Psst. Hey.
Seven years.
When I started blogging seven years ago, I would never have guessed I would still be doing it in 2013. Never, ever, EVER would have guessed.
Hell, I started it on a whim.
And yet here we are.
Anyway.
I haven’t planned anything ‘cause I’ve been crazy busy and I only remembered that this was my anniversary about an hour ago.
So instead I’d like to thank all my loyal followers, both long-time (MATT!) and newer. I don’t understand why you follow, but I certainly appreciate that you do. Feel free to leave comments. I love comments. I promise I’ll be better about replying to them once this psycho semester is over.
I’d also like to thank Aneel and E’raina who were the two who peer-pressured me into blogging in the first place. Doing so has been very cathartic at times and at other times has just let me get out all the sludge that builds up in my brain to make room for semi-normal thought.
20 more years to go!
I Blog a Blog of Bloggery Blogness!
As I said in my Facebook status:
Number of pages this essay has to be: 15
Number of pages it is: 45
Percent of essay I still have to write to make it at least somewhat complete: ~60%
Dammit, Vancouver, you’re still screwing with me.
I don’t think it will be possible to cut this down to the required length by Monday.
NNNH.
Here’s a survey.
1.) What are 3 things on your wish list and why?
Ace my discrete math final, ace my calc II final, ace my computer science final. All the reasons are the same: because school is pretty much all I’ve got going for me.
2.) What do you miss about your childhood?
Not too much. I guess I miss my old routines more than anything. I’m a routine type of person.
3.) What do you do on your spare time on the weekends?
“Spare time?” What is this concept?
4.) What do you appreciate most in your life?
The Universe?
5.) Would you rather be rich or healthy?
Manly.
6.) If you could go back in time would you and why?
Yes. Leibniz.
7.) Favorite game as a child?
I have no idea. Does our made-up game of Coos count?
8.) What is your dream career?
Either what I’m doing now or something very close to it: a stats teacher!
9.) What do you do in your free time?
See question 3.
10.) Favorite clothing stores?
Goodwill, fools.
11.) What TV shows can’t you live without?
I still love Metalocalypse more than pretty much every TV show. Season 5, where are you?!
12.) 3 things you need in your life are:
Intelligence, more intelligence, and some new socks.
13.) What can’t you sleep without?
A fan.
14.) What are you currently a nerd for?
I don’t really like to self-identify as a “nerd,” but I suppose I would say statistics, math/mathematicians, Leibniz (though I think the appropriate phrase here would be “stalker of”), and some particular games (Half Life and Quake for sure, and probably Fallout 3).
15.) What is your favorite seasoning?
Did you know I used to get “seasoning” mixed up with “seasons” and was always bothered by the fact that no one acknowledged the “pepper” and “salt” seasons, which were clearly in between winter and fall (pepper) and spring and summer (salt)? I was a freaking idiot.
16.) What is your favorite wild animal?
Uhhh…elephant seal? I don’t know.
17.) Name 3 of your favorite childhood shows:
Eek! The Cat, Tailspin, and freaking Reading Rainbow, yo.
18.) If you could live as a character in a movie who would it be?
OOOH I wanna be Dr. Searle in Sunshine. I don’t care that he dies, he’s awesome.
19.) Favorite vegetable?
BROCCOLI
20.) Favorite Fruit?
Apples I suppose.
21.) If you had a dragon what would you name it?
Octavius Pyrotechnic Lawrence Wellington Joe III
22.) What do you put on hotdogs?
I don’t eat hotdogs more than like once per every five years. But I put ketchup on them and nothing else.
23.) Do you play online games?
MINECRAFT!
24.) What’s your favorite way to get inspired?
Walking.
25.) Do you have a middle name?
Indeed I do.
Graaaaaaaaaaaades
So I think my calculus II test scores are the first few terms of an infinite alternating series that converges to 95.
Those of you who remember your tests grades: did yours ever follow a particular pattern? Depending on how many tests are scheduled for a class in a semester, I get the following patterns:
Two tests:
Test 1: High A
Test 2: High A
Three tests:
Test 1: Moderate A
Test 2: Low A
Test 3: High A
Four tests:
Test 1: Moderate A
Test 2: High A
Test 3: Low A
Test 4: High A
(and if there’s a fifth test as a final, then I usually do okay on that one)
Linear Algebra was the exception to this…I just had all Bs in place of the As and that’s why that’s been the ONE CLASS in which I haven’t gotten an A.
It’s the world “algebra,” man. We still don’t get along.
END!
Puh.
This damn English essay, man.
So in sharp contrast to just two days ago, I now have 15 pages of drabble for my Larger World essay in non-fic. Which is cool—that’s the necessary length—except for the fact that I’m probably only a fourth done with what I want to say.
So I don’t know if I should just write all this nonsense out and do some DRAMATIC CUTTING ACTION, or just start over with a smaller scope in mind.
I’ll have to ask my professor tomorrow exactly how long is “too long” for this last assignment. Though he’s already been more than patient with my spazzing over this freaking essay. It seems like the longer I know about an assignment the more I end up botching it.
TOO STRESSED TO BLOG SORRY.
I want spaghetti.
500 miles this year!
Graph (might have to click to enlarge):
Note: some of those actually occurred on the same day, so the daily totals are actually usually higher than 9 miles on the weekends.
I know it’s not a LOT of miles, but it’s pretty good considering that I spend about 14 of my waking hours on campus doing schoolwork.
So my realistic goal for the year is a total of 1,500 miles; my (probably) unattainable goal is 2,000.
We’ll see how it goes down this summer.
And I’ve been putting my walking-related posts under the “health” category, but I think I’ll start putting them under “travel.” Because really.
Oh, also: I’m addicted to Minecraft now. Or at least I’m getting there. I’ll have more time to be addicted once the semester’s over (NOTHING COMES BETWEEN ME AND MY SCHOOLWORK, NOTHING!).
Dr. Jones and Dr. Free are BACK IN BUSINESS
30 minutes of top-notch surgery. I love Michael and Gavin so much.
And here’s all of the AH boys playing WWE ’13, because oh my god.
ZOMG KLEIN AND KOLMOGOROV
(Again, sorry for spamming y’all with mathematicians.)
(Also, I’m using this as a distraction from the fact that I’m a complete moron who will never amount to anything ever.)
HOKAY.
SO.
Two badass math fellows were born on this day.
1. Felix Klein (isn’t that a badass name?)
Klein was a German mathematician born on this day in 1849. He is most famous for the non-orientable surface named after him: The Klein bottle!
Picture (from Wiki):
A Klein bottle is similar to a Mobius strip except unlike the Mobius, it is a closed manifold rather than an open one. And while a Mobius strip can be imbedded in 3-D space (which is why we can make them with just a piece of paper and some tape!), a Klein bottle cannot.*
2. Andrey Kolmogorov
Kolmogorov, a Soviet mathematician born on this day in 1903, was known for quite a lot of things, but for me the thing that jumps out is the nonparametric statistical test he had a hand in developing.
The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is one used when your data just aren’t being normal but you still need to examine them somehow. In particular, the test is used when you want to determine if two datasets differ significantly. It gets around the issue of nonparametric-ness by making no assumption about the distribution of data in either set.
I’d go into how, but it’s late and I have to get up early tomorrow and if I start talking about stats I won’t shut up for days, so make me promise I’ll do a blog on the K-S test later.
But yeah. Two awesome math dudes today! Woo!
*That doesn’t stop people from making Klein-esque models. If you want a Klein bottle model, go here.
Why do I even freaking bother?
WhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbother
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whydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbother
whydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbother
whydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbother
whydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbother
whydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbotherwhydoIbother
Suckity Suck Suckerson McGee
According to the internet, Isaac Newton is made of “man, Romance, and herpa derp. With a dash of Ramen.” That freaking made my day.
Anyway.
Best thing about tonight’s concert: Bukvich song! Freaking awesome.
Worst thing about tonight’s concert: Bukvich song! But only because it’s a badass song but there are no recordings of it yet so I can’t download it and listen to it whenever I want.
I was going to say something else, but I seriously can’t remember what it was now.
Sorry these suck.
Space Doctor: “Take Two Moons and Call Me in the Morning”
So I’m apparently into self-torture and mental masochism because I’m writing about Vancouver for my long essay.
Part of the reason is because I can’t write in the first place and so my original idea got scrapped.
Another part of the reason is that I’m dumb and can’t think of anything else to write about.
But I think the main reason is because even though I’ve written quite a bit about grad school here on my blog, I’ve yet to really write about my relationship with the city of Vancouver itself. I’ve yet to really write about how my walking routine probably saved my life up there. And I feel like I need to write about those things.
I doubt that a final essay in an intermediate non-fiction class is the place to do so, but hell, I don’t have anything else and this has been pressing against the forefront of my mind for quite some time now.
So that’s that.
In other news: this semester needs to die.
