Kicking Back

Looks like another week has come and gone as I watch the sands of summer run down the hourglass. It has been a pretty relaxing week for me. 

My class has started to work in one of the undergrad labs. We have been extracting dyes from plants.

Introduction to chromatography using ink, water, and a strip of paper.

Using a column to separate dye from spinach.

Beta carotene and chlorophyll extracted from spinach.

Notes from my video presentation on chromatography and how it was used in our experiment.

Apparatus used to extract oil from orange peels.

I took a detour earlier this week to crash some lab tours and explore campus. There's this nice pond with a bridge over it next to a library.

Yesterday, I got together with a couple of my friends to make some spam musubi. We used regular rice instead of sushi rice, so the rice had difficulty staying together, but it still tasted pretty good.

Spam musubi ingredients

This morning, I got up early to make some blueberry muffins.

Blueberry muffin batter

Crumble topping

Blueberry muffins

I am also in the middle of reading The Good Luck of Right Now and How to Read Literature like a Professor, so you might see me mention those books in the next post. Have a nice week.

Summer 2014

Hello there. Hope you're having a great summer. I'm just going to face it. I can't blog. However, I am still going to walk you through my summer through the photos I have taken.

So at the beginning of the summer, you may have remembered this photo I posted of my ambitious summer plans.

How have those plans gone? Well, not as planned. After my summer finally got rolling, I found myself straying further and further away from the path of productivity. Of the things that are shown above, I've done about four of them. I read Cosmos, worked on college applications, tried to study physics, and sort of went out.

What did I do instead? Well, I suppose my excuse for not achieving my goals is that the ??? turned into my main summer commitment. I began attending summer science classes. Yay. I'll try not to bore you with all the details, but here's a little timeline of what I have been doing.

This is liquid nitrogen turning into a gas as it reaches room temperature.

One of these is Gatorade and the other is a dye that I mixed to match the color of it.

This is a tiny flower that I photographed under a microscope.

This is a beaker of fruit flies in alcohol.

Okay, this was all funner than I make it sound. Actually, I've been having a really great time at this program. We've been going on lab tours, doing experiments, and even getting in some humanities lessons. I may elaborate later, but let's move on for now.

Besides playing with bugs and chemicals, I have also been doing some cooking and baking.

Cheese and Mushroom Omelette

Butter Cookies

Brownies

This is kind of where my summer went, not to mention the anime I've been watching. The last portion of my time went to reading Cosmos by Carl Sagan. 

I have to admit that this is one of the best books I have ever read. It is an excellent combination of science, history, and philosophy. I found myself reading about everything from the self-destruction of mankind to pulsars and quasars to other dimensions to the search for life elsewhere in the universe to the Library of Alexandria. It reminded me why I first became interested in science and astronomy and showed me how science can cross disciplines. I must say that reading Cosmos and watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey were different experiences, but the effect was still the same. I am still in awe by what people have been able to accomplish over the years and what surprises this universe still holds. After reading this book, the history of mankind seems more remarkable. At times, it seemed a little more like science fiction than reality, but I suppose this world can be pretty crazy.

Overall, I suppose you could say that my real goal for the summer was to immerse myself in science. I wanted to love it and breathe it. In a way, I guess I could say mission accomplished.

Well, that's all for now. Back to you in the studio. I'll check back in soon. Have a nice weekend, folks!

Welcome Summer!

Hello there! I'm back! How I missed the warm breezes, the evening skies, and the blissful carefree summer spirit.

So what have I been doing for the past nine months? Good question. I suppose the best answer would be exploring the delightful world of AP classes. Those AP tests are something. To sum up the experience, I would say that many trees were sacrificed and I need more sleep. I am glad the battle is over. Now, I get to enjoy the summer before my senior year of high school. Woah, I'm going to be a senior. That's trippy.

Anyways, it is sad to say that my AP classes basically took over most of my life and left room for little else, but luckily, I was able to do some recreational reading.

Here is the list of books that I have read so far this year:
1. The Moon and More (Sarah Dessen)
2. Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer)
3. Insurgent (Veronica Roth)
4. The Fault in Our Stars (John Green)
5. If I Stay (Gayle Forman)
6. Graceling (Kristin Cashore)
7. The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

I know, it's a short list. It's hard to read for fun when you are busy taking notes on the Nixon administration... or was it the Ford administration? Anyways, I intend to get more reading done soon and maybe start doing some book reviews. Here is my summer in a nutshell. (There is one more thing I would like to add to the list, but we'll see if the stars align.)

Time to spend another magical summer watching the stars, reading, working, and of course, blogging.

Image courtesy of bubblews.com

"Sometimes you want to fall in love. Sometimes you want to cry. Sometimes you want to go on a perilous journey to a distant land. Sometimes you want to escape the life you live for one more extraordinary. Sometimes you just want a friend."

Farewell Summer (and my blog)

Well, it looks like my summer came and went faster than I would have thought. It seems like just yesterday that I was sleeping in till ten in the morning. Now, summer is over. My first day of junior year is tomorrow... Well, at least I have a summer full of fun experiences behind me.

As promised, here is my update on Proactiv. It has actually helped me quite a bit.

The only thing that made me concerned was that I started breaking out again after the fourth week. I don't know if it's been because of my eating habits or something else, but at least it's starting to go away again. I was hoping my skin would be clear in time for school, but it seems like that isn't going to happen. Overall, I think the Proactiv was adequately effective.

Well, I think this photo sums up a good portion of my summer. I don't know about you, but I think this summer was pretty great. After all, just about anything is an improvement over sitting alone in my room for hours on end watching the minutes go by. I kid, but this has been an incredible summer. For once, I feel like my summer is pretty much complete with no regret whatsoever. However, with the start of the school year looming in the horizon, I must bid this wonderful summer and my blog adieu. So long and farewell.

Let's Be Proactiv

About four or five years ago, I started to have acne. It wasn't so bad at first, but it gradually became worse. Ever since that time, I have tried many different acne products, and it's been hard to tell which ones work and which ones don't. I'm honestly pretty tired of my acne.

The first acne treatment cream that I ever tried was probably Clearasil. It wasn't this Rapid Action Treatment Cream though; it was just plain old tinted Clearasil. This product seemed adequately effective. I don't really remember why I stopped using it. It was probably because of my fear of benzoyl peroxide (I will explain why with the next product), and for a while, Target stopped carrying it. As a result, I kind of just forgot about it.

I believe that the next treatment that I tried was this set of Neutrogena products. At first, I thought that this was what was going to get rid of my acne. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to find out because my face became red and irritated after the first day of using these products. Needless to say, I stopped using them immediately. However, I somewhat recall that this set came with a sample of acne eliminating spot gel that was pretty effective.

The next product that I tried was this Clean and Clear toner. I don't really think that this had any effect on me whatsoever. The thing about acne treatments that it is hard to tell if they work because you need to determine if the the product you're using is making your skin clearer or if your skin is clearing naturally. In this case, my skin was more or less the same either way.

The next product is this Clean and Clear acne treatment cream. I think that this was somewhat effective. It's hard to tell if it was effective because at the time that I was using it, I was not sleeping very much and I probably wasn't washing my face as much as I needed to. (Yeah... it was not a good time.) I probably would have had better results if I was more diligent about using it, but it doesn't seem like it was going to work miracles or anything. The reason why I tried this acne treatment cream was because this one contains salicylic acid rather than benzoyl peroxide, which I believed that I was allegeric to judging from what happened with the Neutrogena acne treatment cream. However, I believe that salicylic acid is less effective than benzoyl peroxide.

Finally, we get to "America's #1 Acne Treatment System", Proactiv. This is the product that I am currently trying out. I received this set of products a few months ago, but I felt that I was too busy at the time to dedicate ten minutes a day to taking care of my face. (I know that it sounds ridiculous, but at the time, those ten minutes seemed better spent studying or sleeping.) Now that it's summer, I decided to see if it lives up to its reputation. After all, I've seen enough commercials advertising it, and it was even recommended by my pharmacist. So far, it has been a week, and I've been using it once a day since I wanted to make sure that I wasn't allergic to it. (From the looks of it, I seem to be okay although my skin has been a bit irritable this week.) I'm planning to start using it twice a day next week. I suppose the key to this product and with any product is daily use. So far, I can't really say how effective it has been. Maybe it's better if you tell me. 

From what I can tell, the acne on my forehead is getting better, but the bottom part of my face... not so much. I'll keep at it for another few weeks before I make up my mind about it. In the meantime, I'll make sure to update weekly on how it goes.

Crocheting Capers

Along with baking, I have also done some crocheting over the past year. I didn't have a chance to make too many things, but I managed to create a few.

I used this pattern for the Minnie Mouse hat shown above. I made this over my winter break for my niece since she loved watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at the time. It was too bad that she never liked wearing the hat. Oh well. I'm sure it will find some use somewhere. Making this was pretty fun for me even though I was sitting on the couch for several hours, endlessly crocheting in the round.

I used this pattern for the penguin shown above. I also made this over winter break for one of my close friends. This was an interesting project for me since I got to use my new size D hook. I admit that using a hook that small takes some getting used to, but it can make some pretty cute and detailed stuff.

I used this pattern for the Umbreon above. The person who designed this pattern, Linda Potts, is actually one of my favorite designers because she creates crochet patterns that help you to create some good quality plushies. She has made patterns of things such as Pokemon, Mario characters, and Madagascar penguins. This Umbreon was something that I had meant to make almost a year ago but didn't get around to till a few months ago. In a month, it will become my friend's birthday present. (In the picture above, it will look like the stripes are white, but I assure you that they are just a pale yellow. I know that they are actually supposed to be a bright yellow, but I was trying to use up what I had.)

I used this pattern for the Pachirisu above. This pattern is also designed by Linda Potts. I made this because one of my friends requested it, although I had intended to make it at some point anyways because it was cute. In case you don't recognize it, this is a Pokemon.

Baking Bonanza

Over the past year, I've had several baking escapades which involved baking sweets such as cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and cream puffs.

It seems like the most popular desert that girls like to bake at my school are cupcakes. They are at every bake sale, and people make them for their friends' birthdays all the time. The cupcakes shown above are a batch of vanilla cupcakes that I made a few weeks ago for a "fete". I used this recipe for the cupcake batter and this recipe for the frosting. The first time that I made these recipes, I followed them almost exactly. However, I tinkered with the recipe a bit this time. For the cupcake batter, I substituted the shortening for butter and added only a cup of sugar. For the frosting, I only made half the batch because I learned that you only need the full batch if you are piping the frosting. If you are planning to frost using a knife, make only half the batch. I also chose to add about a fourth teaspoon of vanilla rather than a full one seeing how the cupcakes were already vanilla flavored. These actually turned out quite well, and I liked them because they were not too sweet as many cupcakes are.

Butter cookies were the first things that I baked on my own. I made them the first time towards the end of the first semester during freshmen year. My sister was there to supervise my that time, but the batch shown above was one that I made on my own during Christmas time using this recipe. I recall making these as part of a gift to a friend. These butter cookies can be made in two ways after the dough is mixed. You can either roll the dough up into a log and slice it, or you can roll out the dough on a flat surface and use cookie cutters. As you can see, I used a tree cookie cutter for the batch above. I used the extra dough that was left at the end to make a star. It looks nice considering that I made that by hand. These cookies turned out a little crisper than I would have liked, but it was more of an issue that I with my oven than the recipe.

I remember making these brownies because there was nothing tasty to snack on at home, so I decided to make myself a little treat. Although I don't recall brownies being made from scratch at my house, it wasn't too far from dumping some powders and liquids into a bowl and mixing them together. I used this recipe since it seemed to be getting pretty good reviews. They were called "Whatever Floats Your Boat Brownies", but I decided to stick to a plain brownie mixture. I actually really enjoyed these brownies since they turned out moist and fudgey at the end and stayed that way for several days afterward.

This is the point where I would have created a collage featuring the cream puffs that I made, but I unfortunately did not take any pictures because I was preoccupied at the time. I used this recipe because I happened to already have all the ingredients at home. However, I did choose not to make the chocolate glaze in this recipe. Making the batter for this recipe was fairly quick and simple, but dropping the right amount of batter onto the baking sheet was not nearly as simple. Since this was my first time making it, I had no idea how this was supposed to be done. The recipe said to use a fourth cup of batter for each puff at least three inches apart from each other. I really should have used a measuring cup, but instead, I tried to estimate it using a spoon. Because of that, I ended up with some large cream puffs. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I wish that they were smaller. It would have made the next step in the recipe much easier. While the puffs were cooling, I started to make the cream which basically involved me standing there for ten minutes, beating heavy whipping cream. After the puffs were done cooling, it was time to pipe the cream into them. The cream can actually be inserted into the puff in two different ways. You can either slice the puff in half and put the cream in between the two halves, or you can create a small hole at the bottom of the cream puff and pipe the cream in through there. I felt ambitious that night, so I decided to try piping the cream in at the bottom. The way to tell that the cream puff is full is when you start to see the cream bursting out of the puff. This was not an easy task, and by the end of the night, I never wanted to see cream again. I actually ended up with a tub of extra cream after I was finished, but I think it was due to the fact that my cream puffs were too big, thus using less of the cream as there were fewer cream puffs to distribute it through. Except for the fact that I made them too big, they turned out quite well. I might even consider making them again.

The next things on my list of things to bake include Oreo cupcakes, tarts, and peach cobbler.

Hello Summer

Another school year has come and gone, and it's now time for that two and a half month period of relaxation and unproductivity. After disappearing from the blogging world for over half a year, I suppose I owe an explanation to the readers. Over the past year, I experienced this period in life called sophomore year, the year that everything starts to hit you. In between all the homework, tests, and projects, there were clubs and... that was pretty much it. I'll never understand how I made time for anything else.

In terms of school, there were several fun aspects and events to it that made life have it's ups and downs. On the funner side, there were football games in the autumn, the ISA Charity Basketball Game featuring Wong Fu and friends during the winter, and a whole bunch of banquets in the spring.

In terms of baking, I actually did pretty well. I made quite a few butter cookies, cupcakes, and even cream puffs (yeah... maybe I'll talk about that in another post). In addition to that, all of them turned out well. Mission success.

In terms of crocheting, I also did adequately. I only had time to make a few small things like penguins, and I made a Minnie Mouse hat over winter break. (Hopefully, I'll put up pictures soon!) Recently, I have been crocheting Pokemon and anticipate trying to make other things like a beret or maybe even a cardigan. The possibilities are endless, and there is still an entire summer ahead of me.

In terms of astronomy, there was very little stargazing or research. I went out once and other than that, I only noticed whenever the moon was full. Staying up late did not equal stargazing. I'm hoping to rekindle my love of the night sky this summer, but that summer unproductivity is hitting me hard.

Well, that pretty much covers my year unless you want to hear about how I suffered slept did in my classes. With the summer before me, I am looking forward to working on my hobbies, looking at colleges, and... studying for my SATs. Oh gosh, don't hit me yet junior year. I was only a sophomore just a week ago. Anyways, I'll try to keep this updated. Happy summer!

Image courtesy of lifehacker.com

A Journalist's Path

Though school has been my main focus for the past month and many more months to come, my writing has not ceased. Though my writing may be sparse on this blog from now on, it is because I have moved on to the life of a journalist. Currently, I am writing for my school's newspaper, The Matador, and my school's food blog, Acquired Tastes. Our first issue is set to come out next week, so I am quite excited to see my name in print. I remember last year during my freshman year, I would always be so excited when I saw the crate filled with newspapers set outside for students to pick up every month.

Since reading my first issue, I would almost always read through it cover to cover, pondering the ideas that the writers wrote about. It often felt like a fresh take on some ideas, and admittedly, I liked looking at the pictures too. After reading the newspaper for a while, I thought, would it not be great to be like these journalists who get to write these articles? Later, I found out that freshmen could apply to be in journalism for sophomore year during second semester. Therefore, until then, I just kept reading. After a long wait, I was finally able to apply, and I got in.

It was strange though. When this year began and I went to my first few journalism classes, I felt nervous. I was with many people I never met before, and I was sitting there learning about news writing. Then, I had to try out news writing with a group of people. We had to write about the recent pep rally, and I was just stressing over it since I had no idea what to write or how to write it. I feared that my whole year would be me stressing over articles. However, as we started to work on the first issue, those fears gradually faded away. I believe it dispersed once my first article was posted online (as our newspaper also has an online section). I felt a sense of accomplishment and that perhaps I really could do this. Soon after that, I was set to write three more articles for the newspaper.

With those finished, I feel a sense of ease, and I realize that this is something I actually like to do. It is fun meeting great new people and becoming their friends as you are conducting interviews on them and writing articles that allow you to put your voice out there.

Summertime Joys and Lament

My summer vacation is soon coming to a close as school is starting for me this week. I wonder where the time has gone. It feels like it was never really a vacation to begin with. However, I don't regret for a single moment of what I spent my summer doing. So what did I spend my summer doing? Well, for the majority of my summer, I volunteered with this summer tutoring program for children. In reality, it was more like I supervised and disciplined children. It was a quite an experience, and I met many great people. I also learned quite a bit about methods of dealing with children, and I know now that I probably don't want a profession that works too much with them. Occasionally, it's fine, but seeing them everyday is a different story. It seems like it was such a long time ago since my last day when in reality, it has been a little less than two weeks.

Those two weeks after volunteering were not spent idly though. They were spent at band camp, and the only word that comes to mind to describe it is hot. Marching in time while playing an instrument is hard enough as it is, but when it is about a hundred degrees, you pretty much wish you had never gotten out of bed to leave in the first place. Admittedly, it was fun part of the time as there were some games here and there, and we received some pretty cool music this year. I am still debating whether it was worth the arm tan and the fatigue though, but for now, let's just say it was. Hmm... when I look back, I actually had a pretty productive summer. Though how I got through doing all that in this heat, I'll never know.

Anyways, today was my first and probably last opportunity for me to have a stargazing session, since when I go back to school, my nights will most likely be filled with homework rather than stars. However, it was nice to know I have not lost my touch for identifying stars. Tonight, there was a clear sky this cool evening, as there usually is during the summer, and I was immediately able to locate the Summer Triangle, which sat prominently towards the center of the sky. Deneb, Vega, and Altair were able to guide me to seeing the constellation of Cygnus, the swan. After that, I followed Vega to the brightest star in the constellation of Draco, the dragon. I was unable to view the full constellation due to the fact that my roof covered half of it, and I was unable to see all the dimmer stars. I spent a long time staring that some stars beneath Draco, wondering what they could be. I concluded that they might possibly be some stars that are a part of the constellation, Cepheus, named after the King of Aethiopia. Soon, my eyes wandered to a couple of dimmer stars towards the eastern horizon, and I eventually identified it as stars from Pegasus, the winged horse. I spent a while looking for Ursa Major and Minor since it used to be the first constellation I would locate in the sky, but today, I was a little too late as it had already began rotating towards the west where the roof obscured my vision. 

For the most part, this is all I saw tonight as I was only outside for about half an hour around the ten o' clock hour. In a more ideal situation, I would be out in my front yard at a later time with no light pollution for a longer period of time. However, I know that the only things I somewhat have control over are the time and the location. Sometimes, I feel I should make a proposition to the city or county to have a day where everyone just turns off their lights for one night, and we all look up at the night sky. As much as I think it would be pretty cool, I know it probably wouldn't happen. Oh well, I will have to find other ways to see more in the sky. I suppose I do need to learn how to control my telescope a little better anyways.

This summer, to supplement my lack of stargazing, I have been doing research online during my spare time on astronomy. Most of the time, I go online to the NASA or JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) to see what is the latest news and what opportunities there are for students. For news, I mostly read what appears interesting to me such as merging star clusters and the Perseid meteor shower. For the opportunities, I have not found many. Some of them included projects that you create and submit to NASA, but with school coming up, I don't really have time for that. Then, there is Space Week that will be coming up in October, in which I will try to do something that week. Other than those few things, there is not much I can do. Well, I guess I'll just keep up with the news and if an opportunity comes knocking, I'll be ready.

To sum it up, my summer has been pretty productive and not much of a vacation. I am pretty happy with all the things I did this summer though. I am pretty sure it beats sitting at home for hours on end trying to come up with something interesting to do. So as my summer vacation will soon come to a close, my journey back to school will soon begin. Good bye summer! It was nice while it lasted!

The Summer Solstice

Today is the Summer Solstice which is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the start of summer. This is when the sun is farthest north for the year and begins its six-month return southward. Meanwhile, it also marks the shortest day for the southern hemisphere and the start of winter. This year, the solstice began earlier due to the fact that 2012 is a leap year, so I hope you all enjoyed the longest day of the year.

Transit of Venus

Today was the extremely rare opportunity to view Venus's transit across the sun. It will be the last transit in our lifetime. There are only two transits in our lifetime. One was today, and the other was in 2004. Therefore, it is quite an amazing experience to see this. Venus only appeared as a small dot on the sun, but it was quite cool. The transit began at around three and ended several hours later past sundown. Of course, it was only visible until the sun went down from our location though.

Today, I mostly had to settle for a webcast. I tried to use my pinhole projection box, but Venus was too small to be seen on it. Then, I tried projecting with a really cheap pair of binoculars, but they were even worse. Finally, I tried using my telescope. Under a low magnification lens, I was only able to see the light of the sun. Under high magnification lens, I saw an amazing view of Venus. However, it proved to be a bad idea. I think I may have directly my telescope too directly at the sun as the plastic part around my lens began to burn and melt. Luckily, I noticed after a couple of seconds, so it isn't really damaged. I believe and hope it works perfectly fine, but I can obviously tells something happened when I look inside. At least I noticed before anything too bad happened though, so I should be thankful. However, that is probably the end of my solar adventures using my telescope. I must be content with pinhole projection and webcast. Today, I used this link.

During the webcast, there was a lot of background told of this transit. It was supposedly used to help find the distance between the sun and the earth, which was a large ordeal back then. After it was discovered, it led to so many other discoveries.

Along the same lines of the transit, I discovered something quite interesting in my research. Being in marching band, the name John Philip Sousa sticks out like a sore thumb with him being the 'March King'. Therefore, I was intrigued upon reading this at this website:

"John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) was very interested in the 1882 transit of Venus. In 1882-3 he wrote his 'Venus Transit March.' He didn't write it specifically to commemorate the transit itself, but wrote it to honor the great American physicist Prof. Joseph Henry who had died on May 13, 1878.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. asked Sousa to write this march for the planned unveiling of the statue of Henry in front of the Smithsonian Institution in 1883. The music was to be played while dignitaries solomnly walked from the museum to a special receiving stand in front of the Smithsonian. Sousa's Transit of Venus March remains a delightful, and rarely-played addition to Sousa's opus of compositions."

Somehow, this was just interesting to me since it somehow combined music and astronomy. Anyways, most of my research came from this site, since it was pretty informative on the transit. It also provided links to find more information. I found the information quite helpful for my viewing, and there were multiple links to webcasts  being conducted from different locations. In the end, I was glad that I was able to see this magnificent sight and will always be glad that I watched it.

Baking Adventures

Today was my usual relaxing, boring Sunday. I probably should have been using this time for studying, but I decided to try something else instead. I decided to try my hand at baking. I had helped my sisters with their baking before, but I had never done it on my own so it was an exciting experience for me. I wanted something to share with some of my friends at school, so I choose to bake cupcakes. I eventually decided to use half of this recipe for a vanilla cupcake with this buttercream frosting. Seeing how this was my first time on my own, I wasn't sure what to expect and chose to make only twelve cupcakes in case something went wrong.

I gathered the ingredients and mixed then together.

Then, I filled the cupcake liners.

Then, I put them in the oven.

Then, I set them out to cool.

Finally, I frosted them.

After all that work, I tasted one, and it was actually better than I hoped. The top was a bit dry, but the inside was still moist. The frosting was pretty good as it was not too sweet unlike some store-bought frosting, but it was a travesty trying to get it on the cupcakes. Also, I may have added just a bit more vanilla than I wanted.  Overall, they were pretty good even though I know there is room for improvement. It was actually pretty fun making these by myself, and now, I have some cupcakes to share with my friends.

Annular Solar Eclipse - The Ring of Fire

Today was one of the rare opportunities for the people of California to view a solar eclipse. A solar eclipse is when the moon crosses between the sun and the earth, thus blocking the sun from the earth. Even though it was partial in Los Angeles, the moon still covered about 85% of the sun. It was especially rare because it was an annular eclipse creating a "ring of fire." The "ring of fire" is an eclipse in which the moon blocks out all except the sun's outer edge, creating a ring of light around a dark circle. It began at about 5:24 p.m. and reached its maximum at about 6:38 p.m. The transit of the moon ended at 7:42 p.m.


Using a pinhole projection box that I created, I was able to view the solar eclipse without injuring my eyes. Even though the image was small and it wasn't a complete "ring of fire", it was still breathtaking. When I first heard about the annular eclipse, I immediately started doing research and tried to learn as much as I could about it. All that research made the experience of viewing the solar eclipse so much more enjoyable and made me appreciate the site more than I would have otherwise. It has always been my goal to view a solar eclipse, and I suppose my goal was fulfilled. That only means that my next goal is to view a total solar eclipse. Perhaps when I'm older, I will travel to an area where you are able to see that. Some day, it is my goal to go on a retreat of sorts to just view the wonders the sky. Today was just another step on my journey to learning about the sky.

I know that many people in Los Angeles were eager to view the solar eclipse today because in 1992, Los Angeles missed the full "ring of fire" eclipse due to the clouds. In contrast, there was perfect weather for viewing it today. In addition, it is evident that people were excited seeing how the Griffith Observatory and several other places sold out of eclipse glasses. The eclipse was first seen in China and Japan before moving to be seen in parts of the western United States. If you want to read the full coverage of the eclipse that the LA Times had, here is the link. 

This map shows where the full annular eclipse could have been seen. It is indicated by the gray area of the map.

Despite the fact I did not have an eclipse glasses, I used the alternative way of viewing it using a pinhole projection box. It didn't exactly look the best, but it did a pretty good job considering it was a box and piece of white paper. An alternative way of looking at it was projecting an image of the sun with a telescope or binoculars onto the ground. You could have also used a welder's mask #14. Despite how safe it may have seemed, looking at the sun through sunglasses or film is not safe and still causes eye damage. It may be better than staring at the sun with a naked eye, but it can still cause damage The safest way to view it is when the sun is projected onto a surface. I know that there's nothing you can do about it now that it's over, but I just thought it should be known for the next solar eclipse.

This was my pinhole projection box. It was just a box with a pinhole and a piece of white paper. Viewing the solar eclipse was as easy as aiming that box at the sun. It was simple and effective.

Here is the projection of the eclipse onto the paper. It wasn't exactly as big of a projection as I would have liked, but it was amazing nonetheless.

According to an LA Times article, the next solar eclipse will be in 2023 when 78% of the sun's diameter will be blocked by the sun. The next two after that will cover 83% of the sun's diameter in 2044 and 2045. The next major solar eclipse that will be greater than the one today will occur in 2071 when 91% of the sun will be covered. It is probably disappointing if you missed today's eclipse but know that there will be a few others in Los Angeles during your lifetime and many other eclipses around the world.

Space Age Crystal Growing Kit

During my last visit to the Museum of Natural History, I saw some interesting things in the exhibits and found some intriguing items at the gift shop. Among those items was the Space Age Crystal Growing Kit. After walking around the museum and seeing the exhibit that had many sparkly gems in it, I was interested in trying to create some of my own. It's true that I probably could have created a sugar crystal (aka. rock candy), but I wanted to try something else. Instead, I tried to grow crystals using this kit that I found at the California Science Center. Unfortunately, the results were not great.

The first crystal I attempted to grow was an "aquamarine" cluster. The instructions seemed simple although I can't say I followed them exactly. First, I found a large rock that fit the requirements and a container to put it in. Next, I added the correct amount of boiling water and the blue crystal powder that was in the kit into the container with the rock. Admittedly, what happened was that the first container I tried was too big, so I had to re-pour the solution into a smaller container. After that, I continued to follow the instructions that included steps such as covering and uncovering the solution and adding seed crystals to it. After a week, I ended up with a strange set of crystals if I could even call it that. The rock didn't have anything on it that I could have called a crystal. However, on the bottom of it, there was a layer of crystal that had tiny crystals on it. I ended up parting the two pieces and throwing away the rock. The result was not what I expected at all, and I considered it a failure.

The next crystal I tried to grow was a "diamond" cluster. Like before, I followed the instructions that were similar to the first set of instructions except with different amounts of ingredients. I suppose the results of the second set of crystals was more successful but still far from my expectations. When the experiment was finished, I ended up with a lot of moist globs of powder that was neither here nor there. From that mess, I was able to locate a couple of crystals that actually looked like, well, crystals.

There are still two more crystals to grow, but I can't start them yet until I find an old saucepan that will never be used again. However, I'm not exactly eager to be trying to grow crystals again after the first two failures. The first time, I admit that it was probably my fault that it failed because of the transfer of the solution, but the second time should have worked. Now, I'm not sure if it is me that is the problem or the kit. I really tried but to no avail. So far, I believe that the crystals that I saw on display at the gift shop were misleading. Perhaps it was because I wasn't exact enough, but I can't be exact down to the last drop of water. It could also be that I heated the water first and then poured it into the container with the crystal powder since I did not have a saucepan that would never to used again to mix the powder into the water while boiling. I don't know for sure. I just know that this kit isn't working for me and was in some ways not worth it to me.

(Pictures to come)

Alondra Hot Wings - Alhambra, CA

Since we had a minimum day on a Friday, my friends and I felt there was no better way to end the week than to grab a bite to eat to Alondra Hot Wings in Alhambra on Main Street. When you first enter the restaurant, you will notice that there are pictures of mobsters covering the walls. Also, you will notice that it is has a very lively and enjoyable atmosphere with televisions aimed at every angle, and you can hear the buzz of conversations. From the moment you step inside, you can pretty much tell what it is about with the smell of hot wings in the air. The wait time to get a table wasn't bad considering we entered with a party of about sixteen. After perhaps twenty minutes to a half hour, we were seated at three connected tables. 

Since there were so many people, we decided that each table would get their own food. We were all hungry, so we didn't really hesitate to order. Of course, since Alondra Hot Wings is known for its name, we all ordered wings. The table I sat at decided to get the Cajun Hot Wings and Gotti Pizza which was topped with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and black olives. I quite enjoyed our pizza even though I am not a big fan of olives. The Cajun Hot Wings were decent. It was not quite what we expected, but we still ate a lot of them. My friends and I assumed that the Cajun would be more of a seasoning, but it actually packed quite a punch as it was spicy. I guess it was probably nothing compared to the Atomic Hot Wing which some of my friends dared to try. I heard that it wasn't as bad this time because they allowed the hot wings to cool down a bit before eating, but they were still dying afterwards. The table next to ours decided to order both the Lemon Pepper Wings and BBQ Wings. These were not spicy unlike our wings. I sampled a couple of the BBQ Wings, and we really enjoyed the sweet flavor. If I come here again, I'll probably stick with what their table got. It was quite a pleasurable experience even though it certainly was different than my first time there, but it was different in a good way. At the end of the meal, we all had our fair share of wings. It was just a great day, and we all left with the smell of wings on our clothes. I will probably be back again.

Alondra Hot Wings

515 W. Main Street

Alhambra, CA 91802

(626) 576-7119

Pulciano's Deli and Caffe - San Gabriel, CA

So what do you do when you have a couple hours before a football game starts? You go out to eat with your friends of course! Just kidding. Well, that is just what I happened to be doing yesterday. I had been really stressed out yesterday because of tests being thrown at me left and right, so it was fun hanging out with my friends. We had originally intended to go to Factory Tea Bar for a tennis fundraiser, but they obviously didn't need us, seeing how long the line was. Therefore, we decided to go to Pulciano's Deli And Caffe for a few sandwiches. I had never had anything from here before, but I had always heard that their sandwiches were excellent. It is a small, family owned place, and the people who work there are really nice. Some of my friends go there often enough that they are recognized when they walk in. Also, their bread and meatballs are freshly made everyday. When we entered, it suddenly became quite warm. I'm a very bad photographer and didn't bring my camera, so I'm borrowing some photos from Yelp.

A couple of my friends ordered the meatball sandwich. It looked and smelled quite yummy. Perhaps I'll try it sometime.

My other vegetarian friend ordered a sandwich which looked like had mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and perhaps some other stuff I couldn't see. She also ordered a hot coffee.

One of my other friends and I didn't want to order anything, but my upperclassman insisted on getting us something, so she ordered us an Italian roast beef sandwich. (I apologize for not having a photo.) It was warm and quite tasty. It felt like comfort food since it was roast beef with marinara sauce on a french roll. It was a nice sandwich to have a cloudy and chilly day. I will probably be back here again sometime.


Pulciano's Deli and Caffe
327 S Mission Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 458-9928