Queen pic #1

Thought I'd post this pic of Queen that I was messing around with. Nothing fancy, just thought it looked cool. Queen says it looks pop-arty.

Nerf N-Strike EX-3

While Lance was at Toys R Us purchasing accessories for his Playstation3, I felt compelled to purchase a Nerf Gun. I had never owned one and thought it would be a great toy to break up the monotony of the workplace. I purchased the N-Strike EX-3. After taking it out of the box, the dart didn't go very far. Little did I know that there was an air suppressor built-in to prevent the dart from doing outrageous things. Well, I grew tired of this limitation rather quickly so I decided to remove it.

Take the gun apart by unscrewing all the tiny screws.

Remove the air chamber. In front of the air chamber is a spring with a cap on it. Just throw those two pieces away!

In the muzzle barrel, there is an air restriction plate.

Break off the long plastic piece and clear the hole in the muzzle barrel mouth.

Reassemble back together to get some ridiculously awesome dart action without the air suppressor!

Soda Can Cooler

At my workplace, they disabled all the USB ports on all of our computers so I cannot use one of those portable USB Soda Can Coolers. (I hear those don't work that well anyways...) There is no room for a mini-fridge at work. Once you bring your cold sodas from home to work, there is no way of keeping it cold. If you have a hidden stash of soda, there isn't a way to make it colder than ambient room temperature when you want to drink it a few days later.

So what does a guy do?

Since I have a bit of time on leave, I constructed by own solid state Soda Can Cooler. The acquisition of parts was rather painful as I had to drive to more than 4 different places for all the parts needed. Piecing together everything was rather straightforward although it was a bit difficult soldering wires by myself. I had a crappy multimeter to work with (since I can't afford a good one) so there is no way to double check all the voltages and amps running though the entire system once it was done.



During cooling operations, I have to sit next to it just in case the circuitry explodes and bursts into flames. On paper I am pumping 6 Amps through the system with 4 "C" batteries supplying 6 Volts. In reality I may be pumping more of that into the whole system but I will never know since I don't have the fancy equipment that I normally would have access to with the engineering school.

I built a battery light indicator in there. When the light goes off that means the batteries have no more juice left.

So far it has taken 30 minutes to get a 16oz. can at ambient temperatures to a few degrees below ambient. I can't trick the laws of thermodynamics. The current method of heat exchange between the can and the cooling element will require more creativity. This is a good working prototype though for further research into this type of cooling.

For the nerdy details of all the individual components and specifications used, hit me up via email.

Craigslist

I posted on Craigslist a few weeks back and found it hilarious that someone actually replied. I usually go on there to read through their free stuff section however their section on "missed connections" sometimes have interesting posts also, so I tend to jump over into that section as well. Up until that day, I had no reason to post in the "missed connections" section. One day though, coming home from work, what I saw compelled me to post and the post is illustrated above and quoted below.

"This post is dedicated to the pretty brunette that zoomed by me on the shipyard exit ramp off of highway 3. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you stop at the light. You were in a right hand drive 1990's blue Honda Civic Si. Once the light turned green, you flew off... weaving through traffic like a professional racecar driver shifting through all the gears without hesitation. There was no chance for me to keep up. Your boyfriend is the luckiest man alive. Kudos to you, pretty brunette in the right hand drive Si. I will never forget you. You have made my day. "

A day later, I recieved the following email in my inbox:

"Well thank you! I appreciate the compliment..and its a 2000. Happy I could make your day. You just made mine with all the nice things you said. Have a good day!"

I wasn't expecting a reply at all but I got one. This lady was happy I talked about her and I was happy that I saw an exceptional vehicle on the road, so everyone won at the end! Yay

ribs 吻墙吻 (ching chong ching)

Ribs baby. This is the good shit right here. Baby back ribs. I don't know if that means they get them from baby pigs, but man, they are oh so tender and delicious. I just threw them in BBQ sauce and turned on the oven to 300 and cooked for 3 hours.

Too good.

Hot Pot 火鍋 [Huo Guo]

By the time I remember to take pix it's gone :P so here's some
Halibut + beef :3
light ox-tail soup base
veggies: carrots, nappa, tomato

whats in your closet?

My closet pretty much has my uniforms to the left, then pants, then shirts, then cold-weather clothing, then dress shirts, and at the very edge is my tuxedo. I don't own any suits but maybe I should get some. I have more clothes in the drawers, like boxer-briefs, socks, undershirts, t-shirts, and shorts.

Note: The closet is 3 times as big as the portion shown. The rest of it is ALL Queen's stuff. Its pretty crazy how much clothing girls have.

Whats in YOUR closet?

4 miles, no sweat

Went on a 4 miles run today. Pretty easy in the beginning like any other run. Around the 2 1/2 mi mark I started sucking wind pretty bad. I got over it and found a second wind by the 3 1/2 mi point. Pretty much picked up speed there and pwned the last 1/2 mile.

Pablo "jasoned" out on me today. He was supposed to run but apparently got sick. Tomorrow I'm gonna try again and hopefully do it faster. My time today was around 33 min.

And the accident..

So this fateful day of August 13, 2009...

The cloudy morning allowed me to start my day in preparation. What greeted me was an annual road trip to sacramento that I would surely enjoy, not necessarily indulge though, but excited I was.

The night before, I disappointed Pabs by starting my shut-eyes a tad bit early than normal. In result I was wide awake at 6:30am the next morning. I finished my packing and took a swift shower excited to progress through my day. The group of 15 wanted to depart from my house at 9:00AM, so I left at 7:40AM to pick up three people.

At my door, my friend Minh (aka noob, self-proclaimed champ, and dumbass) gave me a call. I stopped at the door and answered my phone, slightly friendlier than normal as compared to vent, where I would berate him with anything that I uttered relating to him. I kindly told him my plan to pick him up, and Minh1(he's another Minh), and then Maureen. I ended my precisely 20seconds conversation with him at 7:43AM.

I drove down my neighborhood and and turned into the smaller street that would lead to the bigger street. At exactly 7:44AM I called Maureen waking her up and explaining to her that I'm on my way. With her sweet interrupted sleep voice she acknowledged and said bye. This conversation lasted 45 seconds.

I then turned out into the big street that is Raitt St. At the intersection of Segerstrom and Raitt, I lawfully used my hands free speakerphone to communicate with Minh1(non-noob) that I would be picking him and suggested that he get ready. This conversation lasted 33 seconds.

My light turned green. I was waiting for my left turn and green suggested that I can turn given that I yielded to all incoming traffic. I nudged my car towards 10 feet, waiting, yielding. As the light flickered from yellow to red, I saw an incoming truck hesitate a bit, so I assumed that he was stopping at yellow. I stepped on my petal and proceeded to my left turn.

With a darth vader like roar I screamed *uuuahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh* as the white F150 truck that I thought have stopped began to accelerate even faster towards me.

The result is below....











Engine still on and key still in the ignition I opened the door and walked out. I then slammed it shut and ran to nearby crashies asking them if they're ok. Silly I thought, I just got smashed and crushed by them and still asked them such.... I think I read in a book somewhere that the first step is to ask if everyone is ok... and then maybe perhaps rage at em. Regardless I ran into the middle section and sat down.

At 7:48am I called "Mom" as accordance to my phone's address book, and quickly aborted the call after 3 seconds and realizing that she probably wouldn't answer it. She rarely does and I knew better, but I guess my animal instincts yearned for MOM after the devastation. I called "home" instead at 7:48am still and this conversation lasted 23 seconds. I told her in Vietnamese, " I got in an accident. Raitt and Segerstrom. I'm bleeding." I hung up the phone and took out the glass shards that was stuck in me. Cleaned myself up a bit and proceeded to call my Maureen.

At 7:50AM my 42 seconds conversation explained to Maureen what happened, and that I have called the necessary people to assist me. I then hung up the phone and went into my car to try and remove my keys. * What if it blew up ?? * I thought briefly. I yanked at my keys and it woulnd't budge, so I realize that I'm still on D(for drive) and that I needed to change that. I reached it and pushed it to PARK and manage to get my keys out. I left my PSP(lols later it was recovered and in near perfect working condition)

As I sat down, the notion of the car blowing up flashed my mind and s0 I moved down about 10 more feet and sat there. My brother and father soon arrived, and the ambulance took me away to the ER....

My universal remote..

Uploading my pics of the accident later... Meanwhile, you get to see how big a life i lead.

牛尾湯 [Niu Wei Tang]

Ingredients:
raddish
carrots
ox tail
fish/chicken stock
ginger
garlic
let it cook for 6 hrs :3

紅燒吳郭魚 [Hong Sao Wu Guo Yu]

涼半小黃瓜 [ Liang Ban Xiao Huang Gua] Spicey Pickled Cucumber

Ingredients:
4 small cucumber
rice vinegar
dried red pepper
salt
fish/chicken stock
sugar
lots of garlic

Home Style Kung Pao Chicken 宮保雞丁 [Kung Bao Gi Ding]

Ingredients:
Pepper
Garlic
Onion
Chicken Breast
Dried red pepper







Dice the pepper and onion.











Dice the chicken breast > marinate with:
rice wine
sesame oil
soysauce
fish/chicken stock
sweet potato flour [太白粉]







Chicken w/ the marinating ingredients from above














Tada ! :D

3 mile run, no sweat

I went running for 3 miles today, didn't time it, but I'm sure it was decent. I'm gonna try to do 3 miles M-Th. Mon got pwnt, time for the rest.

Perhaps even Pablo will join me and not pull a "Jason". Jason is a lost hope for now, he has a foot injury, and before that he had something else wrong, and before that I'm sure something else was wrong too. I wasn't able to get his the 6 pack abs, but oh well, maybe next summer.

I, on the other hand, am satisfied at my abs, its no longer covered with a layer of blubber and you can really see it. Its all about the food plus cardio to pwn the fat stored up. Don't just exercise, you gotta eat right too. Don't just eat right, you gotta exercise too. Lesson learned.

bbq wings!

Queen made some BBQ wings and drumsticks today. It was really good. Too easy if even Queen can do it, lulz...

badfish is bad

This is super lulz, me and Caleb attempt to play Badfish by sublime. Not bad for Caleb just learning the song 5 mins before recording.

Made this a while back.... was I fatter back then? LMAO