Five of my fave online tools of 2011

This was another year of discovering great online tools or finally having enough of life that these online tools were useful to me.

Task Management: Manymoon
I started using Manymoon a few months ago. Being a volunteer coordinator at GRID (like most positions at GRID) means lots of tasks. Some are repitious, some are new, but there always alot of them. It was getting hard to keep up and remember what I did, need to do, and look into.  I tried Asana, which I would probably like if I was more plugged in (smart phone, tablet, etc.). Manymoon works great for me because it intergrates with my Google App/Gmail account. I can link Google Docs to Tasks. The milestone function is great for "mini-projects" and the email that it sends me everyday with "To-do, past due, upcoming" is in a perfect format to print and have in hand.

Streaming Music: Spotify
Don't get me wrong, my Shostakovich Pandora station is still tops but being able to have access to such a ginormous amount of music and create custom playlists and include my music!? That's just plain awesome. Google Music, just never "grabbed" me. I've had it since the summer and may have used it a dozen times. Spotify's and my friend's list are great too. I will admit I don't explore new music much, unless there's an ad that grabs me. All-in-all spotify is great.

Facebook App: The Sims Social
Don't judge me.  The Sims is one of my favourite games so when they brought it to Facebook(FB) I was worried it would be lame. I was pleasantly suprised.  The play is fun, not overly-addictive, and the social aspect isn't as annoying as I thought it would be.  I've played this game more than any other FB game that's been out there. And my custom list on FB makes it simple for me to get my fellow Sims Social friend to help me with quests.

Lifesaver: NextBus (and Google Places Mobile)
Nextbus has saved me countless hours of waiting, wondering when it comes to AC Transit and their whimsical attempt at a schedule.  Over in the city, it's a lifesaver as I know next-to-nothing about the SFMuni Bus routes.  Anywhere I am I can plug in the bus number, find my stop and see where it's going.  Kudos to AC Transit for the new "stop id" numbers which make it that much easier to see when the next bus is.  Google Places mobile helps with this too because I can get directions (that also include BART) from my bright (not quite smart) phone, a Motorola i465.

Template Website Creator: Weebly
Gone are the days of geocities, angelfire, and freeservers.  I remember a decade ago, no decent computer nerd would use a website creator. We were hand-coding and using Photoshop, etc.  Course these days computer nerds have more shiny what with apps, tablets, smartphones, and everyday life.  Weebly makes a fantastic looking website in minutes without any html/css knowledge neccesary. For those of you with some web creation know-how, you can fiddle with the CSS or create your own template.  Hire Jasmine is proudly made with Weebly, it saved me alot of time since I just customised the CSS one exsisting template. The new features this year make it possible for a different types of pages (splash pages for example) and the new whitelabel service makes it easier for those of you who create weebly sites for your clients.  The next site I create for a client will be a weebly site, since I work with non-profits the day may come when they decide to manage the site on their own and weebly will make it easier. Also I can charge lower prices for creating a weebly site versus creating one from scratch.

Honourable mentions: Dropbox, Google Docs(Fusion Tables), IM Creator

TV Liberation-Me TV

A dream schedule brought to you be MeTV

For most of the time that I've lived in Cali, I have not had cable.  Since I've spent all my time in Cali being poor, it's just not an option for me. Honestly, it's been the best decision I ever made in my (leisure) life.

First, I'm not using my nerdy hustle funds to pay for a service that I may watch a few nights a week. Second, it's made me take the time to discover new forms of visual entertainment and really enjoy my Wii as it's days close to an end.  Lastly, I honestly spend much less daylight hours watching tv.

I still "watch  tv" mostly in the form of Netflix Streaming for the Wii, Hulu, and DVD backups on my external hard-drive.  I have a digital tv and a digital antenna (both gifts from family) that I use to watch  baseball and football. Occasionally I bought episodes from  iTunes.  The only thing really missing from my schedule was some new mix of tv shows I liked.

Enter MeTV the best thing to hit my television since Netflix for the Wii.  It's an over the air channel that recently arrived to the Bay Area and it has one of my favourite genres of television: classic television. I found it yesterday morning, watching "The Lucy Show" and "Daniel Boone". Last night I watched Bob Newhart and the Odd Couple, then I went to their website and saw the national schedule, a dream schedule.

This is pretty much the final nail in the "I need Cable" coffin. Now if I could just find a decent spot nearby to watch Monday Night Football, I'd be set.

MeTV is available over the air and on some cable services, check it out at www.metvnetwork.com

Up on the roof

So I finally made it up to the roof!

This was my 3rd installation with GRID, first as the Volunteer and Training Associate.  It was great to get out of Oakland for a bit and head down to San Jose, and yes I know the way.

The volunteers and team leaders I assigned were fantastic, all of GRID's volunteers are so positive and hardworking, and caring.  I mentioned that it was my first time on the roof, because it was a one story low-pitch or "less steep" roof. My first installation was a 2 story relatively high pitch and I wasn't "feeling it".  I don't have a fear of heights, I have a fear of falling :P.  And as I learn better how to walk on a roof and use a harness, I'm less nervous. Meanwhile I'm becoming very good at wiring inverters, ^-^.

This system was GRID's first "Smart Mount" system, which in a phrase is "Look Ma, no rails!" which was unique, once the learning curve was conquered it was quite straight-forward and it seemed to go faster. Also it's neat to learn a different type of system.

Good times, good hot wing lunch (^-^)  good people, a family gets a PV system.

Til next time,
Jasmine

FE/EIT here I come

After years of procrastination, I've decided to take the EIT exam. No, really.

I've not the determination to go to grad school full time, honestly I just want to work in engineering before I decide to go into crazy debt for a M.S/M.Eng.  And speaking of college debt,  my previous educational investment has not even begun to pay off, so why pour more money into this? It's not a boat. 

The Fundamental of Engineering/Engineer in Training Exam is a must for my path to being a licensed engineer.  Alot of employers seem to be looking for it as well.  I didn't take Differential Equations in college being in EET but Calc 3 and a bunch of logic/discrete math. However I think that I will be okay.

I'm planning on taking the exam October 2012.  I'm going to enroll in Calc 3 and Diff Eq at Laney College, which may not be the most in depth math classes but I work there and I'm already in the system as a student from Spring of this year.

As far as the afternoon exam I've pretty much decided to betray myself and take the Mechanical Engineering test,  it seems more straightforward and sample tests have content that's not lost to memory.  I did want to focus on Power engineering, but maybe in the future I could take some graduate level courses in Power engineering.  The EE afternoon test seems a bit too computer heavy for me.  Also I've been learning more about motors and HVAC pumps and things since working at Laney. 

I've borrowed a book from Berkeley library and started some cursory FE Question of Day.  Studying for the exam this early has been good because 1) It makes me realise I have a okay chance of passing it in April 2) I want to pass it the first time, so I will take it on October 2012 3)It really is coming back to me, guess I did learn something in college :P

If anybody has any suggestions on books, websites, or if you're interested in starting a study  group if you're taking the EIT exam anytime next year, let me know!

Natural Hair, don't care.

The Half-fro!

I realised that in the 3 years I've had this blog, my hair's never been mentioned.  Which isn't such a big deal until you consider the fact that I've not had my hair chemically straightened (relaxed) for over 10 years. And it seems like every natural girl has a website/blog/etc.

I never really felt like "the internet" accepted my natural hair.  It's not cute and curly (for you hair-typers like pretty much any natural girl on television or a 3b/c). It's not afro disco-riffic. (Sometimes you see this natural girl on television, this is the hair people assume your average black girl has)  nor is it naturally straight.

It's super duper thick type 4 (as for a letter the consensus is  4a/b) , has nearly no curl pattern, except during those brief moments when it's wet but as it dries the curls go away.  Honestly if you know what kanekolon is, imagine a bit more texture and thickness and that's my hair. Maybe that's why regular box braids look so awesome on me.  

It's really soft though and I love it.  There's alot of it too, I call it "ninja hair"  It appears about chin length most of the time but the back is about "bra-strap length" and the front is around shoulder length. Major shrinkage.    I trim it but I'm trying to grow the back to waist length.

My reasons for "going natural" weren't holistic.  I just wanted long hair, I lost my nearly waist long hair to a bad perm when I was 13 and said "I rather have long nappy hair than short straight hair".   Also a few chemistry classes made me realise perms weren't for me.  I didn't have a big chop, I was 13, southern, and really my long  hair was the one thing I liked about myself. If you've seen a picture of me at 13 you could understand this.  Ms. Melissa, who braided my hair through my freshmen year of college, would cut a little more each time until there was nothing left but natural hair.

To this day I've never worn my hair out in an afro even if I did it would be more of a half-fro.  Half the time it's in braids (with weave, it makes it last longer) or even when it's "loose" I keep it in twists, buns, chignon, ponytails, and french braids.  Why?


Because I don't like "big hair" (on me).  


Part of this career-oriented, through college I worked in kitchens. Now I'm breaking into the world of engineering/construction. Still having lots of thick hair and not liking "big hair" is no reason to perm one's hair.  If you like it relaxed and you know what you're doing, that's cool. My childhood friend (forever!) has relaxed hair and it always looks good. But she knows what she's doing, I however did not. Nor did my mother who alternated between natural hair (she has a gorgeous afro, straight out of the 70's) and a body wave.  My sister has the most adorable kinky coils.  Mom's genetics tried their best but the "Shepard" won out.  

I wrote this post for the girls who do fit any of the "standards" they put out there.  It doesn't matter, go natural for whatever reason you want.  Wear braids, wigs, shave it off, grow it out, do you thing and I'll do mine.

Steve Jobs (Resquicat in pace)

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations."

"To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines."  


My favourite quotes by Steve Jobs.  Thanks for the innovation. 

About GRID Alternatives

Since I did this 2 years ago when I did my first year of Americorps, it's only right I give GRID Alternatives the same attention.  GRID is awesome and while I love OTX West forevermore, this non-profit is related to my career a bit more.  Once again another non-profit found by not 1 but 2 engineers!  We are an awesome cut of cloth.


Mission
GRID Alternatives' mission is to empower communities in need by providing renewable energy and energy efficiency services, equipment and training. We believe making energy choices that are good for the environment can go hand-in-hand with improving the lives of those living in low-income communities. GRID Alternatives works collaboratively with communities and local organizations to identify specific needs and to develop renewable energy solutions that are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.
Currently, GRID Alternatives' core program is the Solar Affordable Housing Program, where we train and lead community volunteers and job trainees from all walks of life to install solar electric systems with low-income homeowners.

History
GRID Alternatives was founded during the 2001 California energy crisis by Erica Mackie, P.E., and Tim Sears, P.E., two engineering professionals who were implementing large-scale renewable energy and energy efficiency projects for the private sector. The vision that drove them was simple: why is free, clean electricity from the sun only available to big businesses and wealthy environmentalists, when it should be available to everybody? They wanted to develop a model to make this technology practical and accessible for low-income communities that need the savings the most, and where families often live in the shadow of polluting fossil-fuel power plants.Every solar installation is a renewable energy “barn raising” that brings together environmental activists, advocates for low-income communities, green job trainees, community volunteers, and the homeowners themselves to participate in a fun, hands-on project that delivers immediate, tangible results: a fully installed solar electric system that provides immediate economic benefits to a local low-income family.
Tim and Erica's work creating GRID Alternatives was recognized in 2010 when they were honored with a James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for advancing "innovative, proven and replicable solutions to critical issues facing California":

Solar Affordable Housing ProgramGRID Alternatives believes that economic and environmental sustainability must go hand-in-hand, particularly in California’s low-income communities that have been hit hardest by unemployment, recession, and pollution. Our flagship Solar Affordable Housing Program trains and leads teams of job trainees and other community members to install solar electric systems for low-income families throughout California. Every project generates “triple bottom line” results: measurable, long-term financial benefits for low-income families struggling to keep up with monthly expenses; real-world, hands-on experience for local workers in the growing field of solar installation; and environmental benefits by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions and building support for solar power as a mainstream solution for all of our communities.
GRID Alternatives is a both a nonprofit organization and a licensed solar installer. We install solar electric systems exclusively for low-income families, and we do it in a way that engages everyone in the solution.  GRID Alternatives provides the system design and engineering, obtains building permits, procures equipment, prepares and submits rebate and utility interconnection paperwork, and provides an industry-standard 10-year labor warranty.  We then go beyond that to make sure we are engaging and educating families, helping them install energy efficiency and weatherization measures before they go solar, providing hands on experience to local job trainees, and educating the broader community about the benefits of solar power and its intersection with jobs and economic justice. These services are typically provided without charge to the homeowners through the financial support of the SASH incentive or other solar incentive programs, local government agencies, private foundations, corporate sponsors and individual donors.
For more information about GRID Alternatives visit the website at www.gridalternatives.org

Top tracks - Week 9/25-10/2

1.  Marvin Gaye – After The Dance - Interlude 
2. Marvin Gaye – After The Dance
3. Jill Scott feat. The Isley Brothers – Said Enough
4. Drake – Headlines - Explicit Version 
5. Wyclef Jean – Gone Till November 
6. Foo Fighters – Everlong
7. The Jackson 5 – Never Can Say Goodbye - Single Version
8. Drake – Marvins Room 
9. Marvin Gaye – What's Going On 
10. The Delfonics – Hey! Love 
11. Incubus – Drive 
12. Amy Winehouse – Me & Mr Jones 3
13. Linkin Park - Kenji
14. Hank Williams as Luke the Drifter - Ramblin Man
15. Crystal Kay - Flash
16. Chester French feat. Janelle Monae - Nerd Girl
17. Emilie Autumn - Gothic Lolita
18. Hank Williams - Your Cheating Heart
19. Boy Crisis - Michael Jackson
20. Moves like Jagger - Maroon 5

via Last.fm 

New Facebook: Chapter 1 (新フェイスブック : 一の章)

I'm at home today sick from work, which sucks because I like work. It's that kind of cold where you're half-awake and fairly able bodied but you cough like typhoid Mary and so it's probably best you should stay home. So my doctor and supervisor said. So I decided to test out the new Facebook Timeline feature.  

It's like clockwork. Whenever I teach a class on Facebook(FB), it changes soon-after. Leading me to have to teach it all over again.  One of my students(adult) called me in a frantic when they saw the Facebook Timeline Promo Video .  But really is it that bad? 

It is a bit much I have to admit.  Everyone swears they're going to "quite Facebook" but most won't. Nobody quit Myspace because of a change.

Really? Who cares?

  So far there are a few features that have me curious as to whose bright idea it was to put this on FB.The main one is "Life Events: Health and Wellness".  Since  my Gastric Bypass surgery is no longer a trade secret, I tested it out.  I clicked on the apple icon and selected "Had Surgery", added a picture from highschool, and the next thing you know.  "Had Gastric bypass surgery - Bye bye blubber" is apart of my Facebook Timeline.  Admittedly I see the novelty in having a living auto-biography but I'm not sure I want to share my Timeline with 500 people.  Of course FB's answer to this is "you control what people see" so it's not very difficult to pile people into "Limited Profile" and hide it from them.
I stand by my Social networking mantra "Very personal things about my life I don't put on Facebook because if I want you to know, you will."  I don't just mean by talking in person, being 3000 miles and 3 hours time difference from home, I use texting, e-mail, and even Facebook (messages) to communicate with my friends and family back East.  Instead of sharing and filtering through 500 friends that "I got over the flu".  Though I do tout my near-decade success of Gastric bypass but honestly standard messages fit the bill. I can understand someone wanting to shout that they overcame Cancer but does it truly need a separate categorisation?

Am I nit-picking? Just a bit but there are other things about this new Timeline that I am questioning its feasibility but that's another post.  Today I'm doing a bit of microblogging via Twitter and HireJasmine Page on FB until the next post.

Serve America

Maybe it's my background. Small city, military town (Augusta, Georgia) that makes me perhaps a bit more patriotic than people "expect".  As a youth it was my secret dream to be a Naval Engineer.  Oddly enough it was one of the reasons I convinced myself that my parents were right about me having gastric bypass surgery. Of course 160lbs lighter now know that weight loss surgery makes you ineligible for the reserves. Ah well, what can you do.

So I see Americorps as my chance to serve my country.  And it's with pride that I begin my second year, this time in the ClimateCorps Bay Area.  For my second year I will be the Volunteer and Training Associate for GRID Alternatives, a non-profit here in California that provides renewable energy sources such as Solar Panels for electricity, also known as photo-voltaic (PV) systems. I will be recruiting, training, and managing volunteers so it's a big responsiblity. It's a unique situation because in the Bay Area, GRID actually has a waitlist for volunteers. It is "the" place to volunteer at for a number of reasons. For 1 it's just plain awesome and 2. volunteers at GRID actually help install the PV systems so job experience!  Yep, really. And as a Laney College student/employee and one searching for work in the energy field I have heard solar companies tell experienced construction people who need skills in PV installation to call GRID.  You don't have to pay money to take a course or see if you can tag-along with someone's company you can come and volunteer, in turn helping a family in your community. It's such a win-win situation.  Providing sustainable power at helping Americans gain the work skills they need..

Did she just say "America" *again* Well it is my country, for good or for bad, and the freedom to say "for good or for bad" is why I do love it. No it's not perfect, where is that perfect country?  Living here has given me great opportunities for knowledge and experience that may have not be so easily accessible for me elsewhere. For this I'm truly thankful.

The next 11 months are going to be awesome and as always I'll let you know how it's going along.

take care!

Social Networking Seminar this Saturday!

I am just so excited!  For the first time ever (yes, ever!) I will be giving a workshop on Social Networking that is fully open to the public.  No matter where you're from, what connections you have, no crazy short-notice. All you need is $10 and to be available this Saturday, September 17th from 4-6pm.  It will be held at the Attitudinal Healing Connection, right here in Oakland.

  The featured topics include:

• FaceBook - Overview of basics of FaceBook, creating Friend Groups, understanding the latest privacy policies, photo-tagging, etc. 
• LinkedIn - Why it's important to have, using it to improve your professional networking and job search.
• Twitter - What's the big deal?, scheduling tweets, and the do's and don'ts
• Personal Search Engines- "Do you know how much of your information is on the internet?" 

At $10.00 per person it's an awesome deal and I'm glad that AHC and I are able to do this. My regular rate is $20.00 per hour, which is still a good deal but 2 hours for $10.00? You can't beat that with a stick.  This includes the cost of materials with helpful tips so to help you along when you're practising your new skills on your computer.

If you have a laptop, netbook, iPad, etc (with Wireless capability) I encourage you to bring it, however a laptop is not required to attend. I understand how it is, in fact since my laptop has Linux I'm not 100% certain if I'll be toting my along or not.

Also there is an optional Q&A session following. I like to stay on topic but the Q&A session is your chance to ask more in-depth questions about your particular profile or other forms of Social Media (i.e 4square, Mixbook, Pandora, Spotify, GooglePlus).

You can sign-up at www.hirejasmine.com/seminar.html

If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at info@hirejasmine.com

Lately on ColourLovers: Cali-versary

July 23rd was my 2 year "Cali-versary". Hard to believe it was over two years ago on a chilly July night (50F and windy) I arrived in Oakland.  The plan was to work at OTX West for a year, gain some experience, enjoy California, and by then the recession would be over and I could return to the South and resume normal life.  Life rarely goes according to plan though. 

My 2nd Cali-versary didn't go according to plan. Last year I was in Napa at the Chris Botti concert, this year I fell ill.  But I still decided to make a colour tribute.

 



Cali-versary contains the following colours:

• Gilded - the yellow
• tangerinedreaming - an orange for those odd tasting Cali oranges (still prefer Florida's)
• cali-luv - a sweet pink. I do "luv Cali"
• dangerous girl - still one of my fave colours I discovered
• stop by Julee @CL  - to complete the sizzling yet adorable scheme.
  
  I was able to use some of the pattern templates I designed as well as some of my all-time favourites.  Just a simple tribute to Cali, my home away from home.  As much as I miss the South, the East Coast in general, this was necessary.  I've grown so much in the past two years and discovered so much about myself.  Hopefully I will be spend a few more years here.

August is nearly gone

It's been awhile, I know.   I have been busier than I would have ever dreamed.  After months of ridiculous underemployment at times just plain "unemployment", I am starting to have a semblence of a work life.  Albeit part-time work here and there but I'm so thankful.

Just to give you a list of current work (y'know I love me lists)

• Working a night or so at Laney College in the Enviromental Controls Department
• Working on 2 websites, one of which I designed
• Tutoring my 2 high school students in Trigonometry and Algebra
• of course my other 7 clients in computer tutoring
• teaching a few classes here and there
• and getting ready for another Americorps assignment (should begin September)

As always, "looking for a full-time job", that stays my job until it is my job.  I also take some workshops when I can and I still do volunteer work.  I'm just trying to use my underemployed time as productively as possible.  So that when I do sit down in that interview chair I can say I was gaining skills and making moves during this oh-so abysmal recession.

Quick! Watt is unit of...?

Today is the final class for the summer quarter. We'll give out the final exam and have a speaker and then that will be it for ECT 1 until Fall.

It amazes me how much my brain cranked out over the past 5 weeks. There's so much material the students had to read that I couldn't read it and write lab procedures and help during class and look for a full time permanent position. So most times I was going from the memory of tutoring or when I did the work last in college. Concept-wise, I am a nerd and read Physics, construction, and electronics books/articles for fun so jumping in to help was fine. I remembered a suprising amount of formulae and I helped the students learn alot which makes me happy. They will all be so ready once College Physics in Fall 2012 or 2013.

I was trying to remember all the different concepts and formulae I helped students understand over the past 5 weeks and here's what I came up with so far(in no particular order):

• Laws of Thermodynamics
• Ohm's Law (the triangle!)
• Reading resistor bands by colour
• Inductance
• Capacitance
• Drawing and reading basic schematics
• Parallel and Series Circuits
• Kirchoff's Voltage Law
• Force-vector equations
• Bernouli's Formula/Pressure
• Frequency and Waves
  
• Low-Emissivity Windows
• Photovolteics
• Insulation types and Thermal Conductivity
• Heat Transfer
• Energy Efficient Lighting
• Calculating Power costs
• AC/DC motors
• Radiation
• Specific Heat
• Phase Change
• ...and probably some things I've missed

Y'know I feel like if I can help students learn these formulae and keep a classroom of teenagers in order I ought to be a pretty decent project manager, or at least assistant right?

Makes me wonder

There was something I said in an interview last week that really made me stop and think.

  "I've never had a job I didn't like because I don't apply for jobs I don't want"

and it's true.  It may be the reason I'm still struggling along as part lab assistant/ part tutor/ occasional web developer and baker, but in the end I think that it's worth it. In this recession lots of us are applying for jobs haphazardly out need and desperation. Which I totally understand, I've opened myself up to opportunities I never imagined before but at the same time they've all been jobs that I really thought I could do well at.  Such as this lab assistant position: I work with high-schoolers something I never planned on doing. However since I had such a great experience at Laney as a student and Bruce Douglas is a really great teacher and engineer I wanted to help.  I've now had almost 3 years teaching experience, not to mention about 5 years of tutoring experience. Who knew that this would happen?

As for tutoring, well tutors are expensive and rarely available for the people who need them.  Even my regular rate of $20.00/hr is really low compared to most computer tutors.  But the fact that if you've received a computer from OTX West you qualify for a reduced rate, pretty much unheard of.  There are free programs out there, but alot of the people I tutor work or can't get out much. Also most of the programs are over computer basics and office software, which is great I wish my hometown had more of that.  But when people want to learn how to make a blog, or a simple website, or the ins and outs of facebook, or how to get netflix to stream to their television, they call me.  When people already know the basics of Windows or if they can't keep up in the beginner's class, they call me.  One-on tutoring is a helpful thing when you're learning a new form such as computers.

Throughout this recession I've developed my skills, particularly my organizational skills. Let's face it, when you have about 4 different jobs and you're looking for a job, you have got to be on top of it.  Google Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, and Docs has been my saving grace.  There have been weeks where I've had interviews, work, tutoring, class, and job applications due.  It's been really tough but honestly I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Back to Lab...

So I've just started the second week of my new part-time job. I work at Laney College, the very same college where I was a student just a few short months ago and may possibly be a student again if me and Financial Aid can ever come to terms.  The department I work in is "Environmental Controls Technology (ECT)" and I'm a lab assistant for the ECT 1 class also known as "Physics in Building Performance".  The students are rising juniors and seniors in high school and they get some college credit for the class.
Basically my job is to help the teacher (Mr. Douglas, PE) wherever he needs help. I show the students how to use the lab equipment and certain particulars. For instance when they ask "Where is the ammeter/voltmeter/ohmmeter?" I have to remind them that a Digital Multimeter is an all-in-one miracle.  We talk about the symbols for AC/DC and reading schematics.  Before class I help set up the labs and write the procedures but I also help during the lecture portion. See, this is a 5 week class that is a quarter's worth of knowledge and it's a lot of knowledge.  Especially when it comes to the basics of Electricity. The teacher I work for studied Mechanical Engineering whereas I'm a fairly recent graduate in Electrical Engineering Technology so I remember alot more about Circuit Theory.  The students really jog my brain, I haven't had the time to read every chapter they have to read so there are times when they raise their hand "Jazz!" or "Jasmine!" and I''m staring at an equation I haven't seen in  years. Then it is my responsibility to refresh my memory in such a way that I can show them how to do a problem I just saw. Being a computer instructor I have a lot of practise with that, students are always asking me about software and website I've never/rarely used. But like computers, math can become fairly intuitive once you've done for awhile.  I remember a lot of the mnemonics we used in high-school and college such as "Watt is a unit of Power? Yes!" and that helps some and entertains most.
The best part is just being able to help high-school students understand some of the concepts they may have to learn more once they go to college. Alot of them want to go to school for engineering, biology, computer science, pre-med, etc. They ask me a lot of questions about what college is like, East Coast college I'd recommend, and just how hard is the Engineering Major.  It seems to be informing them without discouraging them, which can be hard since all of those majors are tough but college in general is an adjustment no matter what your major.
My favourite piece of equipment so far is the "Xplorer GLX" by Pasco, I so want one of those for my very own. I'll have to talk about that next time.

till then,

A special announcement

I'm back home in the South, what a feeling. I love Oakland, y'know I do. But the Deep South will always be my home. Being in California has made me appreciate my home more and I cherish every visit.

This visit was especially memorable as it was my cousins' high-school graduation. They're twins (non-identical) and I'm so proud of them. Ashley's name was practically listed on every on honour list there was except athletics, where Alfred's name was as an athletic scholar. Ashley received a scholar medal and Alfred had his award for having the highest GPA on the football team! He's not dumb jock at all. Both of them were in National Honour Society. You can tell I'm a proud older cousin.

As they go off to university I hope that they will both take advantage of the great experience that lies ahead for them both.

Teach 'em how it's done

As of late, I've been very busy on the tutoring scene. From pre-algebra to Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), if I'm proficient in it then I will teach you how you can do it too! I mostly tutor adults (within that group mostly baby-boomers) in technology topics, it's my favourite topic. With this recession passing at turtle's pace, folks are using their abundant free time to improve their computer skills. Just as I spent a quarter at Laney College, my clients are trying to gain skills to hopefully gain employment.

Within technology there are hundreds of topics, however I get the most requests to learn internet tools. "Teach me the Facebook" is my favourite quote because now more than ever, everybody and their mom (and mine!) is using Social Networking. To the tech-savvy of all ages, Facebook doesn't seem to be a difficult concept. But to those who used computers strictly for word processing, or never really used computers at all, it's like learning a new language. In a sense it is a new language, a new way of doing things. Words like "Friending, Google it, Tweet, Tagging, etc." are totally new to my clients and I help explain them.

This summer I plan on volunteering at the Eastmont Technology Centre, in East Oakland. They're very interested in a class on social networking and I'm modifying one of my favourite workshops "Internet Safety and Responsibility"(ISR) for their audience. ISR is a 2 part class. The first part is on getting online, how to clear cache, and safety on public computers. The second part is the "fun" part, it's a basic introduction to Social Networking. I focus on the three that people here in the Bay seem to use the most: FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Within this primer on social networking are the "do's and dont's" of Social Networking. This is still a new frontier and people still aren't convinced that their privacy is in danger. I always try to find news articles on great examples, if you know of any good stories feel free to e-mail me a link to the article at info@hirejasmine.com.

Till next time,

Review: Leslie Sansone's Walk of the Pounds 5 mile

Summer is fast approaching, if you're back East you probably think it's already here. The weather's been quite warm from what I heard and makes me glad I live in Oakland with our nice Bay Breeze.

I'm sticking to my commitment of doing longer low impact cardio since I'm not yet ready to do 60minutes of Zumba, at least not all at once. I've had this dvd of "Leslie Sansone's Walk of the Pounds 5 mile Fat Burning Walk"(WATP5), that's a mouthful I'm sure I burned at least a calorie just saying it.
Indoor Walking may not seem like the most exciting dvd for a twenty-something but it's a good low impact workout. I thought it would be like "Basic Step" for Wii Fit but it's actually good. It's more like aerobics, with knee lifts, side steps, and running in place. It's metered, so it shows you when you've done 1 mile, 2 miles, etc which I like, it's good to see I'm making progress and that I'm getting close to the end. The end of every there's a "boosted walk"where you run in place and do some of the steps at a faster pace. I admit that the basic "boosted walk" does remind me of "Wii Fit Basic Run".
WATP5 is great for people who haven't exercised in awhile, people with some mobility issues. I have a knee that sometimes makes Zumba not my choice for the day. If you're aiming to exercise 5-7 days a week but aren't up for the high impact this a good one.
My only complaint is the music, it bores me to tears. Most non-dance workout music isn't fantastic but this video lasts 68 minutes! I couldn't get through the video the first time because the music couldn't hold my motivation.
Here's my solution: since the routine is fairly easy to follow I just turned the volume down and played my music on my speakers. With listening to my favourite upbeat music and following along with Leslie, the 68 minutes flew by!
I think this will stay in my "palette of fitness choices" for those low impact days, as long as I'm playing my music.

Plateaus bite

So what's the news on the health update?  Not much really. 

My personal life has been a bit of a roller coaster lately, I'm trying to work that out.  So I go a few days and exercise daily and then comes a big 3-5 day gap.  I haven't lost, I haven't gained, well I've gained muscle.  My waist is almost 3 inches smaller than what it was on New Year's Eve so I'm quite psyched about that. But to be honest I'd really like to see that scale number go down a bit more. So far this year I've lost 15lbs, which is good I am very happy but in the past 2 months I've lost only 1lb so you see my cause for complaint.
I'm not really sure what to do. I don't have very good health insurance so I can't see my doctor about my weight loss.  I know that I couldn't go for a restricted diet.  I like Fage Greek yogurt and it's very healthy so I can't go vegan; I also need all the protein I can get so I can't really cut out chicken/seafood entirely.  As I've said before I can't really eat beef or pork due to my weight loss surgery back in 2002. 
The only other option is to exercise more and so I'm aiming to do 60 minutes everyday.  I recently bought Zumba for the Wii and I've been enjoying it very much so far. I also enjoy Leslie Sansone's Walk off the Pounds 5 mile walk, I'm going to try and do that today. 

The year is half gone and I have about 35lbs to lose to reach my goal, I can still do it. Believe that.

Going West, the Jasmine DK Shepard story

So at OTX West, y'know where I was an Americorps and now teach on a part-time basis, digital stories are a big deal. Windows Movie Maker comes standard on every OTX computer and honestly for a free computer you can make some pretty nifty movies with it.  Mostly we make slideshows just using pictures and audio. Everybody at OTX is supposed to do one and about half of have so far. Plus we talk about it in the Take Home Computer Program.

This video is a bit archival because it's based solely on my Americorps experience, not about anything that has happened since. I probably recorded the audio a year ago and pieced together the rough draft over the summer.  It needed more pictures, it originally had about 30% few pictures.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Also you'll notice there's now a Hire Jasmine YouTube channel, subscribe to it and look for more videos in the coming weeks.

Where ideas are made

I try to have "brain-storming" sessions at home but when you live in a studio there's really no place to get away from media buzz.  However when I tote my laundry down a few blocks to the laundromat, I sit there for about an hour with little to do.  Because despite the nice flat screen you see, it's hard to hear over machines and they very rarely have captions on. Plus the only thing that catches my interest during the day is "Perry Mason" and "Streets of San Francisco" which wasn't on so I didn't bug the attendant about it being off.

When I was at Soko Gakuen or in the Green Building program at Laney, I took this time to study but as I'm not in school at the moment (thankfully). I just toted my notepad and wrote some ideas, future blog posts,  plans, and sketches. I probably wrote 5 pages and it's always nice to get some thoughts out. I love typing, my mother made me learn shortly after I started at Davidson, a super hard middle and highschool with lots of school work.  So I can touch-type and type fast and always read my notes afterwards, I didn't get great penmanship until college when I was indoctrinated with "Technical Writing". Like alot of engineers I write in all caps and it weirds some people out but you can always read what I write. 

It's quite late now though and I really need to get to bed, I have to get up early in the morning to go over to San Francisco for a class on "Climate Based Daylighting & Analysis" at PGnE's Pacific Energy Centre.  I'll be sure to tell you all about it!

EVO and Yoghurt Loaf Cake

Lost keys, bike tire blow-out, stepped on the cable of my external Hard-drive. Not a good day, I was all set to go to bed at 7pm to prevent anything else happening. But baking is my ultimate de-stress mechanism. I have a ton of yoghurt in my house, thanks to my Fage coupons. I kept seeing recipes for "pound cakes" and finally I saw one I liked, simple and to the point with all the things I've learned to love as a grown-up: lemons, olive oil, and greek yoghurt, and limoncello. I actually made 2 mini loaves, one of which I plan to freeze and one for later.




EVO and Yoghurt Loaf Cake adapted from Serious Eats

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• Finely grated zest of 2 organic lemons
• 6oz nonfat yoghurt
  
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup EVO (extra-virgin olive oil, get the good stuff make sure it's fresh)
  
• limoncella glaze (optional recipe below)

1. Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously butter an 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch loaf pan, place the pan on a lined baking sheet and set aside. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and keep near by.
2. Put the sugar and zest in a medium bowl and rub the ingredients together until the sugar is fragrant. Whisk in the yogurt, eggs and vanilla. When the mixture is well blended, gently whisk in the dry ingredients. Switch to a spatula and fold in the oil. The batter will be thick and shiny. Scrape it into the pan and smooth the top.
3. Bake the cake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until it is golden and starts to come away from the sides of the pan; a knife inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then run a knife between the cake and the sides of the pan. Unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up on wire rack. Add glaze while still cake is slightly warm.
   

Storing: You can keep the cake at room temperature for at least 4 days or freeze it unglazed for up to 2 months

Limoncello Glaze recipe from this link

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons limoncello
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1.5 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1. Mix the ingredients in a small saucepan on low heat, melting the butter, until it simmers.
   
2. If it's too thin, add extra powdered sugar by the tablespoon.
   
3. Spoon the glaze warm over your dessert, and allow to cool completely (over an hour).

Jasmine Shepard on Peralta Matters

So as you know, I recently finished up a 10 week program. During finals some of the heads of the program asked if I'd do an interview on Peralta Matters, the local show about Peralta Colleges. I was really nervous about it until I realised it was a bunch of nice AV folks. See, when I was at Davidson for middle and highschool I was on sound crew and to this day I still say "striking" whenever I turn on a light. Thanks to Hennessey one of the best teachers I ever had in my whole life.
They asked about what we learned and how one would take the introductory course and turn it into an Associates degree. Most surprising to me they mentioned my engineering degree and asked me why I decided on attending Laney. As I told them, there are lots of engineers out there and I have to make myself more competitive because I'm tired of underemployment.

Let me know what you think of the video!

Vegan French Toast

No, I haven't completely gone over to the dark side. I just like different kinds of food and challenging myself in the kitchen. I started out wanting to use the quart of milk that I need to use by Monday but then the thought of vanilla almond milk with walnuts and bread just enticed me more than cow's milk. So I'll save that for maybe some Alfredo. I sort of made the recipe as I went along, after a quick Google.

Vegan French Toast
Ingredients

1. 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
2. 1/4 cup silken tofu
3. 1tbsp sugar or equivalent (I used Equal)
4. 2-4 slices of sandwich bread
   
5. Hazelnut Agave Nectar (for topping)
6. Walnuts (for garnish)

Procedure

1. With a whisk smooth tofu
2. Add milk and sugar and whisk until smooth and a bit frothy
   
3. Dip bread in milk mixture soak both sides
4. On the stovetop heat a pan, using spray or butter to coate pan
   
5. Cook on each side till brown
6. Top with Agave Nectar and a few walnuts if desired

I had mine with some fresh ground Peet's Italian Roast. Talk about a great breakfast for dinner.

According to the corn farmers....

Now I'm from Georgia with family from North Carolina that has farmed generations so I'm all for the farmers getting what they deserve but this is ridiculous. I will simply post this article and let you decide. Let me know what you think!

High Fructose Corn Syrup Provides Many Consumer Benefits
Source

High fructose corn syrup often plays a key role in the integrity of food and beverage
products that has little to do with sweetening.

Here are some examples in popular products:

Baked goods	In baked goods, high fructose corn syrup: gives a pleasing brown crust to breads and cakes; contributes fermentable sugars to yeast-raised products; reduces sugar crystallization during baking for soft-moist textures; and enhances flavors of fruit fillings.
Yogurt	In yogurt, high fructose corn syrup: provides fermentable sugars; enhances fruit and spice flavors; controls moisture to prevent separation; and regulates tartness.
Spaghetti sauces, ketchup, and condiments	In spaghetti sauces, ketchup, and condiments, high fructose corn syrup: enhances flavor and balance – replaces the “pinch of table sugar" grandma added to enhance spice flavors; and balances the variable tartness of tomatoes.
Beverages	In beverages, high fructose corn syrup: provides greater stability in acidic carbonated sodas than sucrose; and flavors remain consistent and stable over the entire shelf- life of the product.
Granola, breakfast and energy bars	In granola, breakfast and energy bars, high fructose corn syrup: enhances moisture control, retards spoilage, and extends product freshness; provides soft texture; and enhances spice and fruit flavors.
Canned and frozen fruits	In canned and frozen fruits, high fructose corn syrup: protects the firm texture of canned fruits; reduces freezer burn in frozen fruits; and enhances fruit flavors.
Frozen beverage concentrates	In frozen beverage concentrates, high fructose corn syrup: has a lower freezing point, so frozen beverage concentrates have the added convenience of being pourable straight from the freezer and easier for consumers to thaw and mix with water.

School's out for now

I finally finished my classes at Laney College!  A couple of weeks ago I had my finals and on April 4th we had a small ceremony to recognise the accomplishments that our group have achieved. 
Over the past 10 weeks I learned alot about the world of energy efficient retro-fitting and green building in general.  I learned how to conduct a blower door test and how to do the relevant calculations, honestly that was my favourite topic we learned in construction class.  I love tests and calculations!  We had some really great teachers who had a real passion for what they do.  Every class I learned something different but I admit that "The Sustainable Built Enviroment" was my favourite class, it was twice a week and taught by John Shurtz.  We learned so much about green building materials, off-gassing, different types of insulation and construction, it blew my mind!  My family and friends have been on me to get LEED certification and I didn't really see the point until I took this class. Now I so want to become a LEED Green Associate and one day a LEED AP. 
For the past few months my interests in engineering had been waning, I figured I'd been out of school to long to have any hope of really getting an engineering position. That I'd have to go with technology education, which I do love doing but it's not what I went to school for. It's not what I've been striving to be since I was 7.  But now I see that I do have chance and that there are things that I can do to add to my engineering education that cost little to nothing.

The next step is to figure out exactly how I will describe this 10 week course on my resume' and to start trying to get out there in the "Green World" of Northern California.  I've already signed up for 2 classes at Pacific Gas and Electric (PGnE) one is called Integrating Energy Efficiency & Renewables in Home Retrofits  and the other is "Climate Based Daylighting & Analysis".  I really feel that my months of being underemployed are drawing to an end and I can't wait to start working and putting all the knowledege I learned at Georgia Southern and at Laney to good use.

Today in School

We spent all day learning about Lead Safety for Renovation and Remodelling. Afterwards we took a short exam and once pass we'll get a letter of completion.

A definite feather in my job seeking cap.

5 Ways to get HFCS out of your life

Well the health udpate is I gained 3lbs,  stress from the news in Japan, school, and my always present under-employment.  I need to relax and pay more attention to what's going in my body. Like my never-ending fight to avoid high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  Honestly at this point I'm in it for 2 big reasons: it's not natural and I want all my bang for my buck. If I spend 3 dollars on a bottle of ketchup I'd better get the real deal.  Here's 5 ways that have helped me ease HFCS out my life:

1. Switch your condiments Ketchup, honey mustard, salad dressings, so many of these have HFCS. My number one condiment is Ketchup, I'm not here to preach about the high salt of ketchup just the fact that it's supposed to have sugar and tomatoes and vinegar, nothing else.  By default Hunt's ketchup has no HFCS and it can be found at Dollar Trees if your lucky. It's a lot thicker and a touch sweeter than Heinz, which has always made it a natural favourite of mine.  
2. Switch your "health foods"  So you gave up candy bars and skittles for yoghurt and fruit snacks?  Check the labels, you may still be in the same boat when it comes to unnatural sugars.  I grew up on flavoured yoghurt (my mom loves the stuff) but around 2008 I discovered Fage yoghurt and I haven't looked back. If you like thick creamy foods you'll love it!  There's store brands popping up nowadays but Fage 0% remains my favourite followed by Fage 2%, lol.
3. Eat more whole foods This was the hardest part for me, I admittedly thrived off of  diet tv dinners, fruit snacks, and other foods. But I started noticing all the HFCS and other random food ingredients. I am slowly suceeding in eating more whole grains such as wheatberries, eating more raw fruits and veggies (esp with my greek yogurt) and fast food is losing appeal exponetially which leads me to...
4. Cook more at home! It's a recession save money and your body!  You don't have to be a chef to whip a bit of something at home. Some Italian diced tomatoes over whole wheat cappellini with a bit of basil and cheese, a turkey sandwich, baked boneless chicken breasts. The more you do it the easier it gets! Your wallet and your body will thank-you
5. Read labels!  All of the label I know us dieters are always looking at calories, fat, sugar, carbs, sodium whatever your modus operandi may be, but look a little lower at what is making up that food.  Nutra grain Apple cinnamon seem like a healthy treat but they have HFCS in them. who knew? I didn't until I looked. Be more aware of what you're putting in your body and no matter what your health goals may be you will see a difference. 

5 ways you can help Japan

The update on my end is that 2 loved ones are confirmed dead and 1 is still missing. Unfortunately it pales in comparison to my closest Cali-pal, Miko. I really can't watch the news any-more because it's heart-breaking, though I stay in touch with loved ones in Kyoto and Nagasaki also I read the Japanese and English reports. The video footage is too much right now.  As I'm trying my hardest just to make rent these days I feel helpless that all I can do is donate $10 and buy a button from Zazzle to maintain awareness. Then it occurred to me that I can blog and increase awareness and maybe some of you can do a bit to help. 8 bits make a byte, 1024 bytes make a kilobyte, etc. So here are some ways we can all help:

1. Donate to the International Red Cross/Crescent by clicking here
2. Here in the SF area many events are going on with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC), check out their website www.jcccnc.org
3. Buy a tee, button, or other item from Zazzle's  Japan Relief store, or donate a design of your own!  Here's one of mine "Hapas for Japan"
4. The human suffering is great but we can't forget the countless pets left abandoned by this disaster. Animal Refuge Kansai has more information. My neighbour's friend has first hand experience with this organization. Click for their website
5. Pray, Meditate, and keep Japan in your thoughts. It will take time for Japan to rebuild and we can't allow it to become yesterday's news.

Thank-you for your support

- JDK "the K is for Kumiko" Shepard

Tsunami udpate

First off thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts. Luckily all my loved ones live in the Southern part of the country. However 3 people I know are still missing, unfortunately one friend lives in Minami Sanriku so things don't look good. Most of my concern goes to one of my closest friends here in California is half-Japanese and all her family is from Northern Japan and it's been so heart-breaking to see her go through all this. Like any other disaster I've made myself stay away from the news after the first day. Miko and I spent so much time watching NHK and listening to the Japanese radio that English became a distant memory. I don't understand Japanese as well as Miko but you get the idea if you know the language. Seems to me Japan was talking about nuclear accidents before it hit English news. Maybe it was a "saving face" thing I don't know.  All I can say is that I wish the best for everybody in Japan.

In related news, I was completely fine.  My mom called me at 6:00 am about a tsunami warning, I didn't even know that Oakland got tsunami warnings.  They closed the ferries and stayed on alert with BART and highways but we were fine.  There was one picture springing up around the internet near me, but honestly I think it  was nothing compared to 10m waves.


Don't give up Japan!

A major health update!

It's been awhile. I finally have high-speed internet at home again! So hopefully I can get back into blogging more. I was doing so well until I was without internet.

So I finally decided to weigh around my birthday, February 7th and guess what? I'd lost 10lbs since the beginning of the year. Since then I've lost 2 more. I have to say that I've been trying to eat as balanced as I can and exercise.

My foodstamps ran out early this month. Despite the stereotype I eat healthier because of my foodstamps than I ever really do with cash. It's hard when it's the end of the month to spend $4 on salad mix when you know in a few days you'll have funds that are specifically for buying groceries. I slip and say "I'll just buy this mega cheap box of lean pockets, baby carrots and a cube (24pk) of Diet dr. pepper". It could've been worse but still I should've bought more veggies. In a few more days I'll have my food stamps again and I'll go to the grocer and farmer's market and get some veggies.

On the warmer days I have been actually craving salads. Like the ones I used to make for myself during lunch when I worked at Applewood Golf: grilled chicken with sea salt and coarse pepper, romaine/iceberg mix, onions, a few small cubes of havarti and vinagrette. Not bad for 3.00 ne? (we used to get food half priced as employees). Also I notice just like I stopped missing HFCS, I am slowly losing my taste for fast food which kind of bums JB out but he knows it's for the best.

Exercise-wise my sister sent me a resistance and Dynaband with some exercises so I've been using those 5x a week and I reduced my weights to 3x. I was starting get a bit stocky in the shoulders so I'm trying to focus on lighter weights and more cardio.

I haven't taken anymore pictures but some of my bigger clothes that I bought when I was in Macon are getting too loose to wear even to construction class. Even a pair of sz 20 plus size Old Navy pants I bought specifically for moving to California are getting too loose. And I've had them taken about an inch in the waist since I moved here. That tailor tried to convince me to take them in 2 inches but I wouldn't listen. Now I have to wear them with a belt or they will slip down to much, not to the point falling off but I keep having to re-adjust them.

I've been a bit heavy on the sugars lately so I'm going to try and calm down a bit. Also exercise a bit more on the weekends.

Wish me luck!

Learning curve

Week 2 of my "Intro to Energy Efficient Retro-fitting" courses at Laney has ended. Only 8 weeks to go. Things are going pretty well so far especially the academic side. Having a degree definitely helps me weed past to basics (math skills) and get right to meat of the issues. One of my classes on Energy Control focuses on Energy auditing, bringing a lot of basics of electricity. The class is taught by a Professional licensed engineer (PE) so he's definitely a favourite of mine.

Customer service is an entertaining class, I have it Monday mornings at 8am and it's a nice class to begin the school week. We work on our communication skills in that class, so it should prove useful.

"Sustainibility and the Enviroment" is one of my favourite classes, I'm learning about a lot of green technology used in construction. So far I've learned about grey water, solar water heaters, storm water management, sustainable lawns, just to name a few. It definitely gives me ideas about construction.

My carpentry class is so far my hardest class. The lecture part is fine, I understand everything. It's just when we get to the actual hammer and nails part. I've built everything from computers to jewellry to a coffee maker but heaven help me with building a frame for a house. Construction is new to me, I tend to deal with small things, or electrical systems. Also I tend to be on the planning/management side as a student or intern, it's different to be on the labour portion. I've always respected skilled labourers and technicians but I have newfound respect. We've started building our project house. It's a small 8'x12' house but it will have insulation and floors and a roof and all of that. Once when we finish we will do some testing like using a blower door. It's all going be really interesting and I will definitely keep you posted on all that I am learning.

Next update is on my birthday, February 7th!

Sans internet

I no longer have internet at my house. Big update soon.

すみません,

JDKS

Stopping a Binge

The past few days did not go well. I ate like a maniac.  Well as much as a girl with a 12oz pouch  can.   I gained about 2lbs in the past week. Partially because I had to get back into my usual routine of walking everywhere that I do when JB is back home.  After driving and being ridden around for almost a month, I walked about 7 miles in 3 days.   It didn't really tire me out, my feet hurt a bit and I was so so hungry!  I ate a few things I shouldn't like 3 donut holes (120 cals, 10 grams of fat)  but I think today I finally shook the last bit of bingeful lust. Basically  I started drinking water when I wanted to eat and got of my tail to exercise and the cravings went away.
I'm finally back to 100%, over the sickness.  So it's time to get back to exercising. I exercised 30 minutes yesterday and so far have exercised about 20 minutes today.   I've been doing a lot cleaning today too, which is a useful way to burn calories.  I'm aiming for 60 minutes of activity a day, including walking for transportation. There's not really much excuse for me not to exercise, I have just about every kind of workout video ever.  Then there's HULU and their bevy of streaming videos.  In fact I plan on doing some yoga later on today. Even though I have just about every style of video I could want, I still want Disco Abs so I decided once I lose 10lbs I will buy myself a copy.

Diet-wise I have to admit my binge wasn't too bad, it was just too many calories in one day. Aside from the donut holes I was mainly eating flatbread,  flavoured soymilk, and toast with lowfat cream cheese.  Basically a carb binge.  I need to plan more carbs in my diet so this doesn't happen every couple of weeks.  Tonite I'm going to fix some chili lime tofu with barley. Yummy!  While I was in bed this weekend trying to recover I wrote a food and exercise plan for the next week.  It's posted on my message board where I see it constantly. It's on notebook paper so I can take it with me on my days out and about.  Those days are about to increase since I will be going to school soon.  I'm look forward to school though, I tend to eat out of boredom and that's going to be hard to do when I'm in school 4 days a week all day long.  

I won't bore you with my eating plan for the week but here's my exercise plan:

• Monday: 200 ball crunches, 20 minutes of yoga, 20 minute zumba
• Tuesday: 10 minute ball workout, Arms of Envy (on Hulu)
• Wednesday: 200 ball crunches, Leslie Sansons 5 mile Fat burning walk video
• Thursday: 10 minute ball workout (hulu) , Stripeaerobics 
  
• Friday:  200 ball crunches, 20 minute zumba, 20 minutes strength
• Saturday: rest
• Sunday: Neena and Veena Belly Dance Video, 10 minute ball workout
  

 It may sound ambitious but I already exercise on average 4 times a week for about 45 minutes.  Besides I'm in it to win it!

Change:  Gained 2lbs due to binging. Drinking about 2 Litres of water a day now!

Have you ever made any original recipes?

A few. I think my first ever was a blueberry lace cookie, that's when I was seven. In recent years my favourites include: Vanilla Almond cupcakes, Vegan chocolate cake, red velvet "oreos", and White Macaroni and Cheese with asparagus.

Ask me anything

What is your favorite color?

Pink is my favourite colour but I'm often seen in my second favourite: blue.

Ask me anything

Back to the books

In my first in what should be weekly updates on my job search, I need to tell you about the classes I´m going to be attending in a few weeks at a local college. Like alot of underemployed people I decided to go back to school. Though I haven´t decided what I what I want to get my Master´s in and I can´t get financial aid for a second Bachelor´s. I heard about a program to help young adults in their job search, particularly in the green job field which is hot hot in California right now. It´s a free 10 week program and some of what it covers includes:

• Energy efficiency standards and weatherization principals: Remodeling and new construction of homes and commercial buildings; all aspects of: energy efficiency, design and systems of weatherization.
• Introduction to technical and economic operating principles of electrical and mechanical devices for making cost-effective decisions and energy-efficient choices: Use of energy analysis software tools such as Energy+, Cal Arch, DOE 2, and others.
• Introduction to basic concepts of Customer Service as applied to the skilled trades: installers, designers, estimators, and sales persons.
• The Sustainable Built Environment covers principles, strategies and techniques in the fields of water and resource conservation, renewable energy and energy efficiency. Upon course completion students will be fully conversant in the trends and opportunities in green building, and will understand the terms and concepts for successful employment in the green building industry.

The curriculum is aimed at those wishing to get a skilled labour position or obtain an associates degree.  So why is a B.S EET so excited about this program?  Those of you who know me, know I love the hands-on, hard-hat, getting dirty part of engineering. Also you get a certificate of completion so that can only add to the reasons a person should ¨Hire Jasmine¨.  I´m really looking forward to going back to school, albeit a little nervous.  I do keep my mind sharp, especially being a tutor but it´s always good to learn as much as you can.  I´m sure in the weeks ahead I will be posting more about it.

As far as the job search goes I must confess since I am starting school my job search has narrowed abit. I am applying to the big companies for positions for new grads and also for part-time positions in the restaraunt industry as a cook, baker, assistant to pastry chef. So if you hear of any openings in Oakland, Berkeley or San Francisco (for SF it has to be during public transit hours so no morning bakery positions)  please let me know!

Health update 1: configuring the pantry

Well this year is off to a neutral start. When I returned to Oakland I got some crazy bug coupled with jetlag, I literally was in bed for 2 days. The only good thing to add is that of course when you're sick, you really can't gain weight. I'm starting to feel better now and so we headed to the mega asian mart. Ranch 99 is probably favourite grocery experience ever. Sure I love Nijiya in Japantown because I can actually read the labels on most the products but Ranch 99 takes food stamps, I mean come on. I still will shop at Ranch 99 when I stop being a hobo though. Their produce is tops and just across the way is the best bakery ever. Ranch 99 has a in-store bakery that accepts EBT but Sheng bakery's bread is just heavenly. Yes I still eat white bread and white rice for that matter, I just can't get behind brown rice (most of the time when I'm cutting back I just forgo the carb at dinner time) and most of the wheat bread I can afford is just coloured white bread.
I do however love wheatberries, quinoa, shredded wheat for breakfast, rye flats, and barley. Just that with asian food, nothing compliments it the way simple gohan does. One of the reason there's a marked decrease in the amount of asian food I eat when I diet. However this is suppose to be a lifestyle change so I just have to figure another way to eat the food that is as comforting me as grits.
Today at the grocer I aimed to stay away from junkfood and get lots of simple wholesome ingredients for some great meals this week.

My grocery list

• Snow peas
• Snow pea greens
• Grapefruit (great breakfast and snack food)
• baby carrrots
• tofu (79 cents a pound!)
• chicken gyoza (6 gyoza for 170 cal)
• gyoza tsuyu
• mirin
• edamame (good source of protein)
• miso (high on sodium but low calories)
• zuchini
• White bread
• Vermont curry (for the quick meals)
• senna tea (for regularity)
• green tea
• shoga
• Pork buns (for JB)
• shrimp
  
• Tamanegi

I have to note that I have ridiculously low blood pressure so I don't watch my salt intake perhaps as much as I should.

Change so far: no weigh-in since 31Dec2010. Measurements the same, drinking a lot more water now.

New Year's Resolutions and how to stick to them

1. Get a full time job, constantly updating hirejasmine.com, refining my CAD skills, networking and going to any job fair I can within a 50 mile radius. updates on Wednesday
   
2. Get out of the plus-sizes, reduce alcohol and sugar consumption, exercise 60 minutes a day 3-5 times a week. Avoid synthetic foods. updates on Monday.
3. update the blog more. By updating on my year resolutions on a weekly basis.
4. Stay in California, by completing goal 1