited girls, "Who's your bias?"

It's a funny question but one that makes sense.  Essentially, which group are you most here to see?  Which person in that group is the one that keeps you interested?  For a culture like Kpop in which there are literally hundreds of bands with similar music styles, a bias is what draws you to one band over the other.  Further, within a band of boys (or girls), having a bias helps you start to distinguish the members from each other.  Otherwise it's just a mass of all similar looking boys (or girls) who change their hair color and clothes every thirty seconds.

Picking a bias is always kind of a random thing for me but, for some reason, they usually stick.  My bias within Shinee?  Onew, all the way.  Why?  I have absolutely no idea.  I mean, there are lots of great things about him: he's smart and witty and he doesn't mind making mistakes; he also takes his career in stride and knows when to take something seriously and when not to.  But why I chose him over Jonghyun, Minho, Taemin or Key who all have pretty impressive qualities themselves is not anything that I can really put my finger on.  (Although I do like awkward people and I'm not sure anything quite beats the Onew Condition when it comes to awkward)

A bias is also kind of a funny thing because it can have little to do with actual musical tastes.  For example, my favorite Korean band is CNBlue but I don't know much about the band itself other than genuine appreciation for their music.  In this way, they work like an American band.  I love their music, own their albums, listen to it in the car and sing along but for the most part, I don't spend my free time looking them up.  A bias on the other hand - it could be the most inane article on some random kpop website and suddenly I'm convinced, "I need to read this and find out if Onew really does insist on having pink sprinkles on his ice cream cones."  (Not a real story but if it were, you can bet I probably read it)

All of this is just to give you a glimpse at the power of a bias in my funny little life.  Of course, everyone really knows that my biggest bias is none other than Makoto Hasebe.  I first noticed him during the World Cup but how I noticed him is a mystery to even myself.

No matter, just like with a Kpop bias, this bias gave me a team to cheer for and a player to watch.  Soon enough, the rest of the team became familiar to me.  Before I knew it, I suddenly had a favorite team in the Bundesliga as well.

On Friday, I had the rare occurrence of watching Hasebe play (via ESPN3).  Since the World Cup, I can count the number of times I've watched Hasebe play on one hand.  While I settled into the game, I couldn't help but smile as I watched him move around the field and interact with his teammates; I was reminded all over again why this kid first caught my eye.  I like to think that, despite my bias, I am still pretty fair in my assessment.  I don't have any illusions that Hasebe is the best player in the Bundesliga or even the best player on his team.  I've read enough reports on him to know that although a good technical player with good dribbling and ball handling skills, he is slow for a midfielder and he sometimes struggles to attack and push the game up field.  However, on Friday, as I watched I felt that I was competently gauging that he was playing a good game.  He was aggressively moving the play forward but also solidly proved to be where he needed to be in his position as defensive midfielder.  Yet, when the second half of the game started, Hasebe was promptly subbed out of the game.

Source: 

I stared at the screen in shock.  Had my bias really affected my judgment so much?

The answer is Yes.  But not for the reasons you think.  I went back and rewatched the game.  Hasebe did play a solid game.  It wasn't error free but, then again, no one was.

So, here's really how my bias affected me:  I spent part of my Friday watching a soccer game.  I spent part of my weekend on and off thinking about that soccer game and my assessment of it.  I spent part of my Tuesday rewatching that soccer game.  In short: I am a soccer fan.

This from the girl who dreamed about (American) football in middle school, the girl who played rugby in college and the girl who never bothered to find the time to sit down and just watch sports.

So, how is it that I now schedule time and energy dedicated to the "beautiful game"?

Well, like I said, a bias can be a funny thing.

Source:

My BBoys

That is, Bundesliga Boys and not those kids who break dance.  (Although break dancing is pretty amazing too)

Dear Kagawa-san,

Deutscher Meister 2011 and 2012?  The new record holder for most goals for a Japanese player in the Bundesliga?  When you broke your foot last year, I was hoping you would make a big comeback.  But I never expected this.  Not only that, but you and your team look like you're all having so much, I'm half tempted to risk to incite Gelsenkirchen's wrath and start liking BVB <gasp> in addition to Schalke 04.  Almost.  

Love,

Me

Dear Hosogai-san,

Your team is doing so well right now, I couldn't be prouder, even if it did mean putting mein wölfe to shame in their own stadium.  But wow, kid, your spikes aren't just brilliant, they sparkle!  Blinding your opponents - is this your new tactic?  

Love,

Me

Dear Koo-ssi, 

I always knew you had it in you!  When I read last week that you were one of the players in the Bundesliga who is coming into their own and making a huge difference, I started cheering.  It seems you really have found your place in Augsburg and contributing to ensure they stay top flight.  I'm looking forward to more great things.  

Love,
Me

Dear Uchida-san,

Turns out, you didn't lose your job and you've contributed to your team's success this season.  After all is said and done, I guess not much changes.  Your fangirls are still fangirling.  Your friends all still tease you and post pictures of you on their blogs to increase their own readership.  Your team still wonders if you were a male model before you came to Germany.  You still crack me up with your sound bytes.  And your hair remains, as ever, both perfectly messy and perfectly coiffed.  Looking forward to many more seasons with you.

Love,

Me

Dear Okazaki-san,

Has anyone told you how very young you look with your hair cut?  I looked at you and thought, "Wow, he looks like he's about 25."  Funny, since you really are (or 26 now).  Glad to have you back from injury and pleasantly surprised that Stuttgart is in a solid 4th place.  Where did that come from?  

Love,
Me

Dear Usami-san,

You started midfielder for Bayern!  I've been waiting for this all season.  I hope to see much more of you in the future.  

Love,

Me 

Dear Sakai-san,

I've been enjoying watching you make a place in your team at Stuttgart.  Can't wait to see what else is in your future and here's hoping we see you on the National Team soon.

Love,
Me


Dear Vfl Wolfsburg,

A year ago, this time, we were both concerned about relegation.  Now, we're both solidly somewhere in the middle but still setting our sights for more.  Euro League?  As we've both learned, in the struggle and even in the failure, we learn something valuable about ourselves.  Hope rises up above it all.  I'm cheering for you.

Love,
Me


Dear Hasebe-san,

Good things await.

Love,
Me

Hide and Seek

It's a rainy day.  Although I had a long and wet walk into work, I can't complain since Virginia needs the moisture.

While fumbling to grab my keys out when I arrive at work, I happened to look up and noticed this: 

 This poor little moth was doing its best to stay safe from the weather while remaining safe from predators.

I'm always impressed by the bugs that make visits to my lab this time of year so I stopped to take a picture.  But when I took a step back, I looked up and noticed that there were moths all over the place.  The white ones were mostly hidden on the white doors and the dark ones on the brick above.  Let's see if you can find them.

  Here are the doors of my lab:

 And above the doors:

Can you find all the hidden moths?  (Hint: There are 17 on the door picture and 15 on the brick picture)
Answers below.

But first:

Here is a gorgeous night view of the trees near the basketball courts as reflected over the pond at UVa.

It was stunning.


Answers here:

Rise Up in the Morning

While on a walk on Sunday, one of my friends suggested: You might try just spontaneously going on adventures with your friends.  I smiled at what she was getting at but honestly doubted anything would come of it.

Last night, I was walking home from rehearsal and a friend saw me on the road and picked me up.  On the way to my house, I was invited to go on a sunrise hike the next day.  Surprising even myself, I agreed.  

This morning when I rolled out of bed at 4:30 am, I think I wondered what I was getting myself into.  The hike to the top was not easy for bodies as exhausted as ours already were.  For a few minutes, I wondered if we were even going to beat the sun to the top.  

But we did.  

Me at the top before the sun came up

It was a glorious experience to sit on top of the world and pause to watch nature work its magic.  

I demanded that my friend let me use her hands as a model

The  sun peeking over the horizon

What a wonderful world!  

Love Language

When I returned to the US after living in Taiwan, I was genuinely worried that I had lost my ability to sufficiently express myself in my native language.  For a person who still aspired to become a writer, this was one of the worst consequences I could imagine.  As a result, one of the first things I did when I got to the US was to pick up the closest big English novel on my sister's shelf - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - and read it.  Forget about the Chinese that I'd acquired in the past eighteen months.  Nothing, I determined, was going to come between me and my ability to express myself.

(Looking back now, I should have been more concerned about my engineering - I was home for six months before I tried to get back into math and realized I'd forgotten even my trigonometry.  I ended up cramming three college semesters of calculus in a week for my linear algebra class.  Thermodynamics likewise required me to cram an entire semester's worth of material in a week.)

In the past nine years, I have come to realize a few things:

(1) Nothing will change the fact that English is my first and native language.  As such, it holds a specific role in determining how I relate to the world, how I understand language in all its forms, and how I express myself.  Even I reach my lifetime dream of becoming fluent in Chinese, English will always remain.  Its place was decided long ago.

(2) I am madly in love with Chinese.  I love how Chinese sounds (especially the Taiwan accent).  I love speaking it and the way my mouth wraps around its sounds.  It's one of those languages that, in hearing it, just leaves me giddy.  I could go on about and on about this language and how beautiful it is.  When I try to share this with others, they usually just stare back at me.  Sometimes, I wonder if I'm in love with the best language there is to love or if everyone feels this way about their second language.

(3) It takes serious discipline to learn and maintain any language.  Nothing really takes the place of just buckling down and putting real time and energy into memorization and repetition.

(4) Understanding goes much deeper than simply comprehension of vocabulary.  Communication is layered and often very complicated.  I can know the definition every word in a sentence (in English or otherwise) and still be at a loss as to meaning.

(5) I have yet to meet a language that is not beautiful to my ears.  There is something stunning about hearing language spoken by natives and watching people interact in other languages.

(6) I hope that I can learn to be conversational in a third language one day.

The Beverage For Adult Giraffes

A few weeks ago, I talked about soccer players and non-soccer product endorsement.  Apparently, Hasebe-san decided it was his turn to try his hand in advertisement for Kirin.  Kirin is a beverage company in Japan of similar size and prevalence as Coca-cola in the US.  (Google translates it as "giraffe", hence the title of this post)

The beverage?

Beer - like his teammate Nagatomo?  
Tea - the beverage of choice of all Japanese people?

Nope.

大人のキリンレモン (Adult Kirin Lemon)

What is this drink?  It's a carbonated drink flavored with lemon and some amino acids that are intended to provide health benefits for adults.

Essentially, it's like the healthy (if carbonated drinks ever count as healthy) version of Sprite.

The ad?


"If you drink Kirin Lemon, your childhood dreams will come true."
Or "If you drink Kirin Lemon, a cartoon will give you his job."

Does it sell?

Seeing as how I might be a little biased, you tell me.