I am Golfer, hear me Fore
I pwned that calc final. Thank you, Leibniz (and Newton)!
Have some sillies in celebration.
I added this
So you may have noticed that I’ve got a new little tab thingy up at the top of my blog.
I’ve decided to make my attempt at 10,000 blog posts a legitimate goal. How interesting would it be to see the progression of a person over the span of approximately 27 years? Even though I’m like the least interesting person on the planet, I think just chronicling about a quarter of a century’s worth of time for anyone would prove an interesting study.
So yeah. Yet another Claudia Goal. Are you ready to put up with my inanity for another 21 years?
SCARY NOTIONS.
DADADDAADADAAAAAAAAAA
Unintentional hilarity: forums arguing over “calculus” versus “the calculus.”
“I would use the calculus to help with my diabeetus, plain old calculus for other purposes. Seriously, “the calculus” reminds me of Wilford Brimley.”
“The Batman calls it the calculus.”
“I call them Fluxions, I’m old school.”
Haha, that’s all for today. I’m busy.
I think my feet are shrinking.
Here’s another one! Sorry for the art bombardment lately.
GOTTA DO CALC!
Watch this right now
This gentleman is my new favorite living human being.
Yes.
I’d add that linear algebra is an important middle step as well. A lot of stuff that I really enjoy in the field of statistics is stuff I wouldn’t understand nearly as well had I not taken linear algebra.
Ideal universe:
Basic statistics (like the stuff I’m teaching) –> Linear algebra –> more advanced statistics (FA, PCA, SEM) –> calculus (or taught concurrently with the previous) –> mathematical statistics
In my personal experience, I was able to get to SEM-level without calculus. I took calculus, but I never really used it in the context of stats.
But now that I’m taking it again, even at the basic level of 170, I’m seeing how this will apply to statistics (especially mathematical stats). And that’s super exciting.
So I don’t think this idea of “stats before calc” discounts the importance of calculus. Rather, I think it focuses on this idea of “practical versus theoretical” understanding. Statistics, especially very basic statistics, is something I think everyone should know. It’s practical, it’s applicable in every field. Calculus gives you a stronger understanding of WHY it’s so practical and applicable (at least in my opinion).
So yeah. Dr. Benjamin was also on the Colbert Report some time ago. I’ll have to find that vid.
Haha, speaking of the Report, I’m going to go watch the Maurice Sendak interviews again.
Do babies deprived of disco exhibit a failure to jive?
You know, sometimes the most “pointless” analyses turn up the coolest stuff.
Today I had…get ready for it…FREE TIME! So I decided to try analyzing a fairly large dataset using SAS (’cause SAS can handle large datasets better than R and because I need to practice my coding anyway).
I went here to get a list of the 5,000 most common words in the English language. What I wanted to do was answer the following questions:
1. What is the frequency distribution of letters looking at just the first letter of each word?
2. Does the distribution in (1) differ from the overall distribution in the whole of the English language?
3. Does either frequency distribution hold for the second letter, third letter, etc.?
LET’S DO THIS!
So the frequency distribution of characters for the first letter of words is well-established. Wiki, of course, has a whole section on it. Note that this distribution is markedly different than the distribution when you consider the frequency of character use overall.
I found practically the same thing with my sample of 5,000 words.
So this wasn’t really anything too exciting.
What I did next, though, was to look at the frequencies for the next four letters (so the second letter of a word, the third letter, the fourth, and the fifth).
Now obviously there were many words in the top 5,000 that weren’t five letters long. So with each additional letter I did lose some data. But I adjusted the comparative percentages so that any difference we saw weren’t due to the data loss.
Anyway. So what I did was plot the “overall frequency” in grey—that is, the frequency of each letter in the whole of the English language—against the observed frequency in my sample of 5,000 words in red—again, for the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth letter of the word.
And what I found was actually really interesting. The further “into” a word we got, the closer the frequencies conformed to the overall frequency in the English language.
The x-axis is the letter (A=1, B=2,…Z=26). The y-axis is the number of instances out of a sample of 5,000 words. See how the red distribution gets closer in shape to the grey distribution as we move from the first to the fifth letter in the words? The “error”–the absolute value of the overall difference between the red and grey distributions–gets smaller with each further letter into the word.
I was going to go further into the words, but 1) I left my data at school and 2) I figured anyway that after five letters, I would find a substantial drop in data because there would be a much lower count of words that were 6+ letters long.
But anyway.
COOL, huh? It’s like a reverse Benford’s Law.*
*Edit: actually, now that I think about it, it’s not really a REVERSE Benford’s Law; as I found when I analyzed that pattern, it too rapidly disintegrated as we moved to the second and third digit in a given number and the frequency of the digits 0 – 9 conformed to the expected frequencies (1/10 each).
TWSB: So a “Squircle” is a Thing.
And it’s exactly what it sounds like. “A squircle is a shape with properties between those of a square and those of a circle,” according to the almighty Wiki. The general equation for such as shape is (x-a)4 + (y-b)4 = r4, where (a,b) is the center of the squircle and r is the minor radius of the squircle.
A squircle is not a rounded square, which is formed by arranging four quarters of a circle and connecting the loose ends with straight lines. The equation for a squircle is simpler and more generalizable than the rounded square.
So what the heck are squircles used for, other than for amusing people with their name?
Well, apparently the shape is very useful in optics. If a light is passed through a 2-D square aperture, the diffraction pattern’s central spot can be modeled by the squircle.
Squircle dinner plates also have an advantage of their round brethren—a squircle has a larger surface area than a circle with the same radius, but will still occupy the same amount of space in a cabinet. And efficiently wedging dishware into cupboards is what science is all about!
Additional note: a squircle with unequal vertical and horizontal dimensions is called a rectellipse. That sounds like a hemorrhoid medication.
(The amount of time I spent searching for an “Rx pad generator” just to make that stupid joke is embarrassing.)
Are you sick of all the calculus stuff yet?
Got my “Newton v. Leibniz” paper work-shopped today and my teacher said it sounded like something out of The New Yorker. So that was pretty cool.
I’ll post it here once I edit it a little more. There are still a few parts I’m not happy with.
ANYWAY.
If there’s anyone else out there who really digs the history of science/philosophy of science/science in general, they might want to check out the works of Carl Djerassi. Dr. Djerassi, an emeritus professor at Stanford, writes “science-in-fiction.” This, he says, is different than science fiction but also different than biography, as it illustrates scientific history via the human, personal sides of some of the most prominent scientists and scientific events that we’ve seen. In addition to fiction, he also writes poetry, memoir, and plays. I recommend “Calculus” because…well, obvious reasons.
Anyway, check out some of his work if this sounds interesting to you. I just spent like two hours reading his stuff and researching him. Very cool dude.
That’s all!
Aren’t librarians “bookies”?
CRAP IT’S DECEMBER.
Anyway.
So it’s been like six decades since I’ve read for pleasure*, which really blows ’cause I love to read for pleasure. My 200 Books list has idled unedited for far too long.
I actually found this really cool list that was a concatenation of 13 different “Top 100 Books” lists. As I was reading it over, there were quite a few books that I think should also be on my “200” list.
So here’s the plan:
I think I’m going to re-vamp my list, then start it all over again. Which I think would be a good thing. I seriously doubt I got a whole lot out of War and Peace when I read it as a 13-year-old. And this time I’ll give a review of each book upon completion.
Yay reading!
*The Calculus Wars doesn’t count. That wasn’t for pleasure. That was for stalking studying. Yeah. It was an…assignment. I had to read it. I totally didn’t go through it and creepily highlight a bunch of key stuff about Leibniz. That’d be wrong. I just read it for an assignment. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Stuff ‘n Noise, Noise n’ Stuff
Things.
1. This is the most horribly designed infographic ever.
2. This study is old news now I suppose, but I still find it disturbing. 53% of 16-30 year olds would give up their sense of smell for Facebook? What in the hell, people. I’d happily trade all social networking, perhaps even my blogging, for the ability to smell.
3. “Newton, Leibniz, and Pascal were all playing Hide-and-Seek, and it was Leibniz’s turn to count. Pascal immediately runs off and finds a great hiding spot, while Newton simply stands out in the open and draws a one-meter square on the ground around himself. Leibniz finishes counting, and when he looks up, he sees Newton. ‘Aha!’ he yells, ‘I found you!’ Newton responds, ‘No, you found one Newton per square meter- You found Pascal!’” (source)
DONE!
Again, sorry my blogs have been sucking always lately. Crazy semester is crazy.
Focus Pocus
Here’s more blathering in drawing form.
There is a positive correlation between the amount of stuff I need to do for school and the amount of stuff I want to draw.
Dicking around with Data
I have my first ounce of legitimate free time today and what do I do with it?
“I GOTTA ANALYZE SOME DATA!”
Today’s feature: analyzing Nobel laureates by birth dates.
Nobel Prizes are awarded for achievement in six different categories: physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, peace, and economic sciences. Thus far, there have been 863 prizes awarded to individuals and organizations.
The Nobel website has a bunch of facts on their laureates, including a database where you can search by birthday. So because I’m me and I like to analyze the most pointless stuff possible, here’s what today’s little flirtation with association entails:
1. Does the birth month of the laureate relate in any way to the category of the award (chem, medicine, etc.)?
2. Does the zodiac sign of the laureate in any way to the category of the award?
Vroom, vroom! Let’s do it.
Pre-Analysis: Examining the data
So I should preface this. I decided, upon inspecting the observed contingency table comparing Birth Month and Award Category, to drop the Economics prize altogether. I calculated that the expected cell counts would be very small (because the Economics category is actually the newest Nobel category); such small cell counts would totally throw the chi-square test. So we’re stuck with the other five categories for our analysis.
Question 1: Relation of birth month to award category
Treating Birth Month as a categorical variable (with categories January – December) and Award Category as another categorical variable (with categories equal to the six award categories), I performed a chi-square test to examine if there is an association between the two categories.
Results: χ2 (45)= 81.334, p = 0.0007345. This suggests, using a critical value of .05, that there is a significant relationship between birth month and award category.
Examining the contingency table again (which I’d post here but it’s being a bitch and won’t format correctly, so I’m just going to list what I see):
- Those born in the summer months (June – August) and the months of late fall (October, November) tend to own the Peace and Literature prizes.
- August-, September-, and October-born have most of the Physics prizes.
- The Chemistry prizes seem pretty evenly distributed throughout the months.
- The summer-born seem to have the most awards overall.
Question 2: Relation of zodiac sign to award category.
I suspected this to have a similar p-value, just solely based on the above analysis.
Results: I get a χ2 (54) = 199.8912, p < 0.0001. So this suggests, using our same cutoff value, that there is a significant relationship between zodiac sign and award category. Which makes sense, considering what we just saw with the months. But what’s interesting is that just by looking at the size of the chi-square this relationship is actually stronger than the above one.
Looking at the contingency table for this relationship, here are a few of my observations:
- Aries, Gemini, Virgos, and Libras own the Medicine awards.
- Cancers, Sagittarians, and Aquarians own the Physics awards.
- The first five zodiac signs (Aries – Leo) seem to dominate Literature.
- Capricorns are interesting. They have the least amount of awards overall, but 30% of the awards they do have are in Peace. That’s far more (percentage-wise) than any other sign. Strange noise.
OKAY THAT’S ALL.
NaNo Done!
WOO!
So despite the 4 million+ other things I’ve had to do this month, I was actually able to win NaNoWriMo. Whistler’s Father ended up at 50,085 words by midnight. It’s definitely not by best work by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t suck as badly as last year’s and it actually has quite a bit more plot to go. But I probably won’t continue it ’cause I don’t like it.
SUCH IS LIFE!
Anyway. Now I can concentrate on not freaking out about finals (HAHA like that’ll happen).
No, Cloud, NO!
Dammit iTunes, stop screwing with my music! I have a delicate balance of lists and playlists and playcounts and I do not appreciate your “here’s a bunch of stuff you downloaded but deleted but here it is again in case you really weren’t serious about deleting it” crap that version 11.0 introduces. Now my master and 2012 playlists are all screwed up. It’s a good thing I keep backup lists of everything.
[rant complete]
So close I can taste it
It’s going to be very difficult for me to leave school again when it becomes time to do so. I know I’ve mentioned this on here before, but in “Ideal Claudia World of Ultimate Happiness”, I would somehow find a way to continue to go to school for the rest of my life. Also, in this world, I’d keep on working my current job, because HOLY CRAP I LOVE IT SO. This was actually the most fantastic semester ever because not only did I get to take a bunch of cool classes, but I also got to teach at the same time.
You know, now that I think about it, even though it’d be a total longshot and would probably never work, I should propose it to the President of the U of I. “I will complete every undergraduate degree you offer if I can keep working as a lecturer to pay for it.” I’ve always said I’ve wanted to do that and then write a book about the experience. That’d actually be pretty good publicity for the University, assuming it was actually a good book (longshot #2). And how cool would it be to study a University by completing every major it has to offer?
I don’t care how outlandish and stupid that idea sounds—it sounds cool to me. And I know I’d run into arguments that would go along the lines of, “well, if you’re actually serious about learning stuff, you don’t necessarily have to stay in school; you can learn things outside of the classroom blah blah blah blah blah.”
Yes, I’m aware of that. Two counters:
1) quite a few of the things offered at a Univeristy are things that, on my own, I probably wouldn’t have either the resources to learn or even just the ability to learn in an efficient manner. Take a foreign language, for example. I’m not too confident about my bilingual ability (assuming I would acquire some) and thus would probably do best in a classroom-type setting. Learning about something else in which I have no background would fall under this category, too.
2) I’m actually one of those people who learns best in a classroom-type setting. I suppose I’m lucky in a way; ever since I entered school I’ve been in an environment that naturally works for me when it comes to actually learning material.
But anyway.
A girl can dream, right?
Haha, sorry, this has been on my mind all semester.
Finally!
It’s the last one! THE LAST ONE!
4901. Are you a fun lovin criminal?
I’m a boring-enjoying do-gooder.
4902. What do you find yourself encouraging others to try?
Hahaha, probably R.
4903. Mel Brooks or Woody Allen?
Mel Brooks rules.
4904. What do you think of the movie Mystic Pizza?
That sounds familiar, but I’ve never seen it.
4905. Have you ever danced on a table, bar, or other platform?
Indeed.
4906. Where was the most inconvenient place you ever threw up?
When I was little I threw up on a lady during a flight. Not my finest hour.
4907. When was the last time you were up all night?
The night before I flew down to Tucson.
4908. What question will you find the answer to today?
“Will Claudia finally finish this damn survey?”
4909. __ is life. The rest is just details. Fill in the blank.
Knowledge.
4910. What did you think of the movie 10 Things I hate about You?
Eh. Not worth the hype.
4911. Ten Things I hate About You or clueless?
Neither.
4912. What’s the point of robbery when nothing is wrth taking?
Thrill?
4913. What do you do only when you are upset?
We’re not going to get into that.
4914. Can you imagine no love, pride, and deep-fried chicken?
DON’T TAKE MAH CHICKEN!!!
4915. What do you think about flag burning?
I would never personally do it, but I don’t know if it’s something that should be illegal.
4916. Are you cuddley?
Not really.
4917. Who thinks you are offensive?
Hopefully not too many.
4918. Who deserves an appology from you?
Probably someone, but I can’t think of anyone.
4919. Who owes you an apology?
No one I can think of.
4920. Are there any animals you flat out refuse to touch?
Dragonflies, man. Creepy buggers.
4921. Did you/will you go to the prom?
I did go to the prom. My dress left glitter EVERYWHERE.
4922. Do you have intimacy issues?
Meh.
4923. have you ever wanted to date twins?
I can barely tell two dramatically different people apart. Could you imagine me with twins?
They’d have to have some pretty screwed up genes to want to date me, anyway.
4924. What website should everyone check out?
http://www.playauditorium.com/
4925. Are pigeons flying rats?
Pigeons aren’t so bad.
4926. Are shrimp sea roaches?
Haha, I’ve never heard them referred to as such.
4927. What was the last compliment you received?
I don’t remember.
4928. Do you push people away when you really want them to come closer?
Meh.
4929. Do you ever just stop and listen?
Yes.
4930. Do you lie your way out of things?
I used to.
4931. What only happens once in a lifetime?
LIFE!
Hahaha.
I’m dumb.
4933. Is this life just practice?
Practice for what?
4934. Know of any conspiracy theories you think might be credible?
That Google will take over the world.
4935. What gives you happy shivers?
Doing stats.
4936. Do you have a new attitude?
About what?
4937. Have you ever read at a poetry reading?
Indeed.
your own poem?
Indeed. I won some award thingy and they wanted me to read.
4938. Do you feel more like laughing or crying?
I feel like singing, actually. Time for some Boston!
4939. Who is brilliant?
LEIBNIZ!
4941. Who just needs a little love?
ME! …Please?
4942. Do you prefer when things come with no assembly required, even if they are a bit more expensive?
I suck at manual dexterity, so yes.
4943. Start a sentance with the words what if:
“What if we found happiness?
4944. Is life all fun and games?
Depends on how you look at it.
Should it be?
See above.
4945. What is the highest number you can count to in your head?
Over NINE THOUSAAAND!
4947. What is your favorite flavor of coffee?
Coffee sucks.
4948. Do you ever think about time travel?
Hahahahaha, my NaNo makes me want to kill myself.
4949. What does the number 49 remind you of?
Vancouver. Dammit, Vancouver.
4950. What’s your favorite movie that involves dancing?
Is there dancing in The Brave Little Toaster? I guess they jive with the animals in the forest, eh?
4951. How often do you:
see this survey somewhere on the main page?
Never.
check out other people who are doing this survey?
I did at the beginning.
4952. How many minutes (on average) does it take you to complete one section of this survey that is 50 questions long?
It takes me like five hours ’cause I always get distracted by other oh hey I should go check Tumblr for the eightieth time today.
4953. Multiply that number by 100 to find the aproximate number of minutes you have spent on the entire survey:
Actually, it varies quite a bit now that I think about it.
4956. Do you wish you had that time back?
What’s done is done.
4957. Are you going to miss this survey when it is gone?
Yes, but I’m sure my readers won’t.
4958. What are you going to fill your free time up with when this is over?
More frivolity.
4959. Did you learn anything about yourself by taking this?
That I have no life.
4960. Did you learn anything about me (age, gender, tastes, impression, etc)?
Spelling. It’s an issue for you.
4961. Has doing nothing ever felt so good as when you’re doing this survey?
I can think of better things.
4962. You are about to complete the survey. Are you proud?
WOO!
4963. Name 3 things everyone should know about you:
I love statistics, I love color, and I’m obnoxious.
4964. Have they changed since you started this survey (that was question 2)?
I don’t even know what my first answer was.
4965. What date did you start this survey?
Pfft, like two years ago.
What date is it today?
November something.
How many days is that in all?
Too many for this nonsense.
4966. Did you enjoy the start, middle, or end of the survey more?
The middle wasn’t bad.
4967. Were you still interested by the end or did you just want to finish out of stubborness?
Kinda both.
4968. Do you have a favorite part of the survey?
Man, it’s taken me so long to do this that I can’t remember way back when.
4969. Would you finish the survey if it was upped to 10,000 questions?
Damn straight.
4970. Did you feel like the survey covered enough different topics or did it seem limited?
It was fine.
4971. Did anyone read your survey all the way through?
Doubtful.
4972. In a few minutes, when you finish, will you feel like you’ve accomplished something?
No.
4973. Were you avoiding anything by doing this survey?
Reality.
4974. How would you describe taking this survey to someone who hasn’t taken it?
“Get Spell Check a’goin’.”
4975. Is there any topic or topics that this survey covered to often?
A lot of questions dated it quite severely.
4976. Will you be glad it’s over or bummed that it’s gone?
Both. Though I’m sure my readers are like “THANK GOD”
4977. Give the survey a a rating from one to ten for interestingness (1 is super interesting):
4.
4979. Are all endings really beginings in disguise?
In a way.
4980. Are you ever going to read over your survey answers?
Maybe. Doubtful, though.
4981. If you retook this survey in 1 year would most of your answers stay the same?
Haha, probably.
4982. How did you find this survey to begin with?
Haha, I can’t remember, actually.
4983. what made you decide to take it?
Dude. It’s what I do.
4984. Is this the best survey you’ve ever taken?
Nah.
4985. Could you write 5,000 questions for a survey (I’d take it, if you did)?
Probably. Hell, I have enough experience with surveys to do so.
4986. Name something more fun than filling out this survey:
Obsessing over Leibniz.
Name something filling out this survey was more fun than:
Sleeping.
4987. Should the survey have been more organized, for ex. should each section have had it’s own theme?
I’m always for more organization, yo.
4988. Were the questions
too crazy?
No such thing!
too mundane?
Some of them, yes.
too cryptic?
Some were too dated to be relevant at all anymore.
4989. What will you miss most about this survey?
Using it on days where I have nothing else ot talk about, haha.
4990. If we met would we likly become friends?
Sure.
4991. Are we friends now?
Well, you know an awful lot about me now, eh?
4992. Are you getting excited?
Yup!
4993. Did you inspire or offer a question in this survey?
Probably somewhere.
4994. Is your heart beat rising?
OH GOD THE ANTICIPATION
4995. Would you go insane if the survey eneded right here, before reaching 5,000?
That would be hilarious yet tragic.
4996. I’ve asked you so many questions. What question would you like to ask me?
What motivated you to write 5,000 questions in survey form?
4997. Is there a subject that you love so much you wish all 5,000 questions had been about it (David Bowie for instance)?
Statistics. Philosophy. Leibniz.
4998. Are you shivering with anticipation?
LIKE ALWAYS!
4999. Are you about to party like we’re at question 4,999?
Hell yeah, get the Red Bull.
5000. Are you still the same person you wre when you began this survey?
We’re never the same.
Congratulations! You’ve officially finished the 5,000 Question Survey!
WOO!
When the nose doesn’t know
Hey duders!
So this is probably something that is only of interest to me (but isn’t that the case with most of the crap on this blog?), but I’m posting it anyway.
Dr. Keller specializes in human odor detection at the Rockefeller University. His website has links to a bunch of really cool smell-related pages/projects/info.
There was something really important I was going to say as well today, but hell if I remember what it was now. I apologize. I’ve been embroiled in 17th century mathematical disputes for the past week. I can’t be concerned with the present.
Do blondes prefer gentlemen?
Stuff I should be doing:
1) Studying for calc
2) Doing trig
3) Reading workshop essays
4) Preparing class homework
5) Working on NaNo (and freaking updating my word count; I suck at that this year)
6) Posting these blogs
7) Sleeping (optional)
Stuff I did instead:
Well, I did work on calc and reading and class homework…but that doesn’t excuse me from doing anything else on my “should” list.
I’m not much of a movie person
But holy freaking crap spackle, Sunshine is fantastic.
I first happened upon this movie via its beautiful, beautiful soundtrack (the Adagio was actually the background music in that “Science Saved My Soul” video I posted back on October 25th).
So my mom and I wound up at Bookmans the other day (because passing up a trip to Bookmans is a sin) and I happened to find the movie. So I bought it.
Watched it tonight.
Holy crap.
I actually hesitate to post the trailer, ’cause I don’t think it’s an accurate depiction of how cool this movie really is. So instead you get this little teaser. And this happens like in the first fourth of the movie, so there’s a LOT that goes on after this.
NNNNNNNFFF, that music.
Anyway.
What’s really cool about this movie is the amount of research that went into making it accurate. Sure, there are of course some major inaccuracies (welcome to Movie Land), but the director and cast really went through a lot to try and get it as accurate as they probably could and still have it be an interesting movie.
Like, a lot of thought went into it. It’s like the antithesis of Atomic Train.
If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it. It’s very, very good.
Be warned, though: there’s a scene in there that really reminded me of Vault 106 in Fallout 3 (the one in which you hallucinate in purple). If that creeped you the hell out, so will that scene in the movie. Fair warning.
More airport shenanigans
Blogging from Sea-Tac again! I’ve spent most of today trying to get my essay less than 10 pages. There’s no way in hell that’s happening, so my workshop group’s just going to have to deal with 11 pages. They’ll live.
Cutting this is making me sad!
Anyway.
So you know how Word can be set to automatically change :) and :( into actual little smilies/frownies? Screenshot:
Did you know it can also make a “meh “face?
I was typing something in my essay a few hours ago and I accidentally pressed the : and | in conjunction and this little dude popped up:
I’d never seen him before!
Am I like totally behind the curve on this, or is this new to any of you guys, too?
Haha, sorry. I needed to take a little break from working on stuff. I also have to churn out NaNo nonsense later today as well.
WOO! Three hours left!
Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving peoplez! My mom and I spent the morning driving all around, then I worked on Newton vs. Leibniz while helping her chef, then we had mashed potatoes and broccoli and it was awesome.
This year I am thankful for:
- My mom, of course. I’m really glad I got to spend a few days with her over break.
- The opportunity to further my education. I missed school SO. MUCH. Now that I’m back, I’m not sure if I’ll ever leave.
- My freaking awesome badass job. I love teaching statistics. It doesn’t feel like work AT ALL.
There are a lot of little things, too, but those are the main ones.
Enjoy today, y’all!
TWSB: The Colors of Google
So as is tradition, there’s some sort of major character death in my NaNoWriMo novel. At least this time it doesn’t happen until the end. Or near the end.
Or both.
Anyway.
I was going to put up my ending as an excerpt to torture you all today, but then I stumbled across a really cool science article. Considering I haven’t done my science blog yet this week, you get that instead!
Well, I guess it’s more math/pattern analysis, but hell, that’s science, ain’t it? I need to add a “math” category to my blog.*
Alrighty. So I stumbled upon this article by Ric Dragon of DragonSearch Marketing in which he makes a few educated conjectures about what the next color would be in the sequence if the Google logo had another letter.
The Google logo, as pictured above, has four colors: blue, red, yellow, and green. Mr. Dragon breaks up the letters into sequences of three to get this pattern:
- 1st sequence: blue, red, yellow (compliment to the combo of blue and red, purple)
- 2nd sequence: red, yellow, blue (compliment to the combo of red and yellow, orange)
- 3rd sequence: yellow, blue, green (combo of yellow and blue)
- 4th sequence: blue, green, red. Green = blue + yellow, but since blue is already in the sequence, he takes green-blue=yellow; thus the sequence is blue, yellow, red, with red being the compliment of blue and yellow, green.
From this, he makes the claim that the third color in any three-letter sequence must always be the result of mixing the first two colors or is the compliment of those first two colors.
So, again after removing the blue from the green in that last sequence, the next sequence of three would be yellow, red, ?
So if the rule here is combo, the next color would be orange (yellow + red)
But if the rule is compliment, the next color would be blue (compliment of yellow + red)
He talks a bit about iGoogle, too, which kind of messes up his patterns, but I actually just realized that I have a lot of stuff I should be doing other than blogging, so you’re just gonna have to read the article instead of my crappy summarizing. But it’s a cool thing to think about, eh? The mysteries of Google.
CLAUDIA OUT!
*Of course, that will require eliminating an old category to keep the total number of categories at 35. So some reassigning shall have to happen. Not that anyone else cares about that. Why the hell am I still talking?
Claudia vs. Dramamine (spoiler: the Dramamine wins)
Claudia’s Top Ten Reasons Why She Shouldn’t Ever Take Dramamine:
- Dry-swallowing those starchy little pills sucks.
- The instant Placebo Effect from swallowing said starchy little pill is strong, but not strong enough to beat psycho turbulence caused by the Pacific Northwest’s mercurial climate.
- They make me loopy and then freaking KNOCK ME OUT.Seriously, I took one at like 2 PM yesterday and by the time it was 7 or so I was so freaking out of it that I couldskdfnantdf..
- [sleeps]
- [wakes up] Huh? What? Did I fall asleep? Sorry. I meant to say that Dramamine really jussdlat aldkfafsfao adgpjaeaf…[sleeps]
- [sleeps]
- [sleeps]
- [sleeps]
- [sleeps]
- [wakes up] Wait…what was I doing again?
In related news: I’m in Tucson!
Airport Wi-Fi FTW
Ahoy, fellow internet-goers! Claudia here, blogging from scenic Sea-Tac Airport.
Currently, the weather’s pitching a hissy fit and it’s foggy and cold and wet (SURPRISE SURPRISE). The bottoms of my pant legs are wet, my hair looks horrible, but I’m going to see my mom in approximately five hours!
PARTY TIME!
I need to study for calc/write my essay/do my trig homework/grade papers/get lectures ready/get homeworks ready/email people, but I’m going to just draw instead.
TAKE THAT, RESPONSIBILITY!
Had Lord Kelvin done nothing with his life, would he have been an “absolute zero”?
I was so hyper yesterday I forgot to post this:
Vroom!
Eigenblogger 