Maya performed in a ballet recital early this afternoon and I secured a front row seat for the event. Jeanine really wanted to attend as well but she is at the University of Brockport completing her final anatomy class (update: she scored a perfect 100% on her final examination). Between soccer and ballet Maya moves with both power and grace propelled by legs with muscles of steel.

My mother has been recuperating from bronchitis with us for almost two weeks now making steady progress each day. As a result of this health incident, she has decided it is time to move from her home of close to 50 years. The three story house in the historic General Electric plot of Schenectady, NY where I grew up has 8 bedrooms and a 4 room basement apartment. For a family of four it was huge. For my mother living alone it is positively cavernous. Most difficult to leave behind will be the magnificent Japanese style garden, a perennial centerpiece in the city’s annual garden show, that she created over the decades. After Maya’s performance, my mother and I made the three hour drive to Schenectady where we began the process of preparing the home for sale. Despite fond memories of my childhood home, I felt like this was the beginning of a new chapter for the family rather than the end of an era.

For the second time this week I participated in a team building event led by one of my direct reports. Our mechanical engineering team faced two challenges that rewarded teamwork, collaboration, planning and communication. The first was a pit stop competition in which teams of four serviced an actual race car (positioned floor jack, simulate lifting car, adding an exact amount of fuel, washing the windshield and headlamps, and replacing two tires with pneumatic wrenches). The second event featured a 60 minute endurance race with 8 driver changes and a strict set of rules and time penalties for violations. Everyone was a winner and I could not have been more pleased with the event and the outcome.

In celebration of stellar financial performance this year, iRobot HRD (Home Robotics Division) employees enjoyed a catered lunch in one of the undeveloped spaces in our building complex, the only one large enough to seat everyone. In early January, we will hold our annual evening holiday party at the House of Blues adjacent to Fenway Park. I enjoyed greeting folks as they entered our make shift dining room and thanking them for the hard work and dedication which has contributed to our success.

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After studying together with his good friend Julia, Nicolai takes a break to demonstrate his new found (as of this morning) interest in cup stacking. She uses a stop watch to time while he builds an eight layer pyramid of plastic cups and then collects the cups into a neat stack. It was an entertaining distraction for the entire family. My mother, who has been staying with us since last week, is slowly but surely recovering from her bout with bronchitis. Kyle was in some discomfort having eased off the pain medications for his wisdom teeth extraction a little too early. Before all was said and done I got roped into the action and produced a sub one minute result which paled in comparison to Nico’s 26 second best effort which can be seen by clicking the linked video above.

I am a huge proponent of team-building events that force folks to climb outside their comfort zones. Today I joined our electrical engineering team on their annual outing which was held at the Boston Rock Climbing Gym.

The focus of the event was on improving communication and the facilitators led us through a number of exercises designed to engage us on this topic. I was very pleased with the outcome and the manager who organized the outing.

We celebrated Kyle’s return from college by having all four of his wisdom teeth removed. Based on a his very successful first term at Santa Clara University we decided he is already wise enough. Here he employs his hoody to hold ice packs wrapped in towels to both sides of his face. Fortunately the procedure went well and he is mending quickly. Rice pudding has been prepared to nourish him and thus far I have been banned from sampling it.

For the first time, the kids were totally responsible for the Christmas tree. All three piled into Kyle’s truck and drove to Mahoney’s where they located a perfect specimen. Maya drilled a hole in the base to prepare it for our stand and the whole family, including my mother who is feeling much better, trimmed the tree by the warmth of our first fire of the season.

One of my main objectives on this trip to China was to learn more about injection molding of plastic parts which are used extensively in iRobot products. Today we toured a subsidiary of Jabil which is focused largely on molding and painting of plastic components. Before entering the production area for vacuum deposition we were required to change into the outfits pictured here to minimize the introduction of contaminants. Photography within the plant is forbidden but our host graciously offered to take this picture for us.

After our meeting, we returned to Hong Kong where I used the final hour of daylight to grab a few pictures. Because of the “haze” (read pollution) it is impossible to take good photographs of objects at a distance. Because of this, I decided to use an object in the foreground to anchor a photograph that still included the cityscape I was interested in capturing as a background element.

Our final factory visit is with Jetta, manufacturer of our wet floor care product line. By all accounts they are our least sophisticated supplier but they are doing an admirable job of building our most complicated robot. Meetings and a factory tour were followed by lunch in their executive dining room.

Although everyone was out in the field, we did not want to miss the opportunity to visit our newest iRobot office located adjacent to the train station in Guangjhou. Despite its diminutive size it is easily iRobot’s most posh facility. We arrived back at our hotel with 30 minutes of sunlight remaining and everyone ventured out on their own to enjoy the surroundings by daylight. Bicycles still abound but are rapidly being replaced by automobiles as the rising middle class grows in size and economic stature. I dined with one other colleague and selected a casual Shabu Shabu restaurant for our first departure from traditional Chinese fare.

After dinner I treated myself to a 90 minute full body massage (the therapeutic variety) which was the best of my life. It was a combination massage and chiropractic adjustment of my neck, back, and shoulders including 20 minutes on just my forehead and face. I have never felt so relaxed in my life and at $20 (including tip) for the entire session I would do this every day if I lived in China. Sleep came easily this evening and I have made the full night for day time zone shift just as my return to the US grows near.

Meetings with Standard Motor today went very well. We reviewed improvements they have made to one of the less reliable motors we use in our Scooba 230 wet floor cleaner and then received a tour of the factory. Our robots typically use 5 motors per design so it is essential that we have a very close relationship with our motor supplier and that their quality matches our requirements. In the afternoon we again enjoyed the bullet train ride as we returned to Guangdong where we joined a contingent of our Far East iRobot team for another eyeball centered meal (see before and after photos).

For followers of this blog, it should now be apparent that I do not generally care for food served with eyeballs intact. If truth be told, I am not that fond of the head either. You can safely add feet to the list. My sarcastic comments to the contrary, the food in China is quite wonderful and I simply need to put aside my squeamishness and continue to expand my gastronomic horizons.

After visiting Jabil (our second contract manufacturer) during the morning we traveled to Shaoguan by bullet train operating at 190mph. The Chinese government has made it a priority to develop the high speed rail system throughout the country to facilitate inland development. As impressive as the train is, the station from which we departed was even more so. The shear scale was only surpassed by the architectural beauty. I place my camera on the ground to make this self portrait with the ceiling of the station as a backdrop. The little girl was interested in my camera and was thrilled when I showed her this image of herself.

We are met at our destination by representatives of Standard Motor, who will host us for meetings tomorrow. En route to our hotel, they treat us to a brief visit to Danxiashan Park, a World Natural Heritage site. This geological red rock wonderland is best known for what is aptly named Male Stone. Dinner this evening features more eyeball-laden food as well as several new challenges to my gastronomic sensibilities. Out of respect for our gracious hosts, I sample duck tongue, jellyfish, shin meat (from an undisclosed animal), and several other “delicacies.”

After dinner I went for an extended walk and spent most of my time with a group of teenagers who were in-line skating at a local park. They had set up plastic cups to create a slalom course which they traversed with great speed and stylized footwork. I approached and asked (using gestures) if I could videotape them. After filming for almost 30 minutes I showed them some of what I shot. They asked (using gestures) for my e-mail address which I was happy to provide. Despite a total language barrier, I was able to connect with some pretty cool kids using my camera as a bridge. I hope to post an edited video when I return to the US.

I traveled from Hong Kong to mainland China this morning with my colleagues. We spent the day touring Kin Yat, one of our three contract manufacturing partners we are here to visit. It was a long day spent largely on our feet. This factory has made huge strides since the last time I visited and I was pleased with the state of affairs. Regrettably, photography is not permitted inside the facilities. You will simply have to imagine a sea of young Chinese women wearing uniforms and hats sitting in one production line after another. Each performs a small number of simple tasks on a robot which moves via conveyor to the next worker. In all, our line with related sub-assembly stations, employs in excess of 1000 workers. Despite the monotony of the work these positions are highly sought after. Dinner this evening could have easily been confused with a trip to the aquarium. On the main floor of the restaurant we view tank after tank filled with live exotic sea creatures looking out at us through the glass. Our food order is taken here by pointing out the species that we wish to eat. We move to a second floor private dining area with circular table where course by course the food arrives and is placed on a lazy Susan at the center. Once again we are eye-ball to eye-ball with our food. I have a rule about eating food with eye-balls which I suspended in order to be respectful of our dinner hosts. After settling into my hotel in Dongguan, I ventured out for what turned into a two hour walk. Pictured here is a pagoda found at the top of a large hill in Chang’An Park.

I arrived at my Hong Kong hotel at about 9PM feeling relatively awake despite not having slept a wink on the plane. I decided to head out for some exercise and photography. The city is decorated for Christmas which only intensified the night time illumination for which this city is already legendary.

Lately, I have been drawn to photographing moving water using slow shutter speeds. A plethora of lit fountains offered many opportunities to explore this theme. The youth of China, as in cultures everywhere, are pushing the boundaries in this very conservative society. I expect this is the one force the government here will find impossible to contain.

I began my travel to China early this morning with a flight to Chicago where the airport was decked out for the holidays. A three hour layover is followed by a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong arriving on Sunday eveningand where I will overnight before continuing on to China. With some time to kill at O’Hare, I searched our interesting photo opportunities and found this interesting view of the inter-terminal rail tracks as viewed through a frosted window from an overpass.