I MADE SOY YOGURT FROM SCRATCH. and it worked. I took dried soybeans and turned them into yogurt. I feel so accomplished.
By far the best set of directions I found comes from the i eat food blog. Instead of using an incubator or leaving it in the oven, though, I read "110 degrees" and thought, "Perfect!" then left in in a cooking pot outside on the back porch for some hours. The world is my incubator.
There were a few mishaps. Soymilk likes to sneak up and overboil like mad when you're not looking. Virtually my entire 2 L pot of soymilk disappeared over a 5 min period when I stepped out of the kitchen...I was puzzled that it could evaporate so quickly...but I later found the soymilk lake in the grease trap beneath the burners. Good thing I made too much soybean mush to begin with, so it was easy to make another batch of soymilk, but I watched it like a hawk the second time around.
I'm really happy. It's one of those open-up-the-black-box moments where I take something mysterious (yogurt) and figure out how it works. Like opening up an old TV set.
The car is a 1990 Volvo 740 Station wagon. Originally it was an 8v turbo car, but it has a B234F+t in it now. The chassis has 171k miles on it, the engine is around 115k miles.
Engine: 1990 B234F (approx 115k miles) New head and timing belt installed 100 miles ago - 1000 B204FT exhaust manifold Garrett T3 (I think with the .48 A/R Turbine housing) Turbo 2.5” Turbo-back exhaust Runs LH 2.4 computers, has PnP MSnS setup prepared Innovate LC-1 Wideband Oxygen sensor Stock intercooler HKS Blow-off valve Oil cooler Relocated oil filter Electric fan conversion
Brakes: Brake system just redone 50 miles ago Cross-drilled front rotors New rear rotors PBR Ceramic pads all around Hydraulic system flush
Interior: Black interior Black checkered cloth seats (gorgeous, they look new) Nakamichi CD-500 CD player (plus wires for two amps) Eclipse 5.25” coax speakers Polk 6.5” coax speakers 780 radio support BMW shift knob Dave Barton boost gauge face
Exterior: Mostly stock, paint could use a polishing Borbet Type E 16” wheels Yokohama Avid V4S tires IPD side marker lights
Issues: Dent in driver’s fender Slight overheating issue when sitting in traffic on hot days, likely needs a new e-fan Rough at idle, welcome to LH 2.4
Well, although I have very much enjoyed my 1990 Volvo 740 station wagon, I believe it is time to move on to other projects (hopefully with fewer doors and more cylinders). The car recently received gorgeous wheels and tires, which makes it heart-wrenching to sell (not to mention all of the time, effort, money, and bloody knuckles that have gone into this vehicle). It is now time. I have included some farewell pictures of the beast. Hopefully it will be sold in the next two months. If you happen to know anyone looking for a project car, this one is great sleeper. Faster than you would even imagine. See below for details and a mostly complete mod list
The car is a 1990 Volvo 740 Station wagon. Originally it was an 8v turbo car, but it has a B234F+t in it now. The chassis has 171k miles on it, the engine is around 115k miles. I would like $5000 for the car. The price is $4300 if you don’t want the new wheels and tires or the Megasquirt. The car is located in Boston. I don’t think I will have the time to deliver it unless it is very close. I’m happy to ship it, so long as the buyer pays for shipping costs. It is a California car and has very minimal surface rust from living in Boston for 4 years. The total value of the aftermarket or custom parts comes to over $5500, and that’s just counting what I’m remembering off the top of my head. Most of those parts went in within the last 2 years. This car is quick, as you can see from the poor but representative videos I have posted below. I’m willing to negotiate and might consider a trade for a Ford Bronco plus cash or a 780 V6 plus cash. If you are interested, I’m willing to negotiate and do business.
Brakes: Brake system just redone 50 miles ago Cross-drilled front rotors New rear rotors PBR Ceramic pads all around Hydraulic system flush
Interior: Black interior Black checkered cloth seats (gorgeous, they look new) Nakamichi CD-500 CD player (plus wires for two amps) Eclipse 5.25” coax speakers Polk 6.5” coax speakers 780 radio support BMW shift knob Dave Barton boost gauge face
Exterior: Mostly stock, paint could use a polishing Borbet Type E 16” wheels Yokohama Avid V4S tires IPD side marker lights
Issues: Dent in driver’s fender Slight overheating issue when sitting in traffic on hot days, likely needs a new e-fan Rough at idle, welcome to LH 2.4
“… once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you long to return.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
Waddle, waddle, waddle…there’s nothing like trying to make your way to the open door of a plane at 13,500 feet when you can’t fully stand up and the guy who is snugly strapped to your back has longer legs than you. 1, 2, 3…Jump! No longer was leg space an issue, as I had plenty of space while free falling back down to earth. I have been in too many planes to count in this past year. For the first time, I learned what it was like on the otherside…of the window.
This past Saturday I was able to check off one adventure from my life to-do list….skydiving. Ashley, Matt, and I ventured off to Jumptown in Western Mass for our jump where we met up with one of my family’s friends who is a tandem instructor there. Unfortunately for my list, Ashley and I enjoyed it so much that we are working on convincing our dads to do a father-daughter jump day sometime in the next year or so.
In the Kalahari Desert, hunters still run antelopes to death. It's called "persistence hunting" and it works because they run in the middle of the day. Humans can sweat and cool down as they run, but the antelope needs to stop and pant. So they run after it, keep it on the move until it collapses. You must watch this video, it's incredible, probably the best youtube clip I've ever seen. I cried the first time I watched it, no kidding.
How the devil did they film that? (More info about persistance hunting here.)
Likewise, in sub-zero temperatures it's possible to run a half-marathon barefoot and shirtless.
Yes, I've been thinking quite a lot about temperature. I'm experimenting with adjusting to the heat here, it would just be so awesome to not be bothered by heat, since it promises to be a large part of life here. However, I could freeze ice cubes on my desk at work, because of the overly abundant AC, so becoming accustomed to the cold is still useful.
It can feel pretty awesome to exercise at high temps. Once upon a time, I tried out Bikram yoga, which is basically yoga in a super hot room, and I was suprised at how awesome I felt after sweating profusely and grunting in difficult stretches for an hour. I would walk out and feel like a million bucks. Yay, endorphins.
In Abu Dhabi, I've recreated that feeling a couple of times after exercising in the heat. Sometimes it's as though the heat gives me extra energy - I feel like I can run farther, and it certainly makes stretching easier. Thank goodness my ancestors ran antelope to death.
However, if I'm stressed out, I just can't deal with extreme temperatures. I get grumpy fast and switch on the AC or retreat indoors. If I'm happy (and hydrated) heat's not usually a big deal.
Even still, I have a hard time imagining back breaking labor in the sun all day, like the migrant construction workers here do.
Apparently it's common to see temps of 50 C (122 F) in the middle of the summer here.
Took a short trip to Oman recently. It definitely got up to at least 48 C (118 F). I was surprised to find that it was still possible to walk around outside and people weren't bursting into flames or gasping for breath (Honestly, it never occurred to me that humans could function at those temperatures...a 105 F fever is dangerous, right?) All the water that came out of faucets was pretty warm. Makes sense, just hadn't ever thought of it in Boston where tap water is freezing cold in winter. Upon investigating the much higher than predicted temperatures in Oman, I found this interesting article that suggests the Omani government isn't quite truthful about their published temperatures.
It's really quite impressive what a human body is capable of. I think most of us never have the chance to see this potential because we have grocery stores now instead of antelope, and they stay put. And it's not just those hardcore African bushmen who can do it - at least one white guy has kept up on runs too, Louis Liebenberg, an anthropologist. (Okay, on his first run he nearly died of dehydration, but even for this untrained runner, the antelope died first.) ...which makes me think that all humans have the hidden potential to run an antelope to death. Take Dean Karnazes, for example, who started as Joe Schmoe, but then metamorphosed into ultra super athlete man. Among other things, he's run 50 marathons in 50 days and then decided to run from New York to San Francisco.
The best thing to ever happen in Abu Dhabi was the WOMAD festival. I keep thinking about it and wishing it were happening every weekend. Free entrance, three glorious nights of music from around the world, dancing away the night on the cool sandy beach. My personal favorites to watch were the Dhol Foundation (for their awesometastic beats and their ability to work a crowd) and Sa Dingding (for her theatricality.)
Robert Plant was there, too. At the end, he sang a song in Arabic and the crowd went wild.
The fame vs fortune choice matters because of substitutability, the willingness to accept one thing as a substitute for another. Substitutability is neutralized in perfect markets. For example, if someone has even a slight preference for Pepsi over Coke, and if both are always equally available in all situations, that person will never drink a Coke, despite being only mildly biased.
The soft-drink market is not perfect, but the Web comes awfully close: If InstaPundit and Samizdata are both equally easy to get to, the relative traffic to the sites will always match audience preference. But were InstaPundit to become less easy to get to, Samizdata would become a more palatable substitute. Any barrier erodes the user’s preferences, and raises their willingness to substitute one thing for another.
With the end of Championship, four years of FIRST at Olin have now come to a close. I came into these four years not knowing the magnitude of what I was stepping into. I had no idea how to mentor my freshman year, slowly picked up the idea my sophomore year, and took over my junior year even if I still had no clue what I was doing.
I'm now leaving this episode of FIRST with a much better idea of how to communicate, lead, and plan projects. I now have also have some confidence. It takes guts to publicly shame yourself as many times as I do a year. Engineers are not known for their eye-hand coordination or dancing skills. FIRST has also shown me I'm a project manager. I never would have seen myself in this role until I kept ending up there.
Finally, FIRST has also given me the best network I will ever have. I now have contacts in almost every city I could move to when I "grow up". The judges have coached me on interviewing; they've helped me make connections, and are training me on how to shape a career still on the launch pad. Overall, I feel like I'm very well set up to start a job.
I really have learned a lot from this experience. But, no FIRST final event would be complete without a list. So here it is: Things I have Learned from FIRST
0) Given enough caffeine, almost anything is possible.
1) a. Make friends, they will help you later. Be it getting VIP passes, or a place to stay, friends are great people. 1) b. if you happen to have the wrong name on the VIP pass you're using, it is highly unlikely anyone will notice; even if it is the name Paul and you happen to be female.
2) Get a little, give a little. 5 copies of the pit map can win you a lot more than you think.
3) Never admit you have resources that include a printer.
4) Most high level engineers are really little kids at heart. There is always enough room to play Frisbee inside and get the "stop playing games in the house" look from the judge adviser.
5) Adults are more intense than kids, most of the time.
6) The things that make you look powerful (radios) get annoying. People think you know what you're doing.
7) a. You eventually get over embarrassing yourself in front of large crowds of people 7) b .You cannot delete every single embarrassing picture, so learn to live with them.
8) a. Any event where you do not end up on the floor of the event office debating a nap is a good one. 8) b. Any event where they use your correct name (even you've screwed up) over the radio, is also a good one. It means the know who you are. (Reference: "Judge Judy")
9) Grappa does not stop tasting like lighter fluid, even after the first sip.
Here’s proof:
