Strong finish to Chemistry A.C.S. degree program

Top: PDA chromatogram at 280 nm absorbance (the large peak at 3.7 min is caffeine). Bottom Left: ESI mass spectrum of (-)-epicatechin. Bottom Right: MS/MS on (-)-epicatechin [M+H]+ adduct ion

So recently I wrapped up the undergraduate Chemistry A.C.S degree program over at Central Connecticut State University. The picture you see (above) shows some of the results from a really cool project I worked on the last couple of months; I couldn’t think of a better way to finish off my chemistry training.

I developed an LC-MS/MS method for identifying and quantifying flavanols in tea samples. (This was done as part of an instrumental analysis course designed to expose students to analytical chemistry before graduate school.)

Flavanols are antioxidant compounds found in tea leaves, and current scientific literature has established tentative health benefits to their dietary consumption. The above screenshot was taken on a sample of “Salada - Original Black” tea that I brought into the lab from my kitchen. In the above picture, the Xcalibur subpanes are highlighting mass spectrometry data from (-)-epicatechin.

Again, how cool is this?

I paid around $2,100 for this class and I am 100% certain that I got my money’s worth. On top of the high quality, one-on-one instruction, I received training on state of the art instrumentation… And in addition to mastery of the lecture material, I got to characterize my current morning tea :)

Above: My current morning oatmeal and tea stash.

Spring Update: School, New Music and Summer Plans

Peaceful springtime spectral acquisitions…

Spring Update:

School is school. Slowly but surely the syllabi (is there a plural word for “syllabus”?) are getting completed. Assignments are getting done, topics are being studied, grades are being returned…

Yuck. School updates are always boring. I’m getting good grades this semester, so you can infer (and you’d be right) that 90% of my waking hours are spent on school. The summer will be here soon though, and that will bring lots of music creation and overall enjoyment.

I’m considering releasing a new Radioactive EP this summer. There was a little period about 3 weeks ago where I made several new songs basically all in one weekend. I’m proud of these recent works and they just need some fine touches on the EQ, compression, and arrangement.

I already have the graphic design done and I still have a few leftover tracks that I did not include on “In Search of Southeast Asia”, I don’t foresee any trouble putting together a quality 20ish minutes of an EP.

Anyways, I hope your various life situations are doing good, and that everything is going as smoothly as can be expected. Thank you for reading this. <3 P.L.U.R.

- Jordan

Book Review #2 - China In The 21st Century: What Everyone Needs To Know

5/5 stars

recommended

This book filled a notable gap in my cold war history knowledge. That for me was worth the read alone. I had always been a big fan of reading about the USSR and Stalin (and the Russian revolution before that). I had a big gap in my knowledge when it came to Maoism and all the cold war events that were taking place concurrently in the PRC. This book filled in those gaps. It’s also very important to say that this book also gave me a glimpse of the complex (and confusing) ebb and flow of the dynastical history of ancient China.

Towards the end of the book, the focus turns to the international relations of China and the USA. It could be argued, that this is the most crucial knowledge provided, considering it’s likely China will be a world superpower at some point in our lifetimes. If you are a fan of history but have some gaps in your China background, I would recommend this book highly.

Technical details:

The book has a very unique structure, such that the chapters all answer questions. This unique layout (having chapters represent questions, and having these questions come in logical order) makes returning to previous topics to brush up on them a breeze. Interestingly, this layout helps you learn the material very efficiently. I’m kind of surprised academic textbooks don’t really ever have this type of format, because I found it immediately useful. For example, having read through the following several questions/chapters a few different times, I know that the chronological order of events goes: The Hundred Flowers Campaign > The Anti-Rightist response campaign > The Great Leap Forward > The Cultural Revolution response to the Great Leap backlash.

You’ll be able to learn your favorite parts of Chinese history easily, all in their chronological context. This is the genius of the layout of the book, I haven’t really read a history book that was formatted this way, and since reading this…  I think more should be.

Book Review #1 - Putin: His Downfall and Russia’s Coming Crash

5/5 stars

recommended

I recommend you read this book. It was a very informative read and I’m glad I picked it out. The intro to the book was a very pleasant crash course on Russia’s interference in American politics (This book was written in 2017, so for the most part, you’re getting current enough information to learn a lot from). The author did a good job explaining their interference with the 2016 US presidential election. You’ll learn why exactly Paul Manafort is in jail, why Wikileaks was such a huge factor, and you’ll learn about the alleged FSB connection to the Guccifer 2.0 hacks. This is all worth knowing about, especially if you don’t follow the news cycle very closely and aren’t very informed about the background of and the extent to the Russian’s interfering in our elections (yours truly! I’m really glad the author included all this).

The next ¼ of the book is a biography on Vladimir Putin. You’ll learn the details of his unlikely (yet almost destined) rise to the top of Russia’s post-USSR political structure. The second half of the book is the most interesting in my opinion. You could get away with just reading the second half and you’d come away greatly benefited. The author picks several key dynamics in terms of Russia and its foreign policy/national interests to explain in depth. He then details the potential moves Russia will have to make in the future based on their current realities.

You’ll learn about:

• Why Russia has oligarchs and how they got so rich.

• Why the Russia economy is oil dependent.

• Why Russia will likely spark a ‘race to the Arctic’ among the United States, Canada, Finland, Greenland

• Why Russia is at war in Ukraine.

• The potential future dynamics between a rising China and Russia. The author talks about Kazakhstan being so geopolitically crucial to both Russia and China that in the future it might be plausible to see a Ukraine annexation situation there... Potentially with either Russia OR China being the one doing the annexing! VERY interesting stuff.

Technical details:

This book has a lot of information packed into it, considering its sort of a small book and quick read. I noticed about 5-6 typos and sloppy sentence structure (the majority of which seemed to be at the beginning of the book). I sensed the author's philosophical worldview (in terms of international relations) to be a mixture of constructivism and liberalism. I feel some of his outlook in terms of “Russia being destined to fail” based on its current structure is assuming too much. The author (in my opinion) is discounting the possibility that an economically globalized, values-based, democratic political framework for nation states (like how the EU and America have currently) might end up being a liability instead of an inherent advantage like how it has been for us in America. It’s an alternative point of view that he didn’t really explore much.

Radioactive Album now available!

Finally, things have come to pass and the official Radioactive album is released! "In Search Of Southeast Asia" (runtime 64:48 mins) is now available for purchase in both digital and physical form. I'm currently working on fine-tuning the web store... so In the meantime, purchases can be made either in-person or through the Contact page of this website (we are currently accepting PayPal transactions). Thank you for your interest and please make sure to periodically check this website… There will be a refining of the site taking place behind the scenes with a lot of new stuff and things coming! <- the bang symbol :)

- Jordan

June and beyond

Album release date is now set to September 1st! School has been (fortunately AND unfortunately) my main focus and priority. It's frustrating to have a finished product just sitting here on my computer. I'm very proud of the album design. The front cover came out amazing and the back cover is awesome too. These CD's are going to look great once they are printed out and burned. Attached at the bottom of this posting is my grades for the spring '18 semester. That is as equally important to include as the graphic design. 

So with that 'house keeping' out of the way, I will share with you the following information: School is going well. I'm currently studying my balls off for an entrance exam I'm taking in 3ish weeks. -_- it's stressful but I got this. I haven't read any good books lately because I've been so busy. In January I was reading "Angels of Grozny". It’s about this European journalist documenting life post-Chechen civil war. This was one of the few times in life were I had to abort reading a book. I tried so hard to finish it! I had 100 pages left but it became too awful. The book had potential but it wasn't quite what I was looking for in a Chechnya war nonfiction book.. she kept focusing on personal stories/information that was irrelevant and not even interesting -_- 

Anyways i'll cyu around.

- Jordan

knowledge.