Winter Semester 2016: COMMENCE!
It’s time for the final semester of the Masters program! I’m excited. Well, excited for it to be over. Excited to (hopefully) get this degree. I’m hoping to be done with the thesis stuff by May so that I can defend then and just not worry about anything over the summer. That would be SO NICE and SUCH A GREAT CONTRAST to last time in 2011.
I just want to teach, man. That’s the end goal of all of this.
I just. Want. To. Teach.
Week 2: The Single-Sample t Test
Today we’ll be discussing another commonly used statistical test—one that is highly related to last week’s test: the single-sample t test!
When Would You Use It?
The single-sample t test is a parametric test used in a single sample situation to determine if the sample originates from a population with a specific mean µ. This test is used when the population standard deviation, σ, is not known (it must be estimated with the sample standard deviation, s).
What Type of Data?
The single-sample t test requires interval or ratio data.
Test Assumptions
- The sample is a simple random sample from the population of interest.
- The distribution underlying the data is normal.
Test Process
Step 1: Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses. The null hypothesis claims that the mean in the population is equal to a specific value; the alternative hypothesis claims otherwise (the population mean is greater than, less than, or not equal to the value specified in the null hypothesis.
Step 2: Compute the t-score. The t-score is computed as follows:
Step 3: Obtain the p-value associated with the calculated t-score. The p-value indicates the probability of observing a sample mean as extreme or more extreme than the observed sample mean, under the assumption that the null hypothesis is true.
Step 4: Determine the conclusion. If the p-value is larger than the prespecified α-level, fail to reject the null hypothesis (that is, retain the claim that the mean in the population is equal to the value specified in the null hypothesis). If the p-value is smaller than the prespecified α-level, reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative.
Example
The data for this example are the recorded mileages of my n = 306 walks from 2015. Mileage is recorded to the second decimal place. Since there is no real way I can determine what the population standard deviation should be, I will estimate it with the sample standard deviation, and thus must use a t test for a test of the mean value. I’m going to guess that my average walk is greater than 7 miles, ‘cause I honestly can’t remember what the actual average was, but I’m pretty sure it was more than 7. Set α = 0.05.
H0: µ = 7 miles
Ha: µ > 7 miles
The sample mean is calculated to be 8.246 and the sample standard deviation is calculated to be 4.429
Computations:
Since our p-value is much smaller than our alpha-level, we reject H0 and claim that the population mean is greater than 7 miles.
Example in R
dat=read.table('clipboard',header=T) #'dat' is the name of the imported raw data
mu = 7
s = sd(dat)
n = 306
xbar = mean(dat)
t = (xbar-mu)/(s/sqrt(n)) #t-score
pval = (1-pt(t, n-1))*2 #p-value
#n-1 is the degrees of freedom
Universal
So I’m pretty into Steven Universe right now. Peridot is definitely my favorite.
(I still really like Garnet, too.)
I’m not sure if anyone who ever reads this blog ever watches Steven Universe or even cares that I like Steven Universe, but this is my blog, so I’m gonna post a few Peridot-related videos. ‘Cause I can.
How can you not love Peridot?
ALSO, have another really good AMV about the show in general (mostly fusions).
It’s the first survey of the year!
Lucky you.
Are you unhappy at the moment?
I’m okay. The new year always makes me sad for a few days.
Who did you last hang out with?
Nate!
When’s the last time you got in trouble with your parents?
Like…serious trouble? It’s been awhile.
How many children do you want?
Exactly zero. Zero’s a good number.
Are your nails painted?
Nope. I haven’t painted them in awhile, actually.
Do you need to take a shower?
I just did!
Have you ever watched “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”?
Jesus god, no.
Are you single?
Nope!
Do you have any career ideas in mind?
I WANT TO TEACH STATISTICS JUST GIVE ME A JOB DAMMIT CAN’T YOU SEE HOW GOOD MY TA REVIEWS ARE
Do you have any gay friends?
Yup. At least I used to. I don’t really have any close friends up here and I’m not sure if any of my semi-close friends are gay.
Are you gay yourself?
Nope.
Are you doing anything this weekend?
Probably going walking, unless it’s super cold still.
How many brothers do you have?
Zero.
Do you like Mexican food?
Not in general, no. Too spicy.
Did you go to work today?
“Work” (aka TA duties) haven’t started yet.
How old are you and how old do you act?
I’m 27. Depending on what I’m doing, I either act my age or like a 12 year old. There’s not much in between.
Are you old enough to buy alcohol?
Yup. But I don’t think I ever have.
Are there any framed pictures of you in your house?
Nope.
When was the last time you ate a banana?
It’s been quite awhile.
Have you ever taken the eHarmony personality quiz?
Nope, not eHarmony.
Have you told anyone you love them today?
Yup! Nate and my mom.
Are you in any physical or emotional pain right now?
Nah.
Is the sun still up or is it dark?
It’s dark, yo.
Have you seen all “The Hunger Games” films that have been released so far?
No, and I don’t really have the desire to.
How many times have you been sick this year?
Zero. But the year just started, so…
Who did you text today and what did you talk about?
My mom. Just saying hi.
What color’s your toothbrush?
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh…green and white, I think. I never pay much attention, I just shove it in my mouth.
(Don’t use that quote out of context.)
Do you have a favorite author?
It’s probably Jules Verne. He’s awesome. OR F. Scott Fitzgerald, though I think I like a broader range of Verne things than Fitzgerald things.
Is Christmas a joyful time for you or just plain stressful?
I like Christmas.
What time do you plan to wake up tomorrow?
NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
If you met your twelve-year-old self right now, what do you think they’d think of you?
“Older Claudia! Y U so short?”
At what age did you have your first significant other?
Uh…19?
What was the most drastic change you made to your appearance?
Getting rid of my bangs (that is, growing them out). I’d had bangs for like 800 years and then just got sick of the upkeep.
Is there anything you hope your significant other or future significant other never finds out about you?
I’m actually a time traveling beluga whale. Don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret. NATE, DON’T READ THIS!
Is there anyone you still wonder about from your past?
I wonder about a good number of people I went to high school with, just ‘cause. Especially my little group of friends.
What physical characteristics are you most ashamed of or embarrassed by?
Everything? Mostly the two moles I have on the side of my face. They are the UGLIEST THINGS. I hate them and have seriously considered saving up money for surgery to get them removed.
Do you have any secret boards on Pinterest and if so, what are they and why are they secret?
I don’t have a Pinterest and I don’t want one.
What’re most of your Facebook posts about?
Probably my walking distances/milestones.
What was the last article of clothing you bought?
Tanktops. Like seven of them. I have a problem.
Fitbit vs. iTreadmill
Yo, people! So as I mentioned on “Fake Christmas” day, My dad got me a Fitbit ‘cause he knows I’m obsessive about tracking stuff (also I think he got one for himself, too, ‘cause he used to have a Nike one awhile back that’s probably dead by now).
Anyway, I decided to go for a walk today and compare what Fitbit said to what my iTreadmill app said.
So here we go!
Mileage
iTreadmill: 11.00
Fitbit: 11.01
Steps
iTreadmill: 24,240
Fitbit: 23,473
Time
iTreadmill: 175 minutes
Fitbit: 207 minutes
Calories Burned
iTreadmill: 702
Fitbit: 2,420
The mileage and steps aren’t too different from one another, which is surprising, ‘cause I can’t calibrate Fitbit to my stride (but I’ve done so for the iTreadmill app). The time for the Fitbit is longer because it doesn’t shut off when I stop moving. The iTreadmill app does (which I kind of like better, ‘cause then I know how much time I actually spent moving rather than just standing at intersections, in line at the grocery store, etc.). The calories are the biggest difference, but that’s because the Fitbit tracks “resting” calories burned as well, so the 2,420 is what it thinks I’d burned up until the walk, and then on the walk itself (I don’t think I burn nearly that many calories in a day. My body doesn’t manufacture it’s own heat, dude).
But the best part about the Fitbit is that it tracks your heartrate, which is something the iTreadmill can’t do. So if I’m not going to use it as my “official” tracker for steps/mileage, I can at least use it to track my heartrate.
YAY!
Ice, Ice, Body
So Nate and I went walking today because I’m out of school until next Monday and Nate had the day off. It was okay walking to our destination, but on the way back it was COLD and WINDY and COLD.
How cold was it? I had a half-full bottle of water in my backpack. The water, which had been sloshing around while I walked (that is, it wasn’t just stagnant), had ICE IN IT. SO DID MY BLOOD.
I took my temperature when we got back and it was down to 94.6 degrees.
Brr.
Colored Pencils, we Meet Again!
So I haven’t drawn in like 500 years. But I had some a lot of free time in the Airport on Monday night last week, plus some more yesterday, so here ya go.
TRA-LA-LA-LA, I FEEL LIKE TRASH
Hello duders.
The worst thing about New Years (or any other time-related milestone) is that it always makes me feel like crap. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because they make me realize how little I’ve accomplished in my life and how crappy I am at everything I try to do.
Blah.
Edit: On the upside, WALK THE MOON uploaded the video of them performing Shup Up and Dance live at New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. They’re really good (and entertaining!) live.
Week 1: The Single-Sample z Test
Today we’ll be discussing one of the most commonly used statistical tests and one of the first ones taught in introductory stats: the single-sample z test!
When Would You Use It?
The single-sample z test is a parametric test used in a single sample situation to determine if the sample originates from a population with a specific mean µ. This test is used when the population standard deviation, σ, is known.
What Type of Data?
The single-sample z test requires interval or ratio data.
Test Assumptions
- The sample is a simple random sample from the population of interest.
- The distribution underlying the data is normal.
Test Process
Step 1: Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses. The null hypothesis claims that the mean in the population is equal to a specific value; the alternative hypothesis claims otherwise (the population mean is greater than, less than, or not equal to the value specified in the null hypothesis.
Step 2: Compute the z-score. The z-score is computed as follows:
Step 3: Obtain the p-value associated with the calculated z-score. The p-value indicates the probability of observing a sample mean as extreme or more extreme than the observed sample mean, under the assumption that the null hypothesis is true.
Step 4: Determine the conclusion. If the p-value is larger than the prespecified α-level, fail to reject the null hypothesis (that is, retain the claim that the mean in the population is equal to the value specified in the null hypothesis). If the p-value is smaller than the prespecified α-level, reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative.
Example
The data for this example are n = 400 IQ scores from random sample of individuals ages 18 to 87. The test used to obtain the scores was constructed similar to the Stanford-Binet IQ test, meaning that we can assume that the average IQ score in the population should be 100 and the population standard deviation σ is known and is equal to 15. Let’s test the claim that the population mean is actually different than 100. Set α = 0.05.
H0: µ = 100
Ha: µ ≠ 100
The sample mean is calculated to be 101.864
Computations:
Since our p-value is smaller than our alpha-level (0.012 > 0.05), we reject H0 and claim that the population mean is different from 100.
Example in R
dat=read.table('clipboard',header=T) #'dat' is the name of the imported raw data
mu = 100
sigma = 15
n = 400
xbar = mean(dat)
z = (xbar-mu)/(sigma/sqrt(n)) #z-score
pval = (1-pnorm(z))*2 #p-value
#pnorm calculates the left-hand area
#multiply by two because it is a two-sided test
Statistics Sunday: An Introductory Post
Every Sunday of this year, I plan on focusing on one of the statistical tests featured in the Handbook of Parametric and Nonparametric Statistical Procedures (5th edition) by David J. Sheskin. I will include the following information in each post:
- When would you use the test? What type of research question might the test help to answer?
- For what type of data is the test appropriate? Do you need interval/ratio data, categorical data, etc.?
- Assumptions. What assumptions must be met in order for the test to be accurately employed?
- Process. The steps (and equations) of the test.
- Example. The test carried out with real data.
- Example in R. The R code for the above example.
I’ll start this tomorrow, and while I’ll probably put a little menu button up at the top of my blog homepage to link to all the tests (a thing like a “Statistics Sundays” button or whatnot), I figured I should explain it here, too.
YAY!
Walk da Walk 2015
WALKING DATA 2015 WALKING DATA 2015 WALKING DATA 2015!!
Ahem.
So I surpassed my goal distance by quite a bit, which is awesome, but that’s not all I keep track of! The following are my walking stats for January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015.
Total number of walks: 306
Total mileage: 2,523.29
Total number of steps: 5,286,330
Total calories burned: 170,356
Total walking time (minutes): 38,237.76 [that’s about 26.55 days]
Average speed (mph) per walk: 3.876
2,523.29 miles is approximately the (great circle) distance between San Francisco, CA and New York, NY. If you want to go north-south instead, it’s a bit longer than the distance between Calgary, AB and Alert, NU. Pretty cool.
Here are my total distance graphs by week day and by month.
ONWARDS TO 2016!
Claudia’s 365 Days of Music: Year 6 – A Review
‘Sup, bitches? The 6th year of my music project has ended, so let’s look at some stats, shall we?
Total songs: 365
Total time: 24 hours and 27 minutes
Total size: 1.72 GB
Mean song length: 3:57.43
The Five Stars
Listed in order of acquisition!
Over my Head (Gabe Flaherty Remix) by The Fray
Doin’ It Right (Decadon Remix) by Daft Punk
Gold (Thomas Jack Radio Edit) by Gabriel Rios
Say What You Want by The Barenaked Ladies
Work This Body by WALK THE MOON
Take a Walk (A Capella) by Passion Pit
Amazon (Original Mix) by Gabe Flaherty
The five most beautiful/touching songs of the year:
Dare You to Move by The Vitamin String Quartet
Shenzou by Steven Price
Nessun Dorma sung by Pavarotti
The Gravel Road by James Newton Howard
Deliverance by Brian Tyler
The Overall Top Five
Work This Body by WALK THE MOON
I love everything about this song: tempo, length, lyrics, THE DRUMS, and especially the last like 15 seconds, when that extra layer of background lyrics (noises?) is added. This is tied with Gold as my favorite for the year, I’m pretty sure.
Gold (Thomas Jack Radio Edit) by Gabriel Rios
I really like the violin in this song (and the general chorus as well). Plus, the lyrics made me think of an interesting idea for a story, and any song that inspires me to write gets an A+ in my book.
Take a Walk (A Capella) by Passion Pit
This guy managed to take my second favorite Passion Pit song and perform it (in my opinion) better than Passion Pit. The first 25 seconds deserve a five-star on their own, holy freaking crapples. Beautiful.
Amazon (Original Mix) by Gabe Flaherty
So the dude who gets one of his remixes into my “Top Five” list every year (see the next song in this list for an example) made an original song, and it’s awesome. The chorus makes my toes tingle.
Over my Head (Gabe Flaherty Remix) by The Fray
FREAKING GABE FLAHERTY, MAN. This was like one of my first songs of the year and it still is one of the best ones. He gives a very different feel to this The Fray song, and I really like it. Again, the chorus is fantastic.
Now, pie charts!
[Edit: Ugh, Office 2013. They fucked up a perfectly good pie chart is what they did. Look at it. It’s got bad formatting.]
In terms of play count, alternative, electronic, and pop were all pretty evenly split. Interesting.
Onward to year seven!
GRUMPY JACOB KNOWS NO LIMITS
Heeeeeeeeeeey, it’s time for FAKE CHRISTMAS IN MOSCOW!
‘Cause that is the tradition here. At least one member of the family (me, my dad, etc.) is usually not around on actual December 25th, so we have “fake Christmas” on a different day.
‘Cause we’re cool.
Anyway, I got a Fitbit from my dad since he knows I like to track and record stuff like that. He also gave both me and my mom one of my grandma’s crystal paperweights. Grandma had approximately 3,000 of them and I apparently loved to pick them up and toddle around with them when I was young enough to barely be able to walk. I made her panic, haha. It means a lot to us that we each have one of those to remember my grandma by.
More Stats Planning
HEY PEEPS!
I typed out all the tests from my statistical tests handbook, then narrowed them down to 52 that I want to feature, one per week, on my blogs next year. Check ‘em:
- Week 1: The Single-Sample z Test
- Week 2: The Single-Sample t Test
- Week 3: The Single-Sample Chi-Square Test for a Population Variance
- Week 4: The Single-Sample Test for Evaluating Population Skewness
- Week 5: The Single-Sample Test for Evaluating Population Kurtosis
- Week 6: The Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test
- Week 7: The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Goodness-of-Fit Test for a Single Sample
- Week 8: The Chi-Square Goodness-of-Fit Test
- Week 9: The Binomial Sign Test for a Single Sample
- Week 10: The z Test for a Population Proportion
- Week 11: The Single-Sample Runs Test
- Week 12: The t Test for Two Independent Samples
- Week 13: F Test for Two Population Variances
- Week 14: The Median Absolute Deviation Test for Identifying Outliers
- Week 15: The Mann-Whitney U Test
- Week 16: The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for Two Independent Samples
- Week 17: The Moses Test for Equal Variability
- Week 18: The Siegel-Tukey Test for Equal Variability
- Week 19: The Chi-Square Test for Homogeneity
- Week 20: The Chi-Square Test of Independence
- Week 21: The z Test for Two Independent Proportions
- Week 22: The t Test for Two Dependent Samples
- Week 23: The Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks Test
- Week 24: The Binomial Sign Test for Two Dependent Samples
- Week 25: The McNemar Test
- Week 26: The Single-Factor Between-Subjects Analysis of Variance
- Week 27: The Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance by Ranks
- Week 28: The van der Waerden Normal-Scores Test for k Independent Samples
- Week 29: The Single-Factor Within-Subjects Analysis of Variance
- Week 30: The Friedman Two-Way Analysis of Variance by Ranks
- Week 31: The Cochran Q Test
- Week 32: The Between-Subjects Factorial Analysis of Variance
- Week 33: Analysis of Variance for a Latin Square Design
- Week 34: The Within-Subjects Factorial Analysis of Variance
- Week 35: The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient
- Week 36: The Point-Biserial Correlation Coefficient
- Week 37: The Biserial Correlation Coefficient
- Week 38: The Tetrachoric Correlation Coefficient
- Week 39: Spearman’s Rank-Order Correlation Coefficient
- Week 40: Kendall’s Tau
- Week 41: Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance
- Week 42: Goodman and Kruskal’s Gamma
- Week 43: Multiple Regression
- Week 44: Hotelling’s T2
- Week 45: Multivariate Analysis of Variance
- Week 46: Multivariate Analysis of Covariance
- Week 47: Discriminant Function Analysis
- Week 48: Canonical Correlation
- Week 49: Logistic Regression
- Week 50: Principal Components Analysis and Factor Analysis
- Week 51: Path Analysis
- Week 52: Structural Equation Modeling
Yeah. It’ll be fun!
[insert resolution joke here]
It’s the annual New Year’s Resolutions post! As if anyone cares. But let’s do the thing anyway.
2015 resolutions (plus Bonus Late Add-On Resolutions 2.0):
ACCOMPLISHED: Blog daily, 365 musics. These are standard now, so whatev.
FAILED: Win NaNoWriMo 2015. I didn’t even start ‘cause I’m garbage.
ACCOMPLISHED: Walk 1,500. Bitch, I did over 2,500. Killed it.
ACCOMPLISHED: Write. I didn’t do NaNo, but I did edit a substantial portion of Prime. Which is something I haven’t done in like 4,000 years, so yeah.
FAILED: Post these damn blogs on a more frequent and consistent basis. HAHAHA NOPE.
SORT OF ACCOMPLISHED: Kick ass in my grad program. I’m getting noticed for my TA work quite a bit, and that totally counts in my opinion. And I didn’t bomb STAT 721, which is a really low standard, but hey. I’m garbage.
FAILED: Actually try to learn (at least some) guitar. I learned two chords. That counts for nothing.
FAILED: Learn LaTeX. Nope.
ACCOMPLISHED: Walk to and from campus when the weather permits. I walked to and from campus when the weather didn’t permit. I walked to and from campus while wrestling the weather to the ground.
ACCOMPLISHED: Finish my blog stats Excel sheet and format the rest of my blog archives. I’m not formatting the current blog year yet ‘cause it’s not done, but everything else is formatted, so HA.
2016 resolutions:
- Get the thesis done and defended.
- Blogs: do them daily.
- Musics: do them daily.
- Win NaNoWriMo 2016.
- Complete and format all my blog archives, in honor of this being my 10th year of blogging.
- Walk 2,000 miles.
- Win another TA award.
- Draw more.
- Improve my sign language. Maybe…be able to sign 200 phrases by the end of the year?
- Keep writing. Work on Prime, mainly. And maybe a short story or two. And maybe Arborhood.
- Get married!
Sure, that’ll work.
End o’ the Year Survey
It’s December 26th! As per tradition, here’s my answers to the end-of-the-year survey. ONWARD!
What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before?
Got engaged! (I have a feeling that this will be the response for a lot of these questions this year.)
Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
There will soon be a blog post regarding this!
Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nnnnno?
Did anyone close to you die?
My grandma on my dad’s side.
What countries did you visit?
I guess I technically visited the US, since I don’t actively live there right now.
What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?
A Master’s degree in statistics.
What date from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
December 19th. Engaged! (And then we watched the new Star Wars, ‘cause we’re awesome.)
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Is getting engaged an achievement?
What was your biggest failure?
Being me.
Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope! I AM GOD OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM.
What was the best thing you bought?
Big Compy? Small Compy? It’s pretty bad when you have to buy two new computers in one year, but whatevs.
Where did most of your money go?
School, rent/condo fees, broccoli, our road trip.
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting engaged!
What song will always remind you of 2015?
Gold by Gabriel Rios
What do you wish you’d done less of?
Moved. As in, moved houses. I only did it once, but I’ve done it so much that I’m sick of it. (Of course, it was for a good reason this time. I wouldn’t want to change it because of that.)
How will you be spending Christmas?
CHRISTMAS WAS YESTERDAY. IT WAS FUN.
Did you fall in love in 2015?
More IN love, yes.
How many one-night stands?
Over NINE THOUSAND!!!!
What was your favourite TV program?
Metalocalypse still wins, but of the shows that were new to me this year, Community definitely wins.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nope.
What was the best book you read?
I re-read The Caine Mutiny (and the Leibniz bio as always), so both of those are tied.
What was your greatest musical discovery?
That will be revealed on the 31st!
What was your favourite film of this year?
Of the movies that were new to me this year, I really liked The Avengers. Yes, I’d never seen it before. Shut up.
What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 27 and did absolutely nothing worth mentioning on my birthday. It was a school day, haha.
What one thing would have made your year immeasurably satisfying?
Not sure. It was a pretty good year.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015?
PFFT, FASHION.
What kept you sane?
NOOOOOTHING!
Which celebrity/public figure(s) did you fancy the most?
No one.
Who did you miss?
My mom. And Annabelle.
Who was the best new person you met?
I don’t know if I met anyone new this year.
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015:
DON’T GO TO SAN FRANCISCO
FICTURE IT
Do you sometimes really miss parts of your past for no real reason? Not, like, particular events or days or anything like that, but routines or schedules that you remember you used to have at various points in life that you don’t have anymore.
I miss my past sometimes.
I don’t know why I felt like saying that. It’s not like my present is bad or anything—it’s the opposite, in fact!—but I just every once and awhile really, really miss the way things used to be.
Yeah. Sorry. Don’t have much to say today.
It’s a CHRISTMAS SURVEY!
Worst Christmas song?
I’ve never really liked “I’ll be Home for Christmas” for some reason. It’s not horrible, but it’s not my favorite.
If you were a Christmas character, who would you be?
The polka clarinetist from Home Alone. The guy John Candy played. That counts, right?
(Totally counts.)
What type of decoration should stop being made?
Tinsel. It’s pretty, but cats eat it and get sick.
Tastiest holiday treat?
Those seven-layer cookie things my mom and I used to make.
Favorite pop culture/stereotypical Christmas icon?
Probably Santa. Santa rocks.
Know how to make cookies/brownies/cake from scratch?
Yes.
Ever cut your mouth on a candy cane/candy?
Candy canes are the spawn of the devil. I don’t know how anyone can eat one without their mouth spontaneously gushing blood from a million cane cuts.
What other culture would you like to experience Christmas with?
Nordic, maybe?
What kind of pattern/pictures do you like on your wrapping paper?
I like shiny paper.
Will Did you make a Christmas picture for your blog/website/profile?
Nope.
Three best things about Christmas?
Hanging out with my immediate family, sorting presents (yes, I like to sort them more than I like to open them, haha), having a break from school.
Happy-Go-Round
I can’t believe I’m engaged, guys. I really can’t. I never thought that would be something that would ever happen to me. It still doesn’t seem real.
Sorry, I’ve just been thinking about this a lot for the past few days (can you blame me?) and it still doesn’t seem like it’s actually a thing that’s happened.
I’m super excited and so very, very lucky.
How to Ruin a Regression Analysis
I’ve walked a total of 275.48 miles this month. That’s substantially more than any other month this year (except maybe April).
19 of the last 22 days’ walks have been longer than 10 miles. 17 of them have been longer than 12 miles, and five of them have been longer than 15 miles.
This is going to really screw with any regression analyses I was planning on for the end of the year, but hey. If I can get to 2,500 miles, then it’s all worth it.
BOOSH!
Blugh.
Why THE SHIT is 7 PM – 9 PM a valid time slot for a final exam? And why is it on the second-to-last day of finals week?
Oh well. Better to invigilate a final exam than take one, I guess.
Edit: So Scott and I decided to just stay on campus after the final and grade his section of STAT 217 tests. We were there until about midnight, haha. But at least they’re graded now so we won’t have to do them after we grade all the STAT 213 tests tomorrow.
BLAH.
NO WORDS JUST FOODS
SO I’M STILL RIDING ON THE HIGH FROM YESTERDAY SO YOU GET A THROW-AWAY POST
[Note: in case you haven’t noticed, all my posts are throw-away posts. I just happen to acknowledge it on occasion.]
RECIPES 4 U!
Ravioli with Creamy Mushroom and Spinach Sauce
Mushrooms in Butter Sauce over Egg Noodles
Roasted Cauliflower and Mushroom Pasta
So hey…
Nate and I are engaged now. :)
It was definitely not expected…at least by me, at least at the beginning of the day. The weather today was garbage, so we decided to drive up to Cross Iron Mills (a mall just to the north of Calgary, and where we had our second date!) and walk around it several times to get our mileage for the day. It’s a big mall.
We did a couple loops and then Nate (probably prompted by the like 10 jewelry stores in that mall) kind of casually asks, “So if I were to ever get a ring for you, what kind would you like?” And I of course get a little flustered, ‘cause we’d talked about the fact that we wanted to get married at some point.
So I say something like, “alkfdjavgaifhnioefdhfakjdhalkefh” (gibberish, ‘cause that’s how I talk), and we keep walking around the mall. We stop at the big bookstore there, where we hung out for a good hour on our first date, and went into one of the rows of books to look around.
Then I say something like, “You know, if you were to ask me to marry you, you know what my answer would be.”
And then he asks me, right there, very nicely, if I would marry him.
And you all know what my answer was.
We walked around the mall a bit more (we needed miles!), then stopped at one of the jewelry stores and he got me a ring.
Super pretty! Sorry for crappy image quality.
Then we went to see The Force Awakens, haha.
Excellent day.
I’M FREE
Had the final for Dr. Chen’s class this morning, which means I’M FREE OF THIS SEMESTER!
(Except not really. I have to invigilate a test on Monday at freaking 7 PM.)
BUT I’M FREE OF ANY CLASS OBLIGATIONS!
Now it’s thesis time for real. My goal is to get it done by May at the latest, but we’ll see.
I’m already ridiculously nervous.
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