For those who aren't engineers

Because I think its good to learn new things, and because I had to look it up, I have attached a link to the short brochure discussing the SI (or Systeme International, for those of you who speak french) and the equivalent units contained within. Its a quick read at 180 pages, something for the whole family to enjoy.

http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf

Waffles need love too.

Last night, our family had breakfast for dinner. We don't take this kind of thing lightly, first you start with the bacon (it greases the griddle) I like to save the grease on the side for if I need more later, and then you get the amazingness that is pancakes cooked in a pan lubricated with bacon grease. As of late, since my wife can no longer eat flour, I have been making separate batches of batter. I decided I wanted mine to be waffles, but after mixing the batter, I realized this would mean that my food would get non stick spray, while the pancakes had bacony goodness. Thankfully, I had the bacon grease and a paintbrush for food (at least thats what I call it). I painted the bacon grease onto my waffle iron, and voila, even more delicious waffles. I highly recommend it. Well, except for maybe not for those of you in my family who are allergic to bacon grease...

Good old fashioned science

I finally got around to the egg in vinegar experiment.
For those of you who don't know what this is, the general concept is that when you soak an egg in vinegar, the acid will eat away all of the calcium (the hard part) leaving just that smooth membrane you see sometimes when you are trying to crack the egg open.

Expect smelliness (it is vinegar).

As a scientific sidenote, I am reminded of my own early forays into this "science" stuff. Much of my early interest came from my mother. Our first true experiment was the classic baking soda and vinegar, I don't know where she read about it, but needless to say, we underestimated its power, which is how we managed to explode a small tupperware container and got the mixture on every surface of the kitchen (including a great deal of the ceiling) No wonder I'm into this kind of thing. 

A movie review?

As a warning to my beloved family, all of you who have not seen "We Bought a Zoo", it is a wonderful movie, one of the best I have seen in some time, however, expect to cry. More than once. Very good, go see it.

Food Adventures

This is a dragonfruit.

I had to buy one because I thought it looked like something out of a video game.

 If you look in the picture above, you can see that I had to look up how to eat it (look at the computer screen in the background).

But what astonished me the most is what it looks like inside.

The website said it tastes like a cross between a kiwi and a pear, which is dead on for the texture (its really bizarre) but we found the flavor to be really really bland. Not at all the sort of thing you expect from something with "dragon" in the name. So I've scooped out the middle and am going to try and freeze it and make it into some sort of water-ice-esque  dish. 

Childhood Memories

This one is for Dad, I hope you're reading.

I was going through some of my old stuff and I came across this old toy steamboat I remember dad getting me for one of my birthdays (it is functional) I had to modify the candle, but it still runs as well as it did 10 years ago.
What happened to all those really cool old toys?

P.S. - Remember the copper piping we bought to try and build a larger scale model? I wish we'd finished that, maybe with scott and nate?

Recipe: Quinoa Hamlet

Pronounced: Keen Wa

Makes 4 Hamlets

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Quinoa (rinsed if called for)

1 cup Water

8 slices Ham (deli style)

6 Med Eggs (or 4 large) well beaten.

Assorted spices to taste (I used Salt, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic Powder, Dried onion, it doesnt take much and gives the quinoa great flavor) 

1) Combine 1/2 cup Quinoa, Water and Spices in small pot, bring to a boil and hold for 15 min. Remove from heat.

2)Place 2 slices of ham in pan (or 2 each for as many as you can make at once) on medium high. Spread Quinoa on each slice (I would keep it less than 1/4 in thick) Once the ham starts to sizzle, carefully pour the egg over the quinoa. It will try to get away from you, just try to keep it mostly on the ham. 

3)In a couple minutes (whenever you think is right) get your spatula under one of the pieces of ham and fold it over top of the other, flip several times to be sure the edges are cooked (it may ooze a little) Allow to cool, and serve.

Courtesy of that part of my brain I wish I could activate at will (Alexis won't get home from work to eat these for another hour)

P.S. - I only made 2 of these, but I expanded the recipe to use all of the Quinoa, it shouldn't cause a problem, but you never know...

MAN POINTS: -2

So, remember that windshield wiper I fixed, well, it worked great until it snowed, now neither wiper works.

As a side note however, I did manage to sell my car (not the one that is breaking constantly and I fear for its life) for $300 more than I paid for it. Thats got to count for something, right?

Is that really necessary?

So, I had purchased some salmon fillets from wal mart the other day, and noticed that the bag was marked "Resealable". Now, each fillet is individually vacuum packed, so does it even matter if you put a zip loc seal on the bag they come in?

MAN POINTS: 1

This week I completed what I would consider my first real car repair. I have done oil and tires, even spark plugs and a rotor (that would have counted, but several people helped me) However, earlier this week Alexis went to leave for school in the rain, and strangely, the windshield wiper on her driver side didn't work (a bad thing in rain or snow. I am obviously not a car person, but after a fortuitous encounter at work, I proceeded to pull apart my wife's car, I pushed the arm that connects the drivers wiper back into place, it stuck, and (at least for the moment) it works great. 1 man point for me.

The car scared me

Last night, as I was leaving my friends house to come home, I opened my car door and to my horror, the lights didn't come on. As my brain frantically searched for what to do with my car that obviously had a dead battery, the ice on the button in the door frame broke, and the light came on. Then I drove home.

Cell Phone Post: Last finals week

This is what a laptop screen looks like when dropped off a table onto a linoleum floor:

When I called dell to get information, they kindly offered to send me a replacement for only $450, I kindly replied that the laptop itself was not worth that much and that I was only looking for a part number. They gave me one, but of course it wasn't real, if you look closely at the picture above, you can see the frame is removed so that I could get at the real part number on the back. Enter ebay, and less than $110 later, this is the final product. It made me feel very useful to be able to fix this myself.

Just words

This is a note to anyone who is reading this, as a heads up, I finally got around to copying all the photos off my cell phone, and I am trying not to deluge anyone, but there are a lot of posts from those to catch up, so check back often, there should be lots to post about for a while.

Who's seen fantasia?

This is the roof of a car, I dont know what made the frost form like this, but to give you an idea, most of those crystals are 3 fingers wide (some almost as long as my arm). These are the kinds of things you see vacuuming cars at 6:30 a.m. Work must be good for something :)

Good enough for city work....

What is this?

I discovered a lovely service of my blog today, in that it shows stats on how well my blog is being read. Now I will openly admit that I do not post often, that my posts have been varied and eclectic, and I am a bit odd overall, but I still find it a tad disappointing that since the beginning of the new year, it appears that I am the only person to have visited my blog. I will have to work on this.

In Memory of a good shirt

While it may seem odd, I wished to post this because of the unusually extended service of this shirt, which I finally had to admit to myself had passed its prime today. It was purchased for my by my older sister when I was in middle school, at that stage between child and young adult when a person is liable to make poor fashion decisions, and whether it was to prevent her own consternation or out of genuine care for a younger brother, I appreciate it, even if my fashion sense is no better now than it was then. So, after 10 plus years of good service, goodbye shirt.

New Beginnings and a Merry Christmas

This is our Christmas tree this year, 

Some things most of you may not notice, there are no ornaments, just a few candy canes. The odd part about this  is that we have ornaments, and extra lights (this is a pre-lit), but in what I feel was a little bit symbolic, they just never got put up. We have had a wonderful year, though things have been a little tight. Some happy moments in the last few days (even if they made me a little sad). Due to a few wonderful weddings, we hadn't made any plans to visit anyone this year, but hearing from those of you who were so excited to see us made me happy, even if we couldn't come, though we're already making plans for next year. Overall, its been a good year to be truly grateful, to see those little miracles that have come together to make things ok. Thanks to all of you who have been a part of it, the calls and the little surprises, Merry Christmas, and all our love,

Steven and Alexis

All I want for christmas...

Today on woot

only 350 grand too.
(this really was on woot.com)

This is a real picture

The largest adult insect ever found

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-12/look-giant-bug

Ig Nobel

I think I found my favorite IgNobel Award for this year:
Public Safety: John Senders, from Canada, ran a series of experiments in which the test subject navigated a major highway while a visor repeatedly flapped down over his face, blinding him. 

Words

Influence in this world is made in words. Not in the simplicity of them being spoken, though it is certainly possible to influence through what we say, but in the power of creating words. Who can argue against the power that Tolkien wielded when he created words like "Hobbit" and the stories that defined them, just as Philo Farnsworth forever changed the world with the word "Television". The things we do everyday have the power to change the world, and the echoes and ripples that come to us, in their strongest form, are the words that we use. We even define ourselves through our words, whether we believe them or not, the words we describe ourselves by change who we are. I hope someday to change the world with a word, whether through a story, an invention, or, most likely, through the word I use to describe the greatest thing that comes from a person, my child. I want to change the world.

What exactly is "thin air"?

I love google

I know this may not make sense to a lot of you, but todays special google image

One of the links was to the article below titled:
Why Pierre de Fermat is the Patron Saint of Unfinished Business

I highly recommend it
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0817/Why-Pierre-de-Fermat-is-the-patron-saint-of-unfinished-business

Gmail motion

How it started

(this was an april fools joke)

(or so we thought)

Who has this much time on their hands?

Sandwich

Recently Alexis introduced me to something very dangerous, I have dubbed it the Reese's sandwhich. Nutella and peanut butter. I think its going to make me fat.

Limits

I came to a very odd realization today as I was writing my final paper for the semester. I have never disliked writing, but there has always been something missing in it for me, and the truth of it came to me, writing is 2 dimensional.  I dont mean this as 2 dimensional lines on a piece of paper, but as a 2 dimensional process of thought, you can only ever convey your thoughts in a line segment, a piece here, a piece there, but if you cut up your pieces too small or try to connect too many at a single point, you lose your meaning. My thought processes run in 3 dimensions, every point serving multiple purposes, ideas spreading in all directions, so that when you try and take a 2 dimensional snapshot for a paper, some of the lines cross each other in the wrong places or have to be edited out so you can see others. That is what unsettles me, that I have to choose an exact path, and no one who ever reads my writing will see the beauty of the many branching paths in my mind.

Phonezoo

The opening to this video is my new ringtone, it makes me happy (it was what I was doing instead of writing my paper on what the rest of it is about)

Justice in the Universe

So, lately I have been taking these Nature Valley Granola Thins to school for lunch (it takes about 6, I didn't buy them) but much like reese's peanut butter cups, they come with this little piece of cardboard that the bar sits on so that even if the chocolate melts you can still get it out. So I opened my first one for lunch today, and much to my surprise, it didn't have the cardboard. More than an hour later (I eat them slowly throughout my day) I opened another, and to my amazement, it had two cardboard pieces. Coincidence? Possibly, though its more likely to have something to do with the factory's process for packaging them. And now that you've read this far, most likely expecting me to make some point, I think the most honest thing I can say is that this is it, the thought doesn't go any deeper, have a nice day.

Seven (now 8 apparently) Intelligences

Maybe I am the only person who has not heard of this before, but there is a Harvard professor who has put forth a theory in which he defines 8 intelligences.
-Self
-Language
-Music
-Body Movement
-Nature
-Math/Logic
-Spatial
-Social

In his theory he says that everyone is a genius in at least 1 of these areas, and I like that thought. I think too often people spend their lives worrying about the areas in which they are not geniuses, and miss the opportunities to focus on those areas where they are truly amazing.

Hope you all have a great day.

What every true geek needs.

(If you cant tell, its a pizza cutter)

Pancakes.

The Station

Feel the Power

(sadly it has now been disassembled, what you see here is two desktops, a laptop, a wii, a VCR, as well as a broken laptop under the desk)

Cori was right (as always)

The router was receiving wireless interference, so I couldn't access its settings. Que household Faraday Cage.

 

CRASH

I finally got fed up enough to pull the "Windows Vista" sticker off my laptop. I was trying to think about places to put it, and had finally decided I would put it on the car. Then I thought, that would be stupid, I'm already having car troubles, why on earth would I put something on it that is just an invitation to crash.

The Manly Cookbook

This is the next cookbook I want:

Why? Because there just aren't very many cookbooks out there that call for ingredients like liquid nitrogen and a commercial grade centerfuge. It just sounds fun.

You know its time to do the laundry when....

My New Dream Job

I have been going on an adventure today. As any of you who know me (and obtain information about my life in ways other than this blog or facebook) know, I am currently both unemployed and not attending school, so today I set out to explore the world of my mother-in-law's netflix account, as well as fold the laundry. This is when I discovered top gear, a british car show for people who aren't very serious about cars. So far they have turned a small car into a makeshift space shuttle

>

as well as driven a regular pickup truck across the english channel.

Add to this the opportunity to test drive cars like the Bugatti Veyron and the Lamborghini Gallardo.

I would be willing to move to england to do that.

School crossing

does anybody else ever wonder why the school crossing sign shows a picture of a lady with a purse and a man carrying a briefcase?

A trust issue.

So, as I was walking out of my last class, it began to rain. This did not bother me as there had been rain forecast in the next couple days, however, in the 5 minutes I was out side that rain transitioned to sleet, to little balls of snow, and now to an all out snow storm. And yet, when I went into the library and checked my weather gadget, do you know what the forecast was? Partly cloudy. Now, it has since updated itself again, and now says snow, but is it really worth anything to me if the only weather it forecasts accurately is what happened 15 minutes ago?

All I want for Christmas...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/vintage-speed/maverick-flying-car-now-legal?click=pm_news

I CAN BE CREATIVE!!!

Ingredients: One white doughnut bag
                  a permanent marker
                  an old night light
                  and an intense desire not to do homework
and VIOLA!!

 

isnt it cute :)

The Pumpkin Cookie Blitz

As I was sitting in the library, suddenly I and everyone around me was surrounded by smiling people giving us pumpkin cookies, and how is one supposed to respond to that? So I took a cookie, and just as mysteriously as they appeared, they were gone. How surreal.

ADD and the Law of Averages

I ran across the most interesting idea today, I had a buddy my mission who referred to it as ADOS (attention deficit-OH SHINY) but, if one is to apply the law of averages to the realm of thought, then shouldn't the ability to think of many things at once lead to a far greater likely hood of one of them being a stroke of genius?  Now there are still a few questionable aspects to this theory (does a thought need to be taken beyond the first half of a sentence to be considered useful to society?) However,  as one who is most likely suffering from a carefully shaped and entirely undiagnosed case of ADD, I like to think that it makes me more inclined to strokes of genius (and not just new ways to use rubber bands and paper clips)

Citrus burns and thoughts of Genius

To address the first issue, oranges are good, but a juicy orange may get on your fingers, and at times fingers may rub your eyes. And it burns us.

So, today as I was pondering things discussed in my classes, it occurred to me that everyone has the opportunity for thoughts of genius. (writers being one of my favorite examples because they are among the most prevalent of the recognized great thinkers) However, the great limiting factor seems to be having something to think about in the first place. No matter how much of a genius Einstein may have been, had the concept of relativity not wandered across his mind, it could never have been developed (I'm still curious what he may have been pondering in order to bring that one into existence) Or on another front entirely, Philo T Farnsworth invented the television, what gave him the idea of shooting an array or precisely aimed electrons at a phosphoressing screen. Sure, now that its been done, it doesn't seem that big, but neither does calculus (Isaac Newton goes home on a break from college and creates a new branch of math, how often does that happen?)

So what now, I know its harder to recognize these ideas as they happen, but they must still be happening. Are we too distracted to notice them? Are we so busy with TV and Facebook and all these amazing things right at our fingertips that we're missing the next Beethoven or Shakespeare, or Einstein?

And I know that this may seem haughty to some, but I would like someday to have developed my mind to the point where I can be the outlet to ideas beyond our current imagination, to put something out into the world that is so fundamental that in 2 or 5 or 20 years, people think of it as common place.

To Carpent and other such things

Today as we were discussing hyperbolas in my calculus class we touched on the concept of the suffix -ix as used in latin, meaning "to do", such as the determinix of a parabola (the imaginary line which is the same distance at every point from the parabola as the parabola is from its focal point) which acts to determine the direction in which a parabola faces. This led to the discussion of the english equivalent, "er". For instance, a brick layer is one who lays bricks, this led me to wonder however, what does one carpent, for obviously a carpenter is one who is "to do" carpentry, which would be the act of carpenting. As of yet, it would seem my query will remain unanswered as to what has happened to the lost word "carpent"

Its a start

School starts today, at 7:45 I was in a room full of engineers (plus a geologist, a chemist, and a physicist) discussing the value of things such as multi-variable calculus and a better definition of what limits are and their value in determining the continuity of a function. I know to most people, thats gibberish, but its what I enjoy. I think its sad sometimes the fear people show for a good calculus or physics class (I'll see about the physics for myself later this afternoon) The secret is that its all just one big grammar class, if you know what the words mean, math isnt all that bad, its just that there are a LOT of words to remember. Funnily enough, the class I'm most worried about is not the Multi-variable calculus or the mid level physics, or even the engineering programming class I start tomorrow. The class I truly fear is Family History.

The Zeal of Youth

Today seemed to be a day to observe and enjoy children, in all their joy and craziness. Just to share my favorite, at the end of sacrament meeting today (church services for those not involved in the language of the LDS) We were privileged to sing the star spangled banner with a very spirited and patriotic 3 year old behind us, who was not about to let something as small as not knowing the tune or the words diminish her zeal, she even managed to hold the last not of the song for about 5 counts longer than anyone else in the congregation (including the organ). Don't you love little kids?