Well now I HAVE to do it
So as you probably all know, I’ve been doing my “walk 15 miles six days a week” thing this year. I’ve been half joking that I’m going to try to get to 5,000 miles by the end of the year.
Then I found this out:
That distance? 4,989 miles.
And now I practically have to make it to 5,000 miles. Walking across the Pacific Ocean? Awesome. Especially since I walked across the Atlantic Ocean last year.
Counting today’s walk, I’m at 1,776.3 miles. That puts me about here:
Long way to go!
I did something bad.
What did I do?
I realized that I can get to a total walking mileage of 2,500 for 2015 if I walk 9.8 miles per day for the rest of the year.
That’s not impossible, not at all.
I…I might need to make it happen. But we’ll see.
Walker: Texas Pedestrian
Alright, I have a new long-term goal.
I am going to try to walk the distance equivalent to the circumference of the earth. I say “long-term” because if I walk 2,000 miles in a year (which I’m going to say is probably my max, given school and related things), it will still take me 12.5 total years to walk the circumference (which is approximately 25,000 miles at the equator).
BUT IT WILL HAPPEN, DAMMIT! I’m starting with this year, meaning I’ll be done sometime in 2027, assuming I’m able to keep my yearly mileage around 2,000.
I still won’t be done blogging by 2027.
OH MY GOD.
Mileage Update
Hello, fools!
Counting today’s mileage, I’ve officially walked 1,000 miles since May 1st. It’s taken me nearly 11 solid days of walking to do it, but there ya go. That means I’ve walked 1,750 miles for the year, which surpasses my goal mileage, 1,500. YAY!
It also means that I’ll have to try for 2,000 miles total by the end of the year.
I’ll do it.
Impending Canadian winter cannot stop me.
Idea
I have a good idea for a project! So remember that Project Euler website I mentioned a month (or so) ago? If you don’t, it’s a website that contains several hundred programming problems geared to people using a number of different programming languages, such as C, C++, Python, Mathematica, etc.
I was thinking today that while R is a language used by a small number of members of Project Euler, a lot of the problems seem much more difficult to do in R than in the more “general” programming languages like C++ and Java and the like. Which is fine, of course, if you’re up for a “non-R” type of challenge.
However, I was thinking it would be cool to design a set of problems specifically for R—like present an R user some problem that must be solved with multiple embedded loops…or show them some graph or picture and ask them to duplicate it as best they can…or ask them to write their own code that does the same thing as one of the built-in R functions.
Stuff like that. I’ve seen lots of R books, but none quite with that design.
I know that my office mate has been wanting to learn R but says that he learns a lot better when presented with a general problem—one that might be above his actual level of knowledge with R—and then allowed to just screw around and kind of self-teach as he figures it out.
Miiiiiiiight have to make this my first project of 2015.
Woo!
Walk the Walk: Canadian Style
Heeeeeeeey, so I don’t know why I waited like a week for this, but what the hell, have some walking statistics for my time in Calgary so far!
Total distance: 680.00 miles [Not sure how I managed to hit that exactly. It wasn’t planned.]
Total number of walks: 93
Average distance per walk: 7.31 miles
Did I meet my average of 50 miles per week? No. I blame finals. But that’s okay, considering that last year it took me eight months to go 1,000 miles and this year it took me only about 3.5 months to walk nearly 700 miles. I bumped up the pace quite a bit, I’d say.
Want some line graphs? You know you do.
October was a good month.
Stay tuned for a later blog post in which I set my yearly mileage goal for 2015!
ALRIGHTY
Let’s put my 10,000 Days goal into some perspective: I am approximately 25.5 years old. Do you know how many days I’ve been alive?
9,340, counting today.
Nine thousand, three hundred and forty days.
So if I had been blogging from the day I was born, I still wouldn’t have reached my goal yet.
That is like eight levels of psycho.
As it stands, I’ve got about 20 years of blogging to go before I hit 10,000 posts. That is a long, long time, my friends. Think it’ll happen? I hope so!
(Haha, sorry, I don’t have anything exciting to talk about today.)
An Ode to a (Semi-)Productive Summer
The academic summer is officially over in an hour! Let’s review the goals I specified in May (or June or whenever):
- Actually study for the GRE/GRE math subject test. FAIL. Loser.
- Rock calculus. DONE!
- Rock summer teaching. DONE!
- Go back up to Vancouver and walk the hell out of that city. FAIL. We were going to go up there, but plans fell through.
- Figure out what’s going down next fall as far as teaching goes. DONE!
- Figure out what’s going down for the rest of my life as far as everything goes. Uh…working on it?
- Hit at least 1000 walking miles. DONE!
- Thoroughly delve into Antognazza’s Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography. DONE! <3
- Reacquaint myself with my old linear algebra notes. I looked over them a few times and decided to take linear algebra again, so DONE sort of?
- Possibly visit Sean? FAIL. Too expensive. I’m sad.
- Spend a weekend doing absolutely nothing but Minecraft/drawing/sitting in my basement away from everyone. I don’t think I actually spent a whole weekend in the house. GOTTA WALK! So…FAIL?
- Research possible graduate schools (AGAIN, UGH). DONE! Canada’s on my radar again.
- A few other things that are private. ALL OF THESE WERE FAIL
Maybe it wasn’t as productive as I thought. But I did get Phase I of a big project done (which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time) and am currently on Phase II, so that’s kind of good.
2/3 of the way there!
I hit 1,000 walking miles (1,609.34 km) for the year today.
For comparison:
There are approximately 1,000 miles between Portland, OR and San Diego, CA.
There are approximately 1,609 km between Paris, France and Naples, Italy.
Which is all cool, except all that was done within the city limits of Moscow (except for one walk to Pullman). I have to get to a bigger city, man.
OH YEAH, and this happened yesterday on my mom’s car:
Summer Goals:
- Actually study for the GRE/GRE math subject test
- Rock calculus
- Rock summer teaching
- Go back up to Vancouver and walk the hell out of that city
- Figure out what’s going down next fall as far as teaching goes
- Figure out what’s going down for the rest of my life as far as everything goes
- Hit at least 1000 walking miles
- Thoroughly delve into Antognazza’s Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography
- Reacquaint myself with my old linear algebra notes
- Possibly visit Sean?
- Spend a weekend doing absolutely nothing but Minecraft/drawing/sitting in my basement away from everyone (though I kind of do that last one on most days anyway)
- Research possible graduate schools (AGAIN, UGH)
- A few other things that are private
I want spaghetti.
500 miles this year!
Graph (might have to click to enlarge):
Note: some of those actually occurred on the same day, so the daily totals are actually usually higher than 9 miles on the weekends.
I know it’s not a LOT of miles, but it’s pretty good considering that I spend about 14 of my waking hours on campus doing schoolwork.
So my realistic goal for the year is a total of 1,500 miles; my (probably) unattainable goal is 2,000.
We’ll see how it goes down this summer.
And I’ve been putting my walking-related posts under the “health” category, but I think I’ll start putting them under “travel.” Because really.
Oh, also: I’m addicted to Minecraft now. Or at least I’m getting there. I’ll have more time to be addicted once the semester’s over (NOTHING COMES BETWEEN ME AND MY SCHOOLWORK, NOTHING!).
Bookin’ It
So as you may have read, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to revamp my 200 Books list and start over with it, this time writing a review after each book.
So that’s what I did today!
(Side note: the UI Library is kept at a toasty -23 degrees when the students are gone. Holy freaking crap, I had all my winter walking gear on and I was STILL freezing.)
New list is posted in the 200 Books tab. The almighty random number generator told me that the first book I shall be reading is The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. This was on my old list, but it was one that I never got to because it was always checked out from wherever I was trying to get it. But it was miraculously on the shelves this afternoon, so I picked it up.
I can’t guarantee any sort of time frame for when these reviews will be posted, especially since this semester looks like it’ll be crazy busy. But I’ll try to do them at a reasonable pace!
WOO!
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.
101 in 1,001? Haha, maybe some day…
Happy birthday, Sean!
I had my older 101 in 1,001 list on here quite awhile back, but it’s changed/grown (ever so slightly) and I’d like to put it up somewhere other than the 101 in 1,001 site just in case it goes down for a long while again. 101 in 1,001 is a challenge prompting people to come up with 101 goals they wish to acheive within the span of 1,001 days. I created my (still lacking) list on December 5, 2010, and therefore must have it complete within the next 570 days. That’s why none of my goals are very “long term.”
Crossed-out items are ones I’ve completed, obviously.
- Answer the “50 Questions that will Free Your Mind” survey
- Attend burning man
- Become more familiar with proof theory
Blog every day in 2010Blog every day in 2011- Blog every day in 2012
- Buy a car
Change my hairstyle(sawed about a foot of it off at the beginning of last year)- Complete my 200-book reading list
Complete NaNoWriMo 2011- Complete the “5,000 Question Survey”
- Contribute substantially to a Wikipedia article
- Create a website for myself
- Don’t use the internet for a week
- Donate blood
- Donate bone marrow
Download a new song every day in 2010Download a new song every day in 2011- Download a new song every day in 2012
- Get a piercing
- Get a tattoo
Get my MA in psychologyGo on a cruise(went to Alaska with my dad last July)- Go on a spontaneous vacation
- Go sailing
Go see an opera(saw Mozart’s The Magic Flute in Vancouver)Go skydiving- Go to a concert
- Go without dairy for a week
- Learn how to play chess
- Learn to write with my left hand
- Leave a letter in a library book
- Obtain a patent
- Participate in a bike race
- Publish a novel
- Read Newton’s Principia
- Ride in a hot air balloon
Run a 10k race(Vancouver Sun Run 2011)- Run a 5k race for a charity organization
- Run a half marathon
Sell/give away superfluous posessions- Start and maintain a cooking blog
- Start and maintain a statistics blog
- Take a class in a subject way over my head
- Take a class in Metaphysics
- Throw pottery
- Visit Antarctica
Visit Mount Rushmore- Visit the Basque country
- Visit the Grand Canyon
- Volunteer somewhere
- Walk 2,500 miles in 2012
Walk the equivalent length of Romania in 2011Walk to every mall in Vancouver- Write my will
Runaway
“Run, Forrest, run!”
Total distance in January: 262.89 miles
Total distance necessary in January to keep pace with 2,500 miles for the year: 211.75 miles
Rockin’.
High Resolution
So I suppose it’s that time of the year for reviewing old New Year’s Resolutions and defining new ones.
So let’s get to it!
OUT WITH THE OLD:
- FAILED: Contribute substantially to a Wikipedia article. I actually have quite a bit I can say to add to Wiki’s already existing page on the CFI, but I’ve never actually added anything to a Wiki page (just corrected typos/grammatical errors), so the prospect of doing anything more makes me nervous.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Blog daily. Haha, we all knew this one’d keep.
- FAILED: Come up with a new recipe weekly. Haha. Yeah.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Go skydiving. This was AWEOSME and I totally want to do it again.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Get my MA degree. YAY.
- FAILED: Learn conversational German. Haha, yeah right.
- SORT OF ACCOMPLISHED: Complete the 5,000 question survey. I’m getting there. It’s not like I haven’t been inundating you all with the 100-question segments all year.
- FAILED: Answer the “50 questions that will free your mind” survey question thingy. Totally forgot to do this.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Malls are both fascinating and scary; therefore I shall see Vancouver via walking by walking to a new mall every weekend. Search “Canadian Mall” and ye shall find what I’ve reviewed.
- FAILED: Go a week without electricity. Couldn’t do it in Van ‘cause it was thesis crunch time, didn’t do it in London ‘cause I was busy spazzing, and by the time I got back to Moscow it was getting dark too early in the day and Claudia + candles = imminent disaster.
- FAILED: Go a week without consuming any dairy products. I kept wanting to do this, but then kept automatically adding feta to my pasta/dairy product-containing dressing to my salad.
- SORT OF ACCOMPLISHED: Do something with Prime. In progress.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Go back to St. Mary’s once. Saw the new band room. It kicks ass.
- FAILED: Read Newton’s Principia (and hope Leibniz’ ghost doesn’t kill me in my sleep). I suck.
- FAILED: Actually pay attention to how much money I spend. HAHA.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Win NaNoWriMo 2011. Though I’m not proud of this year’s story.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Get better with R. You don’t have 100+ plots in your thesis and NOT get better with R.
Conclusion: I suck.
IN WITH THE NEW:
- Fix the “issues.”
- Get a job.
- Return to acquiring knowledge in a formal setting.
- Start and maintain a stats blog.
- Improve with R.
- Go without dairy for a week.
- Go without electricity for a week.
Walk 1,200 milesPfft, screw that mediocrity. Walk 2,500 miles.- Continue my 365 Days of Music project.
- Blog daily.
- Win NaNoWriMo 2012.
- Continue “doing something” with Prime.
- Complete the 5,000 question survey.
- Probably other stuff I’m forgetting at the moment.
Wee!
Are Humorous Baristas called Brew-Ha-Has?
Since February 26th of this year, I’ve walked* the equivalent distance of the span of Romania.
One of my 101 in 1001 goals I added a month or so ago was to have walked the equivalent distance length of Idaho over the course of the year (that’s 479 miles, approximately). But then, when I was researching the lengths of states and various other things, I found out that the distance across Romania is pretty similar (approximately 460 miles). Since saying that you walked the span of a country sounds a lot cooler than walking the length of a state, I changed my goal. It’s a little shorter in reality, sure, but I figure I’ll hit 479 miles soon enough, anyway. I took a 9-mile walk this afternoon that brought my total to 464.89 miles.
Woo!
And you know I can’t do anything like this without bringing you all some STATS!
- Total distance in Vancouver: 234.5 miles
- Total distance everywhere else combined: 230.39
- Longest walk: 22.64 miles (47,132 steps)
Boxplot!
Correlations!
distance calories steps speed distance 1.0000000 0.9760977 0.9904710 -0.2836056 calories 0.9760977 1.0000000 0.9422555 -0.1071855 steps 0.9904710 0.9422555 1.0000000 -0.3922823 speed -0.2836056 -0.1071855 -0.3922823 1.0000000
WOO!
*Walking distance includes only “intentional” walking times—times I walked to walk (including all Canadian Mall destinations)—and more specifically, the times I actually had my iPod Touch with me and utilized the iTreadmill app and excludes distance accrued while walking to/from campus, going to the grocery store, prancing around the house, etc.
Oh hey look, I forgot I had a future
I can’t freaking wait for Western Ontario, dudes. The fact that there’s a whole class on the philosophy of probability is amaaaaaaazing.
Other things I’m excited about:
– getting back into a music class/program/band/something.
– moving back into a dorm. I know that sounds dorky, but I’ll have wireless back and not have an hour-long commute to campus.
– not being in Vancouver.
– not having a soul-crushing depression hanging over every second of my existence. Hopefully.
– getting away from the West Coast.
– cheaper EVERYTHING.
– getting paid to talk about/think about/write about/dink around with the philosophy of science.
– reading through the Philosophy of Science Comprehensive Exam study guide, which includes Kuhn, Popper, Curd & Cover’s anthology, and like 50 other sexy texts.
– possibly owning a car.
YAY.
Adding New Post
So one of my goals on my “101 in 1,001” list (which is actually like a “45 in 1,001” or something like that) is to go without dairy for a week. This may or may not seem like a difficult thing to do for you, but I like cheese and milk and have either one or the other (or both) every day.
This also means no M&Ms. I don’t know what that will do to me.
But yeah. Starting Monday, no dairy until the 9th.
Another goal on the list is to go without electricity for a week, but that’ll have to wait until I’m done with the thesis. Assuming I live that long.
Woo!
Unadulterated Blather
Okay, so my older list sucked because I wrote it in a hurry and didn’t really give it much thought. So here’s my ACTUAL list of resolutions/goals/miscellaneous crap. I know nobody really cares, but it’s fun to pretend.
- Contribute substantially to a Wikipedia article
- Blog daily
- Come up with a new recipe weekly
- Go skydiving
- Get my MA degree
- Learn conversational German
- Complete the 5,000 question survey
- Answer the “50 questions that will free your mind” survey question thingy
- Malls are both fascinating and scary; therefore I shall see Vancouver via walking by walking to a new mall every weekend. Reviews will happen, ‘cause that’s just how I am
- Go a week without electricity
- Go a week without consuming any dairy products
- Do something with Prime
- Go back to St. Mary’s church once
- Read Newton’s Principia (and hope Leibniz’ ghost doesn’t kill me in my sleep)
- Actually pay attention to how much money I spend
- Win NaNoWriMo 2011
- Get better with R
WOO!
Well, here we go again…
Dear 2011,
Let’s be kind to each other, shall we? 2010 was average enough, but we don’t need another 2009.
So let’s make a deal.
You will provide me with 365 days, each day approximately 24 hours in length. These days will be blank slates with each an opportunity to get things right.
In turn, I will provide you with 365 attempts at not sucking at life. This includes but is not limited to:
- keeping my mind focused on whatever task is at hand, regardless of how alluring drawing/writing/StumbleUpon/Wordpress/screwing around on the internet in general is.
- trying not to lose my shit when it comes to anxiety-provoking social interactions.
- mastering the art of self-deprivation to promote self-betterment.
- attempts to dispel anger in more constructive ways.
- trying to be kinder to everyone, even people who can’t seem to walk down a sidewalk properly.
- appreciating the fact that I have control over my life (note: this does not exempt me from bitching about stuff).
So yeah. Take that, fate, I’m going to kick your ass.
Anyway, life is never complete without a year-end survey. Onward!
Name: Claudia
Screen name: LadyLeibniz. Or AntarcticaFreak, but that one’s ancient.
Current location: Vancouver
Birth date: February 2
Sign: Aquarius/Dragon
2010 In The Beginning……
Where did you ring in the New Year? On my butt in the snow outside my house after falling down the deck stairs. 2009 just couldn’t let go without giving me one more jab.
Who were you with? Myself.
Did you kiss anyone at midnight? Nope.
Did you make any resolutions? Quoted from last year: “Figure out what the hell I want, find a boyfriend, get better with R, etc., etc.”
If so did you keep them? The first and third ones, yeah.
2010 Your Love Life….
Single/Taken? Single
How many relationships did you have? Actual relationships? Zero.
How many break ups? None
How many people did you kiss? One
2010 Friends and Enemies……
Did you meet any new friends this year? I made at least one new friend every time I came back to Moscow, haha.
Did any of your friendships end? Nah.
Did you dislike anyone? Nope.
Did you get into any fights? No one to fight with.
Did you make any new enemies? I hope not.
Did you resolve any fights? I try to stay out of it.
Who was your closest friend? Didn’t really have one.
2010….The Holidays!
Did you have a Valentine? PFFT.
Did the Easter bunny visit you? He gave me a four day weekend.
Did you watch fireworks on the 4th of July? Yes!
Did you dress up for Halloween? No.
What did you do for Thanksgiving? Canadian Thanksgiving blows, so nothing.
Did you receive what you wanted? Partially.
Were you good this holiday season? I always try to be good.
2010 Your BIRTHDAY!!!
How old did you turn? 22
Did you have a cake? No
What did you do for your birthday? Went to class. Not much else.
Did you have a party? Nope.
Did you get any presents? A few
2010……The Memories and Accomplishments!
Funniest Memory? Driving around Moscow with my friends, blasting the Numa Numa song and waving our arms around like a bunch of idiots. And not realizing the back hatch on the car was open.
Saddest Memory? The time we all sat in my car late at night and bitched about how much our lives sucked.
Most Embarrassing Memory? Existing
Best Accomplishment? Presenting my poster in Boston.
2010…..FAVORITES!
Favorite TV shows? I’m still digging Futurama. And METALOCALYPSE.
Favorite songs? See yesterday’s blog.
Favorite bands? Muse rules.
Favorite food? Freaking broccoli, man.
Favorite stores? There aren’t really any stores I frequent up here.
Favorite restaurants? Shari’s is still the best place ever. And Cougar Country, man!
Favorite piece of clothing? I love my Alex Colman pants. SO LOUD.
2010…..All about YOU….
Did you change at all this year? Meh. In some ways, yes, but they’re subtle.
Did you dye your hair? I tried to put some blue in the tips, but you can’t really see it.
Did you get your hair cut? I got it evened out in the summer.
Did you change your style? NEVER!
Were you in school? Blah, yes.
Did you have a job? I was a TA.
Did you drive? Yup.
Did you own a car? Don’t need one up here.
Did you lose anyone this year? No.
Did anyone close to you give birth? No.
Did you move at all? Hahaha, yes.
Did you go on any vacations? I went back to Moscow for the summer.
Did you leave the country at all? Indeed.
Would you change anything about yourself now? Peh.
Claudia’s 365 Days of Music – A Review
Are you ready for a long post? ‘CAUSE YOU’RE GONNA GET ONE!
Ahem.
Well here we are, ladies and gents. 365 days later, I now have 365 new songs, one for each day of 2010.
Snazzy? YES I’D CERTAINLY SAY SO.
So this was a super fun New Year’s resolution. If you have the time and money, I highly recommend you try this out. Anyway. Because I’m a stats whore, you know this year has to end with a bunch of analyses. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Total songs: 365 (duh)
Total time: 24 hours, 14 minutes and 48 seconds
Total size: 2.59 GB
Mean song length: 4 minutes (okay, 3 minutes, 59.412 seconds)
First song: United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop) by DJ Earworm
Last song: United State of Pop 2010 (Don’t Stop the Pop) by DJ Earworm
Total number of Sleepyhead remixes/covers: 6 (shut up, that song is like heroin)
Estimated cost: ~$350. The vast majority of songs were either $0.99 or $1.29 (yes, I made it a point to acquire songs legally), but I also use justmusicstore.com for the songs I couldn’t find on iTunes; their songs are $0.15 each.
The bests are as follows. I’m not going to embed the vids because that would make this post even longer, but they’re all linked. Go forth!
Top 10 Favorite Music Videos/Regular Videos Featuring the Artist(s)
Some aren’t official, but they SHOULD be!
1. The Music Scene – Blockhead
2. White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes
3. Happy Up Here – Royksopp
4. Hey There Mr. – Leisure Alaska
5. Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
6. Resistance – Muse
7. This Too Shall Pass – OK Go
8. Viva La Love Story – Jon Schmidt
9. Flightless Bird, American Mouth – Iron & Wine
10. Disorganized Fun – Ronald Jenkees
Top 5 Most Touching Songs
These made me bawl. Very powerful.
1. The Last Day on Earth – Kate Miller-Heidke
2. 10,000 Miles – Mary Chapin Carpenter
3. Eet – Regina Spektor
4. Happy Ending – Mika
5. Flightless Bird, American Mouth – Iron & Wine
The Five Stars
The final list for the year, listed from January to December acquisition
Disorganized Fun – Ronald Jenkees
Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
Happy Up Here – Royksopp
White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes
Blow Up – Gooseflesh
Viva La Love Story – Jon Schmidt
Sleepyhead (Run Toto Run Cover) – Passion Pit
Monster – Lady Gaga
Sleepyhead (Cillo Remix) – Passion Pit
Hey There Mr. – Leisure Alaska
Yours To Keep – Teddybears featuring Paola
Cobrastyle – Robyn
The Music Scene – Blockhead
Alejandro – Lady Gaga
Mediational Field – Susumu Hirasawa
I Want You To Want Me – Cheap Trick
I’m The Man Who Murdered Love – XTC
So what are the best of the best? Like the top 5? Well here they are:
Sleepyhead (Cillo Remix) – Passion Pit
Oh my god. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. This is SUCH a chill remix of the coolest song on the planet. 5 minutes and 16 seconds of “you can’t worry about anything because if you try to break the chill trance of this song, your head will explode.”
Hey There Mr. – Leisure Alaska
There’s just something about this song, man. The singer’s voice is like Chris Martin (Coldplay) mixed with peanut butter—very smooth, very lingering, with an ease of singing that is very apparent in the chorus. Fantastic.
Happy Up Here – Royksopp
The future is here, and it’s got a great beat. This is what electronic music should sound like. Very catchy.
Viva La Love Story – Jon Schmidt
The way this song crescendos to Viva La Vida is AMAZING. A very nice blend of Taylor Swift’s Love Story and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida using a cello and a piano.
I’m The Man Who Murdered Love – XTC
I actually just downloaded this song yesterday, but holy freaking crap it’s like crack. I danced to it on repeat for about an hour this afternoon. The tempo is perfect.
And I just have to give an honorable mention to Dildo by Interactive, solely because of the fact that this song consists of only 4 words—with 95% of the lyrics being “dildo”—and yet is so undeniably catchy that it begs to be played in the car at maximum volume when you’re driving around with your friends.
Now I’m sure you’re all looking for some plots, am I right? Just say yes, it’ll make things go more smoothly.
Here is the year in review: music style. Pie chart has been used due to the fact a bar graph would have sucked owing to the large range. As you can see, I am an electronic whore.
Here’s an aesthetically pleasing donut plot done of the top 4 genres plotted by month. January is the innermost circle, December is the outermost.
Here is a pie chart of the playcounts for the year (clicky for full size). I listened to songs purchased in 2010 a total of 15,045 times. The mean length of song is almost exactly 4:00, so that means I listened to a total of 3,610,800 seconds of music (60,180 minutes, 1,003 hours, or 41 days and 19 hours). Wow. And that’s just the music from this year, that doesn’t even count all the older stuff I listened to.
Oh, and the correlation between number of songs in a genre purchased and the number of plays for a particular genre? .98. For anyone who cares.
I was going to do a bunch of stuff with the genre plots, but they’re a lot messier than I was anticipating and therefore look like crap, so I’ll just leave you with a pdf list of the music I downloaded this year: 2010 Song List
I totally recommend doing this. Totally.
Today’s song: United State of Pop 2010 (Don’t Stop the Pop) by DJ Earworm
The Resolutions
Because it’s getting to be that time and the last blog of the year is reserved:
- Try not to suck at life
- Blog daily, as per usual
- Edit the stuff I need to edit (a.k.a. Prime)
- Go skydiving
- THE THESIS, GET IT DONE
- Get better at R
- Analyze the living hell out of every data set I come across
- Have at least one more sexy basement party
- Finish a substantial number of my “101 in 1001” goals (assuming the website ever comes back up, haha)
There are many more, but it’s late and I need music.
Also this:
Today’s song: 10,000 Miles by Mary Chapin Carpenter (this made me bawl)
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Three things today.
1: I’m back in Vancouver.
2: I don’t want to be back in Vancouver.
2 ½: In fact, I almost didn’t get on the plane.
3: I have a new New Year’s Resolution: I’ve decided that I will download a new song every day of this year, no matter how far I will have to go to search for worthy ones (usually just to YouTube).
So yeah. Hopefully by December 31, 2010, I will have (at least) 365 new songs. I also edited yesterday’s entry to list the day’s song. This will be done each day, too.
Woo.
Today’s song: Love Story by Taylor Swift
Blog #976: 2009 Resolutions
Well, 2008 has come to a close. Thank god. So here I am with another set of New Year’s resolutions (and the results from the last set):
Last year’s:
-Keep the 4.0.
Status: check, thank GOD.
-Go to the rec center three times a week.
Status: hahahaha.
-Keep a journal of my weird, weird dreams.
Status: nope, didn’t happen.
-Actually start studying for the GRE sometime before I have to take it.
Status: technically I did this…but only by like two days.
-Make at least one decent Flash animation.
Status: does The Wrath of Xbar count?
This year’s:
-For once, I’m going to try and NOT worry about keeping a 4.0. Sure, I’ll try, but I’m also taking Linear Algebra.
-Get into grad school.
-Get better at R.
-Get better at Flash.
-Keep blogging, regardless of MySpace’s stupidity! (2-years-later edit: hahahahaha)
And…that’s about it.
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