Colons: Invading my blog titles for quite a few days now
My mom is here, yay! Moving has officially commenced.
And now: geekery!
IKEA is probably the single greatest place ever. We went there tonight ‘cause my mom’s never been in one and wanted to go. Let’s just say that if the whole world was run like an IKEA store, things would move a lot more smoothly. The whole building was like a grid of complete, organized happiness. I was flipping out about the sheer efficiency of the place, my mom was flipping out about the cool kitchen stuff they had. I also got a very awesome rug that you shall see once I get pictures up of my new snazzy apartment.
More fun:
http://mathfail.com/
http://spikedmath.com/226.html
http://spikedmath.com/229.html
http://extremepresentation.typepad.com/blog/files/choosing_a_good_chart.pdf (this made me SO HAPPY)
Sorry, I’m in a “Claudia gets a kick out of math” phase and you’re just going to have to deal with it.
And:
I have made two realizations as of late: I haven’t read anything that wasn’t from my classic books list (except for maybe five books) since 6th grade. I also realized when speaking to another friend about NaNoWriMo that I constructed my novel entirely around a “divide by zero” pun, which is about as bad as a pun addiction can get.
Today’s song: Beautiful, Dirty, Rich by Lady Gaga
Blogs: they’re still happening, I promise
HELLO DORKS!
Though you probably won’t see this until Monday or so, here is a warning to all you (read: maybe one of you) who regularly read these: moving to new apartment = happening this weekend, so I’ll have no access to the vast series of tubes until Monday. Throughout the rest of next week, blogs may be somewhat late (gasp!). I don’t know why I even bother putting a warning about late blogs in here, as you will not be able to see this until the blogs happen again.
Pah.
Anyway.
YAY new apartment time.
Here’s something to entertain you all while I’m away:
Parody or not, I want one just to look that cool.
Today’s song: Fast Car by Tracy Chapman
Claudia the Angry Blogger Presents: Yet Another Rant against Pretty Much Everything
Alternate title: I’M ALL FIRED UP, WHAT’RE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?!
I had a frustrating day today for various reasons. This little rant was inspired by a Google search (and Facebook). Haha, it’s a LOT longer than it was originally intended to be, so ignore it if you don’t want to read my incoherent ramblings about stuff that really doesn’t matter at all.
Perhaps the large businesses, website designers, and marketing department heads are familiar with the old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If they are, I truly doubt that they actually know what it means, as it is quite obvious by the state of change things are in nowadays that they currently have no intention of heeding its message.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. It may not sound like much (and it’s not), but there’s one thing in particular that stuck with me throughout my undergraduate education that has, now that I think about it, been backed up by pretty every situation I’ve ever been in: people dislike change. I’m not talking about change that brings about better circumstances, either immediately or in the distant future (though usually we’re more apt to appreciate change that leads to things improving immediately, as we as a species pretty much suck at appreciating delayed rewards). I’m also not talking about change that occurs because something is broken or something isn’t working to the best of its capability. Of course they should change the design of, for example, a hammer, if the way it’s designed now causes people to take two hours to pound a nail into a board. I’m not talking about that kind of change.
I’m talking about change for the sake of change—changing stuff just because it’s felt that a new layout is needed, or “modernization” must occur. There’s no real payoff from it, so there’s really no reason to do it—and yet it’s done anyway. I know everyone knows what I mean because as of late, websites, companies, and everybody else who gets their hands on their own logo all seem to be really desperate to do this. I noticed it a few years ago with brand logos and designs suddenly changing to look more “modern”—in particular, I recall the old M&M’s packages being replaced with the newer, hipper, 90’s versions (more flashy text, a more ‘animated’ package background).
Why? No real reason whatsoever. I know that logos and packages are a somewhat different field than websites (and actual products themselves), but every time I see a newly re-designed package with a sticker that claims something to the effect of “new design, same great product!” I have to wonder, “then why change the packaging?”
As I said, though, packaging and brand logos are in a different league than websites. Web design is something that, when it’s done right, is not noticed at all. Herein lies the problem with sudden unnecessary change, and I will show you why:
Pick a website whose design you admire for its simplicity and ease of use. This whole thing started with Google’s desire to change things up for no reason, but let’s pick another website just for the sake of demonstrating my point with even more strength: Facebook. I was not on Facebook myself until it underwent its first (and possibly second, I can’t remember) layout overhaul2. I wasn’t really interested in what it had to offer, but I do remember that the tabs at the top weren’t yet present, the “mini-feed” still existed, and things ran pretty smoothly and information was easy enough to locate.
Not long after this, however, things began to change for no reason other than to…well, I still don’t know why they thought changing stuff around was a good idea. The tabs arrived, and if I recall correctly they were met with such opposition that I had, at one point, multiple friends inviting me to join multiple groups that either protested the new layout or that claimed they had a way to change your profile back to the “old Facebook.” Then the “news feed” thing came, along with its ability to seemingly randomly switch between the “most popular” and the “most recent” feeds. Same story, same opposition.
Deny it all you like, there’s no getting around the fact that there are a lot of people who dislike the changes Facebook has made (and, for reasons seemingly unknown, keeps making). It doesn’t take much to realize why. When I first started using Facebook, I really didn’t pay any attention to the layout, mainly for this reason alone: it worked. It did what it was supposed to do, and it was fairly efficient at doing so. I got all the information I wanted to see on one page with no unnecessary fluff or clicks.
When Facebook suddenly made the tab change, I (as well as everyone else) was forced to “retrain” our methods of navigating the website. Whether the new design was in actuality more efficient than the old one was not the point in question—when the mini-feed vanished on us, we had to expend extra effort to retrain our brains to recognize that it was now under the “wall” tab and not right in front of us when we went to our profile.
The point I’m trying to make now is the fact that unnecessary layout changes are not only, you know, unnecessary, but they draw the attention to any shortcomings that may have, by accident, been included with the new layout upgrade. All of a sudden our ability to rate videos has disappeared on YouTube. Though there are claims that the overall “clutter” of the site has been reduced3, how many people notice anything other than the fact that they can’t rate something as having five stars (or still notice that the layout is still not the greatest)? That’s the point I’m trying to make: when website layouts or designs change for no obvious reason than to just change, we don’t notice the good things. We notice the failures. So what do we do? We do what only comes natural: we bitch about it.
Note, however, that this bitching does absolutely nothing. And now we come to the reason why I went on this long rant in the first place: Google. There are several things that I have always expected to remain constant (or at least, said to remain constant) within my lifetime. Among such things are:
– the speed of light in a vacuum
– Planck’s constant
– the gravitational constant
– Google
So imagine my surprise when I Googled something this afternoon and, upon viewing the search results, found that I was privy to Google’s experimental (and possibly soon-to-be-permanent) sidebar. Immediately annoyed by its intrusion into my search results, I did a search on it itself and within the top few results were—guess what?—people bitching about the experimental sidebar. “I hate this format- I like Google because it was clean and simple and now it’s all cluttered like every other search engine out there4.” There appear to be pro-Google individuals in digital tears over the possibility that a sidebar will be a permanent addition to their search results pages.
And now we come very quickly to the second point I wish to make: bitching does absolutely nothing (most of the time). Again, this has to do with the fact that people are both creatures of habit and lazy, as well as the fact that there are about five websites, in my opinion, that most people use without thinking much about it. I have friends in another country; I log onto Facebook to see if there’s any recent news about them. No real thought, it just happens. It’s like this with all the big and popular sites, and no amount of changes will probably mess with that.
When a member of the Internet Axis of Power (Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, YouTube, those such sites)1 pulls a change on the public, of course there is going to be outrage. There certainly was when YouTube changed its format and not too long ago. Comments of “the new YouTube layout sucks!” were quickly thumbed up and became the most liked comments on quite a few of the videos I’ve watched.
Why does this happen? I reiterate: if something’s working fine, and there is a sudden change that doesn’t really do much to improve aesthetics, functionality, or ease of use, it generally messes with peoples’ minds in a way that makes them upset. They have to expend effort, either getting used to a whole new way of navigating a website in the most extreme cases (Facebook), or just getting their brains used to a new visual cue on their search results page in the milder ones (a la Google’s experimental sidebar). And people don’t like effort.
But these websites are still the strongest ones out there. YouTube could make us have to type a captcha to comment on a video or Facebook could make us do the same to post on our friend’s wall, and we’d probably still use them. Why? Because they’re there. Because they’re the websites we’ve grown to love and depend on and automatically scroll to in our list of bookmarked sites. It’s basically a battle between putting up with pointless, needless site changes, or changing ourselves to not go to those sites. And we all know what side wins every time.
I’m certainly not suggesting that these websites are the bourgeoisie oppression to our proletarian desires to breeze about the internet unheeded. I’m simply saying that we can bitch all we like—if we continue to use their sites, and those in charge see no significant drop in web traffic as a result of the changes they made, then really, what’s been accomplished but a lot of angry video comments, irate Facebook groups, and upset Google users posting “it’s the end of the universe!” on forums?
One or two user casualties will ultimately do nothing, and I’m nearly stating fact when I say this: is there really anything that Google, YouTube, or Facebook could (in their right minds) do to their sites to render a huge drop in web traffic? Will a sidebar on Google’s results pages actually cause us to go elsewhere if we want to search for something? And for those of us Facebook addicts (or Facebook addicts in training), will a more-difficult-to-navigate interface really deter us much from checking the news feed every five minutes?
I started this rant with the intention of complaining about the problems of superfluous changes in web design—specifically, I wanted to point out that websites that change their layout for no other apparent reason than to simply change things up a bit get negative feedback and may lose some of their credibility (though that’s not the word I’m looking for, but I can’t think of a better one at the moment). However, the point I seem to have made in the end is that we’re pretty much tied to the major websites—and to any website we use with consistency, really—to the point where these little changes, as frustrating as they may be, will do little to deter us from partaking in the
services said websites offer. So I guess the best we can do is hold our little bitch-fests and hope the web designers happen to read video comments.
Edit: I also just came across this tidbit of information while researching for this little rant.
“‘There is nothing wrong with the logo,’ said Google product manager Nundu Janakiram. ‘We wanted to brighten it up and make some tweaks to it.'”
“There is nothing wrong with the logo.”
“There is nothing wrong with the logo.”
“There is nothing wrong with the logo.”
Sigh.
1 By traffic: http://mostpopularwebsites.net/
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
3http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/21/new-youtube/
4 http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=67f6459e09a827ee&hl=en
Today’s song: Pompeii by E.S. Posthumus
Canadian radio: it’s not all Barenaked Ladies and The New Pornographers up here
I submit that you haven’t lived until you’ve heard a rap about Quebec.
Or a country jig about New Brunswick.
I’m not even kidding. I think Canada’s tourism department promotes solely through their music industry. I had the radio playing for about five hours this afternoon and I think I head a little ditty about almost every province. It’s funny until you realize it’s like rapping about Idaho or singing a blues song about Florida.
The rest of the songs were just freaking weird. There was this one whose chorus consisted solely of the phrase “watch out for the fuzz” repeated about twenty times (this, interestingly enough, wasn’t a rap but some sort of upbeat folksy tune). I’m not denying that there are some really weird songs from the States, but these are weird in an entirely different way.
And now I can’t stop singing “Noooooova Scotia!” to the Oklahoma! melody. This may need to be a song rewrite in the near future.
ALSO:
I’m not embedding ’cause the screencap will haunt you. This is perhaps one of the creepiest videos involving chocolate bunnies on YouTube. Don’t watch if:
a) you can’t avoid thinking that putting eyes on something automatically makes it a living thing
b) you’ve had a bad experience with an iron/heat lamp/hair dryer
c) there are chocolate bunnies in the room
You’ve been warned.
I fall into category A, which may be why it’s so disturbing to me, but I don’t know. I mean, I know it’s just chocolate, but it’s bunny-shaped and has eyes. Peep death doesn’t bother me, but the fact that the chocolate bunny eyes seem to be staring into my soul is somewhat unsettling. Some of the comment-leavers seem sufficiently freaked out as well.
Haha, I hope you don’t watch it right before going to bed like I did.
Today’s song: Round and Round by Ratt
Yoctonewtons: the weakest bullies on the playground since April 2010
In this blog: Claudia fights the urge to make as many physics-related puns as possible.
So check this micro-insanity out:
Take a bunch of beryllium ions, trap them in a chamber using strong magnetic forces and weak electrostatic forces, get them really cold, and then point lasers at them to see if anything causes the ions to move.
AND OH YES, THE IONS MOVE!
Apparently, freezing cold, stuck-in-place ions = good way to capture very very minimal forces. Measuring the ions for movement allowed for scientists to detect forces in the yoctonewton range, which is 10-24 Newtons.
For perspective (that doesn’t really matter, ‘cause everything else involves so much more force than this):
– The maximum force of a freaking mosquito is about 10-3 Newtons (somewhere in the range of millinewtons).
– 1022 Newtons is the approximate gravitational attraction between the earth and the sun (above the force magnitude of a giganewton).
– 1044 Newtons is the Planck force (somewhere in the range of a “take-THAT-you-ineffectual-agitated-beryllium-ions” newton).
Science: it’s way cooler than you’ll ever be.
Hertz, don’t it?
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Today’s song: Sleepyhead (Cillo Remix) originally by Passion Pit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEcSRvLNfM – listen and be chill)
Facebook and I broke up because I was seeing another layout
I’m on a (most likely temporary) hiatus from Facebook. Reasons are as follows:
1. The constant status updates were getting to me. I really don’t care that much.
2. The sheer amount of time some people spend on it is disturbing, and I don’t want that to happen to me (that’s what MySpace is for, haha).
3. THE LAYOUTS, FREAKING STICK WITH ONE YOU PICKY BASTARDS
The third item mentioned obviously carries the most weight. I logged in yesterday morning to find my “info” page changed around YET AGAIN (be warned, I think they’re just starting to phase this in and I was one of the unlucky first to get it).
Unfortunately, I’ll probably be back at some point, as a few of my friends I only have contact with via Facebook, the SHAPE-SHIFTING SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE OF ETERNAL TRANSFORMATIVE CHAOS!
Another point of worth:
It really is impossible to make a bad remix of Sleepyhead. The song is like audible Prozac for me, I listen to it (or a remix, or a cover, etc.,) and everything but the happies in my pants disappears. Yayzorz.
Today’s song: Save by The Rocket Summer (the new remix is technically tomorrow’s song, so you’ll just have to wait)
Please fasten your seatbelts and secure your belongings as we descend into YEAR NUMBER FIVE
Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the fifth year of Claudia’s blogs. I’ve been looking forward to this day since about July because having nearly 1,500 blogs allows for copious amounts of stats insanity, most of which I’m not going to post here (messing around with regression? DON’T MIND IF I DO).
Anyway.
PART I. NO ONE CAN RESIST THE EXCITEMENT OF TREND ANALYSES!
As you know, I dig graphs. Hence, here are a few graphs. The light red straight line on each one indicates the mean value. Doing this was massively enjoyable.
Ordered from lowest to highest. This one surprised me. I was expecting to see some sort of trend—like maybe lower word counts in general for the summer months or something. But no. Haha, it’s interesting that the first months of living in the house with the boys have such low word counts. I guess I was too busy playing Rock Band and killing mice.
Average word count overall: 7,348
I think the sheer number of surveys I do dragged this down for most months, but who knows.
Ordered:
Average words per sentence overall: 9.52
GFI is the Gunning Fox Index, which tells you the number of years of formal education a person requires in order to be able to understand the text in one read. For comparison’s sake: the GFI of one of my phil papers was 16.67 (average words per sentence was about 22), so obviously I put “school writing” and “blog writing” in two very different categories. As it should be.
Ordered:
Average GFI overall: 7.26
PART II. WORDLE!
PART III. THE TITLES, THE TITLES!
You know I couldn’t resist.
The “Waiter!” ones
- Waiter! There’s a hippo in my Taco Grande!
- Waiter! They’re a Pythagorean Theorem in my Pi!
- Waiter! There’s a Creationist in my Primordial Soup!
- Waiter! There’s a quadriplegic in my Jazzercise class!
- Waiter! There’s an Intergalactic Star Cruiser in my Bran Muffin!
- Waiter! There’s a Hard Rock in my Cafe!
- Waiter! There’s a Leper in my Ant Colony!
- Waiter! There’s some fuzzy logic in my dryer’s lint collector!
- Waiter! Why the hell do you always bring me crappy puns?
- Waiter! There’s a tree falling in my forest and I can’t tell if it’s making a sound!
- Waiter! There’s some Plato in my Play-Doh!
- Waiter! There’s an abominable snowman in my snow cone!
- Waiter! There’s a Pisces in my Tropic of Capricorn!
- Waiter! There’s a Matt Farnsworth in my Blog!
- Waiter! There’re four and twenty blackbirds in my pie chart! (Confused? Understandable.)
- Waiter! There’s kurtosis in my bimodal-distributed data!
- Waiter! …Waiter? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGLHALSKFDJSL!!!
- Waiter! There’s a circular argument in my logic!
- Waiter! There’s an e in my pi (thus meaning he brought me pie! Sweet!)
- Waiter! There’s a Super Nova in my ANOVA! How in the world…?
- Waiter! There’s a god in my universe!
- Waiter! I JUST WANT SOUP, DAMMIT!
- Waiter! There’s an Ego in my Eggo!
- Waiter! There’s a hippocampus in my zoo!
- Waiter! There’s heteroscedasticity in my samples!
- Waiter! There’s Godot in my post-modern humorous play!
- Waiter! There’s an…aw, screw it, can I just get some pasta?
“If a tree falls in a forest…” and other sayings ones
- If a tree falls in the forest, can we still have sex later?
- If a tree doesn’t fall in the forest and no one is around, does the universe suddenly implode?
- If no one falls in the forest and a tree is around to see it, does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPEN?
- If a tree farts in the forest, do all the other trees fall over?
- If a sound falls in a tree and no one is around, does it make a forest?
- If Newton falls in the forest and Leibniz is watching, does he throw a party?
- What is the sound of one tree falling?
- If an apple tree falls in the forest, does it still keep the doctor away?
- If you lead a horse to water and nobody’s around to see it, does it take a drink?
- What is the sound of one horse being led to water?
- You can lead a tree to a forest, but you can’t make it fall.
Godot jokes
- Why doesn’t somebody buy Godot a watch?
- Silly Godot…Watches are for PUNCTUALITY
- If Godot falls in the forest and no one is around…
- If Godot falls in the forest and no one is around, do we have to wait even longer?
- You can lead Godot and Vladimir and Estragon, but you can’t make him show up
- Godot jokes will continue until he arrives.
- Godot Divides by Zero
- *insert Godot joke here*
“I shouldn’t title blogs when I’m hyper” ones (aka “The Caps Lock Series”)
- CLAUDIA’S INSANELY HYPER SURVEY OF INSANE HYPERNESS
- I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANSISCO OH SHI—*collapses*
- How long can these subject headings be, anyway? I mean can you just ramble on and oh here it is
- Oh-ho-ho! Somebody left the water running! I guess all we can do now is count the sunflowers
- It’s Tuesday and it’s late and I don’t have a life or plans or a soul or a taco or five tacos
- HELLO GOOD SIR JUST STOPPING IN TO TELL YOU HOW AWESOME LEIBNIZ IS PIP PIP TALLY HO
- Sometimes I have the answers. Other times I’m just a toaster.
- BLOG: APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD
- IT’S NOT THAT HARD, GET IT RIGHT *frustrationfrustrationfrustration*
- I AM IRON MAN…DERRNERRNERRNERRNERRNERRNERR, IRON PANTS
- “DURRRR WHAT’S A STAPLE”
- Blah blah ah-ah-ahhh, blog-ah, blog-ah-ah! MySpace, ooh la-la! Want your bad blog post!
- If Captain Planet isn’t your hero, you’re a COMMIE
- CRAIGSLIST YOU ARE MY ONLY COMPANION MAKE HOT SWEET LOVE TO ME YOUR PIC GETS MINE – 22 F
10 more that don’t fit into any other category
- If you want to eat an apple pie, you must first consume the universe
- Jimmy crack corn one more time and I’m referring him to a specialist
- Yo blog title, I’mma let you finish, but this entry holds one of the best blogs of all time
- This just in: geophagists across the globe are biting the dust!
- I used to teach a failing fly-tying class until I realized my efforts were all for knot.
- I used to work at a bridal shop specializing in headdresses. My work there was to know a veil.
- Hello, I’m Erik Erikson and I have a silly name
- Indiana Jones and the 25 Credits of Doom
- Do philosophy departments have Causal Fridays?
- I think it was Socrates who said, “Hello! My name is Socrates!”
No, I don’t have a life, thank you for asking.
Blog on why Facebook can suck it will come tomorrow.
Hooray for 4 years of blogging!
Today’s song: My Skin by Natalie Merchant
April Music Review
GUESS WHAT, FOOLS?!
It’s that time of the month (no, not THAT time).
Graph of genres
Mean song length: 4:09
The five-star: Sleepyhead (Run Toto Run Cover) by Passion Pit
TIME FOR MAY!
Today’s song: Monster by Lady Gaga (Matt, thanks for bringing to my attention the fact that I knew this song, but for some reason I didn’t have it yet)
Petition to Stop Hammer Time
I actually don’t know if this is the right test…it seemed a lot shorter this year.
Anyway. Because I’ve done it like 6 times before.
Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
Apparently, I am: depressed, introverted, neat, needs things to be extremely clean, observer, perfectionist, not self revealing, does not make friends easily, suspicious, irritable, hates large parties, follows the rules, worrying, does not like to stand out, fragile, phobic, submissive, dislikes leadership, cautious, takes precautions, focuses on hidden motives, good at saving money, solitary, familiar with the dark side of life, hard working, emotionally sensitive, prudent, altruistic, unadventurous
WOO!
Today’s song: In Zaire by Johnny Wakelin
BLOG LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW
Nonsensical survey responses are nonsensical. You poor fools asked for it (well, Matt did. Hi Matt!).
Do you put shampoo in your left or right hand?
I put it in my hair. Shampoo is for hair.
When you take a drink of something, do you hold your pinky up?
Hahaha, I actually do this all the time. I was doing it with the Guinness last summer and Aaron called me on it.
What’s the most dominant color in your room?
Probably me.
How many times do you knock on a door?
Three.
What form of homework do you have to do today?
SCHOOOOOOOL’S OUT! FOR! SUMMER!
I should probably be doing research.
Do you write the way you speak?
My vocal cords are incapable of holding a pen. At least, I think they are. I don’t feel like swallowing ink (or dying) to find out.
Do you understand football?
I understand “scream enthusiastically when the U of I team isn’t falling on its ass.” If that counts.
If you could move somewhere else, would you?
Vancouver has nothing for me now that Johnny Weir’s gone.
Love that man.
Do you ever think “what if” about anything?
What if I say yes?
In the past week have you cried?
Has a week of my life gone by in which I HAVEN’T cried? Haha, god, I’m so emo.
Has anyone said they love you in the last week?
My mommy.
Is there anybody you wish you could be with right now?
I miss my roomies insanely.
Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Mom.
Do you say sorry first?
I say sorry all the time.
Has someone promised you something and broke it?
It required Crazy Glue.
Do you like anyone?
Does “every time I’m back in Moscow we do dirty, sexy things to each other” count? If so, yes.
What were you doing at noon today?
Panicking.
Is there anybody you’re really disappointed in right now?
My SOUL!!!!
Is there someone you will never forget?
Indeed.
Looking forward to the next couple months?
Summer calculus class? HELL YES!
Not sarcastic. I have a serious problem.
Calcoholics Anonymous.
(Calcohol tastes like Choco Leibniz, by the way).
What are you saving your money up for right now?
RENTandpossiblyaguitarbecauseI’mboredandclarinetistooloudforapartmentlifeandIneedmusicbackinmylifebeforeIdie.
If you had enough money, what would you buy?
Antarctica.
Are you shy?
Indeed.
Are you a talkative person?
On occasion.
Can you live a day without TV?
Been there, done that.
Is tomorrow going to be a good day?
It freaking better be.
How’s your heart lately?
It seems to have acquired a drum set and won’t stop playing it in my chest. At least it keeps good rhythm.
Do you think age matters in relationships?
Only if you’re a ffflalkjeirocrp.
Have you held hands with anyone in the past week?
Nope.
Do you use chapstick?
I use Carmex. I’m addicted to it. I think my death will be Carmex-related.
(Carmohol tastes like tingly).
Do you have friends you can tell stuff to and you’re sure they won’t tell?
Fartfartfartfartfart.
Has anyone ever told you that they like you more than as a friend?
Fall 2008: The Semester Claudia was Hot Shit and Everyone Wanted Her.
The Sequel (Spring 2009: The Semester Claudia Married Factor Analysis and was Never Sane Again) was not so well-received by critics.
If someone liked you right now, would you want them to tell you?
Very much so.
Have you ever seen someone you knew and purposely avoided them?
I do that with everyone.
Do you like your name?
It sounds like a little kid’s name. It also means lame, which is quite descriptively accurate of me.
How many months until your birthday?
Like forty.
Do you hold grudges easily?
Little buggers are prickly.
Can you handle constructive criticism?
In Soviet Russia, constructive criticism handles YOU!
In this world, what makes you the happiest?
Factor analysis.
Are you a private person?
BOOM!
Do you fall in love too quickly?
I’ve only done it twice, I don’t think either one was too fast.
Do you catch yourself running from situations?
I catch myself mentally breaking down in front of situations.
Last person to comment you?
MAGGIE!
Ever been to a bonfire party?
Solstice fun times with mom and G.E.!
Is it easier to forgive or to forget?
It’s been statistically proven that it’s easier to have loved and lost than to either forgive OR forget, χ2(4000) = 0.9, p < 0.00000011.
Is there any emotion you’re trying to avoid right now?
I embrace all insanity.
Which is probably why I’m screwed up.
Do you wear makeup every day?
I wear foundation.
What are you listening to?
Hippos.
1Source: me.
Today’s song: Battling Go-Go Yubari in Downtown L.A. by edIT
If a waterfall’s in a forest and no one is around…ah, forget it.
I think this is the longest I’ve gone without doing a survey. Praise?
What did your last text message say?
Texting is dumb.
Do you think the last person you kissed cares for you?
I hope so, he acts like he does. I certainly care for him.
What are you wearing?
Pajama pants, underthingies, blue tanktop.
Do you believe what goes around comes around?
My life is a very good example of this principle of karma.
Have you ever cried from being so mad?
Oh god yes.
Did you cry today?
Indeed. Helloooooo social anxiety issues, I thought I was done with you.
Have you held hands with anyone lately?
If I could hold hands with factor analysis, I would.
Yeah, I said it.
Did you ever lose a best friend?
Nah.
Where will you be two hours from now?
REM Sleep Island.
Can you make yourself sneeze?
I snorted ground pepper once. That was actually pretty freaking great.
What’s your current mood?
STRESSED OUT. Nauseous from all the social interaction crap via email this afternoon.
Lyrics to the song you’re listening to?
I’ve got that stupid freaking Heigh-Ho from Snow White stuck in my head. REALLY hard to write about structural equation modeling when you’ve got dwarfs singing in your brain.
Who was the last person to yell at you?
Myself? Though I got bitched out in an email a few days ago.
What are you stressed out about?
Hahahahahahaha. You name it, I’m probably spazzing about it.
Highlight of your week?
Um…NOT completely losing it yesterday?
How many MySpace profiles have you had?
Uno.
How many clothes are in your closet?
Enough so that it looks like a rainbow exploded.
Who was the last person you talked to in person?
The lady at Stong’s, I think.
Do you have a best friend?
I do indeed.
Do you sing a lot?
BOSTON, BITCHES!
What are you drinking right now?
Water.
Missing someone?
God, you have no idea.
Who was the last person to look at you like you were crazy?
Those jerks at the SUB who were staring at me because I was having a freak-out moment. Or maybe those people on the bus, I wasn’t paying attention.
When was the last time you cried really really hard?
Yesterday.
How long does it take for you to get ready?
Usually about 15 minutes.
Has someone disappointed you recently?
Nah.
Do you believe exes can really ever be “just friends”?
Sure.
What smells better, gasoline or permanent markers?
I hate you all.
Have you ever ridden in a shopping cart after the age of 3?
Winco is fun.
Talked to a jerk today?
I didn’t leave the house. It was a bad day.
Do you regret something you did yesterday
I regret the panic moment at the SUB (and the other one on the bus…and the other one in my office, though no one was there for that one).
Do you have a piggy bank shaped like a pig?
That would be snazzy.
Are you wearing socks?
Nope.
What time did you get up today?
9?
Did you ever get the chicken pox?
God, I remember that. Torture.
Have you been outside today?
Nope.
What is the last movie you saw in theater?
I think it was Watchmen way back when.
Are you happy?
Pffft.
Have your friends ever randomly stopped by your house?
Not here, no.
Been to a concert lately?
Nope.
Are there framed pictures of you anywhere in your house?
Hahahaha, no.
What made you sad today?
Me being me.
Do you take compliments well?
Not really.
Has a boy/girl called you babe or baby in the past two days?
No.
Do you hate it when people smoke around you?
I don’t really care.
Do you like to take walks?
Depends.
Will your next kiss be a mistake?
I sincerely doubt it.
Do you have anything that belongs to a boyfriend/girlfriend?
I still wear that chain that Aaron gave me…does that count?
Plans this weekend?
Packing.
Name something that made you frown today?
People.
Do you regret anyone you dated?
66.7% satisfaction rate!
What were you doing at 7:00 AM?
Turning my alarm off.
If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to change a regret what would you choose?
I could use the million, and I can’t think of a regret that I’d want to change.
Is there anybody you just wish would fall off the planet?
Nah.
Who was your best hug from today?
My life sucks.
What were you doing 1 hour ago?
Writing about fit indices.
Do you currently have feelings for someone?
Oh yes.
What was the last thing you said aloud?
“Bye.”
How many different things did you drink today?
Two.
Is success in your future?
It better be.
Are you a heavy sleeper?
Not as much as I used to be.
Was today a good day?
Screw today, man. I didn’t even get to play Fallout.
What are you listening to?
My fridge being way too loud.
Have you ever played naked twister?
Unfortunately not.
Is there something you will never forget?
Indeed.
How do you feel about Valentines day?
PAH.
Who was the last person you took a picture of?
I think it was Sean, actually.
Are you typically a jealous person?
I try not to be.
What were you doing at midnight last night?
Being awesome.
Do you wish on 11:11?
No.
What’s on your mind?
A freaking lot.
Wallpaper on your cell phone?
My cellphone is currently…um…too screwed up to need a wallpaper.
Who will you see next?
A bus driver?
Where was your default picture taken?
My apartment.
Who was your last text from?
Please see my answer to the first question of this survey.
What’s your favorite number?
11.
Last people you hung out with?
Michael, Kharah, Kate, that other lady whose name I can’t remember.
Whats the color of the shirt your wearing?
I guess teal is more appropriate than blue.
Do you get along with girls?
Sure.
When is your birthday?
Groundhog Day.
Where does most of your family live?
Missouri.
Do you think you can last in a relationship for 6 months without cheating?
Been there, done that.
What is one thing you question a lot?
Why I suck at not stressing out.
Is there anyone who doesn’t like you?
Most likely.
Did any of your friends go out with any of your ex’s?
Hahahahaha, yeah.
Who was last person you talked to on the phone?
My mom.
Are you mad at someone right now?
Nah.
How old do you want to be when you have kids?
Kids suck.
Do you curse a lot?
Haha, oh yes.
Today’s song: I Feel Better by Hot Chip
Caterpillars? In MY broccoli? It’s more likely than you think…
Yeah. Finding a decapitated caterpillar in a frozen bag of broccoli = fun times. I’m actually surprised it took me so long to find something…for some reason it seems like poor little dudes getting accidentally chopped up thrown into broccoli bags just because they wanted some broccoli would be a more common occurrence. I wonder how chopped up broccoli is inspected and/or classified, anyway? (Edit: dude…)
Anyway. Just thought it was interesting.
SPEAKING OF INSPECTIONS…
Ever read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle? Good lord, that is the most depressing book ever. I’m only about 2/3 of the way through it and after every chapter so far I’ve felt like I needed Prozac. Sinclair does a beautiful job of depicting utter despair (and deplorable working conditions). This poor Lithuanian family who went to the US to find work/fortune just keeps getting screwed over at every turn. The last chapter I read ended with the main character’s son dying and I pretty much had to stop reading for the night.
Maybe it’s just me, but holy crap.
Today’s song: Bruises by Chairlift
Music to have nightmares by
Well, I’m certainly not sleeping soundly tonight. Audacity has given me the power to freak myself out. How, you ask? Well, as of right now, the two things I never want to hear again are:
1. Battles’ Atlas played in reverse. Scariest freaking thing I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s hard to describe what this sounds like without actually listening to it (NOT RECOMMENDED). It’s like dying pygmies on ecstasy locked in a large, echoing auditorium. There was absolutely nothing enjoyable about it, and now I want to pour concrete into my ears.
2. The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Maps piano cover with singing overlaid, the piano cut into two identical tracks, one dropped about an octave, the other raised as high as it would go in Audacity, and the vocal track copied into two identical tracks and altered the same way. Don’t ask me why I did it, I just did. This was actually slightly enjoyable, just because it sounded like a music box the Devil would have on his nightstand (does the Devil even have a nightstand? What does he keep on it, a Stephen King novel he reads before he goes to sleep? Does it have drawers in which he stores his sexy lingerie?). Seriously. Super low piano and a throaty “MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPS WAIT. THEY DON’T LOVE YOU LIKE I LOVE YOU” combined with almost dog-whistle high blinky-blinky sounds. Creepy.
It’s not all bad, of course. As previously mentioned, Cut Copy’s Lights and Music is pretty great backwards, as are parts of Owl City’s Fireflies and Dan Black’s Symphonies. Maps sped up to about twice the speed (while keeping the pitch the same) is FREAKING HILARIOUS. “Waaait…theydon’tloveyoulikeIloveyou! Waaait…theydon’tloveyoulikeIloveyou!” Putting wahwah on Sleepyhead will make your head explode, though.
My mission now is to see if I can find the creepiest arrangement of the creepiest song in my music library, just to see what it does to me. Yeah, classes and finals are done and I’m back to just avoiding research.
Fun times.
Today’s song: Rain by Rob Scallon
Yo blog title, I’mma let you finish, but this entry holds one of the best blogs of all time
iTunes Hates Canada and All Who Move There (And So Does PayPal): a True Story
Today I will narrate to you the scenario I experienced a few days ago when I tried to make a truce between iTunes and Canada. I log on to my iTunes account and notice that I’ve finally almost used up all my gift card money. The rest proceeds rather “nicely.”
Me: Oh hey, it looks like I’m down to 78 cents on my US iTunes account. I guess I’d better credit my account with more money.
iTunes: We can’t process your payment.
Me: Why?
iTunes: I’m not going to tell you.
Me: I’ll go check what PayPal has to say about this, then.
Paypal: Don’t ask me, it takes me five to seven business days to process anything. And it’s Friday, so good luck with that.
Me: Fine, I’ll just credit my account with my bank here.
iTunes: Wait, you’re using a Canadian bank account.
Me: No shit.
iTunes: You can’t do that unless you’re in Canada.
Me: I AM in Canada!
iTunes: But you’re not in iTunes’ Canada store.
Me: Okay, then I’ll switch my country on my profile.
iTunes: You can’t do that.
Me: Why??
iTunes: Because your current account is using a US bank account.
Me: So…I can’t use my US bank account because I’m in Canada, but I can’t switch to the Canadian store to use my Canadian bank account because my current account is linked to a US bank, even though my US bank won’t work for payment anymore?
iTunes: Makes perfect sense to us.
Me: Then I’ll make a new iTunes account with my Canadian bank account.
iTunes: Are you sure? You’ll have to use the Canadian iTunes store.
Me: I JUST WANT MUSIC.
iTunes: Okay, let me just process your info. Oh, and by the way, Canadian iTunes blows.
Me: Thanks.
iTunes: It looks like I can’t process your payments from your Canadian bank account.
Me: WHY.
iTunes: I’m not going to tell you.
Me: Ugh, FINE, I’ll make my old PayPal link to my Canadian bank.
Paypal: Welcome to Paypal.ca! Would you like to set up a new account?
Me: Oh screw this.
So I just quit and am downloading from justmusicstore.com until Paypal gets off its butt in nine to twelve business days (that’s the conversion to Canadian days from US days, in case you were wondering).
You think they wouldn’t make it so complicated for me to pay them money, but I guess not.
Today’s song: Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson
Grad school is for neurotics
Over the past few days, I’ve had one-on-one conversations with about eight people in various stages of their graduate education (we were going over problem set answers, talking about bitchy advisors, not wanting to do our work, etc.). In each of these conversations, we somehow got around to talking about how we felt about grad school in general, and in each case, every person said something to the effect of, “promise not to tell anyone, but…” and then proceeded to explain how inadequate and unworthy of grad school they felt, how stressed out they were, and how they thought everyone else was much further along in their research and doing much better in their programs then they were.
In short, I’ve deduced that we’re pretty much all neurotic, perfectionistic, school- and grade- and career-obsessed weirdos who have nothing better to do on a Friday night then get together and talk about the Regression problem sets (I kid you not).
I think it’s interesting how everyone, in their own way, has had that feeling of “oh shit, I shouldn’t be here, I’m so far behind all these other people…they’ve all probably got their thesis ideas in mind, their advisors probably love them, I want to quit…” etc., etc.
I think it’s even more interesting that no one seems to think that anyone else gets this way. “Promise not to tell anyone, but…” But what? You’ve felt the same inadequacies that it seems like everyone else here has?
It’s a very strange environment. And we voluntarily chose this insanity.
Today’s song: Remedy by Little Boots
p-values have nothing to do with the worth of your urine
There wasn’t much of interest today in my actual life, so I bring you…THE INTERNET!
There’s something exceedingly intriguing about this, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what. The comments are pretty great as well. This also seems to last for a lot longer than 1:50.
Another wonderful quote from bash.org.
BigPigPeaches: So my GF and I are watching “The Empire Strikes Back” last night. Let me say that this is possibly my favorite movie of all time.
BigPigPeaches: But suddenly I consider: we have always thought of R2D2 as a light-hearted comic relief type of droid. With his tweets, chirps, raspberries, and whoops, how could he be anything other than cute?
BigPigPeaches: But what if people were misunderstanding what he is actually saying? What if he could be accurately translated? And what if he were saying things that weren’t cute at all?
BigPigPeaches: (The scene where Luke and R2D2 are leaving Hoth in Luke’s x-wing)
BigPigPeaches: Artoo: Hey, assclamp, where the hell are you hauling me?
BigPigPeaches: Luke: There’s nothing wrong, Artoo, I’m just setting a new course.
BigPigPeaches: Artoo: Oh, goodie. Are we going to see your dad? Cause you know he’s Darth Vader, right? I mean, you know that, otherwise you’re even more of a dumbass than I thought.
BigPigPeaches: Luke: We’re not going to regroup with the others.
BigPigPeaches: Artoo: That’s probably because they know what they’re doing, and you don’t.
BigPigPeaches: Luke: We’re going to the Dagobah system.
BigPigPeaches: Artoo: The Bagadouche system? What an appropriate destination for a douchebag such as yourself. Are you sure you don’t want me to fly? Cause I’ll bet you’re going to crash us into some godforsaken swampy bog, you mindless pube.
BigPigPeaches: (Later on in Cloud City, during the escape scene)
BigPigPeaches: 3PO: Artoo! Where have you been?
BigPigPeaches: Artoo: Listen, you bronzed dildo, I’ve been dicking around in a frigging swamp for the better part of two weeks while some wannabe wizard has been taking advice from an ancient lizard. I got slime in my droid genitals, a bad yeast infection, and I’m not in the mood for your prissy shit, so put a metal cork in it, buttnozzle.
BigPigPeaches: 3PO: Well at least you’re still in one piece, look what happened to me!
BigPigPeaches: Artoo: Yeah yeah yeah, you got blasted to shit, they should have left your ass in that scrap heap. You have contributed absolutely nothing useful to this point. By the way, how is it that you’re even more of a whiny bitch than you were in the first three movies? I thought they wiped your frigging memory.
BigPigPeaches: Do they have some sort of universal “BitchBot” app that they keep putting in your lame ass? Bitch.
BigPigPeaches: (while trying to unlock the landing platform door)
BigPigPeaches: 3PO: Artoo, you can tell the computer to override the security system!
BigPigPeaches: Artoo: Oh, thanks for reminding me, you pretentious fuckstick. Do you know what else I can do? I can FRIGGING FLY! George Lucas said so! But that didn’t stop me from falling into an effing swamp on that Bagadouche planet. By the way, did you know that Darth Vader is Luke’s father? Cause I DO!
BigPigPeaches: Oh, look, I got fried by a goddamn computer terminal. Thanks, dickweed.
BigPigPeaches: 3PO: Don’t blame me. I’m an interpreter. I’m not supposed to know a power socket from a computer terminal.
BigPigPeaches: Artoo: You’re supposed to know your droid ass from a hole in the ground, but you don’t. Jesus, I should have left your sorry ass on that ship, you sphincter. Just wait till I get to use my little welding thingy on your droid scrote. I hate you and all these miserable bastards. Where’s my Oscar?
You’re now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: Hello Omegle stranger
You: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMEGLE!!!
You: zoomzoomzoomzoomzoomzoomzoomzoom
Your conversational partner has disconnected.
You’re now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: I am Gordon Freeman, fear my crowbar!
Your conversational partner has disconnected.
You’re now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: are you justin bieber?
You: Do you want me to be?
Your conversational partner has disconnected
You’re now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: are you a furry?
You: Do you want me to be?
Your conversational partner has disconnected.
Today’s song: Nara by E. S. Posthumus
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is like a bad drug trip
I have honestly not watched this movie since I was about seven. It’s SO FREAKING FUNNY. I think I laughed hard enough to give myself a nosebleed when I get up tomorrow morning (this has happened several times before).
Snow White: “We’ll clean the house and surprise them! Then maybe they’ll let me stay!”
Yeah, that’ll do it. Though I must admit, as a kid I freaking LOVED the cleaning scene. There’s just something about synchronized cleaning, I guess.
Side note: no animated animal labor laws were violated in the making of this movie.
And Doc’s great. He really reminds me of someone, but I can’t think of the person. And Bashful’s adorable, but GRUMPY HAS NO TIME FOR HIS NONSENSE!
Snow White totally mocks Grumpy when she firsts meets him. “OOOOOOOOH, you must be GWUMPY!”
They jab at each other through almost the whole thing. If this were a romantic comedy today, they’d be making out at the end of the movie.
Also, why are they so afraid in the beginning? There are seven of them and they have pickaxes.
Happy: “What is it?”
Doc: “It’s a girl!”
Happy: “She’s waking up!”
Sneezy: “What’ll we do?!”
Doc: “HIDE!”
Hahaha, it’s like a frat house the morning after a BAD party.
Also:
Doc: “You might be cold and wet when you’re done, but you gotta admit, it’s good clean fun.”
I think scrubbing Dopey’s butt was what he was referring to here.
Or this.
“GET THE SOAP.”
I love you, Doc.
Happy can really move his hips, but Doc’s the lady’s man.
More perversion:
The scene in which they’re chasing the queen is pretty epic. You don’t want to make Happy angry. And does her death ring of “Wile E. Coyote” to anyone else aside from me (she’s on a cliff, tries to push a boulder onto the little gang, and the cliff on which she’s standing gets split from the mountain and the boulder falls after her)?
Random side note: after Disney’s first few movies, notice how black hair is almost strictly reserved for villains.
Also, one of you needs to tell Rebeca that it’s very hard sitting straight-faced in front of 200 students proctoring an exam when you’ve got “SCREW THE VAGINA, I HAVE A VAGINA!” going through your head.
Today’s song: We Used to be Friends by The Dandy Warhols
This just in: Maggie is a Pokémon
I know, I know, I should have known by now.
Yeah. Weirdest. Dream. Ever. It was so vivid, that’s what made it trippy. I think Matt, Rebeca, some other dude that I didn’t recognize but apparently knew, Nathan, Maggie, and myself were there. We were right behind the deli thing.
Why did we have a little handheld shopping basket full of bacon? Who knows.
Why did Maggie evolve into a Spearow? WHO KNOWS.
At first we were all, “wow, Maggie’s a Spearow” but that rapidly changed to “WHERE IS SHE TAKING OUR BACON.”
Odd.
I also think I have decided what my first tattoo shall be. I’m thinking I’ll get a lambda, either on my back somewhere or on my shoulder. Why a lambda? Reasons:
1) It’s Greek. I like Greek and hope to learn it someday.
2) “Leibniz” starts with a lambda in Greek (duh).
3) Lambda is the symbol for eigenvalues, and while they’re evil to calculate, they’re necessary in FACTOR ANALYSIS, my absolute true love in the world of statistics.
4) It’s also a recurring symbol in Half-Life (just realized this), which is pretty awesome, too.
Yeah. It’s really one of the only ways I figure I can tie together my love for Leibniz and my love for factor analysis without tattooing “I love Leibniz and factor analysis!” on me somewhere.
Side note: the apartment’s MINE! I move in May 1st, but my mom’s going to come up on the 8th, as I can’t move my chair by myself, at least up several flights of stairs (the elevator is about the size of my current bathroom, which is too small for anything other than a broom closet).
Yay.
Today’s song: The Great Escape by The Rifles
Congeniality has a 3.63 second life-span on Omegle
And I don’t usually help to increase the length of that life-span.
Anyway.
I might be moving (AGAIN), because I hate this dark little hell-hole known as my apartment. The other people who live in the various other suits in this house are a bunch of inconsiderate assholes that make way too much noise and DON’T CLEAN THE LAUNDRY LINT CATCHER THING. That’s one of my biggest not-walking-related pet peeves. Also, my landlady lives above us all and is physically incapable of NOT stomping when she walks as well as NOT shouting when she talks. So screw her.
I’m also tired of living in basements/ground floor apartments with people above me. Aside from the short stay in McConnell (which, despite the roaches, was a really awesome place), I’ve lived in “basements” since 9th grade. The place I’m looking at now only costs $50 more than the place I live at now and is bigger, brighter, nicer, has no signs of silverfish, has no signs of spiders, newly remodeled, on the top floor, has a balcony, and allows CATS, so I can bring Annabelle up here when I come back up from being in Moscow in July. It also isn’t surrounded by this pine tree crap on all sides (SO SICK OF PINE TREES), so I won’t feel like I’m living in the Pacific Northwest 24/7. I really, REALLY hope I get it, ‘cause I think that would improve my “Vancouver sucks balls” attitude a little bit.
Hopefully yay. Hopefully.
I also realize that the urge to change location every year or so must be genetic, as even after I moved away from my mom’s direct influence, I’ve changed my housing once per year (Wallace year 1, McConnell year 2, Sean and the other dorks year 3, this hellhole year 4, and hopefully less of a hellhole next year). It’s funny and tragic at the same time.
Edit: I also like how MySpace is apparently letting me post blogs every other day now. Haha, but I guess I shouldn’t complain or it’ll flip out on my like before.
Today’s song: Octopus I Love You by Dalmatian Rex and The Eigentones
Dear Vancouver Ice Cream Truck:
You are fucking weird.
Every other weekend I debate your existence with myself. I’ve never actually seen you, just heard you. Perhaps you’re just something my mind concocted in order to keep me preoccupied, but, equally likely, you are a real ice cream truck.
And I’m making the assumption that you are, in fact, an ice cream truck. I’ve wanted to see you, but never have been able to, as you practically gun down 31st street as if you had weed instead of ice cream in your truck, thus destroying any hope of me catching a glimpse of you due to my gate practically molding shut (yeah, I know, gross) overnight.
The weed honestly wouldn’t surprise me, however, as this IS Canada. “Kids, hurry up, the weed truck is driving down the street!”
I think the driver just wants to keep whatever he’s supposed to be selling to himself, so only those who can run 30 mph deserve ice cream/weed.
Also, what vehicles other than an ice cream/weed trucks would blast the Barnum & Bailey Circus music? Except, of course, vehicles that escape from the Barnum & Bailey Circus, but I doubt that happens every Saturday and Sunday between 11 AM and noon.
Peh.
Today’s song: Music from the film Ogniem i Mieczem by Obrona Zbaraża
“I don’t know where I am, but it’s got good resolution”
Alternate title: “Me + Flight Sims = Bad” (damn you, GoogleEarth! Now I know I can’t fly an F16 from campus to my house without crashing at least 4 times).
Anyway.
I don’t know if I was searching for migraine info or if I found this via StumbleUpon, but this describes and shows pretty much exactly what happens when I have a migraine, which I thought was pretty awesome considering it’s hard to describe being able to see a bunch of flashing colors while simultaneously not being able to really see much of anything. My migraines usually start out with my thumbs tingling, then all my fingers pretty much go numb, then the visual crap starts. Then the death headache that lasts for about a day if I’m lucky enough to take Imitrex early enough in the process, but longer if I don’t. Luckily, I only get about one migraine per year, sometimes two, but with each one I’ve noticed a progressive increase in the loss of vision beforehand, so who knows what that means. Brains are weird.
Also, yay for the early nineties…
Today’s song: Peace (Herves Warehouse Frequencies Remix) by Depeche Mode
TEN MILLIONS!
This morning I had to sprint ten blocks* to the second bus I catch to get to campus because somehow, in the infinite wisdom that is my half-awake mindset, I managed to screw up the time my second alarm goes off while I was trying to get the first one to shut up. I wouldn’t have even bothered except I had to present for my Measurement class at 9:30 AM…not something you want to miss when the presentation is worth like 30% of your grade, and something I’m damn glad I remembered when I happened to glance at my clock and see a blurry “8:50 AM” displayed.
On the upside, I broke my old record of “this is the fastest I can get to school in panic mode.”
So after that insanity this morning, I then spent all afternoon spazzing over my Regression problem set (due tomorrow) as well as the write-up for my Measurement project (due tomorrow, too). Then I somehow stumbled across the fact that Brian Regan actually does do shows in Canada, and that he was performing tonight at 7:30. So I went to see him, which was super awesome. Worth every dollar, that man is freaking hilarious.
IN OTHER NEWS: classes are over, bitches! Now I just have to turn in these two things tomorrow, invigilate exams on the 21st and 22nd, take my Regression final on the 23rd, turn in the last Measurement homework on the 26th, and grade Infancy crap. Then first year = DONE.
Yeah, that’s all I got.
*Vancouver blocks are like twice the size of Moscow ones, for whatever the hell reason. It takes 15 minutes to walk from 41st to my house on 31st, and I walk pretty damn fast. Not a problem when I don’t have anywhere to be, but in the mornings I much prefer the 2 minute ride on the #7 to get to the UBC bus.
Today’s song: 栄光の架橋 by ゆず
What is the sound of one claw snapping?
Wikipedia, you’ve done it again.
I randomly found the “unsolved problems in physics” page on Wiki tonight, and after multiple clicks to multiple other pages, I came across this one on sonoluminescence. Firstly, “it was too difficult to analyze the effect in early experiments because of the complex environment of a large number of short-lived bubbles” is probably one of the best sentences ever. Secondly, as I read further down the page, this whole phenomenon sounded somewhat familiar to me, but I didn’t know why.
Then I got to the near bottom of the article where they talk about the pistol shrimp, who naturally produce a type of sonoluminescence as a way to kill prey. I read their page and realized that I’d either read or seen or heard something about these shrimp at some point before, but I couldn’t remember when. But I do remember the death bubble.
Yeah, turns out these little guys pretty much sonic boom their prey to death. Check it out here:
I freely admit the “OH SNAP” comment from a viewer had me laughing.
The fact that a creature can do something so cool is proof that nature’s pretty badass.
Also, I dare you to show this screen capture to anyone and see if they can guess what the hell’s going down:
And for those of you wondering: yes, it is possible to get from “Sonoluminescence” to the “Pornography” page in six clicks (Sonoluminescence -> Viscosity -> Mistletoe -> Kiss -> Herpes -> Oral Sex -> Pornography)
Today’s song: Blue Bench by Sasuke
Correlation vs. covariance: they’re not the same, get it right
Blogger’s note: this is what Teddy Grahams do to me. Keep them away from me.
OKAY PEOPLE…another stats-related blog for y’all. Consider this nice little data set:
Isn’t it pretty? Let’s check out the covariance and correlation:
cov(x, y) = 7.3
cor(x, y) = 0.8706532
Now obviously that one point kind of hanging out there is an outlier, right? So let’s take it out:
Quick, before I do anything else—what do you think will happen to the correlation? What do you think will happen to the covariance?
This was a question for our regression practice midterm, but I heard someone today talking about covariance and correlation and they were completely WRONG…hence this blog. So I remember when I first got this question, I at first thought that both correlation and covariance should increase, but then that seemed like it wouldn’t make sense.
How do we tell?
Equation time!
This is the equation for covariance. As you can see, in the numerator is the sum of the product of all the differences between all the X values and the mean of the X and the differences between the Y values and the mean of Y. The denominator is just the sample size less 1.
This is the equation for correlation. The numerator is the covariance above, and the denominator is the product of the two standard deviations of X and Y.
So now it’s number time!
Covariance
Here are the values for the X and Y variables:
X
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Y
5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 14.0 10.0
mean(X) = 9
mean(Y) = 7.09091
X - mean(X)
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Y - mean (Y)
-2.90909091 -2.40909091 -1.90909091 -1.40909091 -0.90909091 -0.40909091 0.09090909 0.59090909 1.09090909 6.09090909 2.09090909
sum(X - mean(X))*(Y - mean (Y))
73 (numerator)
n - 1
10
73/10 = 7.3 <- covariance!
So what does this all mean? As the value of the numerator decreases, the covariance will decrease too, right?
What’s in the numerator? The differences between all the X values and the mean of X and the differences between all the Y values and the mean of Y. As these differences decrease, even if one difference between and X value and the mean of X decreases, the numerator will decrease, and the covariance will decrease as well.
So what happens when we remove the outlier?
X (outlier removed)
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14
Y (outlier removed)
5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 10.0
mean(X) = 8.6
mean(Y) = 7.3
sum(X - mean(X))*(Y - mean (Y))
46.2 (numerator)
n - 1
9
46.2/9 = 5.133 <- covariance!
AHA! Smaller numerator = smaller covariance! Notice how the smaller denominator doesn’t really matter, as the ratio is still different.
Now what?
Correlation
sd(X) = 3.316625
sd(Y) = 2.528025
sd(X)*sd(Y) = 8.38451
7.3/8.38451 = 0.8706532 <- correlation!
Now we remove the outlier!
sd(X) = 3.204164
sd(Y) = 1.602082
sd(X)*sd(Y) = 5.133333
5.133/5.133 = 1 <- correlation!
The correlation, on the other hand, increases, as the variance of Y decreases due to the removed outlier (which has a large difference between the observed Y value and the mean value of Y).
Does anybody else think this is really cool, or is it just me?
It’s probably just me. Sorry.
Today’s song: Hoppípolla by Sigur Ros
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