yogurt soju

yogurt soju is a very popular asian alcoholic beverage. I believe it came from korea. The first time I drank this was when my korean friend, jason, made it for all of us. It was like an asian horchata with a twist. Believe it or not, it is very simple to make and only takes one trip to the asian market.

Ingredients:

Korean Soju

Shots of Yogurt

Chilsing Cider

Calpico (the white one)

Get a pitcher and poor to your desired taste and until you are satisfied with your results.

Exhaust Gaskets!

so, i must've lost like 4 gaskets already in the past 2 months. I made sure I bought two gaskets just in case it pops out again. There is nothing much to explain here... you just make sure the ring goes between the exhaust pipe and the engine. Then you tighten the bolts as much as you can!! so that the ring doesn't pop out again!

blogging away your debt

Today's discussion will be on debt. I seem to have accumulated much of this in the beginning of 2009 when I bought my friend a drumset for his birthday with my credit card. It was pretty expensive and I had no job at the time, but I knew it was ok because I would eventually make the big money. I recently got a job at Websense as a QA intern. What QA interns do is test software and make sure it works. This software could be from web applications to GUI's.

Anyway, on to the heart of the situation. So I'm thinking that I'm a baller now, and life isn't so bad because I got a secure job. Well I was wrong for that matter. It's now summer and I can't do anything fun because of the debt I'm in. I started realizing that this has become a big problem when I discovered that I had to pay for my summer classes. I didn't receive any financial aid and had to borrow some money from my parents. Consider this a step toward fixing one of my personal problems. I know everyone has their habits. I hope to gain confidence in improving myself by paying all this off.


So here are the necessary steps I'm going to attempt to make to reduce my debt;

-Earn More
-Spend Less
-Do more outdoor and free activities
-Aggressively pay off one item at a time.


So over the course of this 3 month period, I hope to have 0 balance. This is how my summer of 2009 is going to be and although I won't be vacationing somewhere in mexico or paradise, I'll be accomplishing another goal.

kudos,
Jeff Lam

Bridges Without Borders

In La Pita, Nicaragua, villagers carry 100lb bags of crops everyday across a dangerous bridge made of three logs and a strand of rope. With coffee beans being La Pita’s main source of income, plans to improve this structure allowed the Engineers without Borders, a National Service Organization, to hold a bridge design competition at the 2009 PSWRC Conference in Hawaii. Four students, Amanda Wong (captain), Michael Germeraad, Lonnie Chang, and Jeffrey Lam, from UCSD placed 1^st among 17 schools.

The team was required to design a bridge that followed requirements such as accounting for horizontal loads from flooding, using the allowable stress method, and have a 50-year life expectancy. In addition two alternative designs had to be made using materials; timber, concrete, and steel. For the final product the team was required to submit AutoCAD drawings of the floor plan and a report with calculations that satisfied these requirements. A presentation of the final design was given to a panel of judges at Hawaii. Remarkably, this was done in a matter of 3 weeks!

With the second round of midterms and finals happening during period, how was this possible? Through the knowledge gained from previous courses, the team was able to accomplish this goal. “Our SE152 (timber class) helped significantly throughout this project”, stated Chang. Timber was used to design the winning bridge because of its availability, affordability, and its impact on the environment. In addition, Michael Germeraad considered SE103 (structural design) to be helpful in having the basic foundations of designing structures. These classes provided the initial building blocks to becoming engineers.

Although the team had the skills and experience needed to finish this project, none of this could be accomplished without the captain, Amanda Wong. She took the project to another level by applying ASD (allowable strength design) code, a professional standard in using the allowable stress method, to provide accurate results. “Also because it was a timber bridge we used the NDS (National Design Specification) for wood construction, a code book, in order to determine the member sizes”, stated Wong. Furthermore she utilized and delegated all team members’ so that the project was completed on time.

Everyone on the team had a great experience, among these students, Jeffrey Lam, a transfer student, had an enlightening one. “Although I had just started taking major classes, I learned so much about materials, economic efficiency, and environmental factors”, stated Lam. For Lonnie Chang, “this has been an unreal experience.’ Though it has been a pleasure for these students to take on such a challenge, the people of La Pita will be truly grateful for their efforts.

Cable Stayed Bridges

My final project for my structural design class consists of making a bridge that spans 16", resist 40lbs, and look f'en amazing. The design the we made definitely looks cool but I am not satisfied with its structural stability. I know that the two pylons you see at the bottom will bend in towards the middle of the bridge. This bridge is FAIL. What I hope to overcome from this experience is to be more assertive and address my problems with designs like this to my teammates.


Anyway

Just wanted to comment... that cable stayed bridges are best used when there are anchors to tie down the cables...

Nail Art

This week I was really bored and went to play in my housemates' room. My housemate, Virginia, was making these miniature clay models of desserts. She told me that you are suppose to bake them in the oven and they turn hard. Then you can glue them to your nails with nail polish. I thought this was a neat project. I wouldn't do this on my nails of course, but this seemed worthy enough for an entry in my blog.

Water Tower

I woke up at 12:30 AM today to finish up a water tower that my team and I built for my structural design class. We spent a good amount of time putting this together. I ended up taking it home today and reinforced the joints with wood glue. While I took the time to do this I realized how great engineers are. Throughout this whole project we were given some basic requirements, a limited supply of materials to choose from, and our minds to help design this water tower. I took a good look at our tower and thought it was really simple, unique, and sexy.

I'm going to rant for a little bit because I've been very frustrated over the past weekend. UCSD is one of the only schools in this country that is accredited for structural engineering. It certainly feels good to be in one of the top schools for your major. Engineering itself is very challenging. Majoring in engineering makes me appear really smart, but I'm not because I'm not a master at what I do. I feel as though I'm not allowing myself to learn. One thing I find important in the college experience is being in an environment where there is room for the individual to grow in every aspect possible. When one is allowed to grow there is this path that opens up. You start to have an idea of what you'd like to do after you get your degree. I would like to be at this level eventually. Enough for now.




Until next time...


kudos,
Jeff

The Infamous Sunjar Project

Hey everyone,

Today I will talk about making a sunjar. This was one of my projects I did a few months back when my roommate's birthday was coming up. I didn't want your ordinary project so I added a wonderful photo of everyone and included some plastic jewels. This is a really creative project and it is lots of fun when you get the lights working.


So lets get started!!

What You Need:
Jar (Ikea - about 3-4$)
Solar LED Landscape Lamps (They usually sell in packs of 4 and up but i think you can order them individually online. I bought a 4 pack 15-20$)

Optional:
Window Frost Paint (This is if you want an ordinary sunjar. you can tint the glass so that the wires and light assembly aren't as noticeable to the naked eye)

Plastic / Glass Jewels (You can also fill up the jar with jewels so when the light turns on, it will be scattered through different directions. Looks nice if you mix two colors.)

A photograph. (This is like how I did mine. I think this makes the project becomes more personal.)

Since I didn't take pictures of the process while making this project, I will try really hard to explain everything.

What to do:

If you want to tint your glass. This is the first thing you should do. Make sure you isolate the area and spray either the inside or outside of the jar. I have never done this before so I don't know which side you should spray.

You will need to take apart the light assembly from the Solar LED landscape Lamp. Make sure you don't break the circuit board. Luckily, I bought lamps that were easy to take apart and only needed to break a small piece of plastic.

Once you have your light assembly you are going to position the light assemble so that the solar panel is facing the top part of the jar. You may then want to use a hot glue gun to make this part stay. Then you want to make sure the light is facing the middle of the jar. Glue this part on the bottom of your solar panel. Test your light to see if it will work and how bright it is. you might want to play with the positioning until you are happy with what you have.

Lastly, you may add jewels, marbles, crystal rocks, etc to decorate your little jar.


I hope you have fun with this sunjar like I did.

Be creative.

until next time...

kudos,
jeff

The Filler

Today I am going to just write for the sake of writing. I am currently making an attempt to take the necessary steps in improving myself. Writing in this blog will help me with this because I will be in the habit of discussing about a certain topic or explaining about a specific project. Since I will not be discussing about any projects for this entry, we will go review the website www.askmen.com .

I've always looked up to this website as a guidance for improving myself. Half of the time I go to this website, I am able to take away something valuable. Most of which comes from the health section. As a structural engineer I don't usually keep aware with health related things and so reading the related articles keeps me keen with the latest risks or reminds me about what to think about when I'm taking care of myself. Another thing I find helpful from this website is their entertainment and daily feeds. Most of the articles they come up with are not so great, but I'm always able to find something interesting to share with others. Like today I read that there are 635 prisoners on Death Row at the San Quentin Prison.


The bad thing about this website is their top 10 category. Most of these types of articles are very biased and usually the author writing them doesn't know what the hell they are doing. For instance I read last week about the top 10 fast and furious cars. Somehow the VW Jetta was ranked 5 or 6 (I forgot). I honestly do not think that it deserved that spot. They forgot a lot of other cars like the S2000. I get really disappointed when I read stuff like this.


Enough of my ranting... I'm going to continue my read of "Looking Good".

Lets hope next time I put up a DIY project.

Until next time...

Kudos,
Jeff

Thit Kho Heo. (meat braised pork)

I haven't written in this blog for months!! Even though I did not update this blog, I have been doing numerous number of projects and wish to update them soon.

For today we will be discussing my favorite vietnamese dish, thit kho heo. I remember my mother would make this for me at least once a week and I never grew tired of it. Fortunately my rooommate Virginia did this mothers day of 2009.

I'm going to try the best I can to describe to you what Virginia did here. This is not the exact process of how to make this dish so if you'd like accurate results go to this link.
http://www.foodbuzz.com/recipes/646204-mom-s-recipe-th-t-heo-kho-braised-pork-

What you Need.
Pork (we used pork belly. you're aiming for something with not so much fat)
Daikon (optional)
Eggs!! (The more the better!)
Onion
Garlic
Soda
Fish Sauce
Black Sweet Soy Sauce
Black Pepper
Salt
Caramel Sauce
Coconut Powder or Sauce

Boil your eggs in a pot full of boiling water
Cut your meat, vegetables, and herbs

Have your coconut powder soda, and caramel sauce ready

In a pot cook your meat first up to a medium rare and dump your caramel and fish sauce. Gradually put in the rest of your ingradients! and it should be done after awhile.