In This Blog: Claudia Ruins Another Pair of Shoes
In news that is likely quite shocking: 1,450 miles of walking will murder a pair of shoes.
I’ve had my Kinvara 5’s since September 8, 2014. Since then, I’ve walked 1,450 miles in them while up here in Calgary. Have some walking stats!
Total distance: 1,450.28 miles (2,334 kilometers)
Total steps: 3,062,328 steps
Total time: 370 hours (15.41 days)
Most mileage in a single day: 22.9 miles (April 29)
Least (non-zero) mileage in a single day: 0.37 miles (April 11) (We just walked from Nate’s place to the new condo and back)
Boxplots!
1,450 miles is approximately the distance from Vancouver, BC to Winnipeg, MB. Or, if you want to go north-south, it’s approximately the distance from Milwaukee, WI to Miami, FL.
Pretty snazzy.
So unless I die or something, I’m pretty sure I’ll hit 1,500 miles by the end of the year (which was my goal). If I can get to 2,000, I’d be super happy.
WOO! My Kinvara 5’s can now retire. It’s time for the new ones to earn their stay.
KINVARAAAAAAAAAS!
I got my new shoes today!
(Picture from website because I can’t find the picture I took of the ones I bought)
These are the Kinvara 6’s. I actually had to buy a size 8 (which I’ve never done; I’m usually a size 6 in most shoes or, in the Kinvaras, a size 7.5) because the 6’s are narrower than the 5’s and my feet are like freaking flippers.
But no holes in the soles!
Can’t wear them until Friday, though. Those are the rules.
Also, from the Canada Revenue Agency: “On April 24, the CRA issued a communication to some Canadians that referred to an incorrect filing deadline for 2014 income tax and benefit returns of May 5, 2015, rather than April 30, 2015….As a result, and at Minister Findlay’s request, 2014 income tax and benefit returns filed by midnight on May 5, 2015, will not incur interest or penalties.”
Hahaha.
Summer Plans (well, some of them)
Okay, so it’s super late, but I have news that I can finally talk about (this was what I hinted at on Saturday).
Nate and I will be leaving in the middle of May to go on a three-week-long road trip through the western US. We’re going to see things like the California redwoods, Yellowstone, Four Corners, the Grand Canyon, Vegas, and a major league baseball game in San Francisco. We’ll also be in Moscow for a few days.
I will post pictures, of course, probably on here and on Facebook (even though I never use Facebook anymore).
WOO!
It’s been awhile, but…
What I say: I love Passion Pit
What I mean: Sleepyhead. I love Sleepyhead.
I have a problem.
The “Claudia, Why Do You Have So Many Trinkets?” Blog
‘Sup.
In the wake of EXCITING CONDO NEWS comes the NOT SO EXCITING “I HAVE TO PACK UP ALL MY CRAP AGAIN” realization. Joy of joys.
Anyway.
I got to looking around at the stuff on my shelves and I realized that I really do have a lot of little…thingies.
Just thingies.
Examples:
This little Space Needle thingy. I like it ‘cause of the color.
This crown thing. I think it’s for rings, but since I have no rings (or any that I ever wear, haha), I just keep this on the top shelf because it’s pretty.
Itty bitty hippo!
All my Lego dudes and miscellaneous other Lego things. These were what I used in my old Wacky Peter videos.
This super old iPod Nano that hardly holds a charge but I keep JUST IN CASE.
This clay dino that I made way back when. I made him so that he fits my hand nicely.
Sparkly bird! It’s actually a photo holder (it’s got a ring at the top of it), but I just have it on my shelf.
Skunk. This was Raymond Cat’s toy, but he didn’t like it and I thought it was cute, so I kept it, haha.
Wobbly dude.
Yeah. I don’t have any real use for any of these, but most of them have been with me for awhile, so I just hang on to them, haha.
ZwA~!
Today involved planning for yet another bit of exciting news, but similar to the condo, it’s not *quite* official yet, so I’m going to not mention it until it is.
In the meantime: a survey!
Which would you rather have if you had to, a broken leg or a broken arm?
If I get to pick which arm, I’d say arm (the left one). If I don’t get to pick, I guess I’d have to go with leg. If you think a pair of crutches would stop me from doing my walks, you don’t know me very well.
Do you read a daily newspaper?
I haven’t read a newspaper in a long time. I mostly go online if I want news.
Do you watch the news on TV?
That’s pretty much the only thing I watch on TV if I have it on (except for Chopped, haha).
Have you ever had anything published?
Not in anything apart from our high school’s lit journal thingy, no.
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Given how things have gone for me recently, I kind of have to, don’t I?
How many remote controls do you have in your house?
Two.
Have you ever been in a hot tub or sauna?
Yes, but I don’t like them. They’re too hot. (Hot damn.)
Have you ever had chicken pox?
When I was a kid, yes.
Do you own a lava lamp?
I used to!
What is your one major weakness?
Crap, I have to pick ONE? Um, I guess it’s that I frustrate myself with my own stupidity on pretty much a daily basis. I know that annoys other people and I try not to, but it’s hard to ignore sometimes.
What’s been the best decision you’ve made in your life so far?
Quitting UBC? Choosing to move to Calgary? I guess I would have never even considered going back to grad school if I hadn’t quit, so I’d say quitting UBC.
Holy hell, I’d STILL BE THERE if I had gone for my PhD. That’s the most distressing thought ever.
What’s been the worst decision you’ve made in your life so far?
I can’t say “going to UBC in the first place” because if I hadn’t gone there I wouldn’t be where I am now. So I’ll say moving to London, Ontario to try and go to school there. That whole thing was a disaster.
What words do you always struggle to spell type correctly?
Celsius, calendar, guarantee.
On a scale of 1-10, how happy would you say you are?
In general? Like a 9 lately.
On a scale of 1-10, how smart would you say you are?
This doesn’t even deserve a rating.
On a scale of 1-10, how funny would you say you are?
Haha, probably a 4.
On a scale of 1-10, how devious would you say you are?
Like a 2.
On a scale of 1-10, how awesome would you say you are?
Bro, I’m an 11. Totally.
On a scale of 1-10, how devilish would you say you are?
Not very. A 1, perhaps.
On a scale of 1-10, how nice/caring would you say you are?
I try to be a 10, but I’m probably more of a 7.
On a scale of 1-10, how bitchy would you say you are?
4 on average?
On a scale of 1-10, how polite would you say you are?
6? 7?
On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are?
Like a 2 at best.
If you could be any famous person who would you be and why?
Can they be dead? Can I be Johann Bernoulli? I could never be Leibniz, so I’ll pick one of his closest supporters.
What’s your favourite animal beginning with the letter A?
Annabelle! Haha.
What’s your favourite item of clothing beginning with the letter B?
The only one I can think of is “bra.” Bras are good.
WOO!
You know that “possibly good news” I mentioned a little more than a week ago? Well, now it’s official, so I can blog about it. Nate bought a condo that’s ridiculously close to both his place of employment and campus, and we’ll be moving there at the end of June.
How cool is that? Even cooler is the fact that it’s not a basement and has actual windows and a balcony and no one above us. I’m super excited.
Claudia’s Top Ten Reasons Why Round II of Grad School is better than Round I of Grad School
The semester is officially* OVER! We shall not discuss the Multivariate Analysis final. Instead, it’s time for a very important list.
Claudia’s Top Ten Reasons Why Round II of Grad School is better than Round I of Grad School (ordered from least important to most important)
10. I was excited to move to Calgary.
I didn’t give a crap about Vancouver when I moved there. UBC was the only school that accepted me, and so that’s where I went. Location didn’t really matter. This time I had a choice (sort of (and it was a hard one)), but I pretty much knew as soon as I was accepted at U of C that Calgary would be a cool place to live and that I wanted to move there.
9. I “fit in” here.
This isn’t too big of a deal to me, but it’s nice to be around people who are actually interested in the same stuff as I am, school-wise. When I was at UBC, I was the ONLY one in the quantitative psychology division of the department, and thus was kind of isolated. Here, we’re all together in the same program, which is nice.
8. I’m older now.
I GOTS TEH WISDOM!!!1!
Seriously though, I think being in grad school at 27 instead of 21 makes a huge difference. This is the most cliché thing ever, but I feel like I’m mature enough for grad school this time around. (And probably would have been at 23 or 24, too, but I was busy doing other things then. Like more undergrad.)
7. I actually have a solid math background now.
Well, as solid a math background as I can have. Surprisingly, a solid math background is helpful in statistics. Who would have guessed?
6. I actually give a crap this time.
I did NOT give a crap last time. Not one little itty bitty crap.
5. I’ve been through all this nonsense before and thus know I can do it.
There were a few times at UBC where I was positive I was not going to be able to make it through because I didn’t think I was the type to be able to complete and defend a thesis. But now I know!
4. It almost never rains here.
It almost never iraining in Vancouver. As you can tell by how far up this is on the list, weather was a major downside to Grad School Round I.
3. I get along with my supervisor here.
REALLY.
DAMN.
IMPORTANT.
NOT.
EVEN.
KIDDING.
2. I like what I’m doing now.
I guess I liked quant psych too, since I was practically doing a stats degree, but now it’s ALL ABOUT THE STATS, not just their application to psychology. And I’m just so damn happy to finally be doing JUST STATS, not stats mixed with some other crap because I’m too chicken to just do stats.
1. I have a reason for being in grad school this time.
I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do once I finished grad school back at UBC. Teach? Maybe. Work for the Census Bureau? Maybe. Who knows? But now that I KNOW I’m good at teaching stats and enjoy doing so immensely, that’s given me a very solid reason for being back at grad school. And that’s probably more important than all the other items on this list combined.
*Well okay, I still have to invigilate exams on Monday, but that’s easy.
iWant
WELL, CRAP.
Guess how much a new iPhone 4 costs on Amazon nowadays?
For the 32 GB version, about $150.
That’s SUPER CHEAP, yo.
And it doesn’t make it any easier for me to try and avoid getting an iPhone.
I mean, I really don’t need one. I only ever text as far as phone-related communication goes, and I can do that with my current phone just fine. And me + constant access to the internet would be a bad thing for pretty much everyone in the world. So really…I don’t need one.
But they’re pretty.
Damn you, Apple.
(Notice I’m looking up iPhones instead of studying. That’s because I’m pretty sure I’m at the point where any further studying would just be futile.)
BLUCH
Do you ever feel like a box of turds for no discernible reason?
That’s how I’m feeling today.
It might be because I didn’t walk to campus today. I wanted to give my feet a bit of a break because I’ve walked 71 miles over the past week, but maybe my body’s so used to the walking that it goes into “I’mma feel like garbage” mode if I don’t walk more than 5 miles in a day.
Sorry, body. I’ll do better tomorrow.
(P.S. Microsoft Word 2007 does not recognize the word “turds”)
In This Blog: Claudia Food
I haven’t made one of my salads in quite some time, but I made one tonight and it tasted freaking awesome. I’ll have to make them more often.
SO MUCH VEGGIE. How good does that look? Recipe here.
Vine Party
This guy’s Vines are great. I posted the Tim Hortons one awhile back, but there are others that are pretty fantastic, too. (Yes, I watch Vines, SHUT UP.)
Not Even Close
End of Story
wen u envented a nu furit an u turnt AF
Canadian Knock-Knock Joke
Nature w/ TRAM (this is my favorite)
Serious Question Tho
Good Luck, Ray!
UGH.
I will watch this at some point, but not right now.
Instead, I shall post the best Ray compilation vids (some of which I’ve posted here before) because that’s what I need right now.
Good luck, Ray!
END!
So today’s the last day of classes! All that’s left is my final for Multivariate Analysis, which is next Thursday.
And Nate, being the awesome person that he is, got me a present for the end of the semester:
It’s a coloring book! The designs are super intricate:
I’ll use this when I want to draw and I don’t have any ideas for designs.
(Which happens more often than I’d care to admit.)
Thanks, Nate!
busybusybusybusy
The good thing about 12-week semesters: the end of the semester doesn’t seem like it drags out for five years like it does with UI’s 16-week semesters.
The bad thing about 12-week semesters: when you’re used to 16-week semesters, it always seems like a real push to get everything done in that last week.
BLAH I HAVE NO TIME FOR BLOGGING, SORRY.
Last night I dreamt about fire
I never dream about fire.
It was a lot of fire, too; like half of the University of Idaho buildings were ablaze and about to come crashing down. I was in one of them, but I was totally calm. It was like I knew I was either going to be rescued or be killed, and I didn’t really care which.
(I got rescued.)
It kind of weirds me out. Seriously, I never, ever dream about fire. If I’m going to dream about an element, it’s going to be water. Though come to think of it, I haven’t had a water-related dream in quite some time, so who knows what that’s about. I’ve always heard that water in dreams is supposed to signify strong emotions—which makes a bit of sense for me, as I can remember a lot of my really intensely water-centric dreams happening during very bad emotional times—but I’ve had a lot of really strong good emotions lately and no water dreams. Maybe I get the water dreams just during the bad emotional times, not the good ones.
Ugh. Weird.
*quietly from corner of room* Noooooo…
So last night I hinted at possible exciting news, right? Well, today I’ve got some bad news (though it’s much less personal than the possible exciting news).
Ray is leaving Achievement Hunter.
Okay, I guess it’s not bad bad; he’s not being fired or anything like that and he’s not disappearing on us. He’ll be doing live streams on Twitch and will be coming back to work on X-Ray and Vav and other AH stuff every once and awhile. He just said that he wants to do streaming full-time and he’s not able to do that while working at AH/RT.
But it still makes me sad! Ray’s definitely my favorite of the group and has been since almost the very beginning (Michael was my first favorite, because he was the one that got me into AH). However, I might have to take a short little break from AH for awhile after he leaves this Friday, just because it’ll be sad to watch them and not see/hear Ray. But I know I’ll be back watching again at some point because I can’t stay away from those dorks.. And I’ll have to watch Ray on Twitch as well. You should, too!
EXCITING NEWS MAYBE
HEY!
I might have some exciting news soon, depending on how things go!
Stay tuned!
INFINITE WALKING
I have a portable recharger/extra battery thingy for my iPod already, but ohmygod.
I could just wear this thing along with my iPod on my walks.
And I would
NEVER
NEED
TO
STOP.
(Well, okay, food and water and sleep and all that nonsense, but I don’t need much of any of that anyway.)
The April List – 2015
IT’S THE APRIL LIST
- I wish I knew when I was TA-ing in the spring/summer.
- Yes, I said “spring/summer” because U of C is weird. “Fall semester” is like UI’s fall semester (September to December). “Winter semester” is like UI’s spring semester (January to April). “Spring semester” is like the first half of UI’s summer semester (May to June) and “summer semester” is like the second half of UI’s summer semester (July to August). Odd news.
- May needs to get here for two reasons: 1) I’m ready for this semester to be over, and 2) I really, really need new shoes.
- Holy hell, do I need new shoes.
- I should bring those “This Week’s Science Blog” posts back.
- Tomorrow I’m going to see Age of Ultron with Nate and I’m super excited. Excited enough to make it a point in the April list, apparently.
- Um, iPod? I’m not sure that conversion is correct.
- I have a very strong and sudden urge to write a biography of John Tukey. Statisticians need biographies, too! It’s too bad I suck at writing in general and suck even more at nonfiction writing.
- HAHAHA, I accidentally hit the “random blog post” button on my blog and it brought me to this page and I remember finding that damn picture on the Australian Chicken Meat Federation webpage. WTF, Australia?
FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
If you ever want a nice application-based introduction to principal component analysis, check out this article.
It’s short, an interesting example, easy to read, and easy to understand. It also shows a very clear application of PCA for dimension reduction, which is snazzy.
Book Review: The Stranger (Camus)
Hey, look who finally finished another book. It’s Camus party time!
Have I read this before: Um, I want to say yes, but it wasn’t familiar at all.
Review (spoilers): It’s an okay book. It’s not my favorite of Camus’ (that would be The Plague), but it’s not bad. You can really get a sense of the absurdity through the main character and the way he’s so emotionally detached from everything. Hell, he randomly murders two dudes. The pace is a bit slow, but hey, that’s Camus for ya. It is an interesting read, especially if you’re into the philosophy of the absurd and/or existentialism, but there’s a lot more of the former than the latter in here.
Rating: 5/10
aLDSKFJALKGHALDKFHS
People who comment on the eating habits of others drive me up the freaking wall.
Like, it’s okay if you’re good friends with the someone and you’re both okay with the comments, but if you’re acquaintances/friends that aren’t too close/strangers, then it’s like…seriously?
Who even cares, anyway? What business is it of yours? So Person X eats more than you/less than you/rarely/frequently/constantly/late at night/only on odd days of the month/food you’d never touch with a 10-foot pole? Unless you’re legitimately concerned about their health (and even then it can be iffy), don’t comment on it. Because it doesn’t concern you.
Also, some people just don’t like talking about that kind of stuff, so if someone says to them, “why do you [some obnoxious comment about food habits]?” it might make them feel super awkward or embarrassed.
So shut up.
Eigenblogger 