I am a hologram
ALRIGHT, so I know I’ve already totally tanked my New Year’s resolution to post my blogs weekly (SHUT UP, it’s been a little better than it used to be…right?). So what’s the most reasonable response?
ADD MORE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS!!
Well, I guess these aren’t technically New Year’s resolutions, mainly because they’re things I’d like to accomplish this year, but they’re not at the same level of want as my actual New Year’s resolutions.
If that makes any sense.
Anyway.
Things to do for Claudia in 2015:
- Actually try to learn (at least some) guitar. I still have my beautiful guitar that I impulse bought way back when (thanks a lot, Sean), but I’ve never really tried to learn how to play it. String instruments are intimidating to me, but I SHALL CONQUER!
- Learn LaTeX. Because apparently everyone in the math department knows it and uses it religiously.
- Walk to and from campus when the weather permits. It’s a good way to get mileage, given that it’s about a 7.5-mile round trip. I guess this kind of goes with my walking mileage goal, but it’s not quite the same.
- Finish my blog stats Excel sheet and format the rest of my blog archives. I’m up to year 7, so I’m getting close, but I still have a few more years to do. The next goal is to actually get hard copies printed of each year of blogs, but that will be super expensive, so who knows when that will happen.
I THOUGHT I HAD MORE OF THESE.
Blogging fail.
Weather, u ok?
We’re having a freaking heat wave up here, y’all. It got up to about 57 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course!) during the middle of the day.
In January. In Calgary.
We went walking around downtown in short sleeves. It was pretty freaking great!
(Short blog.)
JUBL
I’m putting this on here ‘cause I don’t have any Tumblr friends and I feel like doing an AH survey/questionnaire tonight. So there.
1. How did you get into Achievement Hunter?
Tumblr! Way back in the early summer of 2012, I happened upon Michael’s Rage Quit for the Impossible Game, level 2. I had no idea what Achievement Hunter and/or Roosterteeth was until I eventually clicked on one of their Worms let’s plays and heard the other guys. It went from there, haha.
2. Member you think you are most like?
I think I’m a weird combination of Ryan and Michael.
3. Member you think you would get along with best?
Probably Ryan. I think we’d appreciate each other’s jokes.
4. Favorite member overall and why?
Ray! I first heard him in a Worms let’s play and really liked his voice, then I started really liking his humor. The dumb little jokes he mutters under his breath are great.
5. If you have met any of them, talk about the experience. If not, who do you most want to meet?
I haven’t met any of them! I’d love to go to RTX and meet at least one of them in person (they’re all awesome, so I’d be super happy meeting any of them), but that probably won’t ever happen, sadly. Why does Texas have to be so far away?
6. Favorite Team? (Lads, Gents, Nice Dynamite, etc.)
Either the R&R Connection or X-Ray and Vav.
7. Favorite Lets Play?
That’s a hard question. WWE2K14 is pretty amazing.
8. Favorite game to watch them play in general?
Any of the game shows.
9. Game you wish they would play but they haven’t?
I’d like to see them play Castle Crashers. I know Michael and Lindsay have played it, but I think it would be super chaotic/fun with four of them at once.
10. Favorite moment or quote?
It’s two moments, but I’m counting them as one! I love in Clouds when Gavin messes with Ray but then karma gets him back at the end.
11. Favorite catchphrase? (MARK NUTT!, ITS MOGAR BITCHES, I mean YOLO right? ect.)
I have “Mark Nutt!” as my text tone, so I’ll go with that one.
12. Have you started using any of their sayings in everyday life?
I say “_______ as dicks” (dark as dicks, cold as dicks, etc.) in my head all the time, thanks to Geoff.
13. Favorite Achievement City structure?
I love Geoff’s house just because it’s so ridiculously big compared to the other’s houses.
14. Favorite Geoff moment?
Anything with the Corpirate. “YOU CAN’T BEAT WALL STREET! YOU CAN’T BEAT WALL STREET!”
15. Favorite Jack moment?
Either when he completely loses it after Gavin grenades himself to death, or when Beardo the Magnificent prances out in WWE ’13.
16. Favorite Gavin moment?
His wrestler in WWE ’13. Oh my god.
17. Favorite Michael moment?
I have a lot of favorite Michael moments. Probably the best, though, is when he just goes off on Luca in No Luca No. “Faaaiiiiyyysh” is good, too.
18. Favorite Ray moment?
I have a LOT of favorite Ray moments! I’m not sure I can pick just one, so I’ll link to this with a special mention for “WOW, NUMBER SEVEN! WAY TO GO, CHAMP!” at 3:57.
19. Favorite Ryan moment?
The “cumulonimbus bullshit” in Clouds.
20. Best way Achievement Hunter has changed your life?
They’ve given me something I can consistently laugh at. I remember during spring semester 2013, when everything was a crapfest and I was so done with everything school-related, I could always go home and watch AH and be cheered up. I don’t think there’s been a day where they haven’t been able to cheer me up at least a little bit.
Correlation and Independence for Multivariate Normal Distributions
OOOOH, thisiscoolthisiscoolthisiscool.
So today in my multivariate class we learned that two sets of variables are independent if and only if they are uncorrelated—but only if the variables come from a bivariate (or higher multivariate dimension) normal distribution. In general, correlation is not enough for independence.
ELABORATION!
Let X be defined as:
meaning that it is a matrix containing two sets of variables, X1 and X2, and has a bivariate normal distribution. In this case, X1 and X2 are independent, since they are uncorrelated (cov(X1, X2)=cor(X1,X2) = 0, as seen in the off-diagonals of the covariance matrix).
But what happens if X does not have a bivariate distribution? Now let Z ~ N(0,1) (that is, Z follows a standard normal distribution) and define X as:
So before we even do anything, it’s clear that X1 and X2 are dependent, since we can perfectly predict X2 by knowing X1 or vice versa. However, they are uncorrelated:
(The expected value of Z3 is zero, since Z is normal and the third moment, Z3, is skew.)
So why does zero correlation not imply independence, as in the first example? Because X2 is not normally distributed (a squared standard normal variable actually follows the chi-square distribution), and thus X is not bivariate normal!
Sorry, I thought that was cool.
Apple! Y U no good at business anymore?
ALRIGHT, ITUNES, WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE.
Apparently, iTunes has stopped offering its weekly free song. I know they’ve been doing that since at least 2006, but now they’ve just decided to stop.
What the hell?
Is it just me, or is that a super dumb move? I can, off the top of my head, name at least ten artists that have gotten a lot of good publicity by having a free song of theirs offered on iTunes. Remember when Sleepyhead was the freebie of the week? I can still remember the exact date I downloaded that song because it was such a good one. And I don’t know about other people, but I know that for me and for quite a few of my friends, that was our first exposure to Passion Pit and we’ve all become pretty big Passion Pit fans since.
I echo the Apple forum poster quoted in this article: “… the free single each week got me to the Store and I usually bought a few songs. Now, there’s less reason to go.”
I pretty much always wound up buying another song or two once I got my freebie, just because I was in the iTunes store and always ended up browsing the music. I can still browse now, of course, but that tantalizing allure of the freebie is gone and I probably won’t end up buying as much as I used to*.
This hurts my music soul. I have gotten some damn good songs from the iTunes weekly freebie thing:
- Lights and Music
- Shake It
- Symphonies
- Chocolate
- Fireflies
- Buildings and Mountains
- Night Like This
- I’m going to mention Sleepyhead again, ‘cause that song was my #1 most played for like five years straight.
Good move, iTunes. Good move.
*Okay, that’s a lie; I need to be able to complete my Decade of Music project, after all. So let’s just say I’ll be less motivated to browse and more likely to buy songs I’ve already heard elsewhere, like on YouTube and such.
SOUL DESTROYER
For my presentation* in my seminar class, I’m basically presenting some of the main results of my MA thesis. This has required me to dredge up this old notebook from way back when.
This notebook brings back bad memories.
This notebook brings back thoughts of UBC.
This notebook brings back thoughts of how, every morning, I would dread going to campus with every fiber of my being.
This notebook brings back thoughts of how I would have a panic attack every Thursday because Thursday was the day I was supposed to meet with my supervisor.
This notebook brings back thoughts of how much I eventually stopped caring about school—something I hate admitting even now.
This notebook reminds me that I lost two years of my early twenties to misery, fear, dread, and depression, among other things.
This notebook brings back bad memories.
Aaaaaaaand now I’m sad.
*You may be asking, “if this brings back so many bad memories, why the hell are you doing your presentation on your old thesis results? Because the presentation is focused more on our presentation skills rather than the content, so it was recommended that we just use some results/ideas that we’ve come up with in the past and focus on the “presenting” part rather than try to come up with something new.
Have a good song. You’re welcome.
What the hell, Chromeo. What is this and why must I have it in my ears?
New five-star. First five-star of the year!
Putting the “no” in “nose”
Not being able to smell usually doesn’t bother me (despite how much I bitch about it, haha). After all, since I’ve never been able to smell, I have no idea what I’m missing.
But every once and awhile, anosmia is incredibly inconvenient. For example, suppose I wear a shirt a few days ago and then end up wanting to wear it again for whatever reason. Apart from asking somebody else to smell said shirt, I literally have no way of knowing whether or not it’s stinky. There’s no way to check it. Same thing with, say the garbage. There is absolutely no way I can tell when it develops an odor without guesstimating how long it takes for the old broccoli stems in the trash can to start to rot and give off a foul smell. I just can’t ever know for sure (again, without asking some able-nosed person). Usually that’s not a problem, but sometimes it’s quite annoying.
Haha, sorry, just felt like mentioning that for whatever reason.
Marvel and Maps
TWO THINGS!
1. We watched Iron Man! It was very enjoyable. I even liked quite a bit of the soundtrack.
2. This is full of some wonderful statistical snark. FlowingData has some great and insightful posts, but this one has to be my new favorite. 4, 5, 7, and “9 through 18” made me seriously laugh.
Vs.
Good lord. This company.
Oh, also! The mystery of us all being dropped from Dr. Chen’s class? Solved. Apparently, the lab component of the class was something Dr. Chen didn’t want, so he had it removed from the system. Unfortunately, doing so also removed the entire class, so we’d all been dropped because the class no longer existed. Luckily, all we had to do was re-register.
So yeah. I’m sure you were all just dying of anticipation for the conclusion of that little mystery.
What are the odds this one isn’t a survey?
Sorry for yet another survey, dear readers. School has yet to get into full swing, so I have nothing yet to rave about in the world of academia.
ONWARD!
(Also, I don’t think I’ve done this one before, but if I have, apologies for doing it again.)
If you use public transport: What’s your biggest pet peeve while out and about?
People blabbing on their cell phones at MAXIMUM VOLUME. I don’t care about your conversation, dude. Hush hush.
Do you know anyone who has a naturally loud voice? It sounds like are shouting but they really aren’t?
Everyone using a cell phone on public transit, apparently! My old boss Cindy was SUPER loud, but she was awesome so it didn’t matter.
Has a pet ever stolen food from you as you were eating it?
Not as I was actually eating it, no.
When was the last time you had to cancel plans because you were sick?
It’s been a looooooong time. I don’t get sick. I get even.
What is the weirdest compliment you have ever been given?
I was once told I looked like Velma from Scooby Doo. Not sure if that’s a compliment, but I’m going to take it as one, haha.
Is there a certain way you have to sleep? For example, with a window open or the fan on?
Cold room = good. Warm covers = good. Fan = good, but not mandatory.
Would you still be interested in buying/renting a house if you found out it was supposed to be haunted?
Dude. Ghost parties. Let’s do it.
What was the last thing you created that you were proud of?
Arborhood, I suppose.
If you had a button that you could carry with you at all times and press at any time, but it only did one thing, what would your button do?
Hmm…it would send me directly home from wherever I was. Every once and awhile when I’m out walking I just think, “okay, I’m done, I’d just like to be home now.” That especially happens too when I’m at school really late and I don’t want to wait for the bus to take me back home.
Are you good at puzzles or riddles?
I love logic puzzles and most word puzzles in general, but I suck at riddles.
What’s stronger – your upper or lower body?
My lower body, no question.
Are you very careful with your technology (phone, laptop, etc) or do you take risks that could damage them?
I try to be pretty careful with Vaio. My phone is usually pretty protected just because I never have it out. My iPod, on the other hand, goes through quite a bit of use every day, especially on my longer walks. I guess it would be pretty easy for me to misplace it or drop it or for something bad to happen to it in general.
Have you ever been in the newspaper? What for?
I was the front page picture when I was in fourth (?) grade, climbing on the monkey bars at St. Mary’s. I’ve been listed in it a few times just for being on the honor roll at UI.
What age do you often get mistaken for?
I’m usually seen as younger than I am, probably because of the rainbow wardrobe and the shortness.
If you could change your surname to anything, what would you change it to? Which surnames do you think sound nice?
I don’t know why the phrase “Bitchin’ McGee” jumped in my head as I read this question, but I’m going to go with it as my answer. Claudia Marie Bitchin’ McGee. It even rhymes.
Would you say that the area you live in is particularly picturesque?
Calgary? I don’t know if big cities can be accurately described as being picturesque, but sure. Canada in general, though, yes.
If you have an Apple product, do you always download the software/app updates?
Most of the time, yes.
Do you take any vitamin supplements?
I should. I actually have a big bottle of multivitamins, but I haven’t had any yet, haha.
Broccles
LOOK AT MY FRIDGE
THAT IS ALL BROCCOLI
WHO LET ME LIVE ALONE?
Anyway.
Turns out everyone in Dr. Chen’s class got dropped from it the night before the class started, so we spent about 15 minutes of today’s class just being confused over why we’d all suddenly get dropped. More on this riveting story as it develops.
Also, I’m in a Muse mood tonight. I’ve posted this video on here before, but I’ll post it again because it features the song I’ve currently got stuck in my head.
BOOSH
Hey, so it turns out that I won a Graduate Assistant Teaching Excellence Award for my TA work last semester. Snazzy!
Actually, I think I was the last person to find out I was one of the five six winners, considering the fact that an email regarding the awards was sent out last week to everyone but me, haha. I only found out once someone said congratulations to me and I had to ask, “For what?”
Also, Multivariate Analysis looks like it’s going to be awesome. We indeed get to do factor analysis. Expect nothing but joyful screeching that week.
Edit: I guess all the other four winners are from pure/applied math. I’m the only one from stats. Badass!
Edit 2: holy crap, I get $600 as part of that award? Badass!
*noises of relief*
Hokay. Back in Canada. Everything went smoothly and the remainder of the weekend was grand.
Totally unrelated: I’ve been super motivated to work on Arborhood now that I’ve actually gone back and done a quick re-read of things. I don’t write things in chronological order, especially with NaNoWriMo—whatever I feel like writing on a particular day, I write just below what I’d written the day before—so my first task is to actually organize everything into a somewhat chronological flow. Then I can start writing/rewriting.
But I do like the story. I like my tree characters. I like that it’s vastly better than my two previous NaNos, The President’s Barber and Whistler’s Father. Those were god awful.
Anyway. SCHOOL TOMORROW! *cue flailing*
Edit: And this. This is great.
*noises of frustration*
I SWEAR TO GOD, if this freaking fog grounds my flight, I’m going to hitchhike my way back to Canada.
I am an unstoppable force of Claudia.
Also, I don’t want to get back the day before school starts up again.
(I’m technically writing this on Friday, but it’s almost midnight, so I’m going to count it for Saturday’s post.)
Enter title here
How Claudia spends her last night in Moscow: filling out a freaking survey. She is clearly the coolest cat in the whole entire country.
Who was the last person you held hands with?
Nate. Weeks ago, haha.
Are you outgoing or shy?
Are you kidding?
Are you easy to get along with?
I’d like to think so, once you get past the awkwardness.
If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?
I don’t think I’d ever get drunk.
Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?
I hope so!
Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?
Bah.
What does the most recent text that you sent say?
“Okay.”
Do you like it when people play with your hair?
Indeed.
Do you believe in luck and miracles?
I’m superstitious enough that it would be wrong of me to say I don’t believe in luck. Miracles, not so much, but I guess it depends on how you define “miracle.”
What good thing happened this summer?
You mean last summer? Last summer suuuuucked.
Do you think there is life on other planets?
Perhaps. If not, I’m sure it’s out there somewhere!
Do you still talk to your first crush?
Hahahahaha, no.
Do you like bubble baths?
I haven’t taken a bubble bath since I was like 10.
Do you like your neighbors?
I don’t know any of my neighbors.
Where would you like to travel?
Antarctica! And Hanover.
What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?
HA. Pretty much everything but my nose.
What do you do when you wake up?
Stumble around like an idiot for a few minutes. I’m not a morning person.
Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?
Neon.
Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?
Yes, but that was like 400 years ago.
Is your hair long enough for a pony tail?
Yup!
Spell your name with your chin.
clsiudfoias
Do you play sports? What sports?
No sports for Claudia.
Would you rather live without TV or music?
TV, absolutely.
Have you ever liked someone and never told them?
Welcome to elementary school/junior high/high school. I was pathetic, yo.
What do you say during awkward silences?
If I spoke, it wouldn’t be a silence, would it? I’M ONTO YOU, SURVEY.
What are your favorite stores to shop in?
(Can I say Amazon.com?)
Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?
Sure, why not?
If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?
I’m doing school stuff. Or brooding. Or sleeping.
Do you smile at strangers?
Sometimes. But then I feel creepy.
Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?
Space!
What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
The alarm clock.
Have you ever been high?
Nope.
Have you ever been drunk?
Nope.
Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?
Uh…I don’t think so.
What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?
Black.
One thing you wish you could change about yourself?
I get really angry at myself when I do poorly at something. Which happens a lot.
Favourite makeup brand?
Whoever makes those obnoxiously bright eyeshadows. Prestige?
Favourite colour?
Orange.
Favourite food?
Broccoli. OR M&M’s.
Last thing you ate?
M&M’s.
First thing you ate this morning?
I haven’t had food yet today.
Ever won a competition?
A few.
Been suspended/expelled?
Nope.
Been arrested?
Nope.
Ever been in love?
Indeed!
Tell us the story of your first kiss?
We were in drag, haha.
Are you hungry right now?
Nah.
Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?
I don’t have any Tumblr friends. I don’t have that many real friends, either, though.
Facebook or Twitter?
Facebook, I suppose.
Twitter or Tumblr?
Tumblr!
Are you watching tv right now?
Nope.
What colour are your towels?
Gray.
How many pillows do you sleep with?
Two.
Do you sleep with stuffed animals?
Nope.
How many stuffed animals do you think you have?
Three. Totoro, Missy Witch Witch (who is, shockingly, a witch), and my appendectomy frog from the hospital.
What colour is your underwear?
White.
Chocolate or Vanilla?
Vanilla.
Favourite ice cream flavour?
Oreo.
What colour shirt are you wearing?
Black.
What colour pants?
Pink.
Favourite TV show?
I love Metalocalypse. I can’t help it, I’m sorry.
Favourite movie?
Sunshine.
Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?
There was a second one?
Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?
I’ve never seen 21 Jump Street, so Mean Girls I guess.
Favourite character from Finding Nemo?
I liked Gil.
Last movie you watched?
Cool Runnings.
How are you feeling?
Nervous!
Do you type fast?
Usually.
Do you regret anything from your past?
WELCOME TO MY LIFE
Can you spell well?
“Well”
Do you miss anyone from your past?
Meh.
What should you be doing?
Packing, hahaha.
Is something irritating you right now?
The fog. My nervousness. Not having my stuff packed.
Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?
Indeed.
Who was the last person you cried in front of?
My mom.
Have you ever been out of your province/state?
Ha. Hahaha.
Do you play the Wii?
I played a little (back with the guys in the house), but not very much.
Are you listening to music right now?
No, surprisingly.
Are you mean?
I never try to be.
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Sure.
Do you believe in true love?
Yes!
Would you change your name? And have to go through all that paperwork to change everything?
My first name or my last name? I probably wouldn’t change my first name. I’d change my last name if I got married or something, most likely.
What your zodiac sign?
Aquarius.
Do you like subway?
The restaurant? Sure.
Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, CHAOS ENSUED.
How tall are you?
5’2”.
Curly or Straight hair?
Mine is a wavy beast. I like curly hair, though.
Summer or Winter?
Summer.
Night or Day?
Day.
Favourite month?
Either February or July.
Are you a vegetarian?
No, but I don’t eat very much meat.
Dark, milk or white chocolate?
Milk chocolate.
Tea or Coffee?
Tea.
Mars or Snickers?
Snickers!
Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?
“The sample mean and covariance relations in Result 3.5 pertain to any number of linear combinations.” It’s my textbook for Multivariate, haha.
Too bad Moscow isn’t named “Phileas”…
Because it’s Foggy as hell here today.
It actually looked like smoke this morning:
I had to walk to the U of I to do stats consulting stuff and the air seemed super smoky, especially over by my mom’s house. But I guess it was just fog?
This nonsense had better go away by Saturday morning. I will walk back up to Calgary if I have to.
A Picture of Me
So this is a password protected one, mainly because Screw it, let’s make it public. Why not.
I never feel very comfortable posting pictures of myself anywhere. Even updating my pic on my “About” page here or my profile pic on Facebook makes me…anxious.
But my hair was Pantene Pro V-ing so damn hard after my walk this afternoon that I had to try to get a shot of it before I showered (hence the lack of glasses and the fact that I’m just wearing my walking bra, haha). Give me a break, my hair is decent-looking maybe 3 out of the 365 days of the year—gotta catch it on film when you can. Also, the lighting worked very well here. I was standing in front of a window, haha.
And honestly, this is like the first picture of me that I actually kind of sort of don’t mind.
(UGH SORRY IGNORE MY SELF-INDULGENT PHOTO I AM ALL KINDS OF GROSS)
This blog sponsored by…
I’m going to shamelessly plug some products/brands in this blog. Because I want to.
Actually, this was brought on by buying like seven pairs of headphones at the Moscow Walmart because they don’t have these headphones in Canada and they’re my absolute favorite.
So let’s start with those!
Claudia-Endorsed Product #1: Koss Headphones
Everyone knows (or at least you do now!) that I listen to music when I walk. I wear on-ear headphones because the little in-ear buds hurt after about 10 minutes and I can never get them placed in my ears so that they stay put when I’m moving around. I have a really good and expensive pair of on-ear Bose headphones back at home—they’re soft and noise reducing and have great sound—but I don’t usually like to wear them during my walks because I’m super rough on headphones and don’t want to break those.
Instead, I wear these:
Not only do these headphones only cost $4.88 at Walmart, but they have really, really good sound. They don’t sound like $5 headphones. They sound more like the Bose ones. Sure, they’re not nearly as durable and thus break more frequently (though I guess “frequently” is a relative term; I go through about 3 or 4 of these a year because I’m rough on headphones), but they’re cheap to replace. If you like on-ear headphones and don’t want to spend like $50+ on a good set, I’d recommend these, since the sound is still really, really good despite the low price. You can also order them from the Koss website.
Claudia-Endorsed Product #2: Saucony Kinvara Shoes
You knew my shoes had to be on here. I love my Kinvaras. Not only are they very comfortable (at least for my feet), but they are very, very durable little shoes. Note that I don’t run in them, I just walk, but I’d suspect that they’d endure running pretty well, too.
Here is my current Kinvara 5 pair next to my original Kinvara 3 pair. They both look holey and ratty as hell, right? That’s because I have at least 750 miles on the newer ones and 1,500 miles on the older ones.
The older ones are still technically wearable, too. I bet I could go another 400 at least before the soles actually start wearing all the way through, haha. If you walk a lot or just want a pair of shoes that will last you a long time, try these out.
Claudia-Endorsed Product #3: L.L. Bean backpacks
I think I’ve gone through a total of four of these backpacks, and I’ve been using them ever since I was in first grade. Not only are they durable (I think I might be even harder on my backpacks than I am on my headphones), but they can hold a LOT of stuff and they’re pretty waterproof, too. Plus, you can get one in lime green. What’s not to like?
I had like five other things in mind, but I got distracted by R and now I can’t remember any of them.
OOH! R!
Claudia-Endorsed Product #4: R
I don’t know if this even counts as a product, but whatevs. R is a great statistical software package because a) it’s free, and b) it’s like SAS’s little brother who wants to be just like big brother SAS, but cheaper, because c) it’s free. So if you’re ever in need of some statistical analysis software and aren’t afraid of a little coding, go here and download R.
Guys. GUYS.
Look at this freaking tree. Look at how amazing it is. Look at how puny those guys look in comparison to it.
So cool.
I’m going to need to locate a copy of that National Geographic issue.
Antiques
Fun fact: when I was a young kid, I thought “antiques” was pronounced AN-tee-kwez.
Anyway. Despite the mini little snow storm Moscow is getting, my mom and I went to that big antiques store on Main Street, kind of by Rosauers. I got a caliper ‘cause I’m weird and an old phonology book ‘cause phonology is cool.
A guy named Albert Salisbury does indeed sound like a guy who would be a stickler for orthoepy. The child version of me would have angered him with my pronunciation of “antiques.”
It’s actually a pretty interesting little book. The first several pages even talk about the anatomy behind breathing, vocalization, and hearing.
Says Mr. Salisbury about silent letters: “Many of these are as useless as they are annoying.” Hahaha.
Can you answer his review questions? The Salisbury stakes are high!
(I’m sorry, I had to. I don’t even care about the heterograph.)
Peh.
Every once and awhile—like maybe every five or six months or so—I get the urge to just stop blogging.
I know, I know, the whole world would just dissolve into chaos if I ever did that, right?
I’m not sure why I feel that urge to quit every so often. I mean, it’s not like most of these posts require a lot of brain power to write (example, example, example). And Eigenblogger definitely breaks my “quality over quantity” rule when it comes to writing. I mean, have you seen the nonsense I post here? 98% of this blog is either “Claudia fills out another pointless survey”, “Claudia finds a song she really likes”, or “LOL INTERNETZ.” So it’s not hard to keep blogging.
Actually, my occasional lack of drive when it comes to blogging likely stems, at least in part, to that frivolity. Who cares, anyway? I only rarely post something of worth to anyone but myself, and even then it’s not that interesting or exciting or funny. But then I have to remember that regardless of what I’m posting, I’m posting something—I have a record of this day happening, even if that record is just a YouTube video or a dumb comment or one of my many rants. And that’s really why I blog in the first place, to keep a record of the days that have passed, and know that I’ll (hopefully) have a record of a grand total of 10,000 days of my life once I’m done with this whole project.
But every once and awhile, I still I get the urge to just stop blogging.
Edumacation
Hello again from 2015!
Let’s start the year off with some interesting numbers, eh? Specifically, some numbers regarding different fields of education in the United States.
The above.gif (source) shows the field type of Bachelor’s degrees by state, ranked by top percent of degree by field. I can’t read as fast as the .gif goes, so here are the screenshots for each type of degree. Click on the piccys to make them grow.
Business:
Education:
Psychology and Social Sciences:
Science and Engineering-Related:
Engineering:
Biological, Agriculture, and Environmental Science:
Liberal Arts and History:
Literature and Language:
Computers, Mathematics, and Statistics:
Visual and Performing Arts:
Communications:
Physical and Related Sciences:
Idaho’s good at Communications and Ag…and not much else, haha.
Eigenblogger 