Do southern bank customers make withdrawls?
Yeah, I agree with this to an extent.
Is it important that pedestrians be aware of their surroundings and do their best to “communicate” with drivers whenever entering the street (even if the pedestrian has the right-of-way)? Absolutely. The driver-pedestrian relationship is definitely a shared responsibility in that respect.
But as this article states, that’s sometimes not enough. I have had dozens of situations where I’ve been looking directly at a driver and thought they were looking directly back at me but they still buzzed right in front of me, even when I clearly had the right-of-way. There have been a lot of close calls that, had I not been very careful, would have not been close calls but rather would have been collisions.
And (also stated in the article) sometimes it’s not possible to determine if you’ve got eye contact with a driver. In the summer, everyone’s got sunglasses on. In certain lighting conditions (or in the dark), you can’t see into the car very well. And some drivers just don’t even turn their heads in your direction when you’re trying to make eye contact (e.g., people turning right on red, who are usually just looking left to see oncoming traffic and often don’t check for pedestrians at all).
So is it partially a pedestrian’s responsibility to “communicate” with drivers? Absolutely. But putting all the responsibility on pedestrians is neither appropriate nor helpful in avoiding/preventing accidents.
OBLIGATORY MONTHLY JAZZY PIC
She’s on my phone charger cord. How is this not obscenely adorable?
FREAKING OUT
Y’all.
Y’ALL.
So I had a meeting with Jim this morning to talk about next semester. Turns out I not only get to teach TWO classes next semester, but one of them is a 300-level class! I’ve never taught a 300-level class before.
It’s called “Statistics for the Physical and Environmental Sciences,” and it sounds like STAT 213 and STAT 217 combined and for people with a calculus background. I also get to teach them R, which is fantastic.
So yeah, I’m SUPER FREAKING EXCITED. I didn’t think I’d get any classes next semester, let alone two.
Let’s hope this trend continues!
Nummers
Yo, this is super interesting. Infinities!!
My Blog: It Does Have a Purpose
As Nate and I were driving home from getting groceries this evening, we had to drive through the chaos that is the construction around the hospital that’s across the street from us. Nate remarked that in six years (which is when the building of the new cancer center will be complete), everything will hopefully look nice and normal again.
Six years is a long time.
It got us wondering what we were doing six years ago—October 21st.
I suspected that I was either in London, ON and was about to pack up and head back to Moscow, or had just left London and was back at home.
Turns out I was right: October 21st, 2011, was the night before I left to fly back to Moscow. How did I find this out? My blog, of course!
I love my blog. I love having this record of the past 11+ years of my life that I can use to help figure out what I was doing and when at certain points of my life. I love having this archive of who I was and what my life was like; that’s something that not a lot of people have.
And I can’t wait to keep adding to that archive for another 16 years or so.
So yeah. Just a little love letter to my blog. Love ya!
Prediction:
Eric Prydz’ “Call On Me” will always be a Five-Star for me. I can’t remember the first time I heard this song, but it was a good while ago and I’ve loved it ever since. I predict it will survive both the onslaught of the remaining years of my Decade of Music Project as well as the eventual Five-Star Purge, where I trim my Five-Stars down to like 20 or 25 songs instead of 50.
I mean, listen to this baby.
(Also, the music video is basically porn, so that’s a plus too.)
Okay bye.
Concert Band Music: The Best of the Best
Hey peeps.
I got to thinking today (for some reason) about concert band back at the U of I. We played quite a variety of songs in there, and whenever we played a song I enjoyed, I of course downloaded said song for later enjoyment. So here’s something I surprisingly haven’t done on here before: let’s rank the top 10 concert band songs, ‘cause why not?
(Sorry, no he-brides)
#10: Blue and Green Music
We played this my “second time around” in concert band (that is, when I came back to UI and was working on my math degree). The song itself as a whole is okay, but the student conductor we had for this piece made us work until we had the part at 3:19 sounding so beautiful that it always made me excited for this song.
#9: Lincolnshire Posy: Horkstow Grange
This was a fun one to play and very moving.
#8: First Suite in E-Flat: March
HOOOOOOOOOOLST. Another fun song. We got to be loud. I love the last fourth or so of this song (1:53 to the end). Controlled chaos.
#7: Shenandoah
AAAAAAAAAAAAA Shenandoah is so freaking pretty. I love the clarinet part, too.
#6: Variations on a Korean Folk Song
I think this was one we did during my second round of school, not with you guys (referring to my band geek friends). I think this was divided into six movements. Some of them were really fun. Favorites were at 1:40-2:31 (aka “let’s be obnoxious on clarinet”) 4:13-end (I like how it goes from OH GOD LOUD to oh god soft but with drums in the background to the layering of the main theme around 6:00). Fun to play.
#5: First Suite in E-Flat: Chaconne
MORE HOOOOOOOOOOLST. I don’t know what it is about this movement, but I liked it the very first time I played it/heard it. I still have the clarinet sheet music for this and that scale at 1:27 is as crazy as I remember it. Also 3:59 lsjfalhfglaghfaldf
#4: Adrenaline Engines
Another “second round” song. This one was very fun to play. Lots of energy. This song is actually really fun to walk to (I love when it comes up on shuffle).
#3: Bayou Breakdown
We played this obscenely fast. This recording is the fastest one I could find and we did like 50% faster than this. CHAOS. 2:41 is like a mental breakdown and then 3:52 is so smooth and perfect and unifying. Really fun to play.
#2: O Magnum Mysterium
UGH THIS SONG. I love it so much. I remember Torrey bringing in the choral version of this for us to listen to before we played it (so we could emulate the feeling of singing when we played) and that choral version has such a significant meaning to me for a few reasons that I’ve explained on here before. But the band version is the whole reason I heard the choral version, so there ya go.
#1: Valdres March
The best song we ever played in concert band. No contest. I love Valdres March. Love love love.
Baby Tamagotchis?!?!?!?!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NOSTALGIA
I remember when Tamagotchis were a thing, yo. I think they came out in 1997 in the US. My friend Emily and I needed them, haha. I think either my mom or dad bought me mine from JC Penny. Mine was the “yellow w/ orange” color, Emily’s was the “purple w/ magenta” color.
We took them everywhere.
I eventually amassed at least nine digital pets during elementary school—I had a few Tamagotchis, I had this one bear Tamagotchi knockoff, I had a Dinkie Dino (my favorite), and a whole bunch of others.
Sadly, I lost the giant keychain of them on the airplane back from California. ‘Twas a sad day. I wish I still had all of those, they were great.
Election!
YAY, Nenshi got elected as Mayor again. Badass.
I was worried Calgary would pull a “U.S. Voters” move on themselves and have more people voting for Nenshi’s opponent than the polls had suggested, but that wasn’t the case.
Too bad I couldn’t have voted.
Sigh…
I miss undergrad. Especially that group of math nerds I hung out with while I was getting my math degree. Mostly because we did this kind of nonsense when we were supposed to be studying.
TA TA TA-TAS
Nate and I just went on a 10-mile walk in ridiculously cold windy weather. I am very cold.
BUT.
I have a new walking goal idea for next year.
My original goal was to do the Calgary Marathon (which is more of a running goal than a walking goal, but it’s the SAME TYPE OF THING GIVE ME A BREAK). However, back in June or whenever the hell that was, my left knee started throwing tantrums whenever I ran. Pretty sure I had (have?) runner’s knee. Also, y’know, the leg thing.
So my backup goal was to walk the Sinister Seven (which is more of a “this will probably kill me” goal than a walking goal, but it’s the SAME TYPE OF THING GIVE ME A BREAK). However, now that I’ve got this leg thing, I’ve lost confidence in my ability to walk that far on that rough of terrain without re-injuring the leg.
SO.
My NEWEST goal, now, is to walk 100 miles in under 24 hours. This would be done around the city, so there wouldn’t be the rough terrain of the Sinister Seven, and I’m hoping my leg will be back to normal by the time I do this next year so that I won’t even have to worry about re-injury.
I’d say it’s possible; I did 50 miles in 10 hours and 16 minutes, and even with stops to use the bathroom/charge my iPod, my total time was still less than 12 hours. So assuming I can keep up a good pace for that long, I can totally do it.
Try and stop me.
I plan on doing it on the summer solstice so that I’ll have the most daylight possible.
So yeah. Hopefully I won’t have to modify this goal anymore. Though I’d still run the Calgary Marathon if I’m able to by next May.
Yay!
5sf
A while back, I was telling Nate about Five Second Films, or “Vines before there was Vine,” basically. Apparently they’re still around! Pretty crazy. I think I found them back in 2008 or so.
Anyway, here’s a playlist of 15 or so of my favorite 5sfs.
My Weird-Ass Nenshi Dream
Alright, take a seat for this one, ‘cause it’s gonna be long.
I don’t remember nearly as many dreams as I used to, probably because I get so little sleep that my brain goes right into REM sleep as soon as I close my eyes and it’s like “I don’t have time to remember any of this nonsense” when it comes to the dreams.
But last night’s dream I remember quite vividly.
OKAY. So.
In this dream, I’m living in this weird hybrid apartment that’s kind of like my place in Vancouver and kind of like our place here. I have no idea where Nate is or where Jazzy is; it seems like I’m living there alone.
But anyway, I come home one afternoon and Mayor Nenshi is just chilling in my living room. Now I’m pretty sure this is an unrealistic scenario—I doubt part of Nenshi’s re-election campaign is breaking and entering—but my reaction in the dream is one that makes the dream feel real. I’m like, “oh my god, how cool, Mayor Nenshi’s in my house, holy crapples, it’s Mayor Nenshi” etc.
He’s pretty cool with this; he lets me give him a hug and he says that he’s heard all about my walking and wanted to talk to me about it.
NICE.
Then suddenly there are these two other guys in the house, who are apparently working as Nenshi’s publicists/promoters, and they say that they’re planning on using my commercial to help Nenshi’s campaign.
I’m thinking, “what commercial?” But I say sure, yeah, okay, go for it. They show it to me to get my final approval, and they’ve got all these shot of me talking about Nenshi while dancing around and jumping into bushes and things.
Again, this dream feels very realistic, but at this point I’m doubting the realism in the dream itself, because 1) “my” body in the commercial is way prettier than my actual body, and 2) I don’t remember doing or saying anything I’m doing or saying in the commercial.
But I say it’s all good, so they say they’ll use the commercial. Then they say they want to do another (?) interview with me and that they need some time to set up to do so, so they tell me to “go take a short walk” and come back in a little bit.
Bad idea.
I leave and realize that I can’t go down to the river path the way I normally go because there’s some sort of huge music festival at the hospital on the hill, so I end up taking a bus out to some middle-of-nowhere forest place and go walking up there.
Well, a “short walk” to me is like 10 hours or something in this dream, ‘cause the bus sent out a search and rescue team for me since I wasn’t back fast enough, and once I got back to the bus (and the very worried driver and passengers), I realized that I’d kept Nenshi and the commercial guys waiting for a loooong time.
I get back to my apartment with every intention of apologizing profusely for my lateness, but—of course—everyone is gone.
I’m like, “OH SHIT I DONE FUCKED UP THIS TIME,” and I go over to where the commercial guys were and there’s this packet of papers with all these X’s on it and the words “do not use; did not show up for interview” on it. They’ve got some other stuff on there like “do not ask for interview again” and “not appropriate conduct for publicity” or something like that.
And I am very sad, ‘cause I don’t like disappointing people or making them mad.
But then I turn around and notice a little origami box on my desk. I seem to know that this box is from Nenshi himself, so I go over and open it.
Inside is a little piece of paper that says, “Keep on walkin’” with a little smiley face.
Which is all I need for the dream to have a happy ending. Nenshi’s not mad at me and he likes my walking. Badass.
Sorry, that’s just the first dream I’ve so vividly remembered in quite some time, so I had to share it.
I am in a mood™
Dinner: a handful of shredded cheese
Regrets: none
Psst. Hey. Want some really crappy art?
YOU GOT IT, BROTHER.
4,000 MILES
YO DAWGZ I just hit 4,000 walking miles for the year!
That’s about 300 more than I did last year, but still 1,000 short of my goal.
Can I walk 1,000 miles in a little less than three months? Surely. I’ve been keeping a pace of 400+ miles a month, even with Injury City, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
Unless the weather tanks. Which it might.
Alberta, yo.
Heights
Heyooooo so I was looking for some new data to update one of my STAT 213 note sets and I decided to use the on-record heights for 500 baseball players. We’re learning about types of graphs (boxplots, histograms, etc.) and ways of describing the shape of graphs (symmetric, skewed, etc.) so I thought hey, let’s plot these heights and see what we get.
UHHHH, have you ever seen such a perfect bell-curve shape for actual data?
But here’s where it’s interesting to also look at not only the numeric summary but other plots as well. The boxplot actually shows two outliers (two players at 80 inches tall).
So that’s interesting as well.
Anyway. Just thought this was a super pretty distribution and I have no life so I wanted to share this with y’all.
GUYZ GUYZ GUYZ
I’m bored but can’t think of anything to blog about.
Disappointment, thy name is Claudia.
CellOMG
Steven Sharp Nelson is too cool for school.
The Piano Guys: I love their music and I love their music videos.
Survey says…survey!
(I think I’ve already used that title…)
Let’s do it, yo.
[THERE’S NO NUMBER ONE OMFG ABORT ABORT]
2. What was the best year of your life so far?
2017 has been pretty good, even though I got hurt. I got my semester off to do my obsessive walking, I’m having a relatively stress-free fall semester, I will hopefully complete NaNo, and will hopefully walk 5,000 miles. Not too shabby.
(2013 wasn’t bad, either)
3. What’s your favorite thing to do on the Internet?
Screw around, aka read Reddit, read Twitter, watch dumb YouTubes.
4. What fad have you held on to even tho it isn’t popular any more?
Loose-fitting pants. Not sure if that is really a “trend,” but I hate the whole skinny jeans/yoga pants fad so damn much right now. Nobody looks good in pants that are tight all the way down. Nobody.
5. What do you spend most of your time doing?
Walking. Teaching.
6. What do you spend way too much money on?
Stuff. Just stuff. And tank tops.
7. What event, large or small, has changed the course of your life most?
Quitting UBC at the right time. I really, really, really wanted to quit my Masters program there. I came so close so many times. But I stuck it out. I did, however, “quit” my upcoming PhD program there by just not applying/submitting the fee payment in time. I really do think I would have ended my life if I had to spend any more time in that hellhole of a program. But finishing the MA got me teaching, eventually, which got me…well, where I am now. Teaching. Haha.
8. Who do you have a hard time taking seriously?
Our dear old POTUS.
9. What do you judge people for most often?
Not WALKING COURTEOUSLY ON THE SIDEWALK OMFG STAY TO THE RIGHT IS THAT SO FREAKING DIFFICULT ASLDKSDFLSGDLKGHL
10. What was the most beautiful view you have ever experienced?
I really liked the view I had during skydiving. You could see so much, both of the earth below and the sky/horizon. I would skydive again in a heartbeat.
11. What is something you read or heard that has stuck with you for a long time?
Ethan Frome has really stuck with me. There are countless stories about forbidden love and people pining for each other knowing that they can’t have each other, but this story is so genuine and has such a tragic outcome that it’s just always stuck with me.
12. What’s your favorite thing to shop for. Why?
Electronics, haha. Headphones. That kind of thing. I don’t know why. I guess I like the possibility of getting a new shiny.
13. What’s the best compliment someone can receive?
Depends on the person. Whatever makes them feel the best, I suppose. I like being told I’m smart, even though that’s a blatant lie.
14. What’s something people go on and on about and you just can’t stand sitting through?
Nothing specific, really. If they’re boring, I just start tuning them out, haha.
15. What’s something you can do that most people can’t?
I can walk 15 miles a day six days a week. I’m sure most people could do that if they built up to it, though, so big freaking deal. So let’s say walking 50 miles in 10 hours and 16 minutes, ‘cause I did that.
16. When was the last time you tried to look cool and ended in embarrassment?
This is my existence, yo.
17. What is the most ridiculous rule you have to follow?
I have tri-colored pasta in my pasta/broccoli thing I make (plain, red, and green). I have this self-imposed rule where I have to have the same amount of noodles of each color, which means I have to count them all out each time I make dinner. Which takes a bit of time. Which is why I usually don’t have dinner until like 3 AM.
18. What country do you not know the location of, even though you should?
I don’t know if I could identify Iran on a map. Maybe I could—I certainly know the general area—but I’m not sure if I remember exactly where it is. Same could be said about Iraq, Afghanistan, and a lot of the European countries. It’s been a long time since I’ve really paid attention to a map .
19. What do you have a hard time with but most people find quite easy?
Simple math. Like 2+4 kind of simple. I still have to think about it, and that’s really sad.
20. What’s the most impressive skill you have?
I’m pretty good at learning new instruments (at least I used to be, I haven’t tried recently). I can pick up a new instrument and be somewhat decent at playing it quite quickly without the help of anyone else. I did this for most of the instruments I know how to play. In high school I learned oboe specifically for that little oboe solo in the 1812 Overture and I had about a week to do that, so. Kind of the same thing happened with the flute. And tuba.
Having a bad day?
Solution: Brian Regan. Always Brian Regan.
Songz
HELLO YOU BUGGERS
It’s time for another music-related post! Are you ready?
So as you’re all probably painfully aware of (since I talk about it quite a bit), my “Five Star” songs are the songs that I find to be the very best of the best of all my music. Ever since I started rating my songs in iTunes, I’ve limited my number of five-star songs to 50. No more, no less.
But I think I’m going to change that.
I’m finding that if I shuffle through my five-star playlist, there are a fair number of songs that I am no longer super excited to hear. I’m excited to hear them, but not super excited.
A five-star should be something I’m always super excited to hear.
So because of that, I think I’m going to reduce my five-star limit. Thirty songs? Twenty songs? I think anything less than that would cut out some of the true five-star songs, but I guess we’ll see.
The main issue I’m having is if I should do this cutting now or wait until my Decade of Music project is done so that the probability of a given song getting to be on the five-star list is the same for all the years in the decade.
That’s probably what I’ll do. I’ll wait.
But it’ll happen.
And I’m sure I’ll blog about it when it does.
END!
Snoozin’
I know I don’t have a sleep disorder, but I’d say I definitely have weird sleeping habits. These get worse when I have no sort of job to help regulate when I sleep and when I get up.
For example, if left on my own, my sleeping schedule tends to shift so that I go to bed between 5 AM and 6 AM and wake up around 10 AM.
I also think I’m pretty unusual when it comes to sleeping in general. I can go from awake to asleep in about three seconds, and it doesn’t matter if I’m lying down or sitting up. I’ll just go out. I feel like I go right into REM sleep, too, without any sort of buildup to it.
It would be interesting to go to a sleep lab or something and get my sleep patterns analyzed.
Eigenblogger 