Sasha's thoughts...

Migration

2012-10-03T08:00:00.001-06:00

I feel like migration is a better word than exodus fort this. I am moving my blog to the actual home domain (http://sashiim.net) and getting rid of all the unnecessary stuff there. I say migration > exodus because I have a habit of changing my theme or host frequently. Im hoping to one day settle down and start up a more interesting life where I don't have time to constantly re-invent the wheel. But for today, I am migrating (hopefully for an ice age?)

Aurora 18x18

2012-10-01T07:56:00.004-06:00

Hi everybody,

I want to make sure you all know of The LED Artist. As some of you may already know, I have been working on building an Aurora 18x18 from their website. The instructions they have posted are really great and the parts arent too hard to find! The only 'fun' part is getting to do all that SMT soldering :) I am very nearly finished. I have everything soldered in except the last 2/3rds of the LEDs. I will for sure post pictures when I am done both here and at instructables just to share what I have made! In the meantime, head over to http://www.theledart.com/ and check out what is there!

2012-09-29T12:11:00.000-06:00

Trebuchet Pumpkin Chukin'

So today there was a Pumpkin Chucking contest to promote engineering co-curriculars. I was on the Chem E Car team and today we got first place (a close one!). Here are some pictures and videos of the fantastic machines at the competition.

Team 1: (Chem E Car)

Team 2: (Snowmobile / Baja)

Team 3: (Robotics / UAV)

Doctor Who: A Timey-Wimey Paradox...

2012-09-25T14:54:00.003-06:00

http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/4915/doesnt-the-doctor-who-episode-blink-have-a-paradox

I have a problem with the Doctor Who timeline in several episodes. For example, in the 10th Doctor episode, ”Blink”, the Doctor and Martha Jones were trapped in 1969 and are able to leave a message for Sally in 2007 to assist them getting back the TARDIS, which was stuck in 2007. After the problem was solved,

Sally encountered the Doctor in 2008, but at that time the Doctor didn’t even know Sally, and Sally passed the Doctor the clues to escape from 1969 – in particular, the DVD Easter Egg script that Larry wrote in 2007.

In my point of view, Sally wouldn’t be able to solve the problem if the Doctor didn’t know about Sally before the Weeping Angel sent them back to 1969, and the Doctor can’t leave a message to Sally in 1969, because the Doctor couldn’t know the exact events that would happen in 2007.

Sally needed to know about all this before the Doctor was trapped, and her source of information is the Doctor, and at that time the Doctor don’t know about the trouble he was going to encounter.

This complex timeline of Doctor Who is a “chicken and egg” paradox, isn’t it? There are other examples of this in Doctor Who, such as:

The 11th Doctor episode ”The Big Bang” - how did the Doctor get out of the Pandorica?
The 10th and 11th Doctor “River Song” story arc.

I think this is also called the Bootstrap Paradox. Information/item created from nothing. An example being a man going back in time to give himself a time machine which he then uses himself to give to himself. Where did the time machine come from in the first place?

Dog Steals Cabbage

2012-09-25T14:50:00.001-06:00

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

2012-09-25T14:45:00.002-06:00

re-posted from scrambledhenfruit

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 box (7.4 oz) Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix -not sugar free- all 10 packets (I found this in my grocery store near the hot chocolate mixes.)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups all purpose flour

1 bag Kraft Caramels (14 oz)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment. (You really need the parchment!)
In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
With your mixer (or an energetic spoon) cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.
Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.
Refrigerate for about an hour. (If you're really impatient you don't have to do this, but it makes it so much easier to work with.)
When you are ready to bake, unwrap your caramels.
Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut. (I used a rounded cookie scoop-full. My scoop holds about a Tablespoon.)
Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets 2 inches apart.
Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Please don't over-bake! Once the cookies are done, slide the parchment off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment or on a rack.) If you forget about them and they cool too much and stick to your parchment, put them into the freezer for a few minutes and they'll pop right off.
Yield: about 4 dozen, depending on how large you make your cookies (or how many caramels have been snitched out of your bag before you begin.) Store in an airtight container.