As I sat in traffic yesterday on my way home from work I happened to catch Britney Spears' new single, Gimme More. I was happy to hear a new track on the radio (instead of listening to the same thing over and over again) but I was disappointed by the song. It wasn't catchy and I got really bored listening to it. The beginning caught my interest (the first lyric being "It's Britney bitch") but then my interest quickly waned. I was hoping from something more from Britney, something along the lines of amazing new work, like Christina Aguilera. Britney's song has disapointed me and I hope it isn't one of those incessant songs played over and over again on the radio.
On the other hand, maybe I am getting old and just don't know what an "it" song is anymore. O.o No! Say it isn't so! I'm not old. I've kept up with the new songs .. and to prove it maybe I should go grab my dancin' shoes and hit up some club this weekend. ^_^
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
What's for Lunch?
What do you have for lunch? I'm working at home today so I had leftovers for lunch. What did Ming get for his lunch? He wasn't relegated to eating leftovers like me. Instead, he came home for lunch and had a taiwan toast sandwich with slices of slow roasted pork tenderloin and heirloom tomato. Hmm ... I must be doing something wrong if I had leftovers (from 2 days ago no less!) and he got such a tasty sandwich. O.o
Friday, August 24, 2007
Adina Juices
Last night I went to a launch party and they mixed drinks with a mixer I'd never heard of before: Adina. Adina has now become one of my favorite drinks to consume. I found out it is made out of all natural ingredients and only has 70 calories per serving. Excellent! I found a tasty drink that actually doesn't contain a bunch of nasty corn syrup or added sugar. My two favorites are the Pomegranate-Mangosteen drink and the Chai. Mmm ...
Definitely look up this drink if you haven't. It is totally worth it. The website is: http://www.adinaworld.com. Adina was started by one of the guys who started Odwalla, to give you an idea of how good the drink tastes.
For the lushes out there, Adina is really good if mixed with Vodka. :)
Monday, August 20, 2007
Dog For Rent
I've started walking Coco daily. She needs the exercise and I could stand to lose a few pound myself. ^_^ I've noticed that wherever we go, we never fail to attract a ton of attention. Kids, senior citizens, and even people in the car stop to take a second look. I've had people in cars stop and, from their car, start talking to me about her. Timid children come up to me, in Circuit City of all places, and ask to pet her. Coco is a chick/men/kid magnet! Everyone wants a second peek and many people even double back just so they can stare at her for a little longer.
Given that she attracts attention from everyone I think that I should start renting her out to my single friends. She is guaranteed to attract the attention of some lovely lady or a hottie guy. ^_^ Coco could totally be used as the ultimate pick up tool. I should totally start my own business renting her out. She gets exercise and someone else gets a new way to pick up someone -- and I can sit at home and watch more TV. ^.^
Given that she attracts attention from everyone I think that I should start renting her out to my single friends. She is guaranteed to attract the attention of some lovely lady or a hottie guy. ^_^ Coco could totally be used as the ultimate pick up tool. I should totally start my own business renting her out. She gets exercise and someone else gets a new way to pick up someone -- and I can sit at home and watch more TV. ^.^
Friday, August 17, 2007
French Fry Cravings
For some odd reason I have a craving for french fries. I was all set to run out to McDonald's last night AFTER dinner and go pick up a large order of fries. I didn't give in to the impulse but this morning I am still left craving fries. Does anyone know of a good place for fries in downtown Palo Alto which willl satisfy my cravings?
Thursday, August 16, 2007
New Toy - dSLR
I got a new toy yesterday. I got a Nikon D80 - a dSLR camera. I stayed home all day waiting for the UPS man to arrive with it and, when he did, I promptly ripped the package open and got the battery charger out to charge the battery. 2 hours later I had a charged battery and a camera ... but no way to take pictures. I didn't know where Ming kept the memory cards so I had to wait at home with my new toy but no way to use it. Is anything more unfair than a new toy sitting in front of you but you being unable to use it?
Ming finally came home and showed me where the memory cards are and then I promptly began to snap pictures. It is such a cool new toy. I haven't had a new camera since I bought a new one on my 2003 Japan trip. That camera has since completley died and is in some pile to Goodwill. The new Nikon, however, is a happy little thing and has a huge lens. The zoom is incredible and I can't wait until the weekend when I'll have time to properly play with it in the daylight.
Ming finally came home and showed me where the memory cards are and then I promptly began to snap pictures. It is such a cool new toy. I haven't had a new camera since I bought a new one on my 2003 Japan trip. That camera has since completley died and is in some pile to Goodwill. The new Nikon, however, is a happy little thing and has a huge lens. The zoom is incredible and I can't wait until the weekend when I'll have time to properly play with it in the daylight.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Alma Mater Makes Bendable Battery
My alma mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has prototyped a bendable battery. That sounds so cool ... here's the full story:
It's a battery that looks like a piece of paper and can be bent or twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any shape needed. While the battery is only a prototype a few inches square right now, the researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who developed it have high hopes for it in electronics and other fields that need smaller, lighter power sources.
"We would like to scale this up to the point where you can imagine printing batteries like a newspaper. That would be the ultimate," Robert Linhardt a professor at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at RPI said in a telephone interview.
The development is reported in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Unlike other batteries, Linhardt explained, it is an integrated device, not a combination of pieces.
The battery uses paper infused with an electrolyte and carbon nanotubes that are embedded in the paper. The carbon nanotubes form the electrodes, the paper is the separator and the electrolyte allows the current to flow.
Students at the school in Troy, N.Y., were the inspiration for the work, said Linhardt, whose students were working on methods to dissolve paper and cast it into membranes for use in dialysis machines.
Meanwhile, students of Pulickel Ajayan in RPI's materials science department were trying to make carbon nanotube composites using polymers.
The two groups got together and realized they could use paper instead of polymers and combine the two projects.
Then came Omkaram Nalamasu's students, also at RPI, who said the project — a thin sheet black on one side and white on the other — looked like an electrical device.
And over about 18 months, the groups developed the projects, into a battery, a capacitor, which stores electricity and a combination of the two.
Ajayan sees potential uses in combination with solar cells, perhaps layers of the paper batteries that could store the electricity generated until it is needed, he said in a telephone interview.
Perhaps it could be scaled up and shaped into something like a car door, offering moving electrical storage and power when needed.
That might be an expensive proposition, however, cautioned Peter Kofinas, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland.
"The advantage of a flexible device would be that you could roll it in a film or a sheet. However, carbon nanotubes are very expensive," said Kofinas, who was not involved in the research.
"So from the commercial standpoint, this would be very expensive if you want to make a large sheet out of this material," he said via e-mail. In addition, he said, "It does not look like it performs better than currently available batteries and supercapacitors in the market."
Because of its flexibility, however, it does have potential, Kofinas said.
The research was funded by the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research and the National Science Foundation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070813/ap_on_sc/paper_power;_ylt=AsZ8r161EVftxDeuRxfIFLZj24cA
It's a battery that looks like a piece of paper and can be bent or twisted, trimmed with scissors or molded into any shape needed. While the battery is only a prototype a few inches square right now, the researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who developed it have high hopes for it in electronics and other fields that need smaller, lighter power sources.
"We would like to scale this up to the point where you can imagine printing batteries like a newspaper. That would be the ultimate," Robert Linhardt a professor at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at RPI said in a telephone interview.
The development is reported in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Unlike other batteries, Linhardt explained, it is an integrated device, not a combination of pieces.
The battery uses paper infused with an electrolyte and carbon nanotubes that are embedded in the paper. The carbon nanotubes form the electrodes, the paper is the separator and the electrolyte allows the current to flow.
Students at the school in Troy, N.Y., were the inspiration for the work, said Linhardt, whose students were working on methods to dissolve paper and cast it into membranes for use in dialysis machines.
Meanwhile, students of Pulickel Ajayan in RPI's materials science department were trying to make carbon nanotube composites using polymers.
The two groups got together and realized they could use paper instead of polymers and combine the two projects.
Then came Omkaram Nalamasu's students, also at RPI, who said the project — a thin sheet black on one side and white on the other — looked like an electrical device.
And over about 18 months, the groups developed the projects, into a battery, a capacitor, which stores electricity and a combination of the two.
Ajayan sees potential uses in combination with solar cells, perhaps layers of the paper batteries that could store the electricity generated until it is needed, he said in a telephone interview.
Perhaps it could be scaled up and shaped into something like a car door, offering moving electrical storage and power when needed.
That might be an expensive proposition, however, cautioned Peter Kofinas, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland.
"The advantage of a flexible device would be that you could roll it in a film or a sheet. However, carbon nanotubes are very expensive," said Kofinas, who was not involved in the research.
"So from the commercial standpoint, this would be very expensive if you want to make a large sheet out of this material," he said via e-mail. In addition, he said, "It does not look like it performs better than currently available batteries and supercapacitors in the market."
Because of its flexibility, however, it does have potential, Kofinas said.
The research was funded by the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research and the National Science Foundation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070813/ap_on_sc/paper_power;_ylt=AsZ8r161EVftxDeuRxfIFLZj24cA
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Dinner for 1 -- It's Lonely
Tonight I had dinner on my own since Ming had a work outing that included dinner. Normally I make a pretty decent dinner when there is two of us. I guess that having dinner with someone else really motivates me to make a presentable and tasty dinner. Since I had dinner by myself I wasn't really in the mood to cook anything. I wanted some quick and that wouldn't take a lot of time. What did I eat for dinner? I cleaned out the leftovers in the fridge and whatever I could find in the pantry. My dinner turned out to be kinda sad:
- Rice a Roni (don't ask why I have this in my pantry)
- frozen won ton that I'd made a few weeks ago
- left over ground pork dish
Yes, that was a very sad and lonely dinner. I'm glad I don't have dinner by myself very often otherwise I'd probably end up withering away to nothing since my meals would all be a bit sad and pathetic.
- Rice a Roni (don't ask why I have this in my pantry)
- frozen won ton that I'd made a few weeks ago
- left over ground pork dish
Yes, that was a very sad and lonely dinner. I'm glad I don't have dinner by myself very often otherwise I'd probably end up withering away to nothing since my meals would all be a bit sad and pathetic.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Caveat Emptor when Buying Appliances
Appliances come in a dizzying array of color, sizes, and features. These days whenever you set out to buy something simple, let's hypothetically say a refrigerator, you are faced with an onslaught of marketing material. All of the literature out there is from the manufacturer trying to convince you that his product is the best because it has a tons of bells and whistles.
Now, hypothetically, say that you just want a refrigerator that keeps food cold and lasts a long time -- not too much to ask right? This isn't as easy of a hypothetical task as it sounds. The biggest problem lies in that all of the refrigerators are actually all made by the SAME company. O.o Yes, Whirlpool is the "mother ship" and owns all of the other little brands (excluding the European and Korean brands.) How is one to decide which refrigerator is the best one when they're all made in the same factory and seemingly the only difference is the brand-name badge?
I don't have an answer to this hypothetical buying situation. The only thing I know is that Sears brands Kenmore as their own and it used to be a brand of quality. In this hypothetical situation I was trying to avoid buying any Korean made stuff because they have a bad reputation for breaking down, etc. -- think Japanese products 20 years ago. Korean appliances aren't there quite yet and were one of the types of products that I was trying to steer clear of.
Uh oh ... I mean steer clear of in my hypothetical situation. ^_^
So the hypothetical situation ends up in me purchasing a new refrigerator made my Kenmore (I even bought the Elite brand since I got suckered into a few of the bells alnd whistles like tilting drawers). When I got home I, being the curious person I am, wondered who made Kenmore appliances. Does Sears actually have a little factory of elves who make them or do they contract it out? It turns out that Sears contracts their work out. Uh oh. Not good. I quickly did more research and found out my beloved new refrigerator is made by none other than LG. Ahh!! The very refrigerator maker I was trying to avoid is the one who made my fridge. grrr!!
Caveat emptor. The next time I buy any major appliance I'll have to take along this handy website about appliances to help me make my buying decision.
Now, hypothetically, say that you just want a refrigerator that keeps food cold and lasts a long time -- not too much to ask right? This isn't as easy of a hypothetical task as it sounds. The biggest problem lies in that all of the refrigerators are actually all made by the SAME company. O.o Yes, Whirlpool is the "mother ship" and owns all of the other little brands (excluding the European and Korean brands.) How is one to decide which refrigerator is the best one when they're all made in the same factory and seemingly the only difference is the brand-name badge?
I don't have an answer to this hypothetical buying situation. The only thing I know is that Sears brands Kenmore as their own and it used to be a brand of quality. In this hypothetical situation I was trying to avoid buying any Korean made stuff because they have a bad reputation for breaking down, etc. -- think Japanese products 20 years ago. Korean appliances aren't there quite yet and were one of the types of products that I was trying to steer clear of.
Uh oh ... I mean steer clear of in my hypothetical situation. ^_^
So the hypothetical situation ends up in me purchasing a new refrigerator made my Kenmore (I even bought the Elite brand since I got suckered into a few of the bells alnd whistles like tilting drawers). When I got home I, being the curious person I am, wondered who made Kenmore appliances. Does Sears actually have a little factory of elves who make them or do they contract it out? It turns out that Sears contracts their work out. Uh oh. Not good. I quickly did more research and found out my beloved new refrigerator is made by none other than LG. Ahh!! The very refrigerator maker I was trying to avoid is the one who made my fridge. grrr!!
Caveat emptor. The next time I buy any major appliance I'll have to take along this handy website about appliances to help me make my buying decision.
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