Longan - A brief history and its health benefits

Bought some longan at the supermarket the other day. I remember the first time I bought that fruit, I loved it very much. This time when I bought the fruit I thought I do a little research on its history and nutritional value.

Longan is a popular fruit in South-East Asia. It is also known as "dragon eye" because of the shape and color of the inside. It's origin is debated, some say it came from China and some argue it came from India. Wherever it came from it's now popular all over South and South-East Asia.

The fruit reminds me of Lychees, which is also one of my favorites. They both belong to the same family Sapindaceae also known as the Soapberry family. The botanical name of Longan is Dimocarpus longan.

It seems the fruit is used as a remedy for imsomnia. I'll find tonight if there is any difference in the quality of my sleep. It has a some vitamins and minerals, it doesnt seem like it's packed with a lot of vitamins and minerals though. Notable minerals are Potassium, Phosphorus and Magnesium. For a more detailed information click here:

Leaking A/C Compressor

Well...it's been a while again. I did play with the UV flashlight and found out what was the problem. I first injected a UV dye that I bought from O'Reilly. It came in a can and needed no hoses or guns to inject the dye. The can had a fitting for the low pressure side of the A/C. All I had to do was insert the fitting in the can into the low pressure A/C port and press it in and hold it for about 3 seconds and the dye will get injected into the system.

First time I tried that I messed it up a little and the dye sprayed all over the place (But it was so cool to look at when I shined the UV flashlight!). So I waited for a few days and looked all over the place but the dye never showed up, was a little disappointed by that. A few days later, thought I'll look under the car to see if there's any leak in the underside of the condenser or compressor. So I pulled the car up on a ramp and went under to take a good look...and voila...there it was...bright green dye all around the underside of the compressor!

Seems like the compressor seal is leaking. I am wondering if I can change the seal, but it involves a lot of work starting from removing the compressor...or should I just get a new compressor...Haven't made uo my mind yet...but for now it's cool weather so I am not going to bother about it now. Plus I have so many other things going on right now to mess with the compressor. Kind of disappointed by the compressor since I got it changed it about 3 years ago. Well...I am not going to worry about it for now.

UV flashlight and car A/C leak

I just ordered a UV flashlight today, excited about that. It’s a 9 LED long wave UV light (The one in the picture). I did some research on this topic, seems that long wave UV is safer than short wave. The one I am getting is about 395nm wavelength. Short wave UV can cause damage to eyes and skin but long wave UV is safer. Long wav UV is also called ‘black light’. There are many interesting uses for a UV flash light. They can be used to detect counterfeit currency, driver’s license, visas, etc, detect pet urine stains, detect leaks in A/C systems by injecting a UV dye into the system, find scorpions in the dark (they glow in UV light) and observe minerals in UV light. Many minerals shine brilliantly in UV light. I may take some cool pictures and post it later here. Also, currencies, and many official documents have hidden pictures or text printed in them using UV sensitive ink. I’ll probably take a few pictures of them as well.

But the main reason I am buying the UV flashlight is to detect a leak in my car A/C. I think I have a slow leak in my A/C, but the mechanic was not able to find it. He injected the dye and waited for some time for it to show up, but he couldn’t find any, and I believe it’s because the leak was too small to show up in a few minutes. It’s been a few days now and I can feel my A/C cooling has gone down. So hopefully when I shine UV light the leak would show up. I hope it’s not in the evaporator or expansion valve which may be harder to reach, and more work, and more expensive to fix…I hope it’ll be an easy fix; I’m keeping my fingers crossed….But for now I am just excited about the UV flashlight

yay...weekend is near

Glad that the weekend is near...I plan to do biking if the weather is good. I also plan to write something in my blog too. I've been behind again, I need to make writing a habit, till then it's gonna be a struggle...but ya I'll be back again soon...

Using time productively

I cant imagine it's been a while already since the last time I wrote. It's so easy to get distracted by wasteful entertainment that is of no benefit to the mind. It just weakens my mind and my mental capability. I need to stay focused on things that benefit me and not get carried away by things that waste my time, and waste my self.

I have a big plus in this matter though. I don't watch TV (my biggest problem is the computer). I find that for many people TV is just part of their everyday life. They cant live without TV. Everything they think about, talk about is somehow related to TV. I see such people around me all the time. They discuss so seriously about which idol will be voted out and how they got disappointed by someone's exit, and different characters from TV shows that I have no idea about...in this regard I'm very different from the crowd...and I am happy I am.

I am glad that I am not part of the crowd that switches off their minds and spends hours in front of their TVs not even realizing that they are capable of producing something on their own, that something original can come out of their being. Most of the time it's only one-way traffic...information keeps flowing into them, it doesn't get processed (there's no time for that because the next flood of information flows right after one) nor does anything original of their own flow out.

I am thankful that I realized how TV can make a person less productive. But I still need to control the unproductive time I spend on the computer...I still need to bring out my thoughts and ideas and write more...

Why write blog?

I always wanted to write. I started off at a very early age by writing short stories and later on articles and essays on various topics. I sent few to newspapers but though none got published, I gained big satisfaction in doing so. Later I wrote a few blogs here and there but not anything too serious; I was too busy with school and less serious about things in general. But lately this passion to write got rekindled in me, I think probably because of the revival of my reading habit.

I think there is a good correlation between reading and writing. Reading more encourages me to write something on my own. Writing something on my own encourages me to read more. I think I begin to see why I lost my passion to write...because I had been reading less. Too much TV and movies and music and internet affected my reading habit.

Nowadays I've been reading a lot. Books, online articles, blogs and I've been commenting on many web articles. I noticed that many were interested by my comments and views, and it interested me much to read their replies and reply them. But I realized that all those views, comments and replies that I contributed were scattered all over the web world and there is no way I can go back to find those or lead people in to reading my views. Then I realized I need a blog. A blog where I can write my views, let others read and comment and I can reply, and I can always go back to read all that. This is why I am here, writing in this page. I am very excited about the articles I plan to write and the various topics I plan to discuss. I think this is so healthy for my mind, and so normal-to read and write...express myself freely. Watching TV, movies or music or playing games are all objective, but writing is so subjective, something that is of me, that comes out from me. I am very excited.