Math

Statistics, really:

OK, I'm a math person, mostly. But I'm taking a stats class, and here are my observations:

Of the people in my house taking the stats class, one is a math genius, and one pretty much gives up on anything more complex than multiplication.

The first one does all the homework sets for fun, even though 3-4 problems in, she's got the hang of it.

The second one does no homework and gets the first one to tutor him through labs, making comments in discussion that get him by without the homework, which is not turned in (though labs are).

Once I realized that the second and third sets on the normal distribution were all variants on "find the area under the curve between these points," I stopped doing homework this week.

Screw math. I feel like poo anyway.

Most Smartest!

As a rule, I loathe reality shows. I hate them almost as much as I hate the feeling I had when I woke up to get the kids ready for school and realized my awesome automatic alarm clock had gone on DST on the old schedule, meaning they had 6 minutes to be out the door (Pop-Tarts FTW!).

Anyway, I've now become addicted to a reality show. I'm sitting here watching last night's America's Most Smartest Model. Right now I'm watching models complain about how they don't understand anything. Except sometimes, the Russian guy complains about how the others don't understand anything. Is it just a matter of feeling superior? How can I feel superior when it's just proof that pretty people can have negative IQs and still surpass my lifetime earning potential on an annual basis? It's still funny.

Aside: CAD was funny today, too, on the pain of Guitar Hero. And speaking of video games, the lack of achievements for the second player in Eternal Sonata is a pain in the ass.

Free association

Pain pain

breakthrough? breakthrough pain is a flareup through "otherwise controlled pain"

There's no breakthrough where there's no control

there's definitely a flare

I just hurt

all over

And I had an emotional break today

I feel empty and sad

I can't tell my boss I'm better than that without crying because he's not the one I need to tell didn't even write that damned review but emphasized it's a good review I can take criticism but I have issues with this criticism

I need more

more of me
more of moo-lah
more understanding from the managers of the world, the principals, the teachers

The kid was working on college algebra for fun, wtf, what kind of purgatory is first grade for a mind like that?

I feel hypomanic, scattered, and I can't sort out what i need for documentation

I want $100000, to pay all the debts and quit my job so I can homeschool and finish my degree and that's all

Tomorrow must be better

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot? (Sex sells better if you're actually fertile at the moment! --At least chemically/hormonally...)

Hubby wants Ben Stein's new (ish) book, The Real Stars. Pick it up. It leans pro-military propagandist if you have issues with that.

I just read The Nine. Also, Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way. Bruce Campbell and Ron Jeremy both need to write more. Their stuff makes me LOL to the point that people start commenting on my apparent craziness. Now I'm working on The History of the Ancient World. Very good, but a rather slow read. Still, I hand-sold a copy yesterday.

You're playing with what?

Colored fonts are overdone, I know. I'm feeling weird today, though.

For adults only: Check out this "[Adult] toy or baby toy?" quiz

Cracked

A few funnies for Monday Morning:

"Internet Safety Tips"

Something about video games

This is, too

I found some wedding cakes on Reddit. Geeky stuff is awesome. Did I like that equalizer shirt?

I'm avoiding the Woot-Off because they don't ship to here anyway yet I am tempted. Woot, foul temptress!

Is it time to rethink the federal government's definition of "farm?" Or is it time to start growing a "farm" on my little piece of government property out back?

It's quiet and I just got in from work. My friend is usually up now, but she went to bed, which suggests to me that the guy she just split up with is still here. Ah, well, I'll just enjoy the quiet, and I'll go to bed in a little while.

Book pimpin'

The book I've been most excited about all summer is here! Sorry, it's not this one, though I still think you should run right out and buy a copy if you're into food blogs. No--it's Super Crunchers! If you're at all interested in how numbers will affect the future of civilization across all walks of life, you must read this book.

Other recent reads I highly recommend:
God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens
Turtledove's massive alt-hist epic, which stretches from How Few Remain: A Novel of the Second War Between the States to Settling Accounts: In at the Death
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Otherwise, I'm re-reading A Song of Ice and Fire. If you haven't read it, READ IT!

There are also a couple Lord John Grey books coming soon, which I may have read as advance copies (shhhh!)

Other books I'll probably pick up soon:
Garden Spells
Three Bags Full
Beauty by Robin McKinley
Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand
(Seriously, if you're a reader but don't read much children's, you're missing out on a lot)
Confessor (Terry Goodkind, November. I hate the damned evangelizing. I like most of the characters when Richard leaves his ridiculous politics to himself. I have to know what happens).

Tor all the Vampire fans out there: this one's for you!

And this is for the guys

WTF?

OK, OK, enough Best Pic Ever.

I can't help but wonder if this is the solution to the transportation problems a lot of us face. If everything is an easy walk away, why do I need a car? How do they recruit for these? If one needs an accountant in about five years, please call me. Wait... this could be my dream writ large. Let's build a utopian gamer town!

I was reading Wil Wheaton's review of The Simpsons Movie. I saw that opening night (well, the midnight show the night before). I didn't have the experience Wil and some of his commenters had. Comments were generally quiet and the audience was genuinely appreciative of the movie. It was one of the most responsive audiences I've been in since I went to a Star Trek premiere at the Chinese Theater.

Of course, if you've seen the movie, you'll have an idea why Fairbanks, Alaska was the place to see it.

Learning to walk

there's a lot of press on Fatworld; I was disappointed to see that it's not out yet.

I've been reading God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything for most of the last week. Occasionally, Hitchens gets details wrong in his overeagerness to prove that most of what religion has done is bad (recent evidence that circumcision protects versus HIV is ignored in his joining the anti-circ crowd in his belief that this is an unspeakable mutilation designed to dull sexual feeling, and I have a few "overstated" notes in the margins). However, God is Not Great may be one of the most important books of our time. Read it.

AAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

All my links are linked elsewhere when they're posted here, or at least most of them. If you ever stumble upon this blog, keep in mind that it's how I keep links for my husband and a few friends, not a moneymaker. My friends get annoyed if I IM/email them everything I find. Sometimes I just don't bother, or don't get online much for days or weeks. This is odd to me.

DRM--magic or physics?

Why is our government being taken over by these people?

Yeah, them.

50 things to know by 50

This looks promising

Here's an interesting article (back to those people in government!) on creationism rejecting science. The thing is that those who do reject science in this fashion also turn thinking people away from faith. I lean (Feri) Wiccan; in practice, I pray to the Father-god of my youth, who asked that we keep no other Gods before him and not bow down to idols, but not to not keep other Gods, and I pray to my grandmother for knowledge of what lies beyond. I don't want to get into a full discussion of my beliefs here, but deep down, I worship knowledge--and science is, literally, "knowledge," the knowledge of the world.

I love this picture

News to teens: your parents can do whatever they want. It's mostly not to embarrass you. You embarrass them more by your constant insistence that they're--that we're--old and out of touch. I work with sixteen-year-olds who think I'm one of the coolest people they've ever met. Hell, I wasn't even cool when I was sixteen. But with an almost-teenaged stepchild and a little guy going in to first grade, I'm a student now, and I can join any web service I like.

Um. ...What?

I keep seeing pro-choice stories.

Unemployed to-do list

I'm in pain. I'm putting off going to work, Chuck left me the crappy car and it hurts to drive right now, and I'm angry today. I'm angry because I'm in pain and there's no relief and I will be limping around on vacation. The world is ridiculous.

Somehow, though I always have a million things that I think of things to write about during the course of my day, by the time I've sat down here at bedtime, they're gone.

Today like many days was a million things. I feel guilty when at the end of my days off I haven't accomplished much, but I remind myself that rest is an accomplishment. I can't keep killing myself.

There should be a new question up at the Shrieking Shack tonight or tomorrow. The polls work correctly for me; the forums do not--I can only see the first post to any subject. This is true in Firefox and in IE. No idea.

I have been feeling stupid when standing at the register lately. So many damned questions to ask--we upsell far too much; it works, but it alienates some customers. I think I may have a different position. I'd still like some feedback from my manager on what I can do differently to improve. And I've been reading It's OK to Be the Boss, and some of the advice is crazy. Cars and toasters don't take the same maintenance, so your employees don't take the same management? I had to read that particular metaphor aloud, I so disbelieved what I had read, and sparked a discussion as to whether we'd rather be cars or toasters. MB wanted to be a toaster so as to forcibly eject toast. I thought I'd rather be a car if those were the only options, but then, someone else wanted to be a blender, so I figured I'd rather be a TV set. So, the thing is, if I take this other position, I'll leave our current department weakened, I won't really know what I am doing in the new position, and I won't be a direct supervisor any more. But I feel the need to grow and to not work a job I'm allergic to. Plus it will be less mentally taxing, and school will take more of my psychic resources very soon. Wish me luck.

Wow, that was a bit, wasn't it? Maybe I need the luck.

in-game rape

Clicked linked to this old Sex Drive post on rape in virtual worlds. Regina Lynn linked to this other post about rape in RPGs--the old-fashioned kind, with dice &c. I take the author's point, but I don't agree with it all. The main point on which I disagree is pregnancy. (1) An in-game pregnancy might be necessary to some plots. (2), and this is the greater issue, sex has consequences. They are always built in to our games. If you have sex, getting pregnant is a straight-up roll (or set of rolls). There's also a sub-roll for chance of twins (on 100% re-roll for triplets, etc--once someone managed to roll four 00s in a row on that one. Ouchy!), and if you're sleeping indiscriminately with seedy types, you have an STD chance. If you feel that these are violations of your character--well, you should know what your GM/campaign's rules are in terms of sexual consequences and outcomes before you have your character have sex. As for rape per se, I can see needing to make sure sensitive players are OK with that. We identify with our characters, we start to dream and think in character over a long campaign. We cry over their losses, much as some of us have cried when our favorite characters in novels or on screen are killed off. On the other hand, we do put our characters in these situations. And sometimes, in character terms, the very worst happening is the catalyst we need to do what needs to be done.

Also, the article in question references lovers being grabbed and held at gunpoint and other things, and saying even death is preferable to rape. Are we assuming here that most gamers, and/or their characters, aren't parents? I would submit to fairly horrible forms of torture before I let my son or stepdaughter be put before a gun. And for their sake, I would rather live through almost any pain--if you have someone, something, to live for, death is indeed the worst that can happen to you.

Of course, if in-game rape is used, the gruesome details should be left to the very thick-skinned. I'd propose another way of asking permission, I guess: "Is there anything that you absolutely will not allow/accept happening to your character?" Straight-up at the outset. If you live in an area where multiple groups are available, it might also be a good sorting process.

Virtual rape is another matter; for one, if the game has a built-in ignore feature, you might not have to deal with it. But it's possible that all the other characters see it and it colors their opinion (but doing it on a public channel or open chat may also get them banned for TOS violations)--it's personal, whether that's enough. I do remember a case where someone used a built-in feature that let them control other characters--I can't find the article I read, as it was some time ago--in a virtual house, and committed very graphic sexual acts between his own and another character. It resulted in a rules change where they had previously relied entirely on self-policing, if I recall correctly, and the banning of that character. At any rate, rape in most online games is not a plot issue. It's someone using someone else for sexual pleasure without that someone else's consent. This is the essence of rape, though I do not believe it so heinous a violation as a physical rape by half.

Slate on major media's regurgitation of ONDCP's "facts," or, "Why Cricket loves Slate"

Cricket also freaking luvs Heroes. Sylar: "I've waited a long time for this." *shivers*

I have a day off ahead. So I have hours and hours of work on the computer. Nice, right?

I need to update this more. Was thinking of setting up another blog entirely, an "as I see it" on the world, but I may just do that here, too.

Behind

I've been behind on a lot of things, not least updating this. I've actually been updating my blog on MySpace, believe it or not (that links to my real persona more than I would like to do here, so I am not going to link it). In the meantime, if you'd like something to read, I highly recommend Desiderata.

Also high on my recommended list:
Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series
Harry Potter! If you haven't gotten into Harry Potter yet, now is the perfect time to start so you can be in with the cool kids at the Midnight Magic party, Friday night 20 July/Saturday morning 21 July... And if you're already one of us, read 'em again. I made some new connections this time (especially given that at our committee meeting--yeah I'm on a Harry Potter Committee so what--we saw the cover of the Brit adult edition, and apparently the cover always relates directly to the title, at least strongly implying that Slytherin's locket is a Deathly Hallow).
The Wednesday Wars. It's a teen (ish) coming-of-age story set in the Vietnam era. It's not exactly out yet, but when it is, read it.

See there? Now you have things to read when your favorite blogs don't update.

News of the freakin' inappropriate

First, families in Holtsville, NY, looking to see The Last Mimzy were treated to the opening scenes of The Hills Have Eyes 2. Oops.

Next, south to Jersey, where a school district is investigating Pay-Per-View porn purchases to the tune of $250 made after hours on a cable box in the Union City Board of Education building ("We have five cable boxes in case of an emergency!").

Back to NY, an NYC Department of Corrections worker managed to milk $100/month out of a city comptroller's Worker's Comp account, also for porn.

Just for fun, a Google News search for Porn

This is what I think school should be.

Perhaps even college--If there were true liberal arts degrees left, where I could go back to school for two years or four and take classes as they appealed to me, not two years of iteration of what I already know because my credits are too old to count or because of all the incompletes I had or because I've learned things outside of a credit setting, and come out with a degree that shows how quick and well-rounded and open-minded I am, rather than how good at regurgitation of facts (at which, as a matter of fact, I excel, but that is not the point), I'd be back in school in a moment. Degrees as they are, on the other hand, show specialization, and at that I am not very good. I can focus on what I am doing, but I require an environment where many of my talents can be shown. I'd want a degree because it would help me get the jobs where I do shine, which are management jobs; I can show that I have all the talents and abilities of the people I supervise and train them on their duties, but also show talents for organizing myself and those others and preparing us all to do what needs to be done.

Actually, if I did have the time and the money right now for full-time school, I'd look into primary education. I know about the politics, but I'm OK at those, I'm a reasonably good teacher at all grade levels, and with younger students, there's more variety in what you teach them--and learn from them. Come to think of it, though, I wouldn't mind teaching high school math or English, either.

I know Spirit would support it, too, and if I did it in the next few years, it would allow him more leeway at retirement than me working retail. Maybe we can work it out when he does retire so I can do school full-time and work part time, or something. I just feel like I can't walk away from what I do now right now.

I was reading Slate while waiting for some files to download from drivethrurpg.com, so I ran across this article saying the Cavemen might get their own show. Can't wait!

Also, vote!

I'm really punchy. Time to try for some restful sleep, a concept I have admittedly almost given up on right now.

This is interesting.

And for the love of God, people, I'm trying to get you your drinks in less than a couple minutes. Your sandwich is being made by someone else twenty feet away from me. Why on earth do you expect me to have you a hot grilled sandwich ready to go by the time I hand you your drink? How many places do you go where you don't expect the drinks first? If I held your drink for the minutes until your sandwich was ready, not only would I fail all our benchmark tests, you'd be even more pissed off standing there without your single-shot extra-sweet nonfat extra-whip white chocolate mocha with a pump and a half of toffee nut. Try waiting five minutes. If your sandwich has been more than eight minutes (enough time for two full rotations on the grills), then let me know, by all means. Haughtily informing me that you also had a food order when I hand you a drink is going to get you polite explanations of the process and apologies that you might have to wait 45 more seconds, but it's not going to endear you to me.