TWSB: The Sound of a Solar Re (and a Do, a Mi, a Fa, a So, a La, a Ti, and More Do)
The authors of the Ask a Mathematician/Ask a Physicist blog received and answered this question not too long ago: If you could hear through space as though it were filled with air, what would you hear?
The answer is as follows: the sun.
Yes, our big showy center of the universe is also the loudest thing around, at least to us. The Physicist explains: both the loudness and brightness of an object is exactly proportional to how big it is. The sun’s brightness, therefore, is a function of its temperature and size. If a small ball of the same temperature as the sun were to be held up so that it appeared to be the same size as the sun, it would feel exactly as warm and seem exactly as bright as the sun.
Taking this comparison of a small bright ball = distant, huge sun with respect to the amount of heat omitted, The Physicist states that the sun, if we could hear it, “would be exactly as loud as any other large-marble-sized nuclear explosion held at arm’s length.”
So we’d pretty much be deaf. Or dead.
Insanity! Article here.
30-Day Meme – Day 19: A talent of yours.
Rewriting song lyrics. I swear this is my single talent in life. Like I said in my “100 Things” list, I credit my mom playing a lot of Weird Al when I was a kid. It comes very naturally to me. Here are a few examples:
- Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back rewritten as Easy Mac.
- Boston’s Peace of Mind rewritten as Piece of Pi.
- MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This rewritten as U Can’t Prove This (it’s about logic class and how long it took me to wrap my head around proofs).
Lawl, Republicans
The Republican Debate should have been broadcast on Comedy Central.
Here’s some more frivolity to round out your day.
30-Day Meme – Day 18: Tell us about your best friend.
I don’t have one! HaHA!
Short blog!
Pretty R
I love R. This is an established fact in the universe. The only thing I love more than R is revising code I’ve written for it.
For my thesis, I had to make a metric ton of plots. For each scenario I ran, I ran it for seven different fit indices. I included plots for four of these indices for every scenario. With a total of 26 scenarios, that’s a grand total of 104 plots (and one of the reasons why my thesis was 217 pages long).
Normally, once I write code for something and know it works, I like to take the time to clean up the code so that it’s short, as self-explanatory as possible, and given notations in places where it’s not self-explanatory. In the case of my thesis, however, my goal was not “make pretty code” but rather “crap out as many of these plots as fast as possible.” Thus, rather than taking the time to write code that would basically automate the plot-making process and only force me to change one or two lines for each different plot and scenario, I basically made new code for each and every single plot.
In hindsight, I realize that probably cost me way more time than just sitting down and making a “template plot” code would have. In fact, I now know that it would have taken less time, as I have made it my project over the past few days to actually go back and create such code for a template plot that I could easily extend to all plots and all scenarios.
Side note: I’m going to be sharing code here, so if you have absolutely no interest in this at all, I suggest you stop reading now and skip down to today’s meme to conclude today’s blog.
This code is old code for a plot of the comparative fit index’s (CFI’s) behavior for a 1-factor model with eight indicators for an increasingly large omitted error correlation (for six different loading sizes; those are the colored lines). As you can see in the file, there are quite a few (okay, a lot) of lines “commented out,” as indicated by the pound signs in front of the lines of code. This is because for each chunk of code, I had to write a specific line for each of the different plots. Each of these customizing lines took quite awhile to get correct, as many of them refer to plotting the “λ = some number” labels at the correct coordinates as well as making sure the axis labels are accurate.
This other code, on the other hand, is one in which I need to change only the data file and the name of the y-axis. It’s a lot cleaner in the sense that there’s not a lot of messy commented out lines, lines are annotated regarding what they do, and—best of all—this took me maybe five hours to create but would make creating 104 plots so easy. Some of the aspects of “automating” plot-making were somewhat difficult to figure out, like making it so that the y-axis would be appropriately segmented labeled in all cases, and thus the code is still kind of messy in some places, but it’s a lot better than it was. Plus, now that I know that this shortened code works, I can go back in and make it even more simplified and streamlined.
Side-by-side comparison, old vs. new, respectively:
Yeah, I know it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty freaking good considering I have to change like two lines of the code to get it to do a plot for another fit index. Huzzah!
30-Day Meme – Day 17: An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.) that is your favorite.
As much as I love Dali’s Persistence of Memory, I have to say that one of my favorite paintings is Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow.
It’s ridiculously simple, but that’s what I like about it. There’s quite a lot of art I don’t “get” and I think Mondrian’s work may fall into that category. However, there’s something implicitly appealing about this to me. I love stuff that just uses primary colors and I really like squares/straight lines/structure. So I guess this is just a pretty culmination of all that.
TWSB: Do the Hustle! Er, Shuffle. Do The Shuffle. iPods. This post is about iPods.
So I found this NPR transcript this afternoon discussing a listener’s question about the “shuffle” feature of iPods. Specifically, what the mathematics behind the shuffle feature are. After all, the listener notes, it sometimes seems like the same songs keep coming up while many others are never played.
Keith Devlin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford, answers the question. The shuffle, he says, is meant to be random and in fact actually behaves as a random event. Mr. Devlin explains that people have difficulty recognizing randomness because of the simple fact that one of the features of truly random selection is the repetition of patterns. He uses the example of coin tossing. If you toss a coin twenty or so times, you’re very likely, he says, to get streaks of the same side coming up, like a streak of five heads or something. We tend to see such streaks as non-randomness, though, because such patterns surprise us (after all, it does seem intuitively weird to see five heads in a row when you’re tossing a coin when you know that both sides of the coin have an equal probability of occurring. The magic of independent probability!).
Mr. Devlin concludes, “so, assuming that Apple have designed a really good randomizer in the iPod, then you are going to start getting repeats of songs and you are going to find that some songs don’t come up seemingly for a long time. That’s the way random behavior is.”
Cool, huh?
30-Day Meme – Day 15: A poem you wrote.
I wrote this poem for my grandpa the night before he died of a rare cancer. I remember reading it to him and watching him slowly fade in and out of consciousness. Everything in this poem is totally true of him. You rocked, grandpa!
A Grandpa is someone you can count on in a mess
Though with woodworking and painting he is easily obsessed
Not a job too tough
Not a place too rough
For this daring man of a ripe old age
Who has lived in the past and seen the future.
Can re-fix a shoe with a single suture.
No need to ask for directions
Full of funny imperfections
This daring man of a ripe old age.
Whether zooming to the store for his lottery ticket
Or checking the numbers—did he win it?
Doesn’t complain
Need I explain?
The daring man of a ripe old age.
The daring man of a ripe old age.
Stanleyland
2301. Who is the hottest celebrity you can think of?
I can’t think of a male celeb at the moment, but I’ve always thought Michelle Trachtenberg is freaking gorgeous.
2303. Do you ever get so nervous that you can’t even think?
Welcome to “Claudia takes math finals.” Seriously. Every damn time. 100% in the class (including other tests!), like 40% on the final. Explain.
2304. Do you sing when there is no music?
Yup.
2305. Would you rather cast a spell or say a prayer?
Can I cast a spell to make someone else pray? Can I pray that someone else casts a spell?
2306. Why does the US dollar bill have a pyramid on it?
Isn’t the pyramid related to Horus?
2307. Who was the best political leader in history and why?
Millard Fillmore. ‘Cause he was Millard Fillmore.
2308. What was the first sex toy you ever used?
Hahaha, this is so N/A for me.
2309. If you hated a book, would you burn it?
As much as I hate the one book I truly hate, I wouldn’t burn it.
2310. What are your feelings about pornography?
Eh. I don’t enjoy it, but I don’t reprimand those who do.
2311. What are your feelings about people who are against pornography?
I say let those who enjoy it enjoy it.
2312. If you could dance with anyone in the world right now, who would it be and what song would you dance to?
I suck enough at dancing that I wouldn’t want anybody I admire to be forced to dance with me.
2313. What is your favorite flavor of schnapps?
Don’t have one.
2314. Finish this sentence your own way. There are two types of people in the world…
Those who love “two types of people” jokes and those who despise them.
2315. What have you saved since elementary school?
My journals. I wrote SO MUCH in first grade.
2316. Have you ever won an award?
Yup. Writing awards. Band awards. Maybe some other stuff.
2317. Are you more:
good or evil?
Good.
wise or foolish?
Probably foolish.
safe or dangerous?
Dangerous.
satisfied or envious?
Envious.
honest or decietful?
Honest.
faithful or perfidious?
Faithful.
sane or mad?
Haha.
strong or weak?
Strong.
enigmatic or plain?
Enigmatic
aggressive or peaceful?
Peaceful.
brave or timid?
Brave.
humane or cruel?
Humane.
critical or appreciative?
Appreciative.
temperamental or calm?
Temperamental.
sad or happy?
Sad.
normal or unusual?
Unusual.
2318. How do you feel about Terri Schiavo?
I barely remember that whole mess.
2319. Do you feel more connected to the sun or the moon?
Sun.
2320. Do flaws make people interesting to you?
Sure. People are weirdos.
2321. Who is your favorite historical figure?
LEIBNIZ!
2322. White bread or wheat bread?
White.
2323. Would you rather never have sex again or have sex once with a walrus?
The former.
2324. Would you rather sky dive or deep sea dive?
I’d totally sky dive again.
2325. What is the kinkiest thing you’ve ever done?
It involved cake.
2326. What is your favorite pick-up line?
I don’t have one.
2327. Do you usually do things fast or right?
I try to do both.
2328. What will the most common halloween costume be this year?
Man, who knows. Something Harry Potter related?
2329. What was it last year?
Probably something Harry Potter related.
2330. Is love a choice or something that can’t be helped?
Probably something that can’t be helped.
2331. What is your preferred method of birth control?
Um…not having a partner? Haha.
2332. Is there someone you see everyday (or sometimes) that you would like to hug and talk to but you just don’t know them well enough?
Nope.
2333. Are you or have you ever been in a band?
Hell yeah! Band rules.
2334. Here are 4 statements about me. Only one of them is true. Which one is it?
a. I lost my mind doing drugs.
b. I’ve been arrested before.
c. I have 9 cats.
d. I have a children’s book published.
I’ll say B.
2335. What do you think of the smashing pumpkins?
I don’t think I even have any Smashing Pumpkins songs.
2336. Would you wear a thong bathing suit in public?
No.
2337. Hello I love you won’t you tell me your name?
I’m Claudia! Why is this question 2,337?
2338. If you had to be surgically attached at the hip for two years to either Britney Spears, George W. Bush or an ugly creepy troublesome but nice troll, who would you pick and why?
Troll! We’d have the most fun.
2339. Let’s assume that there is a “meaning of life,” a reason for humans to be here on this planet. Would you give up both of your legs and one of your arms if it would mean everyone else would learn the meaning of life?
Only if that was my reason for being on the planet.
2340. If you could meet God and talk to him for 5 hours, -or- find out whether or not there is intelligent life on other planets and make contact with them, which would you pick and why? (Note: If you meet God, you will never find out if there is intelligent life on other planets, so you can’t ask God if aliens exist. Also, you would get no proof that you had talked to him or her. And finally, if God doesn’t exist then you don’t get to meet him or her!).
Under the assumption that god exists, I’d probably pick option A, mainly because I’m almost positive that there is intelligent life somewhere out there, and getting us in contact with them would probably be quite disastrous.
2341. Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, or the Breakfast Club?
I haven’t seen any of these.
2342. Before you read this question, pick a person from your life, any person. (You have to be thinking about someone before you continue!). Would you rather have the ability to watch that person for one hour per day, or would you rather have that person watch you for one hour per day? Who is it and why? (you pick the hour – they don’t know that they are being watched – it’s like there are invisible TV cameras following them around)?
I’d watch them. People acting without knowing they’re being observed are amazing. And this particular person = super amazing. Also, I’m a creeper.
2343. Would you rather be guaranteed to have your dream job or never be heartbroken?
Guaranteed my dream job.
2344. Have you thought about death today?
Yup.
2345. What is your favorite breakfast?
My *favorite* is cereal, like Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Waffle Crisp (why don’t they sell this anymore?!), but I usually have a banana and some peanuts.
2346. What is your favorite classic movie?
The Music Man is AWESOME.
2347. Gold or silver eyeshadow?
Gold.
2348. Are you the life of the party?
Pfft, no.
2349. Do you wish you were?
Nope.
2350. Sdrawkcab daer uoy nac?
Sey.
2351. If you realize that a student at your school or a colleague from your job has plagiarized part of their work from the internet. What do you do?
Please see this blog.
2352. What does your computer look like when you aren’t looking at it??
It comes to life and dances.
2353. If you aren’t looking at it, how do you know it’s still there when your back is turned?
Because I’m not Berkeley.
2354. If you hit an animal with your car would you get out to try and make sure it was okay?
Duh.
2355. If it was someone’s cat (collared with address) would you knock on their door and apologize for hitting the cat?
Absolutely.
2356. How do you feel about the people who are teased in high school suing the bullies who teased them for emotional damage?
I don’t know, I wasn’t bullied in high school (much) and can’t really determine the degree of emotional damage it causes.
2357. Do you have an interest in any of the following:
guns: I’d like to fire a gun again. The shooting range was fun.
explosives: Not really.
marilyn manson: No.
trench coats: No.
the mafia: No.
death: Meh.
satanism: No.
nazis: No.
that Doom game: Doom RULES.
2358. Do you believe that people live in their own worlds or realities or do you think we all share the same world/reality?
We’re monads!
2359. Do you believe that Nazism was a characteristically German thing, or do you think a similar type of government could spring up in any country?
Um…the Holocaust was probably not the first mass genocide.
2360. Is your diary in the internet archive wayback machine?
Nope.
2361. When do you get your most peaceful and satisfying sleep?
Whenever I feel like sleeping, haha.
2362. What thought gets you out of bed in the morning?
The thought that maybe today I’ll get things right.
2363. Do you get along better with guys or girls (as friends)?
Guys, usually.
2364. What does tx81z stand for?
Probably something dumb.
2365. How many points is the letter Z worth in Scrabble?
Ten.
2366. In poker, which hand is better: four of a kind or a straight?
Haha, I don’t know. Never played poker.
2367. What is the official language of Australia?
Canadian.
2368. On what continent would you find British Columbia?
AAHH HORRIBLE FLASHBACKS GET IT AWAY
2369. Have you been to homestarrunner.com?
Haha, yup.
2370. What promise could you never keep?
Any promise that harmed someone else by it being kept.
2372. What are you a member of?
The human race.
2373. If you and your mate were stranded at sea on a scuba diving trip like in the movie Open Water, how would you survive?
We probably wouldn’t, haha.
2374. Do you feel confident that you would know what to do under emergency circumstances?
I’m disaster-ready, baby.
2375. Have you ever been stood up?
No.
2378. Have you ever had an unusual piercing?
I don’t know if an industrial counts for this.
2379. Have you ever experianced culture shock?
Not really. Moving from Moscow to Vancouver was a big deal, but not that big of a deal.
2380. Imagine you were trapped in one of the world trade center towers on 9/11/01. Who would you call and what would you say to them in those last few minutes?
I’d call my mom and tell her how much I love her.
2381. Do you ever go to school or work when you feel like you do not look your best??
Indeed.
2382. Does doing this effect your whole day?
Meh.
2383. What was the last movie you watched and what did you learn from it?
The last movie I watched was The Perfect Storm on TV. I learned not to go fishing during perfect storms. Life-changing.
2384. Do you believe that everyone who doesn’t believe in your religion is going to hell?
Haha, no.
2385. What is the best thing about winter?
SNOW!
2386. Do you ever shovel your neighbor’s walk?
I shoveled like the whole of Almon St. when we lived
2387. How often do you hold back from saying what you are thinking?
90% of the time.
2388. Have you ever looked back at someone you loved and wondered ‘what attracted me to THEM?’
Haha, it’s like all I do during a relationship.
2389. What do you think of Drew Barrymore?
I have no issues with her.
2390. Name one thing you refuse to ever do.
Cease learning.
2391. Name one place you refuse to ever go.
Back to Vancouver.
2392. Do you think people see you more as who you are or what you are?
Who knows? I have no idea how I’m perceived.
2393. Pick 3 random letters:
C, L, and K.
Now think of the first 3 things that pops into your head that starts with each letter.
Clock, Louisiana, and kite.
2394. Do you dress more revealing or more to cover up?
I don’t really factor coverage into my outfit selection.
2395. What does it take to be a ‘real gentleman’?
Not being a jerk. Respecting ladies and dudes alike.
2396. Where would you go if you were going somewhere you don’t usually go?
Haha, what a weird question. I don’t know…church?
2397. On the first sept 11th anniversary, the new york lottery’s winning numbers were 9,1 and 1. Do you believe this is fate, coincidence or a conspiracy/plan?
I believe the universe is strange.
2398. Have you ever noticed that there is a lie in the middle of the word believe?
Yup.
2399. When (and if) people (or animals) go to heaven, do they become angels?
No heaven.
2400. What is your most important body part?
BRAIN!
30-Day Meme – Day 14: Talk about the cuteness of your pets.
My kitten Annabelle is freaking adorable. Though she was a stray when she came to our house, we think she’s almost a purebred British Shorthair. She’s like a bunny crossed with a koala.
Come on, really?
This afternoon I was bored at home and with nothing else to do, I turned on the TV and watched The Doctors. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s an hour-long show featuring a team of medical professionals who respond to themed health concerns such as diabetes or flu prevention or healthy foods.
Usually these guys are pretty reasonable and accurate with their advice (at least in my opinion). But today’s show, which was focused on weight loss (“Six Ways to Weigh Less;” I’ll critique this theme in a minute), opened with an overweight young man talking about how his partner always cooked for him. This wouldn’t be a bad thing, he said, except for the fact that the foods she cooked were always high in calories and fat and she made him feel like he “had” to eat everything she prepared for him. He felt like he had pressure to finish everything she made for him and therefore felt like she was pressuring him into being overweight.
Yeah, okay, I can respect his concerns. However, I did have issues with how the doctors interpreted the situation following the clip. They basically said that the sole reason a partner/spouse would “make” or “keep” their significant other overweight is due to insecurity. Basically, they make their significant other overweight and thus decrease their desirability to others, insuring the already existing relationship against possible outside threats.
Really?
Really?
I have several problems with this statement. Actually, I have several problems with this episode. Bullet point time!
- The Doctors emphasize multiple times that the episode is focused on making people healthier, and yet it is explicitly titled and referred to as “Six Ways to Weigh Less.” Because we all know that weighing less = increased health. Always. Totally. Except it doesn’t. YES, for those people carrying about a significant amount of weight, the loss of this weight can improve overall health. But it has been shown in several studies (that just links to like a summary) that people who are slightly heavier than “average” using the BMI as a gauge (which is screwy anyway) actually live longer than those of low, average, or obesity-level weight. But since we’ve all been told that weighing less = being healthier no matter what, I guess that’s what we’ll have to believe.
- I don’t like the implication that the woman who is supposedly over-feeding her partner is doing so deliberately. Maybe she’s of a background where food = caring. Maybe she is positively reinforced when her partner finishes the large meals and therefore continues to make them large. Maybe she just likes to cook. Who knows? I think it’s pretty bad to assume she has some sort of ulterior motive here.
- Speaking of the idea of an ulterior motive, how about that idea that the motive is as sinister as keeping her partner “unattractive” to others in order to preserve their relationship? I think jumping to this conclusion puts every fat admirer (or anyone who just doesn’t have a problem with larger people) in a bad light. Most of us who like heavier people do not have this insecurity-driven reason for our preferences. If I had a partner, I wouldn’t want him to be heavy unless he wanted to be heavy or didn’t mind being heavy. Like, I’d be all on board with that if that’s what he wanted, but I certainly wouldn’t purposely try to make him fat with the intention of making him “unappealing” to others in order to preserve our relationship. I wouldn’t try to make him fat at all if that’s not what he wanted, because that’s manipulative and wrong. Saying that’s what’s going on in this case is super insulting to the woman and really just irks the hell out of me.
- Oh, and one last point relating to the previous one: FAT =/= UNATTRACTIVE. STOP REINFORCING THE NONSENSE ASLDFJDLGKAVEAFIFJANDFAJGHH.
Okay I’m done.
30-Day Meme – Day 13: How do you think others view you?
Haha, who knows after reading the above rant. I think other people think I’m weird, I really do. I’m short, I wear weird stuff, I’m quiet unless you get me all riled up about something (see above), I like stats, and I’m a band geek. Weirdness is my forte.
Though I could be completely wrong.
Attention Universe:
My mother is the greatest human being on this planet.
That is all.
30-Day Meme – Day 12: Explain how you got one of your scars.
Way back when the Eastside Mall had a pet store in it, my mom and I used to go check out the pretty animals after we’d go out for dinner on Thursdays. There was this white parrot in there that was pretty chill and friendly. He liked to grab fingers with his little talons.
One day, we were in the shop and my mom was in the back looking at the piranhas or something (yeah, they had piranhas, how cool?!) and I was hanging out with the white parrot. I wasn’t really paying attention to things and I think something in the shop startled him. He managed to latch his beak onto the base of my right index finger and WOULDN’T LET GO. Ask my mom, he had my finger viced for like five minutes and kept biting harder.
He finally let go and I bled for like twenty minutes. Fun times.
Old McDonald had a blog, L-M-F-A-O!
Blaaaaaaaaahldfjasgiga I hate change. Stressful week shall be stressful. Engage random frivolity!
ANORAK…Do you have a sad side?
It is unfortunately one of my prominent sides.
BODY…What physical attribute would you most like to change?
I’d like to be taller. Like even just an inch or so. I have a very short torso. I’d like to be able to put more than two fingers between my lowest rib and my hip bone.
CELEBRITY…Which one would you most like to date and why?
Do they have to be living?
DEBUT …Tell us about your first ever blog post.
Hahaha. My high school friends finally convinced me to get a MySpace, and my first blog post was basically “here, are you happy? Now that I’ve got a blog, though, why not try to blog once a day?” DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE?!
ERROR …What’s been your biggest regret?
UBC.
FUNNY…who’s making you laugh?
No one at the moment.
GRAND…If we gave you one right now what would you spend it on?
Pay off my credit card ‘cause it’s right at its limit.
HOLIDAY… What’s your favorite destination?
Antarctica, even though I’ve never been there.
IRRITATE… What’s your most annoying habit?
We’re not going to get into that.
JOKER…Whats your favorite joke {the one that makes you laugh every time you hear it}?
Brian Regan’s UPS routine, Brian Regan’s airplane routine, Brian Regan’s emergency room routine. So basically anything by Brian Regan.
KENNEL… Do you have any pets?
I have my kitten Annabelle back home. She’s totally not a kitten, she’s like 13, but she’s small and my baby.
LOVE…Are you single, married, engaged, living with a long term partner?
Single. Single, single, single.
MEAL… Whats your ultimate starter, main and dessert?
Starter: Caesar salad
Main: fries/onion rings and chicken from Cougar Country
Dessert: German chocolate cake!
NOW…If you could be anywhere right now where would you be and who with?
I’d like to be down in Arizona with my mom, ‘cause we both need each other right now.
OFF DUTY…What do you do in your spare time?
Blog, do stats, read, listen to music, try not to die of boredom.
PROUD MOMENTS …What are you most proud of?
Nothing.
QUEASY …What turns your stomach?
Not much, really. Pepto Bismol used to make me violently ill, though.
RELAX…How do you relax?
I don’t. I’m a Viking.
SONG…Whats your favorite song of all time?
SLEEPYHEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!
TIME …If you could go back in time and relive it again, when would you choose?
All the way back to the beginning.
UNKNOWN…Tell us something about yourself that no one else knows?
I dream about linear algebra freakishly often.
VOCAL…. Who is your favorite artist?
Like vocal artist? Imogen Heap rocks.
WORK….. What is your dream job, and are you doing it now?
I would LOVE to fit statistical models to internet trends, or to study the internet in some way. It’s fascinating to me. I also wouldn’t mind teaching stats. Unfortunately, I am doing neither of these things right now.
XRAY…Any broken bones?
I had a hairline fracture in my tibia thanks to playing Wombat in junior high PE. That’s the worst it’s been.
YIKES…What’s been your most embarrassing moment?
In elementary school we used to put on school-wide Christmas and Spring musicals. I was always just given a small singing solo part until fifth grade, when our music teacher finally gave me an acting part. It was small, but it was an acting part. I was super happy and determined to show her that I could take on a bigger part next year. However, because I suck at everything I do, I got my lines mixed up and accidentally caused us all to skip like a fourth of the musical. We actually had to go back and add it at the end. Needless to say, another acting part was never offered to me.
ZOO…. If you were an animal, which one would you be?
I’d probably be a hippo or something equally awesome.
Also this, though I seriously doubt its ability to accurately judge writing style. If I were half as brilliant as Nabokov I’d have like forty books published by now, anyway. Clicky-clicky on pic to analyze your own writing.
30-Day Meme – Day 11: Share a story from your childhood.
A long time ago (1995) in a galaxy far, far away (Catholic elementary school), my friends and I attended an in-school after school program in which we sat in the cafeteria from 3 PM until our parents came to pick us up after work. I guess “cafeteria” is a misleading word, as the room was more of a multi-purpose room. It had a closet that was housed beneath the stairs that led up to the upper floor of the school. In it, we stored the stands for band as well as racks of those metal auditorium chairs. One day, my friends George, Mitchell, and I got the brilliant idea to hide from the after school teacher by ducking into the closet right after school ended. We were in there for like an hour and a half before we were discovered. We had to write apology letters, either to our parents or the after school teacher (I can’t remember). That was the most defiant I ever was as a kid, haha.
Blog 1,988: Miscellany
POINT ONE!
Big changes forthcoming. Bittersweet. Details at 11.
POINT TWO!
Though I doubt anyone who reads this blog utilizes the “random post” button thingy, I’ve very slowly being going through all my old blogs and updating the format so that things are consistent across all the posts. Pretty soon everything will be beautiful and happy and I will be at peace with my archives even though no one will ever read them.
POINT THREE!
I got myself a Gmail account, does that mean I’ve lost my soul?
POINT FOUR!
2,000 blogs. Happening soon. Get ready for excitement.
POINT FIVE!
I don’t remember what Point Five was!
The end!
30-Day Meme – Day 9: A photo you took.
It’s Big Ben! I took this back in 2003 when my dad, grandma, and I went to Stockholm/Helsinki/London. In related news, apparently the giant clock is tilting—almost to the point tourists can see it with the naked eye—due to the ground shifting beneath it. Haha, The Leaning Timepiece of London.
This Week’s Science Blog: She Deafened Me with Science!
Super cool! Says a related article, “The Audio Spotlight system uses nonlinearly propagating ultrasound to create highly directional beams of sound in mid-air, which can be “shone” and “directed” much like light.”
This could be used to freak so many people out.
30-Day Meme – Day 8: Describe the style you had 10 years ago.
Haha, what is this “style” you speak of? Let’s see…ten years ago was 2001, so I was in 7th grade. I wasn’t quite as colorful as I am nowadays, but I still wore a lot more color than my peers. I remember being compared to Phoebe from Friends with respect to my clothing…though I wouldn’t really know how accurate this statement is, ‘cause I’ve never seen Friends. So I guess my style is the same as it is now, only subdued.
iBlog
Today was freaking horrible. Therefore, I shall focus this blog on three things that have nothing at all to do with my life at the moment.
1. Seriousness: Steve Jobs
I credit Steve Jobs with the initiation of my love of music.* The second generation iPod mini (with colors silver, blue, pink, and green) came out in 2005 and I remember my dad asking me if I wanted one. I pretty much had no interest in it. I had a grand total of five music CDs and a rockin’ portable CD player decorated in stickers. Why would I want to change that?
He got me one anyway, though, for Christmas 2005. Enter iTunes plus a $50 iTunes gift card for my birthday two months later and I was suddenly introduced to the fact that I now had the power to find ALL THE OBSCURE SONGS I’D EVER LOVED. It took like two months for my meager 40-something-song library to grow to 400+. The portability factor—along with the fact that I could now purchase songs individually and therefore didn’t have to weigh the pros and cons of buying a whole $15 CD for just one or two songs—made me want to listen to music.
Haha, and now look where I am.
So I thank you, Mr. Jobs, for your business sense, your inventive mind, and your desire to continually make/improve portable media products for gadget lovers like myself. If I had any extra money at this time, I would upgrade my current iPod (I need a bigger one, haha) in your memory. But that will have to wait until I’m not dirt poor.
RIP.
Found on Imgur.
2. Creepiness: Googol
So remember when I blogged about Google’s Profiles and how it was freakishly similar to the product Google Face as I described in my NaNo Googol written last year (last part of this blog)?
Well, if Google merges with or takes over Apple within the next year or so, then I FREAKING CALLED IT AGAIN.
What I wrote:
“After the death of Steve Jobs in the early 2000s, Google’s founders felt there to be no other option but to approach Apple with a merger deal, offering them almost any stipulations they desired in exchange for being able to essentially mix the two companies into one giant hyper corporation that would push the limits of the known size of any company that had ever been in existence. […] Of course, prior to his death, Jobs had anticipated Google’s future moves. He knew that the corporation in charge of providing internet goers everything from facial recognition to “street views” of Pluto to basic search would not be so quick to pass up a merger opportunity with any company they thought was and would continue to be a successful internet partner. […] He knew a merger with the giant that was Google would most likely require sacrifices on the part of his own company. These sacrifices, however, he was not too willing to make. The impression Clarke gathered from the literature was that Jobs, in a somewhat secret move several years before his death, had created and documented several heavy handed stipulations and bargains that would have to be met in order for any sort of posthumous merger to take place.”
Including, as I go on to describe, a redesign of the Googleplex to match more the style of Apple.
Fun times.
3. Silliness: I Gotta Feeling
I’m not into hating specific types of music and I actually like this song, but this review is pretty great.
30-Day Meme – Day 6: Your favorite music video.
Oh crap, that’s tough.
I love The Music Scene by Blockhead because OMFG COLORZ:
But I think my favorite music video has to be for White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes. Watch this and tell me it’s not the most beautiful, sad thing ever:
I could watch that over and over and over and over.
That is all.
*Actually, such a statement is a bit of a misnomer. I’ve always loved music in the sense that I’ve loved playing it…I guess I should say that Mr. Jobs initiated my love of listening to music in general.
Blameworthiness and the Anonymous Judge: An Analysis of FML Categories
Introduction
The website Fmylife was created on January 13, 2008 and serves as a blog for people to post anecdotes relating to unfortunate goings on (either by their doing or others’) in their lives. The stories that are published allow readers of the blog to essentially assess the placement of blame for each anecdote. As Wiki so succinctly puts it, “anybody who visits the site can decide if the writer of each anecdote’s life indeed “sucks” [‘fuck your life’ or ‘FYL’] or if he or she “deserved” what happened [‘you deserved it’ or ‘YDI’].”
The FML posts belong to one of seven categories: Love, Money, Kids, Work, Health, Miscellaneous, and Intimacy.
Party on.
Anyway, me being me, I wanted to see if people rating the FMLs rated them differently (FYL vs. YDI) depending on the category of the FML. That is, I wanted to see whether people assigned blame (quantified by the number of YDIs voted) to the anecdote poster differently depending on what category the FML belonged to.
Hypotheses:
a) People would assign blame to the poster more readily when the anecdote belonged to more “personal” or “individual” category (Money and Health, maybe Miscellaneous).
b) People would be more willing to say FYL to the poster if the anecdote is from a category that involved other individuals (Love or Kids or Work).
Methods/Procedure
Utilizing the “random FML” button, I acquired a random sample of 30 FMLs per each category, save the Intimacy category (‘cause FMLs from that category are not included in the random search). I noted the number of FYLs and the number of YDIs for each anecdote and then computed a paired t-test comparison of mean differences for each category.
H0: µFYL = µYDI for all categories. This means that there is no significant difference between the mean number of FYLs and the mean number of YDIs, regardless of the category.
Ha: µFYL < µYDI for Money and Health categories (meaning most people would assign blame to the poster) and µFYL > µYDI for Love, Kids, and Work categories (meaning most people would NOT assign blame to the poster).
Analyses were done in R. All t-tests were performed under the assumption of unequal variances, as was indicated by the Levene Tests for each group (performed using the lawstat package in R).
Results
Love: t(29) = 5.04, p < 0.0001*
Money: t(29) = 1.76, p = 0.09
Kids: t(29) = 4.24, p = 0.0002*
Work: t(29) = 3.85, p = 0.0005*
Health: t(29) = 1.601, p = 0.06
Miscellaneous: t(29) = 0.922, p = 0.3641
*significant at the 0.05 level
Conclusion/Discussion
So what does this mean?
While the results were statistically insignificant for one “individual-based” groups Money and Health (and Miscellaneous, but I didn’t have any specific hypotheses regarding that category), my second hypothesis received statistical support!
That is, at the 0.05 level of significance, significantly fewer readers place blame on the individual FML poster in the categories of Love, Kids, and Work—categories that were deemed by me to be those that involved the actions of others more than just the action of the individual poster.
So I guess we can very loosely conclude based on my oh-so-scientific way of categorizing the categories (haha) that people who vote on Fmylife tend to assign blame more readily to the individual poster when said poster’s anecdote belongs to a category that includes more individual-based actions than when the anecdote belongs to a category that includes the actions of others.
YAY STATS!
30-Day Meme – Day 5: Your favorite quote.
I’m not much of a quote person, but I still really like the quote I used in my senior yearbook: “become who you are,” as said by Friedrich Nietzsche. It’s such a simple quote and kind of sums up what I think life is all about.
Haha, I don’t have much more to say about today’s meme entry.
Politickin’
Well here’s something I’d never thought I’d say: I have respect for a Republican politician.
Today I had nothing going on but TA-ing Logic for an hour in the afternoon, so I spent the morning and afternoon watching CNN. I happened to catch New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s speech announcing that he wasn’t going to make a run for the President of the U.S.
I don’t know much background about Governor Christie, but I have to say that I was impressed by his speech and his overall presence at the news conference. He’s a very eloquent speaker and, though he disagrees with Obama and gives him a few jabs, I don’t think he ever went out of line when criticizing the President. I also think he handled the barrage of “are you SURE you’re not running?” questions the reporters kept throwing at him very well. He didn’t get too frustrated and actually had some fun with a few of the reporters.
Anyway. This was the first time I’d actually been impressed by a politician in awhile, though that is probably in no small part due to the fact that I don’t follow politics in general. Governor Christie’s poise and lack of scumballness impressed me.
Haha, okay, that’s all.
30-Day Meme – Day 4: Your favorite book.
As much love as I have for Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and, more recently, Nobokov’s freakishly enchanting and incredibly well-written Lolita, my favorite book still has to be Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny. For a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, I’m shocked at how few people have even heard of it. The Caine Mutiny tells of a fictitious mutiny on the USS Caine, a minesweeper/destroyer deployed during WWII. Wouk paints the drama of the mutiny with a palette of quirky characters whose interactions with each other seem simultaneously forced (after all, the crew of the Caine is dealing with a mentally unstable captain) and completely natural. The mutiny itself, the way it’s written, will make you speed read through it as you’re carried along by the drama. The fact that Wouk has several lines of “wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” and “whooooooooooooooooosssssssssssshhhh!” to simulate the storm the Caine gets caught in makes the book that much more enjoyable. Haha, it’s hard to explain exactly why this book rocks my socks, but it does.
So go read it.
Crappity Crap Craptastic Crapperton
Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I want death.
You get 30 Day Meme and ONLY 30 Day Meme before I pass out in a heap of neurosis.
30-Day Meme – Day 2: Your favorite movie.
I’m not a movie person. There are approximately seven movies in existence that I would willingly suggest watching if I were in the position of HAVING to suggest a movie for lack of better alternative ways of wasting time.
But one movie I could watch again and again and again (and have) is Apollo 13. Why?
1. Tom Hanks. He’s badass and, in my opinion, one of the better actors out there.
2. Kevin Bacon. See above, plus the fact that he also starred in Tremors as a random cowboy makes me laugh every time I see him as an astronaut in this movie.
3. I have a thing for movies about space. From the more “accurate” movies like this one to the all-out corny “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!” movies like Armageddon, space movies have always been of interest to me.
4. The soundtrack. Particularly the track “The Launch.”
Listen and chill.
TWSB: Who Let the Dogs Out? Boston Dynamics, Apparently
OH GOD THEY’RE BACK. And with their scariest rendition of “dog” robots yet.
Bigger.
Stronger.
Quieter.
Ready to STOMP YOUR SOUL!
“When fully developed the system will carry 400 lbs of payload on 20-mile missions in rough terrain. […] AlphaDog is designed to be over 10x quieter than BigDog.”
Every time those guys push or kick it I expected ROBOT RETALIATION! Then I saw it right itself and I felt the need to run. Fast.
Here’s an article that expresses a similar degree of “OMFGWE’REALLGOINGTODIE” as me.
30-Day Meme – Day 1: Your favorite song.
Hahaha, I think we all know my answer to this one. Sleepyhead, by Passion Pit, is what I take to be the epitome of musical awesomeness. Here are the reasons I like it:
1. It’s short. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been a fan of shorter songs over longer ones. Sleepyhead clocks in at just under three minutes. I think I tend to like shorter songs because they’re harder for me to get sick of.
2. Good tempo + good beat. Any song with a steady, unwavering time signature is always a winner for me. I don’t like songs that have a great momentum going on and then break things down by either losing the back beat, slowing down, or having the singer stop their singing to rap/talk/go to the bathroom. Sleepyhead stays the same through its duration. That makes me happy.
3. That FREAKING CHORUS. I admit that I didn’t automatically like Sleepyhead when I first downloaded it as an iTunes freebie back in February of 2009. I remember my first listen through and thinking “okay, this song has a nice beat, but there’s nothing too special about it.” Then it hit 1:21 and I fell in love with the chorus. I still love the chorus. I NEED the chorus. I would make sweet, sweet love 24/7 to the chorus.
I would also make sweet, sweet love to the following remixes, which heavily utilize warping the chorus into new and fantastically shocking eargasm-giving sex toys: Cillo, Jazzsteppa, Neo Tokyo.
Haha, okay, I’m done.
Is Superman’s costume considered his strong suit?
It’s that time of the month (not THAT time, weirdos):
Graph of genres
Mean song length: 3:35
No Five Stars this month. Lots of pop though.
Okay, that’s all.
Oh wait, no it’s not!
I’ve found several month-long memes in my travels across the internet and have decided to do one for the month of October (minus the last day, ‘cause it’s just a 30 day meme).
These are the issues to be addressed:
- Day 01 — Your favorite song.
- Day 02 — Your favorite movie.
- Day 03 — Your favorite television program
- Day 04 — Your favorite book.
- Day 05 — Your favorite quote.
- Day 06 — Your favorite music video.
- Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy.
- Day 08 — Describe the style you had 10 years ago.
- Day 09 — A photo you took.
- Day 10 — Talk about a regret you have.
- Day 11 — Share a story from your childhood.
- Day 12 — Explain how you got one of your scars.
- Day 13 — How do you think others view you?
- Day 14 — Talk about the cuteness of your pets.
- Day 15 — A poem you wrote.
- Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly).
- Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.) that is your favorite.
- Day 18 — Tell us about your best friend.
- Day 19 — A talent of yours.
- Day 20 — A hobby of yours.
- Day 21 — A recipe.
- Day 22 — Your deepest fear.
- Day 23 — Write a love letter to yourself.
- Day 24 — Reveal your most guilty pleasure.
- Day 25 — If you have tattoos, show them. If not, talk about the tattoos you want or why you don’t think they are right for you.
- Day 26 — Talk about the last “random act of kindness” you encountered.
- Day 27 — The last thing that made you cry.
- Day 28 — Say something to your 15 year old self.
- Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days.
- Day 30 — Share what you have learned, if anything, about yourself in the last 30 days.
NOW that’s all.
To meme or not to meme…
It’s a book meme (or two)! YAY!
Meme #1!
1. Collect the book that you have most handy
2. Turn to page 161
3. Find the 5th complete sentence
4. Site the sentence on your blog
My book is Julian Faraway’s Extending the Linear Model with R (yes, I’m aware of how sexual that sounds). It was sitting on my desk because I needed to look up how to access the logit and probit link functions in R.
The fifth sentence on the 161st page is: “In a model with random effects, the αs are no longer parameters, but random variables.”
Now meme #2!
The book that’s been on your shelves the longest:
Seeing, Saying, Doing, Playing by Taro Gomi. It’s a picture book from my little kid days. There are about twelve scenes depicted within, each containing hundreds of little people going about their days with a little verb hovering around them, describing what they’re doing. I apparently loved this book as a kid. Which, I guess, is obvious by the fact that I’ve still got it on my shelf.
A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time, etc.):
Analyzing Multivariate Data, the course book for Multivariate Analysis taught by Dr. Lee. Yeah, I know, dork fest. This book reminds me of my final semester at the U of I when I was living with the guys in the house and taking noting but philosophy, statistics, and writing classes. This was the best little period of my life thus far. My love affair with factor analysis helped.
A book you acquired in some interesting way (gift, serendipity in a used bookstore, prize, etc.):
I have two vocabulary workbooks from the aptitude testing facility I went to back in 2005. They’re levels 7 and 8, purple and yellow.
The most recent addition to your shelves:
The blog archive. Yes, I know it’s not a book, but a) technically my most recent addition was the entirety of my statistics book collection. I moved them from my office at UBC to my apartment, and b) the blogs sit with the rest of my books ‘cause there’s not really any other place for them.
The book whose loss would traumatise you the most:
My stats notes from the last few years. Again, not a book, but something that sits alongside the rest of my library in a massive binder. I would be extremely upset if I were to lose those notes. They contain my initial affair with factor analysis, I mean, come on.
A book that’s been with you to the most places:
I’d have to say Dewey Sadka’s The Dewey Color System. The Color System is a color personality theory with which I was totally obsessed in high school. I actually used it to conduct my first ever major statistical analysis (though it lacked any integrity). I took it to school, I took it to restaurants to read to my parents, I wrote my analyses in it…it’s pretty beat up, haha.
A bonus book that you want to talk about but doesn’t fit into the other questions:
I have to plug Herman Wouk’s novel The Caine Mutiny. It’s my favorite book EVAR and the fact that it’s relatively unknown baffles me. It won the Pulitzer Prize, people! Read it!
The Birth of a Meme
Hahaha, this “Interrupting Kanye” thing is great. I read about it somewhere the day after it actually happened, and I’ve slowly seen it grow into this insane meme. It’s pretty epic.
A Blog in Its Purest Form
I broke down and downloaded the Sousa march we’re playing in concert band today. I couldn’t freaking take it anymore. I’d promised myself, “no more Sousa marches! You have like ten of them!” But NO, my weakness prevailed and I’ve added yet another Sousa march to my iTunes library.
I also broke down and did three more albums. Observe!
Yeah, I totally photoshopped (well, altered in Flash) this one, too. Put the clock hands on the moon. Also, isn’t the font that the words “Disjoint” and “Don’t Panic” are in awesome? It’s called “astigma” and it’s from fonts.com.
Actually, I think that’s the only thing I like about this design. The clock hands are kinda cool, though.
Forget Physician, Heal Thyself, I’m calling my hypothetical band Schadenfreude. This cover, if I do say so myself, owns.
Okay, I’ll admit it, I purposely sought this picture out. It does fit quite wonderfully, though, doesn’t it? And I like how I made the wording colored so closely to the sky that it makes your eyes hurt. A band called Cloudbuster would totally want that.
Also, I’ve discovered a few new songs that I will recommend for you good readers. Yes indeed, you read my blogs and are therefore subject to my preferences regarding music. Isn’t life grand?!
1: Breathe (LMC Extended Club Mix) by Erasure. Electronica at it’s finest, my friends. This now tops my “play count” on iTunes.
2: Hide & Seek (DJ Russ Harris Extended Mix) by Imogen Heap. If you’ve listened to Hide and Seek the regular version, this is even cooler in it’s own special way.
3: Dreaming of You by The Coral. This is totally different than the first two songs. For one, it’s not techno (I know, shocking!).
Okay I’m done.
My Torso has a first name, it’s “S-T-E-V-E”…wait, that’s not right…
New obsession: making album covers using that little trick I had listed on the 7th. Here are three more, ranked by how much I like them (worst to best).
3
Band: °Celcius
Album: Limits of the World
Hit Single: Wicked Cool
(I swear, I did not coordinate the band name, hit single, and picture I got. All coincidence. Pretty cool, eh?)
2
Band: Technical Atmosphere (probably the best random Wikipedia search ever)
Album: Better than a Thesis (probably the best end-of-a-quote-random search ever.
Didn’t have a hit single for this one, cause I didn’t think it would look good on the album.
Finally…
1
Band: Icarus
Album: End of the Day
Hit Single: Time to Learn
Alright. With this one, I took a little artistic license. Here is the original picture. I put the wings on myself, cause I was thinking “you know, Icarus…wings…the sun…how perfect!). Tell me if the wings look real (and did you notice how I had to bring the sky upwards as well? Betcha can hardly see the line where I matched the colors!).
I love this stuff. I recommend you try it. I’ve been lucky with good Wikipedia searches (not getting, like, “List of Olympic Javelin Champions 1888-2008” or anything weird like that). It’s fun.
Oh no, not another blog!
Came across this little doodad whilst looking at random peoples’ blogs. So I gave it a shot. If I had any inclination to make my own music at all, this is totally what I’d call myself/my band.
Instructions:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. http://www.livejournal.com/random.bml
Use the subtitle of the journal you go to. This will be your 1 hit single from the album.
5. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result.
Result (done in–what else–Flash):
Debut album: Statuary, Tapestry, and Porcelain from the group Physician, Heal Thyself, featuring the hit single “All the Right Adjectives.”
I’m not sure I like the text on the side there on the left, but I think the rest of it’s pretty snazzy.
Hooray!
Good news: first test of the semester yields an A! Air of cautious optimism assumed. However, fears of tomorrow’s statistics test not yet quenched.
Eigenblogger 