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5-03-2006:
BAH! When t35 moved all their files to the new servers, some of my recent files were lost. :( Particularly, the ones that were just recently created. And any changes made to any files after about april 27th were lost. There were some posts that were lost in the message board. And particularly frustrating for me, some important files, which are used for maintaining the site, that i created just last week were deleted. So i basically had to redo them today. But it's not all bad, there were some things that needed to be re-coded, but i was never really in the mood. So now i had a reason to get them done. |
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5-04-2006:
Today, while i was walking home from school, i saw the strangest thing. There were these birds that were fighting. I don't really know what kind of birds they were, but it was basically one big bird (a crow i think) versus 3 smaller birds. They were flying while fighting, so i didn't get to see too much as they flew out of sight. And it was clear that they were fighting. The smaller birds would fly into the bigger bird trying to take him out. Would've been interesting to see who won. and how'bout this for randomness... i was thinking about eyes recently, and how they work. The iris in particular. I get the part where the retina picks up the light, sends it to the brain, which then sents a message back to the eye, telling it to dilate or constrict the iris as necessary. But what i don't get is what the iris is. Is it a muscle? How does it move? And I know that the brain averages the amount of light taken in through both eyes, and then tells the iris in both eyes to change the same way. So what would happen if you lost an eye? Would the brain compensate for the input from only one eye? and another thing... If you know anything about cameras, you know how similar they are to the eye. Well, it is common knowledge (for photographers) that a lower f-stop gives less depth of field. Which means that if you open the aperture as much as possible (f/1.4) to let in the most light, things in the back/foreground will be blurrier than if the aperture were shut more (f/22). So if your iris is wide open, do you have less depth of field? There are some other camera/eye similarities that would come into question, but i'm not gonna type them all out because i don't really feel like it and hardly any one would ever read anyways. and how awsome would it be if you could voluntarily adjust your iris. Maybe it would be good if I looked up the answers to all my questions. It would be a good way learn it up. But i'm too lazy to go about that right now. Maybe one day. Gee whiz, that was a lot of pointless typing. |
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5-05-2006:
I have a bad habit of juggling things around. Not necessarily 'juggling', but tossing them around in my hand. Whenever i'm carrying around my home phone inside my house, i always throw it up and catch it. I'll make it do backflips, spins, and things of that nature. But eventually i'll drop it, which is not good. I've probably dropped on the floor at least 10 times this way. I've dropped it down the stairs atleast three times that i know of. Now, there's some kind of broken piece moving around inside the phone. I can hear it whenever i shake the phone. Just though i'd let ya know. |
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5-06-2006:
The other day, in study hall, i was quite bored. So i'd figure i'd write i program for my calculator. I decided to write i program that would calculate the sum of all positive integers below a given value. i.e.(user inputs 5. Then it displays 15. 1+2+3+4+5=15.) Writing the program in TI Basic code as a function, so that it could be used together with other calculations, i couldn't assign variables. The only variable i could use was the parameter taken. So i decided to write a program that used recursion to calculate the sum. This worked pretty decent, but it would take relatively long for big numbers. And for some numbers (basically, anything bigger than about 45), the calculator would run out of memory space and the program would terminate. So, i couldn't just accept the fact that i would only work with small numbers. I had to improve the program so that it'd work with any number. So i set out on a quest to find an efficient algorithm, a formula that i could use, rather than using recursion or loops. A short while later i noticed a pattern. This is bascially what i wrote down to help me solve my problem. The bold number is the number that the user might enter. The underlined numbers are the numbers that when multiplied together equal the sum of all the positive integers below that number. I noticed a pattern. If the number entered is even, then half that number times one plus that number equals the sum. If the number entered is odd, then one pluse that number divided by two all times the original number equals your sum. for the second case, instead of adding one then dividing by 2, you could use a rounding function and just divide the number by two and it'll always round up, and should give you the correct answer, but i figure it'd be more efficient by just adding one and divide by 2. so basically here's the simple little program that i wrote to calculate the sum of all the positive integers below a given value. This code here is written in java. This is just a method you could put in any class that your little heart desires. Note that it won't work if n<0.
public static int sumBelow(int n)
{
if ( n%2 == 0 ) // n is even
return ((n/2) * (n+1));
else //n is odd
return (((n+1)/2) * n);
}
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5-08-2006:
here's some more randomness about birds... I walk to school every day. Last week, as i was walking along, i noticed this bird which was standing on at the bottom of a car's driver-side window, near the side-view mirror. It was looking into the mirror and pecking at its reflection. Then it turned towards the window and basically did the same thing with its reflection there. Well, while i was walking to school this morning, i saw the same bird, or at least a very similar looking bird, doing the exact same thing. I wonder if it realizes that the bird it sees in the mirror is itself. Must be fascinating to discover a device that gives you the ability to see such things. |
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5-13-2006:
Recently, i've been thinking about the concept of precision/exactness/equality. Not too sure what you would call it. Let's just say that you have a steel cube whose dimensions are all exactly one inch. Can this be so? If you were to measure them with a ruler, it would appear to be true. Measure it under a microscope, it'd appear true. Eventually, as you measure it with infinitesimally smaller and smaller units, it is bound to not be exactly one inch, even if it is off by only 1/gazillionth of an inch (which isn't a real number by the way). So which leads to the question, Can two separate things be equal? Of course this is only applies real, concrete objects. Integers and other such math figures can be equal. Though not like it matters anyway. If objects are not equal on such a small scale, it would be insignificant. Just maybe some food for thought... i think. |
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5-14-2006:
i was thinking about music. I know the words/music/beat/rythm/and stuff like that to a lot of songs. Most other people probably do too, and probably to greater extents than me. All that music must take up an awfully large amount of memory, in your head. Just imagine if you could replace all that musical knowledge with information on something else. Like rocket science, or quantum physics, or something all fancy like that. Music is such a waste of brain cells. 5. ...and i've decided to replace the phrase "lol" with "5". Because i got bored one day and decided to type "lol" in leetspeak. And that of course would be "101". And as every one knows, 101 is the binary equivalent of 5. So there you have it. "lol" == 5; |
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5-16-2006:
I have to read some books for school (which is almost over btw :) :( :/ ). And i'm not particularly enjoying it. Two books in particular: Dante's Inferno, and Death on The Nile by Agatha Christie, each for separate classes. I can somewhat get into the books, but then i'll have to go do something else. Then i'll find it difficult to get back to reading. And i have come to the conclusion that text is a very inefficient way of comunicating. Think about it. You can spend hours upon hours reading a novel, or you can get same story in like 2 hours by watching the movie. Or you can read a desription of an object. Or you could see an image of the object and recognize nearly all its visual attributes almost instantly. They have all these different sorts of literature classes; well i think they should definately have a similar class, but instead of reading books, they should watch movies. |
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5-18-2006:
once summer vacation comes, i'm going to sleep in until like two o'clock everyday. :) |
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5-19-2006:
about 3 or 4 weeks ago, i got my very first job. I work at a local grocery store. Basically, my job as the "porch boy" is to take the shopping carts from the parking lot, and put them near the entrance. When the carts are all in order, then i have to make sure the ends of the aisles ("The ends") look good. If there isn't enough product so that it looks full, i have to either pull the stuff from the back to the front, or get some more from the back room and put the product on the shelf. When i'm not doing either of those things, i basically walk around looking busy, and if i see my manager, i ask him/her if there is anything else i could do. And whenever there is a "cleanup on aisle 5", or anywhere else, i have to clean it up. Though that doesn't happen very often. And before i leave, i have to sweep each aisle with a giant broom-thing, empty the trash, and mop the entrance way. That's basically my job. My first paycheck was retarded. It was like $20 because of the silly 'Occupational Privilege' tax, which was $52. But the rest of my paychecks are rather satisfying. I still didn't cash any of my checks yet though. I have to set up a bank account thing. The first couple days of work were sort of nerve racking. I suppose it was because of the uncertainty of what exactly to do. and then if i did something wrong, some one else would be like "What are you doing?", then i would just feel dumb. So i didn't want that to happen. And it didn't really happen at all, except for when i put the recycled plastic bags in the wrong place. But that wasn't any big deal. Soon i will be a gazillionaire, so it's all good. :-) |
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5-20-2006:
I am really bored/tired right now. I wish i had something entertaining to do. I should be doing some homework right about now, but i'm really not interested in the assignment, so maybe tomorrow i'll do it. Though i don't think i'll be anymore interested in it then, i'm just a procrastinator. |
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5-22-2006:
today was my last day of classes. tomorrow, we (the seniors) practice for graduation stuff. Today was a pretty good last day. Particularly in physical education class. We played dodgeball today. And i was dodging them balls better than i have all year. Finally near the end of period, we were playing one final game. Probably the last game of dodgeball in my high school career. It went along like any other game, until the end. I was the last man standing on my team. There were probably about 7 people on the other team. And they weren't just any random people, they were the best their team had to offer. And i knew that i could get them all out if i didn't start catching their balls, so that what i started to do. The first ball that i caught was probably the most difficult, thrown by probably the best kid on their team. I caught that one fine; all hands. Then i remember catching atleast 3 more, and getting 2 other people out by hitting them with balls. Eventually, it was just one on one. The other kid was exactly the best. But i didn't want to underestimate him and blow my huge comeback. but i caught is ball just fine. There was one close call where one of the other players nearly caught my ball that i threw, but he juggled it and fell out of his reach. There was one other close call where they threw two balls at once, and one nearly hit my foot. I was "in the zone" as they would say. Single handedly defeating 7 opponents in fierce battle, well dodgeball anyways. It was just a great way to top of my last day. =) |
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5-26-2006:
Earlier this week, on Monday, i was quite bored in study hall. Since it was my last day of classes, i didn't have any homework to do. So what did i do, you ask. I created a new algorithm of course! I wanted to create an Consecutive Integer Summation program. A program that would take a number from the user, and list all the possible combinations of consecutive integers whose sum would be the number entered. Let's just say the user would enter 15. It would display: because those numbers when added together would equal 15. Maybe eventually i'll post the code for the program. I originally wrote it in TI Basic code. But i'd rather translate it to java before posting it. And converting it would require some thinking. And i don't feel like doing that now. |
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5-27-2006:
I was thinking about space recently. Outer space that is; the universe and whatnot. The concept that outer space goes on forever and ever blows my mind. I wonder if there is a point in space where all the galaxies, stars, and all that end, and nothingness begins. I mean they can't go on forever, can they? If such a place in space (hey, that rhymes :P) existed, it would be the weirdest thing to travel there. With nothing but blackness all around you, no up or down, no sense of direction. And since everything in space has some gravitational force, that must mean that after a really really really long time, everything would eventually lump together to create one gigantic big ball of 'stuff'. Similar to the way stars are created, but on a much larger scale. And eventually this giant ball of stuff would explode, just like stars explode in super novas. Except this would be another "big bang", giving birth to the universe all over again. and that's basically my big bang theory. ...and there's another thing that i can't really explain without some sort of visual aid. So i'll just let that one cook inside my head for a while. |
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5-28-2006:
i don't like the dentist. Everytime i go, i'm told to brush better, eat less sugar, drink less soda/iced tea, and all those things. She (my dentist) makes a big deal that i drink iced tea. I don't really drink too much. Usually less than 1 carton (16oz) per day on average. The last two times i went, she used the analogy of pouring acid on to my freshly painted car. Maybe next time when i go, if i'm feeling gutsy, when she asks if i would pour acid on to my car, i'll say "Well, it depends." Then she'll say "What does it depend on?". Then i'll reply, "Several things. How strong is the acid? How long would it be on my car before i could wash it? What type of satisfaction would i get out of pouring acid on my car?" Then, dumbfounded, she'll be at a loss for words. Well, i probably wouldn't really do that, i'm too nice. :P |
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5-31-2006:
I need to find a new video game to play. All the games i have (which isn't a whole lot), i've played too much (the good ones anyways). I've practically mastered all the games i own. I'd like to find a new game to play. But there doesn't seem to be any games that i find interesting lately. And games that do spark my interest, are turned off because of bad reviews or something. I'm bascially interested in all genres. But only for the PS2 or PSP. I like action/adventure games. I like the plots, depth and lengths of RPG games, but i don't like the combat systems. I don't like to have to select the move i wish to perform from a menu, unless it's some sort of magic. I basically want it so that when i press the 'attack' button, the character instantly attacks. Having to wait for a turn is no fun. I remember a little more than four years ago, i bought a network adapter for my PS2. Not sure why though. 56k is death. I guess it's because i just want to have the latest 'technology'. But that's beside the point. With my network adapter i also purchased EQOA (EverQuest Online Adventures). That game was the most addicting thing ever. You could choose from a variety of races, which would all start off in different locations of the world. And there were millions (figuratively speaking) of different kinds of armor and weapons. And you always wanted to get your character to the next level so that you could adventure to new locations. Whether is was further down into such and such a cave, or being able to get to a new city without dieing, or being able to kill such and such an enemy, it was fun. And another great thing was that is was online, so that you could interact with real people (in a 'not-a-NPC' sense). You could gather up to four people in a group, and all four of you would go venture off and kill some enemies, getting experience points so that you could level up. In a group there was usually 3 characters who would do all the attacking, and one person who would heal the people who would be attacking. I still remember some of the people that i've met on there. Eventually i had to stop playing that game because of some ISP problems. Curse you AOL! **shakes fist in the air** I had like 5 characters going. My best was named "Chimpson" on the "Diren's Hold" server. He was a Barbarian dude, level 29. I miss him. :'( I wish i could play another game like that. so much fun. |
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