florida bobsled

Ok, maybe not a bobsled but still something you usually dont get to do in Florida, Sliding on the ice. Its been below freezing for a few nights and while at work cleaning the planes I realized that all of the water and ice I had been dumping from the galley had frozen onto the beltloader. Last night my coworker and i got the brilliant idea of letting the belt freeze up and then using trash bags to slide down the belt.

belt frozen and ready to go.

Jamie decided to go headfirst and pull a superman move.

I went feet first just in case I wasnt going to be able to stop when I got to the bottom.

I got a little braver on the second run.















and managed to crash into a big pile of ice at the bottom. Short lived but we had a blast!!

Todays Project Saltwater Reef Tank

Back a few years ago I had put together a saltwater reef aquarium. Lots of work to get everything going but once I did it was a self sustaining, balanced ecosystem with no mechanical filtration except for a protein skimmer, in simple terms a device that injects air into the water to create bubbles and cause foam which traps organic compounds before they begin to decompose. pretty much the same thing ocean waves do when they create seafoam.

Once its up and going the entire system takes care of itself, nitrifing bacteria colonize calcified coral skeletons AKA live rock. the live rock becomes the natural biofilter in the system. Invertebrates such as snails, small hermit crabs and cleaner shrimp are introduced into the system as cleanup crews. they control unwanted algae and sift through the dirt and rock cleaning up all the debris.

Now that we have a house of our own and arent renting I decided to set up my reef once again. First thing I needed to do was change the color of my tank stand. It was originally pine that was coated with polyurethane clearcoat but because all of the cabinetry in the house is a red mahogany color and I am going to use the tank as a room divider between the dining/kitchen areas I wanted the tank to match the rest of the cabinets.

Stripping clearcoat from wood is not as easy as it may seem. I started out with 80 grit sandpaper and a small electric sander but after about an hour of sanding and getting nowhere fast I decided to go the chemical stripper route. The first chemical stripper i bought was a cheap all purpose stripper, I learned my lesson in a hurry, you get what you pay for.

The stuff was useless and I ended up going back to the store and buying a can of Formsbys wood stripper. Brush it on, wait 30 mins, scrape the finish off. It worked pretty well but still not good enough. In my frustration I looked over at my DA sander and air compressor and decided to give it a shot. It slapped on a disk of 60 grit paper , fired up the DA and it tore through the clearcoat easily, a little to easily actually. The DA left some deep swirls in the wood that werent so noticeable on the bare wood but when I hit it with the stain all of those areas got really dark.

At that point I decided , screw it, its staying that way. Once the stain soaked in i coated the entire thing in polyurethane clear. I also needed to close in the back of the stand since it was going to be seen from all sides, simple fix, some furring strips and a 24"x24" sheet of plywood and the stand looks like it was made that way.

here are some pics of the finished stand











The next thing I had to do was build a canopy to house the VHO (Very High Output) lighting for the tank. My lighting system should put out 440 watts of 10,000k (sunlight spectrum)light. Most types of corals need intense lighting to thrive and this should give me enough to keep almost any type of coral.

for the canopy I used 1x4" lumber with 2"x2" posts in the corners, i made it 14"high with a 2" overlap that will go over the top of the tank.
Im no carpenter so Im pretty happy with how it came out.








heres the tank sitting on the stand with the canopy frame on top. I still need to cover the frame with plywood and build a hinged lid for the top.




thats all for today, ill post updated pics when the stand/canopy are complete and lights have been installed.

How to Read Nutritional Labels in Chinese

One of the biggest road blocks in my adventure to figure out what Ive been eating here in Taiwan is nutrition labels. The labels offer similar nutritional information as the USA but not identically, and not in the same order, in Traditional Chinese, and serving sizes are metric. There are a few conversations on the age-old Formosa boards that offer some non-helpful tips, and some tips that are totally wrong. No, 7-11 does not list nutritional information in English, *sigh. I also ran across this very detailed but also confusing pamphlet from Hong Kong.

The nutrition labels usually offer the following facts, and typically in this order:

?? (Re4 Liang4) Energy (units = ?? / da1 ka3 / Kcal) 

??? (Dan4 Bai2 Zhi4) Protein (unit =  ?? / gong1ke4 / gram)

?? (Zhi1 Fang2) Total Fat (unit =  ?? / gong1ke4 / gram)

  ???? (Bao3 He2 Zhi1 Fang2) Saturated Fat (unit =  ?? / gong1ke4 / gram)

  ???? (Fan3 Shi4 Zhi1 Fang2) Trans Fat (still legal?) (unit =  ?? / gong1ke4 / gram)

????? (Tan4 Shui3 Hua4 He2 Wu4) Carbohydrates (unit =  ?? / gong1ke4 / gram)

? (Na4) Sodium (unit =  ??/ hao2ke4 / milligram)

? (Tang2) Sugar Not always listed (unit =  ?? / gong1ke4 / gram)

A less than complete list compared to the USA standard. I am not sure why sugar is broken out of the carbohydrate category. I guess you could figure out which fats are unsaturated by subtracting the two listed fats (saturated and trans) from total fat. Noticeably the vitamins and minerals are usually absent. I find foods marketing themselves as nutritious list that out. 

Above you can see the nutrition label for lemon tea, a very common drink in Taiwan. It does not list sugar as a nutritional item, which is a little dodgy in my opinion. Instead it lists total carbohydrates. Knowing that 1 gram of sugar contributes 4 calories we can guess that most of the calories are coming from sugars. Most sweet teas do not contain fiber! 

What is very different if you are coming from the states in serving size. Most often in Taiwan a serving is 100 milliliters (??/ hao2sheng1 /.42 cups) or 100 grams (?? / gong1ke4 /3.5 oz) whether you should actually be consuming that quantity in a sitting or not. For example you would probably not be interested in eating 100 grams of the gooey thick bitter black sesame paste I am using as example here. Alternatively, you would be likely to chug a whole over sized tea carton on a hot day, and may be shocked to realize you drank 6.5 servings. You will probably need to do some additional math as to how much a "you-sized" serving or portion will be. 

Serving size and servings per container are usually not listed above the nutritional facts. Often they are found next door along with ingredients, country of origin, and other details I cant read. Above you can see that the container has 250 ?? (grams) of sesame paste. If you arent confident in recognizing your Traditional Chinese characters go ahead and assume the biggest number is the total grams or milliliter. A containers total weight or volume is also not always listed on the front of the package. Looking to this area pretty much tells you everything  else you need to know. 

A final scenario exists, on occasion food nutrition IS offered in a suggested portion. Here is a can of good ole Quaker oats. It lists 37.5 grams of oats as a portion which would make about 1 cup cooked. You can read up top in Chinese: ???? (mei3 yi2 fen4 liang / every serving) and ???? (ben3 bao1 zhuang1 han2 / servings per container). 

Anyone other special knowledge out there on Taiwanese food labeling? Please share any comments or criticisms.