Smell The Heat

Can you smell heat? No, you can't use your nose to experience heat. But you can use your nose to smell something that has excessive heat. Some materials contain chemicals that emit smells because energy in the form of heat breaks the chemical bonds and transform it from solid to liquid or to gas. Gas travels through air and that chemically-polluted air is what we smell. NERD ALERT.

Today, while in the labs, I smelled heat every time we turned on the main switch. Okay, so we burnt something. Basically we were working with a 240V Power supply module that has to be connected with some resistive and inductive loads alongside rectifier diodes. The outputs are monitored in a software oscilloscope. Somehow, I (ehem! or my partner) mistakenly made some bad connections in the process of assembling one of the circuits. Really, you can't be perfect in a situation where there are more than dozens of wires in front of you. Nearly everything was a blur but thankfully the GA was cute and helpful so I still remain collected. Though it was a smelly practice, I could gracefully answer the theoretical viva afterwards.

My Project Team is awesome. We went out last Wednesday, the five of us. We talked and got to know each other along the journey, away from the usual engineering talks and had food together. A team mate shared this mint pills and it was so minty that it tasted more or less like wasabi when you take only 3 of it! Since then, I've been taking mint pills. It's so addictive. We went to a lot of stores, but none had the component that we wanted. I cannot forget this one Chinese company who was rude to us just because we didn't purchase their product. But there's also an uncle at a machinery shop who was really kind with his knowledge even though his shop was messy and dirty unlike the aforementioned company. May his business be blessed with good fortune.

I've been reading this one book since last week, but I'm not even halfway done by today. That's how little leisure time I have these days.. so uncool! Happy birthday to my beloved mother.