| 99 Bricks
I've been playing this game, mostly at work, for the last few weeks because it's addictive like nobody's business. It's like Tetris, save for the fact that lines don't clear and the blocks don't magically fuse together once you drop them, so you're goal is to build the tallest tower possible, which becomes more and more difficult as the whole thing starts to sway.
I set a personal best almost immediately upon finding the game, and just now managed to break that after weeks of repeatedly trying to do so.
Current Record - 855 (10/28/09) | comments: Leave a comment   |
| For the number whore in me, Flowing Data is like a candy store. This dynamic map of Walmart store openings is a prime example of how apparent and interesting data can be when correctly visualized.
Interestingly, the most interesting tidbit I derived from this map was how very few people live west of the Mississippi. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| Back in December 2007, I participated in a four-month long weight loss challenge with some friends of mine from college. Most of us had put on considerable weight since leaving school and my friend Gina organized a competition in which all of us would kick in some money and award it to the "biggest loser" after the allotted time on a percentage basis. This proved to be an incredible source of motivation for me, not so much for the several hundred dollars I would end up winning, but rather because of character flaws that make me so competitive and addicted to perfection that I couldn't stomach the idea of losing.
Since I'm a tremendous dork, this entire exercise was a huge science project for me, and I kept a somewhat extensive record of my progress over the span of the challenge. This then continued on a much sparser basis for the year or so following. I was able to lose nearly 50 lbs. during those four months, but as one would expect, I put a good 35 lbs. back on as I lost my motivation and returned to the diet of a super fat fatty. In the past few weeks, I have revisited my goals of healthy living with newly found motivation linking a steady progress of weight loss with my ability to log onto my online poker accounts. This has garnered some substantial results that mimic my weight loss challenge numbers over the same period of time from the previous year.
However, this post was not designed to pat myself on the back for being quasi-succesful at being semi-healthy, but rather to point out a fairly interesting, incredibly geek-based fact that my data reveals:
2007 Weight Loss: - .38 lbs/day
2008 Weight Gain: + .09 lbs/day
2009 Weight Loss: - .42 lbs/day
Thus, statistically speaking, it's four times easier to lose weight than it is to gain. Of course, this assumes "easier" equates only to potential rate of gain and loss and not to psychological or physical factors, but that realization aside, it's still interesting to quantify the two extremes.
My data also shows that it's possible to cut 8 lbs. of water weight in two days, but that's another study entirely. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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PG Speedy Claxton, SG Wally Szczerbiak, SF Thabo Sefolosha, SF Kelenna Azubuike, C Zydrunas Ilgauskas | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Pineapple Express was not nearly as hilarious the second time I watched it.
Interesting. | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| Scazmatic: Hey, are you the number one fantasy baketball manager in West Virginia?
Scazmatic: Oh, I'm sorry, that's me.
Scazmatic: Yeah, I said it.
hollybob7: wahoo! Let's celebrate!
Scazmatic: ok
Scazmatic: I also beat my Mario Golf.
Scazmatic: And won $3 playing poker.
hollybob7: I am dating a real winner
Scazmatic: So, yeah, I'm pretty much awesome at life.
hollybob7: mmhmmm
Scazmatic: Don't be jealous. | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| So here's what you need to do. You need to follow this link. Then you need to watch all three literal music videos. When you stop laughing, make sure to thank me.
Also thank the Internet.
As Luke Damron once said, "I can literally watch these all day." | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| This is in no way politically motivated, but I saw it on the Internets just now and laughed so hard I'm partially embarrassed:
"O’Bama is part Irish!!!" | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Try as I might, I can't escape the realities of the political process, and since the handful of you who might actually read this have voiced an overwhelming amount of support for the results of the presidential election this past Tuesday, I would like the make the following level-headed, informed, fiscally-based statement.
Though I, too, am pleased that George Bush will no longer be president, and though I am proud that America has reached the point where a minority can run for an win the presidency, I have some clean reservations about the content of Barack Obama's governmental ideals, specifically as it relates to taxes and government spending. In the midst of two wars and a massive economic downswing, the push for "change" was steeped in idealism, and I have to question how many anti-GOP voters are fully aware of the social policies supported by the current president-elect. Too often, the election devolves into a debate of big ticket quasi-moral and ethical dilemmas that ultimately have no bearing on the potential presidency of those running or the well-being of the country as a whole.
The point of the matter is this. I'm a registered Republican. I come from a very conservative Christian upbringing. Though I developed into quite the moderate over twenty-eight years, I still lean to the right on both social and fiscal issues. That being said, I'm glad Bush is done. I was never a proponent of the "war on terror," mostly from the standpoint of unnecessary spending, and his foreign policy was abyssmal. Believe me, I'm all for national security, but there has to be a healthy balance. I'm not thrilled with neo-conservatism and would like to see my party return to the core governmental values on which it operated during the previous generation. I believe "change" was well in order.
That being said, I voted for John McCain. I wouldn't say I'm necessarily thrilled about my selection, but since Ron Paul didn't have a chance in a snowstorm of making it through the primary, McCain was the best option, in my opinion, for the task at hand. We all know the two party system is horribly flawed, but that will never change and lamenting that fact will accomplish nothing. I hate the term "lesser of two evils," but I will admit that my vote was more defensive than offensive. However, this in no way means that I voted for John McCain because I refuse to vote for a black man, or that I hate gays, or that you'll have to pry my guns from my cold dead hands, nor is it because I'm radical on abortion or any other emotionally charged moral issue that affects most people's voting stance.
I voted against Barack Obama because I fundamentally disagree with socialism. I'm a firm proponent of the capitalist system and, though I wouldn't go so far as to call Obama a communist, his greater plan for the financial rule of our government trends towards a socialistic end that I in no way support. Sure, the altrustic ideals of a national health care system and a functional welfare system and all other government mandated charitable instituations sounds great in theory, and believe me, I agree entirely with them on a theorhetical basis, I cannot support, and am greatly disturbed by, the funding of such programs through a tax system that punishes people for succeeding and rewards those who chose not to better themselves.
It is very easy to detach from the supposed "five percent" of Americans who will bear the brunt of the tax increases under the Obama tax plan, and likewise easy to rally around the "working class" inviduals who will receive tax relief, but these arbitrary designations of class do nothing to personify those affected on either end of this spectrum. Plain and simple, if I Holly and I were to marry before the instituation of this new tax code, we would be considered "rich." We would be lumped in with the corporate billionaires and old money heirs that everyone assumes is obligated to subsidize the increased spending of the American government. Under the new administration, I am being told, verbatim, that I and my significant other make too much money and, as a result, should be penalized for such in order to redistribute that money for the purposes of social welfare. It would honestly put me in a position where advancing my career and improving my position at work would negatively affect my income due to increased tax burden. How anyone can think that this affect on the mindset of the "working class" is negligible is beyond me.
I feel very fortunate to be in the financial standing that I am. I will admit that I have more assets than the average twenty-eight year old person in this country, but I would hope it would be painfully obvious that I did not stumble upon this arbitrarily. I worked incredibly hard in all levels of my education, proactively sought employment that would give me the greatest opportunity to excel in my industry and reap the financial benefits of that work, and quite frankly, I sacrificed years of my life working as hard if not infinitely harder than anyone else I know to get where I am today. I did not accidentally graduate top of my class. I did not accidentally receive an international placement from an industry leading company. I did not accidentally manage my finances in a responsible fashion over the entirety of my working life. I earned everything that I have been given. Now I am being told I am in some way undeserving of that.
I have a mortgage just like the rest of suburban America. In fact, I have a mortgage that is well within my monthly budget and was in no danger of being defaulted on due to my own greed during the mortgage crisis. I own one fuel-efficient commuter car. I've been on one vacation outside of the tri-state area in the last two and a half years. I have utility bills and cell phone bills and cable bills just like everyone else. Gas still cost me $4 per gallon this summer, and my IRA was not immune to the 40% losses of this calendar year. To say I'm so "rich" that I would easily be able to absorb an additional $4,000 in taxes each, as is my "patriotic" duty, is horribly inaccurate and incredibly insulting.
Believe me, I agree in principal to a lot of the aspects of social welfare. My father, as a "self-employed" minister throughout his adult life, has never carried health insurance, and we've suffered some major financial setbacks in the last ten years due to unforseen, yet inevitable, medical bills. I agree that health care in this country is out of control, and on the greater scale, despite what people may stereotpically think of me because "Republican" appears on my voter registration card, I don't want to see people stay sick, go hungry, and remain homeless. I am all for charitable giving. I support the local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. I donate to the Salvation Army every holiday season. I give blood twice a year at work and participate in the toy drive. I tutor inner-city kids in math every week at a local elementary school. I don't claim to be a great philanthropist, nor do I list these few things here in some effort to praise myself or justify my existence, but rather to point out that I choose, by my own free will, to help the less fortunate and the local community through causes I support.
In an election where so many cast there votes in an effort to preserve Americans personal rights, like the "right to choose," the right to marry their same sex partner, and many other liberal causes, these same voters seem more than willing to deprive me of my personal right to decide how my hard-earned money is best spent. I am being deprived of my right to give charitably as I see fit in lieu of the government mandating that giving for me. I am being deprived of my right to strive for success at the detriment of my own income for doing so. Just like you, I do not want to live in an America where my rights are forfeited through the decisions of my government.
I admit it will be interesting to again have a young, charismatic leader in charge of this country. I honestly feel that Barack Obama is a good man with good intentions, and I will in no way be upset if the next four years are the greatest in the history of the country. In fact, I hope dearly for that. But please, for those of you who have actually read this far and are open-minded enough to rationalize with the opposition, please remember that there are honest, sincere, educated and patriotic citizens of this country who disagree with the political stances of the man who was just elected president. There is more to a presidency than Supreme Court appointments and ethical dilemmas. As with anything in life, there are pros and cons to any decision.
Though it might be easy to write off the implications of this change for the "rich," please recognize that, to Barack Obama, the "rich" apparently includes that twenty-something suburbanite cubicle farmer that you knew in college. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
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