Contagion: Stupid stupid flu

I've spent most of January dodging, ducking, and succumbing to whatever epidemic has descended upon the Bay Area.
Earlier this week I had a fever of 102.1F, I have to add that the last time I went to the doctor my temperature was 95.9F. They say it doesn't matter my low body temperature, that a fever is still 99F or above but I felt AWFUL.

In talking with my healthcare provider, the reason I kept getting sick was fairly simple. Nutrition and interaction.
I try to eat healthy, but when you're doped up on cold meds half the month it's amazingly difficult. Literally went over 12 hours without feeling hungry only to eat half a bowl of mac very unenthusiastic.
I've spent most of the past week getting over colds that turned into something that may have been the flu.
I also realised today that one of my regular prescription medicines works horribly with cold medicine...and I swear it wasn't anywhere in the warning. So when I returned to work, I nearly had a heart attack. No wonder, Americans are in the abysmal state of confusion when it comes to health care. I'm just saying, I nearly killed myself by accident and I told every medical man and woman what I was doing. All they said was "of course you should take your daily medicines". In hindsight even I should have known better

...maybe I'm being a touch dramatic.

But I'm slowing getting back to 95% (where I seem to default) and can get back to the projects I've been bustling on around the studio.

netWork it.

Networking. I admit, I love it. It's really ironic too because when I briefly considered studying Business and Computer Science, what changed my mind is I hate schmoozing, and I'm not so good at it.

But I feel networking is different, especially when it's for an industry or activity you are passionate about.

I went to the GRID Alternatives/Enphase micro meet up the other day. It was great to see old faces and meet new ones. Learn about what Enphase and others are up to.  Enphase is one of the leading manufacturers of micro-inverters, an alternative to the big string inverters many residential solar electric systems have. 

The biggest thing I've learned about networking is to ask questions. This can be really hard if you're networking for need of job.  I used to be that person, and I see that person. You just want to tell someone your whole professional life story and it's not necessary.

Networking can happen anywhere, and for me it often does. The combination of my Southern friendliness and the fact I usually I'm usually reading some large technical book on the bus lends itself to that. My past position as the volunteer coordinator for Bay Area GRID Alternatives with 3000 active volunteers did much to help navigate networking. So far, I've learned...

1. Don't be desperate It's tough, I know. You don't even know you sound desperate. I only learned this from a friend telling me during my job search and observing it in others.  Ask questions, talk with them, not at them. 
2. What do you have to offer? What do you have in common? This is when asking questions proves helpful. Out here, the common grounds I've found are: engineering grads, Southerners/East Coast, Hapa. I've come across a few Georgia Southern grads, I would have never known if I didn't listen. When people are telling me about what they or the company does I chime in when appropriate. 
3. Have a mission I got this tip from one of my CCBA Supervisors. When you go to a class or networking event, look around. Have a goal to exchange x number of business cards. And follow up, even if it's a "Hey, great meeting you a X event".
4. Be confident - Confidence can be hard to master. Apparently I appear really confident. That's good, people always think it's natural and I admit it's the sum of progress.  When I was a kid (9-10) I hated speaking in front of people, sometimes I stuttered. However, I really liked drama classes. go figure. As I started to learn Latin I didn't mind so much Latin oration, but again that's a bit like acting, a little over the top. When I entered highschool though, I got thrown into WDFA. WDFA is the daily announcements at my alma mater, Davidson Fine Arts, that's televised live daily. Like our version of the morning news meets "Good Morning America".  For about 30% of the school year I was one on of the on-screen cast, so I developed a bit of "television persona" that's never really left. It's me... optimized. lol. 
5. Always, Semper,ずっと  Carry business cards!  Best networking tip I got from working at GRID. In that job I had to always carry business cards. I'll give you some perspective. It was 1 year position, and I went through over 1000 business cards. Think about that for a second.  Why so many? Honestly, once someone found out I was the middleman between being interested and volunteering on an install, they wanted that card. Whenever I went to a class, folk wanted that card. I started carrying them in my wallet because, I would walk to the store a run into someone. Or be at the gym in a GRID tee, or at Art Murmur, it was insane. Now I realize I no longer am in such an "in demand" but I still carry cards with me. Also I have both work cards, and personal cards. So even if you're not working, you should have a business card.  With VistaPrint, Clubflyers, and so many more offering such good deals it's affordable. 

Do you have any other tips? How do you netWork the room?

till next time,

Pie for dinner? Oh yea!

Last night,  I saw was a very large zucchini and 3 Roma tomatoes together in a bag in the discount section of Berkeley Bowl for $1.   Wasn't quite sure what I was going to do but, I figured Parmesan cheese will likely be involved, so grabbed some of that.

On the bus ride home, it struck me. Pie, cornmeal crust pie.  I bought some polenta (cornmeal) last week fully intending to bake polenta cookies, that hasn't happened, yet.

Of course not dessert pie for dinner. Icecream for dinner is one thing
but fruit pie is another :P

Got home, decided to use some of the falafel mix I needed to use up in the crust. Usually cornmeal crust have some flour (wheat, rice, etc.) but I like how this crust turned out. Had a bit of basil, 2 small sweet peppers and a half an onion still in the crisper so added that too. This was quickly turning to a refrigerator pie, ok refrigerator tart.

FYI. A refrigerator pie is actually more of quiche, made with whatever odds and ends of cheese and veggies you have in the house. Not to be confused with Icebox pie, which is sweet and wonderful in another sort of way.

Needed something to bind it. Eggs and milk? Only had almond milk, prolly should finish up that block of silky tofu still in the fridge.

...this was a refrigerator pie. And it was a good one, I think I'm officially hooked on cornmeal crusts. so bummed I didn't have time to wrap up the second for lunch, ah well dinner tonite or lunch tomorrow.

This recipe makes enough for about 2 of my tart dishes (about 5" diametre).


Tomato Zucchini Tart with Cornmeal Crust

Using what I had on hand...
3 Roma tomatoes thinly sliced
3/4 cup zucchini in thinly sliced half moons
1/4 cup onion thinly sliced
1/4 cups sweet peppers thinly sliced
1/3 cup...or so thin sliced Parmesan cheese

Milk mixture
1/2 cup silky tofu (you could use 2 eggs)
3/4 cup almond milk (regular milk would work)
1tbsp fresh chopped basil
clove of garlic minced
pinch of salt

...yep lots of thin slicing, hope you got a good knife!

Crust
3/4 cup polenta (coarse ground cornmeal

Cornmeal Crust

1/2 cup falafel mix
1/2 tsp shichimi togarashi (mixed pepper spice)
1-2 tbsp of olive oil
big pinch of salt.

Directions
Make the crust
Preheat oven to 375
In a bowl combine the polenta, falafel mix, salt,spices.
Mix throughly with a fork
Gradually add olive oil until crumbly like wet sand (or a graham crack crust)
divide between two pie dishes. Press mixture into bottom and sides of the pan
Bake for 8-10 minutes

Meanwhile slice up the vegetables

Whisk together tofu and milk (or egg and milk) add basil, garlic and salt

Build the pies by sprinkling parmasan cheese over the crust
Then a layer of zuchinni
Layer of onions and garlic mixed
Layer of tomatoes
layer of  cheese
Layer of zuchinni (those little tart pans are deeper than they look!)
Divide the milk mixture between the pans
Finish with a layer of tomatoes and cheese


Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Garnish with basil if desired
Enjoy

Ch-ch-changes

HireJasmine.com is gradually being disassembled.  JasmineDKShepard.com is up and a bustling. Fear not if you lead anyone to hirejasmine.com it will soon jasminedkshepard.com.  I hope that I won't ever have to use hirejasmine.com for finding a job again. Perhaps if and when I return to freelancing of some sort.

The biggest thing you probably noticed is the blog. from Boffin Beauty to Engineered Cupcake. A nickname that stuck with me far longer than Boffin Beauty, happy to say.  Its meaning is obvious, the engineer who bakes and apparently has a fondness for things of the cute persuasion.  Cupcake, a pet name that many a SO, IO has attributed to me.  The past few months in NorCal, I hadn't felt quite so "cute". Hustling, working hard.  It was good to return home for a bit and recharge.  Back to days of being able to wear my nice jewellery. Wearing pink for no apparent reason. Having men and boys open a door for me, just coz it's polite.   *sighs* I am so homesick...

As for the topic of my blog, I'm ADD baker/engineer. Do you know how hard it is for me to focus? My bit of excellence is the sum result of being ADD. Why did I study engineering?  pure Math is boring, Physics holds me for only so long, and I like building things. What is the study queue of Electrical Engineering? A bit of math, physics, programming, power engineering, and business (management, econ, ethics). Let us not forget that I also minored in music.    I like Energy Efficiency over solar because every project is different. And I have a bunch of random skills because I go from swimming to making jewellery, to writing music. lol. So I'll blog about life, my life, and perhaps a focus will eventually come to me.

Anyways, let me know what you think of the new blog and website.

Vanity of a tomboy

Here's fun Friday fact about me: I don't wear makeup.

After, no before coz
 I don't want to break your screen!

It's already hard enough for me to get ready in the morning. As a teen between having to wear make-up for dance performances and watching my mom and sister put make-up even on the hottest, muggiest days back East, I just couldn't cope with that. Well let me be more specific, I don't wear foundation on a regular basis. I rock lipgloss, sheen, stick daily. Wear eyeshadow occasionally on weekends. But I've never worn foundation to work, even now that my job is about 95% office. I don't wear it when I'm going out, or on most dates. Usually it's when I dress up nice, and I'm trying to look a little polished. Even then, my foundation consists of some concealer under the eyes and corners of the mouth and light weight powder. Liquid foundation makes me look like caramel coated sumo. >_<

Admittedly I'm pretty lucky. I never really had acne, a few "Marcia Brady" zits, that's about it. My face's not flawless, but it's fairly clear and soft. I have slight darkness under my eyes from anemia but they're not noticeable with my glasses. Face care regimen? I don't have one. Aside from using sunscreen when I'm working outside, no matter the season. (I get sunburn fairly easily considering, yep that urban myth is untrue or maybe it's the Asian in me who knows :P) In NorCal, I started using grapeseed oil 3-5 nites a week because of the drier climate. Wash my face in the shower, use cold cream to remove makeup whenever I do, and that's it.

So what's the issue? When I got back to Oakland last week, I got this random cold allergy attack from Hell. I'm not sure if it was the Vitamin E oil I bought, or a cold or what. Suddenly my face was super dry, reddish, rashy, and my eyes and lips had gotten super wrinkled. It was not cool. at all.

I bought some 1% hydrocortisone, which cleared the rash in about 3 days. The grapeseed for the ensuing scars and dryness wasn't cutting it. It was driving me crazy, it hurt to smile. I kept wearing sunglasses I felt my face looked so bad.

Yesterday I bought some Nivea cream and it helped immensely, I could finally smile without pain. Though the wrinkles were still there. So last night after my 18th holiday party of the season, I googled some remedies and realized I may need to exfoliate. Mind you I don't think I've ever used a scrub on my face. But I was desperate and it worked!

Sugar Scrub

1 tbsp organic cane sugar 1 tsp olive oil drops of water to form paste

Directions 1. Wash face with lukewarm water. 2. While face is still slightly damp massage in scrub. 3. Then wait 15 minutes 4. Rinse well with luke warm water.

The internetz suggest following up with a mask I just followed up with some Nivea cream. This morning when I woke up, there was such a difference! My face felt smooth and soft again, the random creases around my mouth were gone, my lips weren't chapped anymore. Definitely a great way to start the weekend.

I'm also starting to realise, as 30's gunning for me. I should start taking measures to maintain my looks so I won't be trying to fix them years later. I don't ever want to feel the need to wear make-up on a daily basis.

2013 Resolutions

1. Pass the FE exam (Engineering in Training Exam) 
2. Blog at least once a week
3. Finish Decorating my studio
4. Have a Bucket List 

Pass the FE exam (Engineering in Training Exam)  Well I've signed up for California's April Exam. Studying with a book. I hope to pass. However if I don't I will shell out a few hundred dollars for a class and take it again in October, in which I will pass. 

Blog at least once a week. Last year was my worst blogging record so far. So many drafts never made it because of my perfectionist self. Posts need not be super long and prolific, keep reminding myself of that one. :P

Finish decorating my studio - Seriously I've lived here 3 years this March.  I'm actually at the halfway mark.  Mostly it entails buying things to put things in and yes, I'll post pics. 

Have a Bucket List - Working on it, find it here

2012 Resolutions didn't go so well

So about this time last year I wrote...

Get a full time permanent position in the engineering/energy efficiency/ renewable/etc. field

Learn to knit a pair of thigh high socks

Pass the October EIT exam

I only accomplished 1 thing: I got a job. Which of all the 3 I think was the most important. I gave up learning to knit mid-year and decided to take the April 2013 exam.  This year's goals will be much more clear.