Trapped at Berkeley

I went to Indian Rock yesterday with a few friends and saw that someone had setup top-ropes on the back side. After checking out the anchor configuration and the condition of the rope, I stupidly decided that it’d be fun to prusik up one of the ropes. I normally don’t bring my climbing harness with me to Indian Rock, but since I did have a few slings and carabiners, I decided to try using my belt as a harness.

Bad idea. I was jugging up the rope and decided to rest on my upper prusik. My belt broke almost instantly, and I took a short little fall onto my crash pad. You can see the aftermath of my experiment in the picture above. Maybe next time I’ll be wearing a stronger belt…

Many of my friends have been raving about Pinkberry, a new chain of stylish frozen yogurt stores in New York and Southern California. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard about them; they only have a handful of locations and seem to rely upon word of mouth for advertising. That’s not to say that they need it: Pinkberry seems to have cultivated a nearly cult-like following among the people who have heard of them.

Personally, I don’t see anything special about Pinkberry frozen yogurt other than the ridiculous price. Sure, the use of fresh organic fruit and other items as toppings is mildly innovative, but it fails to make up for the lackluster frozen yogurt, which is offered in regular and green tea flavors. I found both varieties lacking in flavor and overly sour. Call me unrefined, but I much rather have a sundae from Costco.

As a frozen yogurt store, Pinkberry fails terribly. As a trendy boutique that attracts yuppie spenders, Pinkberry is wildly successful. I think Pinkberry is trying to do to frozen yogurt what Starbucks did to coffee. The only difference so far is that Starbucks started out with decent coffee.

I just upgraded one of my home computers to Microsoft Windows Vista Business and discovered that my Canon PowerShot G2 camera was unsupported. I hadn’t bothered to check whether my camera was supported; it seems most digital camera drivers are just glorified USB Mass Storage wrappers and support for those is generally a given.

Unfortunately, Canon’s drivers are a bit more complex, and the lack of Windows Vista compatibility was confirmed on Canon’s technical support page. Their recommended solution was to use a Compact Flash reader to access the memory card directly.

Unmoved and lacking a CF reader, I tried changing various settings and messing with the latest version of Canon’s WIA driver, but I couldn’t get it to work. On a hunch, though, I downloaded Canon’s TWAIN driver (Canon provides the WIA driver for Windows 2000 and XP systems, and the TWAIN driver for older systems) and gave that a go. Lo and behold, I was able to access and download the photos on my camera, albeit through a outdated GUI interface.

So, what’s the lesson to be learned? Don’t trust hardware manufacturers when they make a blanket statement that hardware isn’t ‘compatible’. You’ll often find that there are work-arounds for getting your hardware to work. Of course, also don’t expect them to come to your rescue when something goes wrong.

I made some seared mahi mahi tonight:

Preparation was simple: thaw the fish, pat it dry, and give it a generous rub of sesame seeds, chili powder, and lime dust. Place a pan on your stove’s most powerful burner, get it red hot, and gently sear the fish for no more than a couple minutes on either side. Slice thinly and serve with a sweet salsa (mango or papaya works well).

Yesterday, I also seared some frozen ahi tuna steaks I picked up at Henry’s. For the tuna, I used a soy sauce and sesame oil marinade overnight.

In either case, the results, as you can see, were great!

Anyone who has ever worked on an engineering project is familiar with the endless number of specifications that can be submitted by a client. Sometimes the specifications have a crucial bearing upon project design, and other times the specifications are absolutely meaningless and have no bearing upon the project scope.

Lately, the number of specifications falling into the latter category has increased. I think clients are becoming lazy and not bothering to only submit specifications that apply to a certain project. Rather, it seems as if they just want to submit all the specifications they have available and hope that somebody on the other end will figure out which ones actually apply. Nobody seems to care about boiling down the specifications into what is important, and clients get all upset when some crucial detail they have buried in their mountain of specifications is accidentally overlooked. Furthermore, the sheer number of specifications often leads to contradictory information, puzzling both sides and delaying a project’s design.

As a project manager, I wish clients would produce a list of their most important or unusual specifications and rank them as crucial, flexible, or just a request. While I understand that this may be more initial work for the client, I think it’ll save them a lot of time and headaches in the long run. Having a priority list ensures that crucial details are addressed early in the design phase, keeping everyone happy.

I wrapped up an FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) yesterday and learned something new during the inspection: the use of PTFE ‘Teflon’ tape on instrumentation joints is generally banned in oil refineries because the tape can tear off inside a pipe and accumulate at a valve, increasing the chances for equipment failure.

For those who haven’t done much plumbing, PTFE tape is an inexpensive, white, plastic tape that is commonly wound around pipe threads to enhance the sealing of a joint. It also acts as a lubricant of sorts, which can be a big help when disassembling a pipe joint at a later date. Teflon tape has become a staple of the plumbing industry and can be found at any respectable home improvement store. Heck, as a general rule of thumb, I always put Teflon tape on a metal pipe joint just because there wasn’t really harm in doing so in the household — it didn’t harm the pipe, and it ensured a more secure seal.

Read the rest of this entry »

This winter and New Year has been more turbulent than usual, and I’ve lost contact with a lot of friends and possibly upset some others. Work has also been keeping me on my toes, so I haven’t been able to keep up with all my contacts and volunteer work.

It seems that things are finally beginning to settle down, so I’m going to try to move forward and mend fences: check up on the people I care about, re-establish friendships, devote some time to helping others, and get back into my cycle of rock climbing and exercise.

Through a family friend, I was able to get a position of an engineering firm near my house in Southern California. I’m currently working as a project manager of sorts, acting as the glue that holds the company, clients, and vendors together. It’s a pretty interesting job, gives me something to do while I’m off from school, and allows me to put my three years of Berkeley chemical engineering education to use while I’m off from school.

It’s been a real learning experience for me these first few days on the job, especially as I learn about the level of safety and reliability that goes into engineering design and peruse the overwhelming number of specifications that cover every single detail.

I’ve decided to withdraw from the University of California, Berkeley, for a couple semesters. I need some time to do things other than school and to work some issues out. Check here for regular updates on my (temporary) escape from Berkeley.

It’s what rock climbers do when bored…

I’ll probably be hosting slacklining sessions every few weekends. Contact me if you’re interested; I’ll probably be setting up a slackline near the south-side entrance to the VLSB or near the Campanile. If you want to purchase your own slackline, Slackline Express is a good place to check.