Who reads this stuff???

The hit counter on the bottom as of this moment say s 25 unique, is the counter buggy (doubtful) or do the same people view this thing on different computers (more likely)?

Eating cheap

Key word here, Indian food. Indian food is so much about an over powering sauce (ie curry) that you don't get a good taste of the food it is covering. Usually this is a pretty bad thing, but in our situation, being poor college student or a student wanting to save their parent's money, this is our road to eating cheap. I used masala sauce on top of beans (the meat substitute) and it tasted like the sauce, the weird canned bean taste wasn't there. Eating that with some rice and some vegetables (frozen is ok, but eating fresh I think is worth the price and time for the nutrition) you got yourself a cheap meal. Rice (jasmine for our apartment) is like .50 a pound (dry), canned beans ~$1 a can, and the sauce I used was $3 a jar from the food co-op. It's a bland lifestyle but that's life.

Cardboard, not just for boxes

These are some old "ideas" that I had for cardboard. The first one is a fix for our apartment door. There was about a half inch gap between the floor and the door. So I took what we had at the time, push pins and cardboard to fill in the gap.
The second picture is of a magazine pouch for our bathroom. It was a pizza box with the bottom cut out and again tacked into place. It's done it's job for about a year.
There are so many things I've seen done with cardboard, like a chair and table. On TV I even saw a guy that built his furniture out of FedEx boxes. Presently I have not come up with anything new. I don't have enough time to be bored enough for more creative ideas to brew. I encourage you readers (if any exist) to come up with cardboard creations and post them. Your creative creations will be greatly appreciated.

Chicken

Maybe it's because I don't eat much meat, but I was really excited to cook half of a chicken this afternoon. Chicken is a great meat for college students on a budget. It's not as expensive per pound compared to beef and pork, it's healthier than the other meats, and it tastes great.
I buy whole chicken at the market, it is cheaper than buying pieces. I use a cleaver to chop it apart, but any kitchen knife will do. Now for what I learned this week about cooking chicken, and a little of what I already know.
I left half a chicken in the fridge for a week. It sat in vinegar, ketchup, mustard, onion salt, etc.(Thank you Max for helping me make this). I didn't have time to bake it until today and it tasted really good. So I decided to blog about cooking chicken.
Anyway, I found that cooking a chicken the oven is usually 375F for around 30-40 minutes, but always cut to the bone to see if there is any blood. If there is pop it back into the oven, or if you're lazy nuke it. If you want a crispy skin make sure the skin faces up from the pan. When the chicken is pretty much done flip the oven on to broil for like 3-5 minutes or until the skin is crispy. This will leave a nice glazed and crispy skin, awesome! I haven't tried a whole chicken but someday I will.
There are other things you can do, like cutting the chicken into medium size pieces, put them into some foil, add some seasonings and/or sauces, some vegetables, then bake away.
I don't like pan frying large pieces because it takes too much time, makes a mess and for things like thighs you will either have a raw inside or really burned outside (I'm sure there is a way to cook it just right, but we are not chefs and I'm presuming you aren't either). However, cutting say chicken breast into thin pieces or small cubes then pan frying isn't so bad. The chicken cooks really fast, a lot faster than baking, so it would be a good thing to do if you were really hungry. Then there's boiling in soup, deep fry and a myriad of flavor combinations out there. So, have fun experimenting with different spices and tastes and cooking styles. If you can't figure it out do what I do and look at some cookbook recipes for chicken and get some ideas of what flavors and seasonings go with each other.

Analytical Mechanics

Mechanics is hard, that's all I have to say. Post horror stories here.

Bicycling 101

In Davis we do a lot of biking. Going to school, the store, etcetera. So in order to remember the different names of a bike frame I drew a picture and labeled it, and I would like to share it to all of you. I think it's good to know some terminology, so you don't look like more of an idiot talking to the people that work in bike shops. Most just presume we are bike illiterate. Also, when buying a new bike make sure the top tube, if you're a guy, touches your crotch when you stand over the top tube, this means it should fit you. And raising the seat higher is recommended so you can get a proper leg extension. This causes your legs to hurt less because they stretch the muscles, and allows you to put more power into each push.
Ok, that's it, come back next time for another "lecture". And yes I already know you can google this information, but I just felt like posting it.

My Chinese toolbox

I've spent the past 3 years studying Cantonese and Mandarin on and off (It's hard to juggle school work with studying another language, it acts like I'm taking another class). So over this time I've scoured the web and built up a toolbox of websites that are essential to my learning of Chinese.

1. http://www.chinesetools.eu/tools/mouse-dictionary

2. http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html
   

3. http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/ 

4. http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-can/ 

I hope this helps anybody interested in learning one or both of these Chinese dialects. If you know of any sites that could aid somebody in the learning of ANY Chinese dialect, whether it be Shanghainese, Amoy, Hakka, etc. post that in the comments!

Keyboard modification DIY...CHEAP!

In my pictures you see a modified US keyboard with a Cangjie layout. Basically I used a sharpie to write in the keys. But as you might already be thinking, with extended use wouldn't the keys fade? And the answer is oh yeah. Today I came up with two solutions, one expensive and the other is almost zero cost.

1. Nail polish - Coat the key with nail polish after you have written down the key. The nail polish at the local rite aid cost $7, but it was Revlon so you'd expect it to cost quite a bit for a little bit of product.
2. Tape - I have skinny (1/2 in. wide) clear tape from a dispenser. After writing down the keys I cut out squarish pieces of tape to protect the new keys. Con is that the tape takes a little getting used to on the fingers, but after a few minutes it feels fine.

There is a third option and that would be to print out the keys, or buy them, as "stickers" and adhere them to your keys.

I used the tape method because I didn't want to pay for nail polish. So far I like it, no fading but I'll see if in several weeks the tape comes off.

Come back regularly for more installments of DIY... CHEAP!