i went to a harvard lecture at 2:30pm, cultural heritage in china: present and future with liu shuguang. he seemed to be something of a bigwig, the deputy administrator of china's state administration of cultural heritage (SACH), and traveled with a retinue of over a dozen assistants, some to take his photos, one to run his slideshow, another to fact check his figures. before the lecture, he was mobbed by various people introducing themselves, practicing the art of chinese guanxi.
lectures typically are given in english, but before he started, the moderator asked if everyone could understand mandarin. a few hands were sheepishly raised, such that the moderator said it'd be better if the lecture was in english, but liu shuguang overrode that decision and gave his talk completely in chinese instead. that had me at a disadvantage, as my english is better than my chinese, and without knowing all the technical chinese words bandied about, i could only understand the gist of the lecture, not its entirety. liu shuguang and his entourage also sat at the back of the room opposite the projection screen, when they should've sat in the front with the screen behind them; that made for a slightly awkward presentation, as attendants kept turning their heads back and forth. if i couldn't understand the talk i could at least understand the slides (which were in english), but the woman running the slide shuffled the images like she was a deejay, scanning through them so fast it was impossible to see some of them.
this morning i called my health insurance to get answers about my 30-day prescription. my insurance company changed back in march, and apparently my new insurance will only do 30-day supplies. i may be able to get an exemption if i can get a prior authorization from my doctor, but it's not guaranteed. now i'll have to contact my physician and see if they can draft something for me.
i heated up a brick of baked ziti for dinner while i took a shower. despite the rain, it was still warm enough today that the heat never turned on. daytime temperatures are high enough now that for all practical purposes the furnace is off for the season.
i only just replaced the screen protector on my oneplus one phone with a tempered glass one last august and already it's cracked. the edge of the protector was chipped a few months ago, and then a few weeks ago i noticed a stress fracture all the way across the screen originating from the original crack. i was not only replacing the oneplus one's screen, but the iphone 5s as well. that one just has a plastic film protector, which scratch easily and i always seem to get dust around the edges. i did an okay job, with a bit of air bubble along the bottom edges that won't go away, better on the iphone, worse on the oneplus one, but i can live with it.
i've only ever had a plastic film on the iphone. the advantage with film is they're much thinner, but that's also one of their disadvantage, as they're not as strong and prone to scratches. price wise it doesn't make that much difference, glass protectors cost more but they can be purchased off of ebay for $1 each. anyway, now that the iphone has a glass screen protector, there's a noticeable bevel around the home button from the thicker protector. i thought it'd annoy me initially, but i discovered the fingerprint sensor works better now when there's a indented space to put my thumb. the sensor only worked half the time when i used the film protector.
my kenda 26x1.5-1.75" tire tube still hasn't arrived yet. i ordered it april 14th, it was supposed to get here no later than april 24th via USPS, but so far nothing. a check of the tracking number shows it to be stuck in schenectady since april 16th. i ordered through a 3rd party seller on amazon.com, BikeWorldUSA. unlike other sellers, this one didn't have a near perfect rating, hovering around 89% (12 months). but a check of the past 30 days revealed a negative rating of 22%, only 76% positive. i finally had to contact them to ask for a replacement. i heard back a few hours later, said they had already sent it out, something about a swapped order. i really should've just asked for a refund, but i'm not in a rush anymore since i bought that specialized tube from wheelworks, this tube that will (hopefully) arrive will just be a backup. but i probably won't order from them in the future.
speaking of orders, i got a few things from ebay: 2 9H tempered glass screen protector for the oneplus one ($1.98), 2 RCWL-0516 microwave radar motion detector ($1.98), and an assortment of male pin headers (straight $1.16 and right angle 99¢) for soldering on the motion detection boards (which come pinless). everything is coming from china, with an estimated delivery date of sometime between may and june, but i'm in no hurry.
i watched another episode of the americans. i felt sick to my stomach afterwards, it's the one where philip warns kimmy about traveling to a communist country. but it was the events leading up to that, including paige beating up two boys and elizabeth on an assassination assignment. with just 5 more episodes left in the series, it's about to get real real. even oleg isn't safe, and the verdict is still out on whether or not stan's girlfriend is another soviet sleeper agent.
while using the oneplus one in bed, the air gap at the bottom of the screen bothered me enough that i got up to fix it. using the light above the kitchen sink (one of the brightest), i cleaned the screen protector the best i could with a lint-free cloth then gently pried off the screen with a small knife blade so i could reposition it. it took a few tries, especially since a tiny grain of dust got underneath the protector and i had to lift it back up and clean it with a piece of tape. the advantage of a glass protector is the whole thing lifts off as a single flat piece, so it's easier to position compared to a plastic film protector. the final result was pretty good, no air bubble gaps of any kind. i'm starting to get the hang of this!