2015!
Happy New Year, people!
2015 is going to be a good one. I can feel it. I don’t get those super intuitive-driven feelings very often, but when I do, they’re usually right.
And my super intuitive-driven feeling about 2015 is that it’s going to be fantastic—and hopefully that applies to everyone I know!
Here’s to 365 days of blogging, music, and awesomeness.
Claudia’s 365 Days of Music: Year 5 – A Review
Hey look, it’s year five! That means I’m halfway through this project. Pretty cool. Let’s get to some stats, shall we?
Total songs: 365
Total time: 25 hours, 39 minutes, and 28 seconds
Total size: 2.33 GB
Mean song length: 4:14.16
The Five Stars
Listed (sort of) in order of acquisition!
Suit & Tie (Oliver Nelson Remix) by Justin Timberlake
Metropolis by Owl City
Speed of Love by Owl City
Not a Bad Thing by Justin Timberlake
Magic by Coldplay
O (Fly On) by Coldplay
Don’t by Ed Sheeran
Jealous (I Ain’t With It) by Chromeo
I Won’t Let You Down by OK Go
Pumped Up Kicks (Gabe Flaherty Remix) by Foster the People
The five most beautiful/touching songs of the year:
O (Fly On) by Coldplay
Midnight by Coldplay
River Flows In You by Yiruma
Blue and Green Music by Samuel R. Hazo
Piano by Jake LaVallee
The Overall Top Five
Magic by Coldplay
It should be clear to anyone who reads these yearly reviews that I’m a pretty big Coldplay fan. Magic is, well…magic, haha. I love the tempo of this song and of course the general sound as well. It’s just so chill and easy to listen to.
Suit & Tie (Oliver Nelson Remix) by Justin Timberlake
This remix is vastly better than the original song. If you kind of like the original but aren’t too big of a fan of it, I’d recommend checking this out, especially if you like more of an electronic feel to your music.
Jealous (I Ain’t With It) by Chromeo
I love the kind of old school feel of this song. It’s also got a nice bass line.
I Won’t Let You Down by OK Go
I’m actually not really sure why I like this song. I mean, it’s a good song in general, but I’m not sure why I like it more than others. I’m listening to it now and am noticing that it’s got an almost disco-esque feel to it, so maybe that’s it.
O (Fly On) by Coldplay
This is a BEAUTIFUL song. It’s actually quite haunting if you listen to it in the right mood. I can’t recall when exactly it was, but remember awhile back I mentioned that I’d like this song played at my funeral/pseudo-funeral/whatever people end up doing when I die? Yeah, that’s still what I want.
(And then scatter some of my ashes over Leibniz’ grave…or at least sprinkle a little in the air close by if you’re not allowed to dump ‘em.)
Now, the obligatory pie charts:
This was a very pop-heavy year, haha.
Onward to year six!
So Long, 2014
This year certainly has had its up and downs; however, the ups have absolutely outweighed the downs. Part of this is due to the fact that the downs helped lead to the ups.
For example, I had a hell of a time getting to Calgary in pretty much all aspects of the process (want evidence of this? Read my blogs from this spring/summer). However, ever since I’ve gotten to Calgary, things have just been wonderful…especially for the past month and a half or so.
The best parts of this year, though, are knowing that the goodness from the end of 2014 is going to bleed right into 2015 and the excitement that 2015 will be an even better year.
For the first time in a long, long time, I am very happy. I can’t wait to see what 2015 will be like, and that’s in great part due to the events of this year.
You did good, 2014. You did good.
2015: Now in High Resolution
Hey, it’s the 29th! Looks like it’s the annual “let’s review the old resolutions and make some new ones” blog post.
2014 resolutions:
- ACCOMPLISHED: Blog daily. Was there ever any doubt?
- ACCOMPLISHED: Continue my 365 Days of Music project. This year was rough because it was probably the worst year for music since I started this, but I still managed.
- FAILED: Continue working on my writing project thingy. Apart from Arborhood, I didn’t get much writing done AT ALL this year. It was quite shameful.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Win NaNoWriMo 2014. YAY! It felt pretty good to do this considering I didn’t even start NaNo last year. And I actually kind of like my story and plan on editing it.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Graduate. I never, ever, ever thought I’d have a math degree, let alone graduate with honors while getting one. Graduation sucked, but we’re not going to get into that here.
- FAILED: Try not to be such a horrible freaking failure at everything I do. Yeah, that didn’t happen.
Those were some crappy resolutions.
2015 resolutions:
- Blog daily, 365 musics, blah, blah, blah.
- Win NaNoWriMo 2015.
- Now that I’m pretty sure next year will be stable as far as where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing, I’mma set a walking goal! Let’s say…1,500 miles. Pretty low, I know, but there’s always Calgary weather to take into account, right?
- WRITE. It doesn’t have to necessarily be new stuff (except for NaNo, of course), but I really need to commit to rewrites of some of my old stuff. Prime is important to me; I don’t want to let it die.
- Post these damn blogs on a more frequent and consistent basis. I’m going to try for once a week, but don’t hate me if this doesn’t happen.
- Kick ass in my grad program. I want to show U of C that I can do stats very, very well. Also, I have no desire to leave Calgary any time soon.
VROOM!
Idea
I have a good idea for a project! So remember that Project Euler website I mentioned a month (or so) ago? If you don’t, it’s a website that contains several hundred programming problems geared to people using a number of different programming languages, such as C, C++, Python, Mathematica, etc.
I was thinking today that while R is a language used by a small number of members of Project Euler, a lot of the problems seem much more difficult to do in R than in the more “general” programming languages like C++ and Java and the like. Which is fine, of course, if you’re up for a “non-R” type of challenge.
However, I was thinking it would be cool to design a set of problems specifically for R—like present an R user some problem that must be solved with multiple embedded loops…or show them some graph or picture and ask them to duplicate it as best they can…or ask them to write their own code that does the same thing as one of the built-in R functions.
Stuff like that. I’ve seen lots of R books, but none quite with that design.
I know that my office mate has been wanting to learn R but says that he learns a lot better when presented with a general problem—one that might be above his actual level of knowledge with R—and then allowed to just screw around and kind of self-teach as he figures it out.
Miiiiiiiight have to make this my first project of 2015.
Woo!
Walk the Walk: Canadian Style
Heeeeeeeey, so I don’t know why I waited like a week for this, but what the hell, have some walking statistics for my time in Calgary so far!
Total distance: 680.00 miles [Not sure how I managed to hit that exactly. It wasn’t planned.]
Total number of walks: 93
Average distance per walk: 7.31 miles
Did I meet my average of 50 miles per week? No. I blame finals. But that’s okay, considering that last year it took me eight months to go 1,000 miles and this year it took me only about 3.5 months to walk nearly 700 miles. I bumped up the pace quite a bit, I’d say.
Want some line graphs? You know you do.
October was a good month.
Stay tuned for a later blog post in which I set my yearly mileage goal for 2015!
Vaccinations: are they all just in vein?
Okay duders, Christmas has come and gone and we’re nearing the very end of the year. Which, of course, is often my favorite part of the year as it involves all the end-of-the-year reviews, summaries, and reflections.
I like that sort of stuff.
So let’s kick it off with that end of the year survey I’ve done the past few years.
What did you do in 2014 that you’d never done before?
Lived in Alberta? I’d actually written “lived in Canada” until I realized, y’know, I’ve lived in Canada before, haha.
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?
I don’t think so.
Did anyone close to you die?
Nope.
What countries did you visit?
I moved back to Canada!
What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014?
Less loneliness.
What date from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Can I say the last month and a half? ‘Cause yeah. :)
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got a math degree. I never, ever, ever, EVER thought I’d have a math degree.
What was your biggest failure?
I had a LOT of failures this year, but the one that’s sticking out to me is Stochastic Methods. That class and I did not get along and it was the first time in my entire college career where I really struggled to even pull of a mediocre grade. I know that’s not a *huge* failure in the grand scheme of things, but it was frustrating for me, since I’d never had a class go that roughly for me.
Did you suffer illness or injury?
I get sick about once every five years, and since 2009 was the last time I got sick, I figured I was up for it this year. And it happened, but I POWERED THROUGH IT because my immune system is an unstoppable force.
What was the best thing you bought?
I didn’t really buy much this year.
Where did most of your money go?
Haha. School, rent, broccoli.
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving to Calgary!!! Well, I was excited about it until everything started to go wrong…but it all worked out in the end.
What song will always remind you of 2014?
OK Go’s I Won’t Let You Down.
What do you wish you’d done less of?
Panicked. There was no need to panic. Everything worked itself out.
How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent Christmas in Moscow with my mom, the cats, and my grandma.
Did you fall in love in 2014?
100%.
How many one-night stands?
Hahahaha. None.
What was your favourite TV program?
I think Metalocalypse has been my answer each year for this question. It’s no different this year.
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 both The Great Gatsby and Antognazza’s Leibniz bio. I don’t think I can choose between the two.
What was your greatest musical discovery?
That will be revealed on the 31st!
What was your favourite film of this year?
I didn’t actually watch any new movies, so I’m going to stick with my old favorite, Sunshine
What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 26. I can’t even remotely remember what I did. Give me a break, my birthday was way back in February!
What one thing would have made your year immeasurably satisfying?
While the middle third of the year was pretty crappy, I’d say that the last third of the year was fantastic enough to make up for it and then some.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2014?
What is this “fashion” you speak of?
What kept you sane?
What is this “sane” you speak of?
Which celebrity/public figure(s) did you fancy the most?
I didn’t fancy any of them. I enjoyed Achievement Hunter, but that’s nothing new.
Who did you miss?
I missed my mom when I moved up to Calgary.
Who was the best new person you met?
Nate!
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014:
The universe is a strange but wonderful, wonderful place sometimes.
Happy Birthday, Isaac Newton!
Merry Christmas, people!
It’s still weird being back in Moscow. I really do feel like it’s been at least half a decade since I’ve been here last.
Anyway.
My mom got me, among other things, every sock I’ve listed on my blog since September, haha, and also got me that super colorful dress/shirt thingy. My dad’s off in cruise-land and won’t be back until the 31st, so we won’t be doing our usual two-day Christmas thing, though I suppose we’ll have “Christmas” again when he gets back.
Pretty uneventful day today, sorry.
System of an Up
Approximately a year ago, my friend Wayne introduced me to the awesome a cappella group Pentatonix with the following Daft Punk medley they did:
Awesome, huh? Well, have two more (one is a Christmas song, so this is totally legit for a blog post so close to Christmas).
Want some more Christmas, don’tcha? Have some Steven Sharp Nelson rocking the cello.
Woo!
Mitten Manufacturing: A Labor of Glove
What the heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell.
Alright, so Dr. Chen had our grades in for 701 last week. I got a B+, which is certainly not stellar by any means. However, the fact that it’s a B+ and not an A- (or maybe even an A) is most likely due to my low score on the first midterm. Why did I get a low score on the first midterm? Because I’m me and I panicked on it, which caused me to make a really dumb mistake on a question I knew how to do. I was able to catch the mistake and fix it during the test, but doing so cost me so much time that I was unable to even answer one of the other two questions, which got me a super low score on that third of the test.
But we’re not here to talk about 701.
We’re here to talk about 601, the class that I was really worried about. Up here we need a B- to “pass” a class* but are only allowed to have two B- grades every two semesters. So really we all want B’s or better. Calculating my grade before the project, I pretty much needed a perfect score on said project to get a B overall. And even though I was feeling fairly confident about the project after I’d finished it last week, I figured there was no way in hell I’d gotten a perfect score.
So I checked my grade today and somehow I pulled off an A- in 601. As you might expect, I’m pretty pleasantly shocked. He must have really curved things at the end. Either that or my presentation ROCKED HIS SOCKS.
But I’m guessing he just really curved things at the end.
Either way, though, I’m relieved. I was really worried throughout this semester that I’d do so poorly that they’d kick me out. Seriously. I’m the only** statistics student from the United States, too. Gotta represent!
*A note for my American readers out there (which I think is almost everyone): Canada grades are different than US grades in the sense that for us US people, a B is equivalent to a grade anywhere from 80% to 89% (at least in most cases). Here it varies slightly by class, but a B in 601 is a grade anywhere from 76% to 79.5%. That may make it sound “easier” to get a B, but compared to US grading, they’re quite a bit tougher up here. Both UWO and UBC were like that, too.
**I definitely know I’m the only incoming US stats student, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only US stats student in the entire department right now, too.
The Dumbest Joke in the History of Dumb Jokes
Say there are two trees growing close to one another, one with slightly darker bark than the other.
One day, the lighter-barked tree appears to have a single sheath of bark that’s slightly darker than the other bits of bark and looks like it matches that of the darker-barked tree.
And the other bits of bark say to the darker bark, “Dude. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
Crap, that isn’t even a joke; that is me with sleep deprivation plus a six-hour layover in Seattle plus the wake of a mini-freakout from last night when I woke up at my dad’s house and had NO IDEA where I was (I thought I was still in Calgary, but nothing looked familiar and I was scared).
I’m not sorry.
Hell, I’m not even coherent.
(Ignore this.)
Complex analysis: it’s all fun and games until someone loses an i.
AHEM. If anyone ever tells you you’re “too old” to contribute to your field of choice…
Granted, it’s a subjective collection of greatest works/greatest minds, but notice the wide spread of ages in all categories.
This is important to me mainly because I’ve always heard (from various people/sources) that math, in particular, is “for the young” and that once you’re past a certain age (30 is commonly mentioned), learning math—let alone understanding it on an intuitive level—just doesn’t happen. And good luck trying to contribute something to the field if you’re 30+, right?
That idea’s just always bothered me. What does age have anything to do with your math ability (apart from, of course, possibly having more learning time in general if you start at an earlier age versus an older age)? I guess it may be true that the older you get, the harder it is to learn in general, but there’s no reason why that should translate to “you’re 30, so now suddenly the math part of your brain will never understand anything new and you will be of no use to the field, so get out and go study Brit lit or something!”
Hell, based on personal experience, I feel like I’m getting more from my “older” degrees (like math, which I got at age 26) than I did with my “younger” degrees (like psych and philosophy, ages 20 and 21 respectively). That of course may just be due to the fact that since I’ve been in school for SO LONG that my brain’s just kind of morphed into some super-efficient book-learning machine, but I think it’s more likely that seeing the processes and connections and “inner workings” of a lot of subjects and topics is just easier for me now that I’m a little older. I’m not sure if that’s the case for other people who seem unable to leave academia like myself (I keep trying, but it KEEPS DRAWING ME BACK IN), but it’s certainly true for me.
ANYWAY.
Sigh of Sighs.
Dear United States:
Are you seriously risking pissing off North Korea because of one dumb little movie? Really? The movie theatre threats are probably something that’s best treated with caution whether they’re real or not, so it makes sense to pull the showings of The Interview, but is it really a threat to your freedom to do so? I mean, really? It’s a movie. It’s a political satire, and probably a bad one at that (if not, then at least one in bad taste). At least Team America was poking fun at US attitudes more than anything else, but The Interview really just sounds like its goal is to make fun of Kim Jong-un. Not the smartest thing to do.
You’re a big boy now, United States. Calm down, think before you act, and play nice with North Korea. Maybe just sit by yourself and read a book or something. Or go play hopscotch with Canada.
Edit: DID THE U.S. JUST GET IN A FLAME WAR WITH NORTH KOREA? Good lord.
Short blog is short
I have to pack for Moscow, but I totally don’t want to. I want instead to sit in my apartment and daydream.
(Hours later…)
Oh crap, I spent all day sitting in my apartment and daydreaming!
Worth it.
End!
Okay, NOW I am officially done with the semester! Turned in my final paper and the corresponding data and R code. My grade will be what it will be—there’s nothing I can do to influence it now.
I also went on a nice 13-mile walk, which was especially awesome considering the fact that I have basically walked ZERO miles over the past week due to all the panic.
I wonder if the end-of-semester sadness is going to kick in this year. I haven’t felt it over the past few semesters, but who knows. That used to hit me really hard, man. Especially in the summer.
I should distract myself by packing. Instead, I’m going to distract myself by playing Quake. Non-semester mode, ACTIVATE!
(Sorry I’m so boring.)
Towering
Yay, today was fun! Nate and I went to the Calgary Tower and then to an indoor botanical garden/mall that was tucked away within the depths of downtown. It was super cool. Have some grainy iPod Calgary Tower pics, because I suck at remembering to bring my actual camera and also suck at taking good pictures in general.
Nate’s feet, my feet, and the ground far below us:
So much flatter than Moscow, haha:
And bigger:
It never even occurred to me to take a picture of us (not just our feet) in the Tower as well, but I’m the worst photographer ever, so what’re ya gonna do.
My anaconda don’t want buns unless y—oh I screwed it up.
Nate and I are going to CrossIron Mills this afternoon. From what he’s told me, it’s this huge, elaborate mall just outside of the main city.
My tiny little dilemma, though, is this: should I count it as one of my “Canadian Mall” installments? I mean, technically I’m not walking to it, which is the whole reason for my “Canadian Mall” series in the first place, but I looked at its location on Google Maps and I’m pretty sure there’s no way I could ever actually get there on foot. It’s a ways outside of the city, and given Calgary’s mercurial attitude toward sidewalks, there’s probably not a walkable path (also, I think the only way to legitimately get there is on the highway).
So yeah.
BUT ANYWAY. Fun weekend ahead! I’m excited.
My anaconda don’t want Huns unless we got Mulan, son
I am DONE with this semester!
Well, almost. I gave my final presentation in 601 today, but I still have to turn in my paper by the 15th. No big deal, though, ‘cause it’s already about 97% written.
So have some Ray to celebrate, because Ray is awesome.
How to Make Introductory Statistics Completely Unappealing: A Handy Guide
(Inspired by past experience, past observations, and the complaints of undergraduates from three—count ‘em, three—universities.)
- On the first day of class, go over the syllabus, ask if there are any questions, and then launch right into the material. Omit any form of road map for the course or any reasoning as to why everyone from bio majors to engineering majors to political science majors are required to take the course.
- Pick the driest, most boring textbook possible. Use it and it alone as supplemental material to your lecture notes.
- Assume that all students, regardless of actual background or major, are familiar with such thing as summation notation, factorials, slopes, and calculus. That sociology major sitting in the middle row who’s struggling simply because they don’t know that 5! = 5*4*3*2*1? That’s their problem, not yours.
- Make sure your class is all application, no theory. After all, why would people need to understand the reasoning behind the tests they’re using so long as they know how to do the tests?
- If you cannot implement the above method, try making sure your class is all theory and no application. After all, if you teach the theory really well, odds are the students will be able to derive the practical applications by themselves, right?
- Stick to the most boring examples you can think of, and make sure every example you use is coming from the same area of research. Do you have a background in business? Every example should be business-related and involve as many technical terms as you can throw in there. Same idea if your background is biology or psychology. That way, students can really see how statistics can be used in practically every field—as long as that field is yours.
- There are plenty of cool, funny, and downright fascinating examples where statistics are used in unique and exciting ways. Make sure you keep these engaging examples out of the classroom.
- If there is a topic that the majority of the class is struggling with, assume that it’s their own faults for not studying it well enough and press onward to new material. Breadth, not depth, right? Who cares if there’s a section people are struggling with as long as you cover every chapter in the textbook by the end of the semester.
- Offer only one explanation of each topic. All students learn the same, and thus why waste time trying to explain a concept in two or more different ways? If there is confusion over your explanation as to why we use an ANOVA versus a bunch of paired t-tests for comparing 3+ means, it’s not your problem. Everyone should just be able to understand your explanation with no problem, so long as they’re applying themselves.
- Finally, lecture in the most unenthusiastic voice possible. After all, you’re talking about numbers, right? Numbers are obviously inherently boring and this boringness should be conveyed through your lecturing style. If students are willing to learn, they should be able to get past your droning voice at 8:30 in the morning. Those who fall asleep simply are slackers.
All of the above info must already be very obvious, because so many statistics teachers seem to glean their teaching techniques from at least one or two of the above points.
After all, if we’re not making statistics the most painful subject to learn, we’re not doing our jobs right.
Hipster Telephone had a “#” before it was cool.
I need to draw Hipster Telephone.
I was unaware that the term “pound sign” does not usually apply to the symbol “#” outside of the United States—hence my hesitation to use it in my title and confuse people even more than I already do. And I refuse to use the term “hashtag” because I’m too cool for school social media. Also, “hashtag” automatically reminds me of Twitter, and Twitter is my mortal enemy. Here are some things I dislike about Twitter:
- If I only get 140 characters to express my thoughts, you’d best be expecting some snarky rebellion on my part, ‘cause 140 characters ain’t happening. I can’t even voice my dislike of the 140 character limit in 140 characters. I CAN HARDLY EVEN SAY “HELLO” IN 140 CHARACTERS, ARE YOU KIDDING ME.
- “I’mma tweet this” is the most obnoxious phrase to enter the English language in the last 900 years.
- When did we turn into birds, anyway?
- When did we turn into birds that can only “tweet” the length of 140 characters? What if actual birds had this limitation? Imagine the bird version of Shakespeare (heh, “Bird Bard”) dealing with such a thing. Blasphemy.
- Wait, DID BIRDS IMPOSE THIS LIMIT ON US? Is Twitter really some sort of avian takeover of the human race?
- I’m picturing some sort of European Union: Bird Version type thing. “Alright guys, so we tried to give the humans our flu, but that didn’t take ‘em out like we’d hoped. So let’s set up this website—we’ll call it Twitter ‘cause that’s cute and they’re dumb—and give ‘em 140 characters to blather on about their day or their underwear or whatever it is they talk about when we’re not around. Soon their language will devolve into nonsensical 140-character pseudo sentences, which will shortly be taken over by hashtags. THEN WE WILL RISE, BRETHREN, AND TAKE OVER THE SKIES!” #birduprising2015
- The thing that really gets me is when people want to tweet something that’s more than 140 characters, so they just break it up into like 9 separate tweets, each of which is hardly a coherent sentence on its own. Really? Get a blog, long-winded bro! There’s no character limit on a blog! And blogging’s easy, see? Even I can do it!
- The 140-character thing is really what I’m stuck on. SERIOUSLY.
- Can you imagine someone like Descartes trying to use Twitter?
(I just spent five minutes not only looking for a “fake tweet generator” but also finding the smallest pic of Descartes to center in that little box. Good lord.)
- #You #don’t #need #these #buggers #on #every #freaking #word
- I…I just don’t get the appeal, to be honest. If I like someone enough to want to read their thoughts/opinions, I’d probably want to read more than 140-character snippets. Just sayin’.
- (Here’s where I turn into Hypocrite Central and admit with downcast eyes that I do, in fact, have a Twitter account that does, in fact, have more than 0 tweets. DON’T YOU GO SEARCHING FOR IT OR I’LL MAKE #birduprising2015 A THING, I SWEAR TO GOD.)
Wow, this blog took a serious turn into a Twitter rant, didn’t it? I can’t even remember what I was originally going to blog about.
Oops.
That happens sometimes.
(Also, something like a bagel might be more intuitively represented using spherical coordinates rather than Cartesian coordinates. Just sayin’.)
Relief (sort of)
So this morning was the final for STAT 701.
(And I accidentally went to the wrong room at first because I totally forgot our final was in a different room than our normal one. Oops.)
It…it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, actually. There were a few super specific questions, but there were also questions that were very similar to the questions on our previous midterms.
So yeah. Now all I can do is wait for my grade and hope that I did well enough.
But that’s a huuuuuuuuuuge stress gone, at least. Now all I have to do is worry about my 601 project, which I’m really not too concerned about, since it’s just analyzing some data and then presenting said analysis, which is something I love doing, especially since I get to make a POWERPOINT!
(I love PowerPoint.)
Right now, however, all I’m going to do is go home and rock out to music for the rest of the evening.
Eigenblogger 