Attack of TransFATS

I've been wanting to find out more about this Trans-Fatty Acid thing i've been told about for sometime... but as usual, thinking that i will do it later. Well, later finally came. And it is truely scarey how much of these we are consuming without us knowing it.

Simple summary, trans fats is something found in many of the things we eat today. French Fries, Cookies, Margarine and many fried food. Cos trans fats not only increases bad cholesterol (like saturated fats), it also decreases your GOOD cholesterols which helps protect you from heart diseases!

It is used in fast food restaurants to keep the vegi oil from changing colour after many times of use. So dont think that if they use vegi oil, it means its a good thing.

The stiffer and harder fats are, the more they clog up your arteries. Trans fats do the same thing in our bodies that bacon grease does to kitchen sinks. Over time, they can "clog the pipes" that feed the heart and brain, which can lead to heart attack or stroke risk.

Not scarey enough, let the experts tell u more.

Heres some paragraphs i quoted from a few of the many websites trying to bring awareness to the public about trans fats:

Trans fatty acids, also known as Trans Fats, is an artery-clogging fat that is formed when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening. It is found in many other foods besides margarine and shortening, however, including fried foods like french fries and fried chicken, doughnuts, cookies, pastries and crackers. In the United States, typical french fries have about 40 percent trans fatty acids and many popular cookies and crackers range from 30 percent to 50 percent trans fatty acids. Doughnuts have about 35 percent to 40 percent trans fatty acids.

Trans fat is known to increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), known as "good" cholesterol. It can also cause major clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems, and was found to increase the risk of heart disease. Many food companies use trans fat instead of oil because it reduces cost, extends storage life of products and can improve flavor and texture.


An article from the U.S.
Food and Drugs Administration

Trans Fats 101
by Uniservisty of Maryland Medical Center

And from our very own Health Promotion Board

DUST-BUSTERS!!

If theres something strange.... in your neiughbourhood.. who r u gonna call?
DUSTBUSTERS!!!

Voom... Voooomm....*sucking up dust with vacuum....*
die DUST MITES!!! DIE!!!!

"FOR a DUST FREE ROOM!!!"
FREEDOM!!!!

After a week plus of lementing... i have finally dragged myself hand feet and torsol into tidying up my room.

a clean.... ok.. maybe just TIDY room is important :)
It really affects the mood of the person inhabiting it. You wake up in the morning.. and see the room amess.. it really sucks dont it. I mean we can always get defensive and says "Its not bad WHAT!!! a bit messy.. but i can find my things... " hahaa.. but we can find our things BETTER if there are tidy wont we? Of course, moms and dads helping to tidy our room without our supervision usually turns out in disaster! so any parents out there who stumbled into this unsuspecting blog site, pls dont go off thinking of venturing into volunteery dustbusting without ur children's athorization. It usually ends up in disaster.... i digresss... -_-

So here i am... after months of peruasion from the owners of this house... i have finally done it! or am doing it more like it.. starting small... doing corner by corner.. should have things up and tidy in no time... (translation... about 2-3 months) hahaha...nah.. can la... a few days.... maybe sunday afternoon can settle liao.

Voom VOoooomm!!!!
DIE MITES!!! DIE!!!
This is for my signus every morning!!!
DIE!!

Pool, tan, man, woman

I decided i must remain healthy.. thus... i went swimming today..

swam 40 laps non-stop!!! very proud of myself.... but it took me a long long time la.. ahahha.. about 1hr? hahaa but its the tot that counts... not the speed..:P

but a disturbing observation i have made today...
there were more MEN sun-tanning at the pool side..... corrections... ALL those sun-tanning at the pool side WERE MEN! the gals were all in the pool! what has the world become?!???

are men really turning into whimps?!

what does the future of mankind hold?!

foundation, blusher and mascara?
@_@

FREEDOM!!!!

YESH!!! finally... after 40 hours without sleep... i completed the frist draft of my THESIS!!!!!!!!

only to almost got returned back to me cos my supervisor said he might not have time to look at it till 3 weeks later.... but i used my OH SO VERY INTENSE LOOK @_@ . . . . . till he gave in.. and promised to TRY to look at it when he has time. Actually this happened late last week. I have been tryin to recover from all the 6 months worth of lifelessness... sigh... but doesnt matter! cos i am FREE NOW!!! FREEEEE!!!!! for a wk... then i will be back to work next week to write the 2 journal papers my sup wants me to write for him for publication... THEN! he will release my thesis (which is held as hostage) back to me for the amendments! and then! i will submit for graduation! ahhaa.. but that will be about 1 months time la... but its ok.. at least my first draft is finally done.


more about it later la.. need sleep...
Zzzz....

its MY way, or the HIGHWAY!

After a sinful Macdonals Big n Tasty meal W.U.S. (With Up Size), i peer down at the fats covering my originally well defined abs... and i told them...

"You will have to GO...!"

with a serious voice, and a stern face >(

...and then, there was the thesis writing

Wow! this must be a record er... few wks that i've blog. Been really busy with thesis writing which isnt as simple as i would have hoped for. Information overload!! Too many things to put in.. too little space. With another 2/3 of my results and discussions to go... i have already reached at least 70 pages...-_-" My sup will ask me to READ him my thesis at the rate i go.. >_<

Oh, anyway, backdating... the presentation went relatively well..good and bad la. first half was good.. second half was bad. haha. second half was what the cambridge prof is good at and have been doing it for about the duration of my LIFE SO FAR! -_-" so natually, i kanna buah with butter and jam, toasted and served for tea....>_<

But i survived.

SO since then, i've just been reorganising and touching my pictures and graphs for the thesis. Today, i sleep till noon ^_^ Ahhhh....shawase (jap for "Happiness" ^_^ ).... now hugging my pillow and typing this blog in a dark table-lamp lited room, i await lunch to be cooked.... then back to the cave... my lab.

Hark! i heard the woman of the house calling for lunch! I am needed. My stomach growls, the post ends.

Seeya.

ME vs Cambridge

Oh man! although i wanna lay off blogging for a while, but THIS, i gotto blog.

I just attended an 1 hour presentation by a professor from cambridge late this afternoon. And am I glad i attended it. I realised, that all I have done for my project, isnt just a pile of rubbish! Ok, maybe a little background info.

A 3 party join research project regarding shock reliability of handheld electronical equipment (e.g. Handphones, PDAs, Laptops), by NUS, Cambridge and IME (Institue of Micro-Electronics) was formed in june 2002. And i have faithfully join this research project as the NUS side of the ONE responsible to research on the material properties of solder in drop impact conditions. On the other side, Cambridge is doing so as well. So they can be considered my counterparts.

Only after this meeting just now, did I realise, that what i have been doing over this period of time, is about 80% similar to the things that cambridge has done. Oh no, its not about repeating what we are doing, as each side need to build our own capabilities in doing such work. But its the amount of work done. Of course they had better direction and was much more refine in presenting their work, and they have other work to do as well. But it has never occured to me, that what i have been doing is actually 80% similar to what they have done! Maybe i should tell you more.

In Cambridge, they have, 2 lab technicians, 2 PhD students and 1 FULL Professor and a 4 storey laboratory working on this! Not all the time, of course, but they DO! And what have I? Squatting at the back of my lab, and two paper boxes containing things such as wooden clothes clips to hold onto a test tube containing MOLTEN solder at 300 degree celcius, above a naked flame coming from a S$30 butane blow touch (available at any hardware store). Several times almost killing myself with imploding molten solder when the glass test tubes cracks when it couldnt take the sudden change in temperature when it comes into contact with cold water* thus a 300 degrees difference in temperature enough even to crack a concrete block. Yes! this is the life i lead... and i have manage to obtain results comparable with what Cambridge is doing!!!!!


*Warning, molten tin-lead solder DO NOT mix well with cold water

ArrrgGGGGGGGHHHhhhh!!!!!!

All my hard work is not wasted! It is not all rubbish!!!!!

THERE IS a light at the end of this deep dark tunnel!

Although i might actually stay a week or 2 more then expected to make more out of the raw results i have (which is more then it seems at first, just like diamond before polishing, its needs some polishing to show its full glory), but at least this time, I will do it with pride. Something I feel i have been lacking, for this past long bumpy road i have been traveling.

So END it soon will.
But held high, my head will be.

Lost from Civilization Part 2

Halo guys! sorry for the lack of presence from the internet these days. Been covered head to toe with work.

No.1
My desktop has limited memory ( RAM ) so cant run simulation and do ANYTHING else at the same time. Also, cannot log into internet for security reasons while using simulation program.

No.2My home laptop has been infected with a super sneaky and vicious and irritating virus/spyware. Its soooo well hidden, that after using 2 virus scans and 5 different types of anti-spyware software, the ROOT is still undetectable. all i can remove are its fruits. So no internet for me at home too. I just recieve icq msgs from my lab mates whom sent them to me LAST WEEK regarding work. hahah... too late...

No.3 Yesterday, my whole world crumbled and fell. Happily walking back to lab, it suddenly struck me. All the data i have using in simulation are all Engineering Properties, and are different from the True properties. Engineers usual uses Engineering properties to do calculations and all, and these calculations has certain assumptions which makes things a lot easier to do. Actually, a lot of calculations for buildings, machines and things we use and live in today using these simple assumptions which makes work a lot easier. ok, enough of the physics lessons. Simply put it, i used engineering properties in simulation while i was suppose to use TRUE properties because at high deformation of 0.8 strain. The TRUE stress experienced is a big difference from the engineering one.

to keep things even simplier. I HAVE TO REDO ALL MY SIMULATIONSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! (which was 80% done after 2 wks of running the computers overtime). Like i said, my whole world came crumbling down.

Luckily, i had 3 tons of epoxy glue with me, and after a whole night of video therapy, i managed to glue it back together. sigh.... wat to do, gotto delay my submission of first draft to April liao. Sounds so freaking familiar this story.

Thanks, guys out there who are concern about me. But i am OK! I have experienced too many downfalls to let this one take me down. Will FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! Like the mad scientist said, MUST BE STRONG! YEAH!!!

Ok, Alpha Oscar over and out!

Seeya guys in about a month or 2 time.
*Crawls back into cave*

Paying to be Overworked
~THATS ME!!!~

Lost from Civilisation Part 1 was published in 30th Dec 2004

tots

Problems are things everyone will encounter. But to fall into dispare is a choice that people make.

So when man faces problems that is beyond their power to solve, what do they do?

Medical Bills are expensive

I just send my precious digital camera for repairs yesterday. And guess wat, it will cost me $60 just to send it in for checkup, and extra for whatever repairs it needs!! Forget about Wallstreet, Nanotech and Biotech. The money is in customer service man! For doing nothing, they get paid $60!!! I still had to go all the way down to harbourfront myself to send it in for repairs... and it will take them 2 weeks to get back to me.... -_-"

ArrrrrgGGggggg!!!!

Anyway, its done, just see how it goes bah. . .

Another frustrating thing is that the equipment i need to use to get the rest of my data before i can run the rest of my simulations has been reserved by a bunch of FYP students! arg! And its booked all the way up till end next week!!! arg!!!! I NEED IT!!! its the bottle-neck of my results now. I CAN write part of my thesis first la, but the simulations are the more time consuming part. And i still need to write a discussion based on the simulation results... oh man...... >_< meanwhile, i just have to b contented with trying to do the outline and plan for my last few chapters on results and discussion. . . .

OH! i got a Small Nalgene bottle! Isnt it the coolest thing!! ^_^
HAahha i feel like a kid with a new toy >_<
T_T too bad no digital cam to take photos of it to put online to brag... :(

The first time i saw monkey. It was love at first sight ^_^  

Thesis so far...

is not done yet. OBVIOUSLY! If it IS, i wouldnt be here typing this blog. I would either be in town shopping to my heart's content, or nuaring at home watching anime or japanese drama, OR be at some beach lazing in the sun!! -_- unfortunately, i have not YET completed my theiss.

As i have mentioned, I am doing simulations now. Much better then that data processing phase, but ironically more busy. But busy is good. At least things are going. At the Data processing phase, i was just brain dead. Not knowing how i should go about selecting 7 curves out of 70. Its just like asking u to choose out of 70 people, which 7 should survive in a amagadon level disaster and represent MANKIND. Who is better, WHAT is better. >_< ArgggH!!!

Luckily, that phase is over. Now, all i have to do, is to troubleshoot and get the simulaiton running as i want it to, and smoothly. And of course, some MORE data analysis and experiments cos i just found out a BETTER way to attain the results. OK! dont panic! it wont take forever, this is just the LAST batch i will redo... hmm... sounds familiar doesnt it. Oh well, really, this WILL be the last batch of experiments i will do. Anyway i am out of SnPb solder. Cant believe i ACTUALLY used up all 3Kg of flux-free solder wire. >_<

So for now, its twigging with simulation, and when its running, i will do more machining, experiments and data processing for subsequent simulation. Things are moving like clock-work now. A few hick-ups along the way, but generally moving.

Although some of you might notice my absence from msn recently, thats cos when my simulation is running (7-8 hrs each run), i have to turn off alll other applications on my computer. Cos I need to squeeze out ever single drop of RAM i can get my hands on. Limited RAM la, only 256MB (which is just peanuts in today's computing world).

Ok ok! enough of this, back to work! Wait for my good news.....(in 3 wks or so) and then, FEEDOM!!!!!

My precious is unconscious!!!

She didnt wake up with my gentle touch.
I tried to shake her awake, but she didnt respond.
I even tried to slap her awake, but was in vain.

MY DIGITAL CAMERA WONT TURN ON!!! >_<

Argg!!!! Its was discovered that my Canon Powershot S45 couldnt regain consciousness last thursday morning. When i was thinking of taking a few shots of the water droplets on the car's windscreen. Something seems loose inside. But its been like that since THE DROP! and survived well for the pass 8 months or so. Why!!?? So WHY did it stop working now??

I never tot i would miss her so much till she stopped working. I guess i have always took her robust-ness for granted. And also, i never realised how much i relied on it. She's always be my side. Using her to capture kodak moments, or what i HOPE would be kodak moments. Be it trying to improve my photography and composition skills or just taking some photos for memory-sake, i have always relied on her. And now that she is down, i am at a lost.

I guess i will bring her down to the hospital (Canon customer service center @ habourfront) one of these days to put her under observation. I hope i have enough money for the operation. >_< Lets hope its not a heart-transplant of need any replacement of major organs.....T_T

My precious!!!! come back to me......S45!!!!!!!

Horay!!

Horay!!!

My simulation results finally seem normal. Phew!

Ok, will try to sound as lay man as possible.

You see, after doing the simulation, i need to extract the strain data from the simulation to compare it with my experimental data of the same setup, expect it is the real thing. The reason why i wanna do simulation is so that i can use the simulation to test out the material properties of the 3 types of solder i have experimented with, to see if it can be used to predict the results of the actual experiment. If it indeed can, then its a success! If it can't, well then too bad. Edison tried thousands of materials to be the filament for his lightbulb before succeeding didnt he? haha.

Anyway, i digress. So the simulation was giving me rubbish strain results!!! the strain output from the simulation resembles something like a 1 yr old trying to draw something... anything. just zig zagged lines. rubbbish (although recently, some elephants in thailand has developed the skill of painting with their trunks. and the painting was auctioned at a price of S$60,000, isnt it better to be an elephant these days?) I digress again, so the funny thing is, the stress value is however very nice, very similar to what i expected the shape of the graph to be like. Which doesnt make sense!! Coz,

Stress = Strain X Young's Modulus
and since Young's Modulus is defined to be a constant in my simulation, then the Stress history graph should have the same shape as the strain!!! But it doesnt!!!

But after me and 3 other PhD students brainstormed for a while, we finally found out its because we had to change this setting for the calculation to be at double precision rather then single precision! >_<

Thus, to keep the long long story short, with a click of a button, my life seems so much less bleek out of a sudden.

Hor!!!
Breakthrough!!! Motivated now liao!!!
Work work work!!!!

Rain! Finally! . . . . . its a rainy day... very rainy.

After a dry spell, bush fires and smokey skies for the pass month, it has finally rained!! No more smokey smell of burnt ashes in the morning, nor misty foggy skies. Ahh!! Its sooo good to breathe and see clearly again.

Its just after lunch, and i just cannot imagine starting work. The inertia must weigh a few million tonnes. >_< Cos during lunch, i just calculated the time i need to do that 54 simulations (note that i REcalculated the number of simulations i would be required to do, twice! and it still adds up to 54. -_- arent the numbers suppose to go down everytime you count it? Ah! maybe i got it confused with my wallet -_- )

Calculation process:. . . . . . . . .

3 Different Materials,
3 Different Microstructure per Material
3 Different Striker Velocity per material per microstructure
AND!
2 Different dependence PER material, PER microstructure, PER striker velocity. . . . . . . . . .

-_-"

= 3 X 3 X 3 X 2= 54. . . . .

time taken PER simulation. NINE HOURS!

Total time taken for ALL simulation = 54 X 9 = 486Hrs
Number of Days to run simulation = 486/24 = 20 1/4

i need almost 3 WEEKS to run that 54 simulations on ONE computer!!!!
Lucky i got 2.. but still... its like a minimum of 11 Days!!!!!

-_- and i still havent been able to start yet... Hahahahaha....

This is SOOO FUN! >_<

 

 

1st of March!

I cant believe it! its the first of march, ITS MARCH ALREADY! and i am still here. where? nowhere! The word Depression sounds like wonderland for my present mental state now. >_< I kept thinking that I would be able to complete this by end of Dec after my Japan trip. I didnt. I TOT i was going to complete it by end of jan or by cny, but i DIDNT! And then i told myself, "no worries I will complete by end feb", guess what? I DIDNT! >_<

Siighhh.... now i hope to complete it by end of march, hopefully before my birthday. Although the data processing is done, I am about to start doing the simulations, which leaves the simulations, and the rest of the thesis writing (simulation, results, discussion and conclusion) but it seems FOREVER!!! Can i do it in time? CAN I?!!!?? ARgg!!!! I hands itch to hit some heads. and mind to get some rest....-_- Moan~~~~

a word a day (issue 1)

Making up new words.

I like to make up new words.

Making up new words. It make me feel like i contribute to society(on top of the research i do on solder material which will one day, revolutionalize how mankind smashes their portable electronic devices such as cellphones, discman, mp3 player and the ugly looking ipod, elk!). But more often then not, its most probably that i just mis-spell the word (on msn/icq). -_-

The first word i will be making up today, that i will be so generously sharing with u guys is,

Bluffer
noun

1. A person who mislead or deceive.
2. A person who impress, deter, or intimidate by a false display of confidence.
3. A person who deprives others of gossip which they have promised to talk about, but fails to deliver and should be dragged out onto the streets to be tickled, fed with bowls of wasabi (through the nose OF COURSE), made to drink Luo2 Han4 Guo3 juice, have cockcraches/lizards (depends which the offender fears most) put into his/her pants and forced to watch local variety shows over and over again.

Bonus issue 1+:
Dame
adj

1. Damn gone wrong.
2. Synonym as Damn.

e.g. Dame YOU! Dame it! Dame!

Just one of the 30 batches

Each of these specimens were personally and carefully crafted over 20-30minutes each. And smashed up in a matter of micro-seconds. T_T My babies!!!