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| Monday, September 8th, 2008 |
without_pith
|
12:37p |
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) without_pith: I watched this really stupid stoner movie called " Idle Hands" and I don't know what made me laugh harder, the stupidity of it or the fact that I subjected my grandfather to it without_pith: But I was giggling almost nonstop the entire movie nerdork: HAHAHA is that the one with like the hands that kill people nerdork: and Seth Green without_pith: YES nerdork: I WATCHED (PARTS OF) THAT ONCE nerdork: I was like "LOL WTF" without_pith: My grandfather had this sort of quizzical "WTF" look on his face the entire time without_pith: I kept glancing at him and cracking up nerdork: HAHA Yeah, that’s pretty much my day so far. Current Mood:  amused |
tozgirl
|
5:52a |
Running to each others arms W was away on a work trip, for a conference. He'd been gone six days, which I think might be a record for length of time apart. First day, no big deal. But by about the third or fourth day I was turning into a total sook -smile-. And when it came to picking him up at the airport, I waited in stillness. I have practice in that. Standing calm and still near the gate, watching... and then got this complete surge of adrenaline. In the fraction of a second between him emerging from behind a pillar on the far side of the walkways and a tall person stepping in front of me, my subconscious had picked him up. When he finally came through the doors, it took all I had not to run towards him. He didn't bother squishing that impulse -grin-. |
| Sunday, September 7th, 2008 |
without_pith
|
2:01p |
I want to do licensed nurse assistant (LNA) training. I’m just a bit confused; I don’t know if I apply for a scholarship for it first, or the training program first? Yeah, I’m pretty much a dumbass. I’ll be putting this "want" into action soon, though, I hope.
It’d be about 3.5-7 weeks of training, after which I could get a job as...a nurse’s assistant. EXCITING, amirite? Yeah totally. I wonder what this experience will be like.
In more exciting news, Becky, an e-friend of six years, is coming to visit me for six days late next month, and I am very much looking forward to this. It will be from the 27th of October to the 2nd of November. I will have a buddy to celebrate Halloween with, among other things! She paid for her flight today and now we’re just counting down the days. |
| Saturday, September 6th, 2008 |
paradigm_palace
|
11:41p |
I'm 34 today. It's my birthday.
Current Mood: festive |
| Friday, September 5th, 2008 |
anaisdjuna
|
11:51a |
TTYL Kittens!
I'm off to Budapest to age gracefully :-)
XOOXOXOX
Adj. |
| Thursday, September 4th, 2008 |
saizai
|
9:38p |
|
paradigm_palace
|
1:54p |
Or Not ... Just narrowing down ... for me. 1.  ( Read more... ) Current Mood:  cranky |
| Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 |
niblik
|
11:27p |
Republicans, Palin, and teen pregnancy
I find justice being served when the vice presidential Republican candidate has a daughter that is 17 and pregnant.
That justice: The Republicans getting what they deserve for the failed "Abstinence Only" form of birth control. Abstinence being taught to people all the way up to the age of 29. Yes, that's right, 29. Add to that the fact that 95% of Americans have had pre-marital sex. The number of teen pregnancies is on the rise. The number of pregnancies outside of marriage is on the rise -- sure, some of them might get married; but, the bun was in the oven before the vows were given.
The justice: A failed social policy that attempted to legislate morality -- "Abstinence Only". Rather than full sexual education that might teach these people how to.... oh, I don't know.... use a condom!?
Sure, condoms may not be 100% effective. Even so, condom use would do the world a lot of good and reduce a lot of sexually transmitted diseases. |
| Thursday, September 4th, 2008 |
anaisdjuna
|
12:04a |
http://www.fluidity.com/Default.asp?Page=home.aspI want this very much! It's a barre for the home that doesn't have to be mounted on the wall. I've wanted a barre for like.... ever. I was thrilled to see this come on tv. Seriously, like longer than forever. I have the ballet work dvd which rocks which I can do with this instead of the chair (suck) that homegirl in the vid suggests. I love ballet barre as exercise. I used to do it in college and I got pretty darn fine there for a while. In synchronicity, with this b-day. it's purrrrrfect. I'm definitely buying it when I figure out how much my travels are going to cost & I get my health insurance paid this month. Also wanna hit awalim when i get home. Tribal!!! |
| Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 |
anaisdjuna
|
11:42p |
Quote of the evening... The finest steel must go through the hottest fire...
Up late in Zurich. 5:43 here. 11:43 there.
Buzzy, mellow bliss. The sound of David snoring... The rooftops and windows of Morgartenstrasse and a cool light breeze.
Yay my broken shift key has healed itself! It almost transmitted the virus to the zZz key; that's when i figured out there is something underneath there. No idea what it is. I hope the computer doesn't need it attached anywhere else.
Mmmm. I had the best basil and olive oil, bread snack. Just straight basil and extra virgin.
Moroccan olives. Vieux Gruyere.
Solid.. Warm.
I hear the city begin to wake up in the periphery.
The rushes. Deeper waters. Rapid current.
She... feels. like raised eyebrows and persuasion. Quiet snickers.
warm reaches,
i breathe.
... i will get to smell that again.
In that field of down.
hee hee... i could live without the snoring tho ;-) |
seraph_nocturna
|
11:04p |
AVGN Just had to share this... After seeing the latest Angry Video Game Nerd review, I had to make this part into an animated gif. It turned out to be a virtually seamless loop! So I made it into an icon *points* ( Larger, higher-quality version under the cut )________ Current Mood:  satisfiedCurrent Music: Dr. Horrible - "My Eyes" |
tozgirl
|
10:58p |
Fathers' Day W's away on a business trip. And I just sent him an MMS. A photo, of a little strip with two lines, labelled "Happy Father's Day". So, woot. For once a conception has survived more than two days past end of cycle, and appears to be still going, if the nice clarity of those two little lines is any indication. Hurrah. And now we're on again to see how long it lasts *this* time. Only has to last another 19 days to beat the previous record.... Edit: side note: checking back through this journal, I notice that this time all the grumpiness happened *before* I conceived, and once I conceived (presumably around August 17-20) things improved notably. Interesting. Last time it was the other way around.
Current Mood:  not celebrating just yet... |
paradigm_palace
|
12:51a |
Humor Me ... Sooooo ... I've been working on finding a picture to send into the Maggie Sottero website. I decided to do something this afternoon that required enough focus and energy to keep me out of bed yet was not too stress-inducing. This gown designer has a corny yet visually fun little link on the website called Maggie Brides. It's a collection of pictures and snippets sent from brides who wore a Maggie Sottero gown on their wedding day. http://www.maggiesottero.com/maggieBrides.aspxBecause I wore a Maggie Sottero gown on my wedding day I'm thinking about sending in a blurb with one of my photos. I haven't decided which image to send but I've compiled a pool of them from which I'll eventually choose. Which image from the following do you think I should send in to Maggie Sottero? Seriously. 1. ( Read more... ) |
| Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 |
aliothsan
|
10:35p |
Hitchhiker's Guide???
Someone sent me the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I have no idea who. Nowhere on the package does any name appear. The return address looks like an Amazon Marketplace seller. The email address on the invoice is an @sneakemail.com address, which I suppose means that the sender prefers their anonymity.
Not that I don't appreciate this -- I really do. But I live a ten-minute walk away from the most complete science fiction library in the known universe, so, unnecessary expenditure?
Also, the package was addressed to "Alioth", not to "Kelly Drinkwater", which pissed off the East Campus desk workers. They were perfectly polite, but I'm already terrified enough of that one desk worker, and it would be nice if I didn't do anything else wrong.
TO MAIL ME THINGS:
Address to "Kelly Drinkwater"
Include mailbox number
...please!!!!!!!!! |
seraph_nocturna
|
4:58p |
More Soul Calibur IV characters.. I got a new memory stick so I'm now able to take higher resolution photos! Woo! So I thought I'd share some pictures of a few more Soul Calibur creations - this time featuring various goddesses. Taking photos of a TV screen still has its limits, but at least it's slightly better/easier to work with than before. ( Lots of photos under the cut )__________ Current Mood:  creativeCurrent Music: They Might Be Giants - "Instanbul (Not Constantinople)" |
anaisdjuna
|
5:20a |
|
paradigm_palace
|
12:00a |
I made it down to Chris' mother's house for Labor Day. It was weird. The vibe was weird and I'm not sure if I was reading it wrong or if it just affected me differently because I've been feeling so poorly. I don't think that I let my overall mood show through. Unless you really, really know me you probably couldn't tell I've been feeling quite off. We splashed around the lake. I'm sunburned. Again. This time it's because I felt too apathetic to put on sunscreen. Ugh. What an idiot. I'm not quite as crispy as I was last month. It's mostly my face on fire. I had a marginally good time that was greatly affected by how strange the vibe was to me. The last time I went down there was back in June for the wedding shower and I could not have had a nicer time. I've always enjoyed visiting there. This time something wasn't quite right. His brother and sister seemed agitated and I could have sworn at one point that his brother didn't like me. Chris felt uneasy at times claiming agitation with his siblings over things they had said. It was just weird and uncomfortable. I'm glad to be home. Hopefully, it was an isolated kind of incident that was exaggerated by my already off-kilter emotions. My Scooby Sense (intuition/instinct/"gut feeling") is out of tune due to my recent episode of depression so I may have read the entire thing wrong or taken certain cues out of context and stretched them to unrealistic limits like, "His brother must really hate me". They all probably acted similarly to how they have always acted. I was the one feeling things differently. But I'm not sure and it's unnerving. Maybe I'll come back and re-examine the situation when I'm feeling a bit more grounded. Current Mood:  confused |
| Monday, September 1st, 2008 |
niblik
|
6:38p |
Bee Sting!
After living in this bee infested place for 16 months, I have finally been stung by a bee.
As that happened over 30 minutes ago, I think I'm good. I am not allergic to bee stings. Or, at least, I was never allergic to bee stings when I was a child. I was allergic to wasp stings.
I managed to get the stinger out within 30 seconds. I then went and grabbed an antihistamine.
The sad part is, I feel good. Which, I was not expecting to feel for another 2-4 days. |
anaisdjuna
|
8:56a |
Hee hee. This xkcd is pretty cute :-)  |
anaisdjuna
|
12:19a |
The most densely populated, highly concentrated area of cute is Willis's little sniffin' nose. |
| Sunday, August 31st, 2008 |
anaisdjuna
|
9:36p |
All kinds of stuff going on today/tonight. Some of it twisted, psych manipulative mindfuck bs of paternal origins. Some of it sweet, kind listening, helping support. None of it addressing the mountain of work poking at me, yet. Ugh. Feel quite emo, but better than I did.
In reading folks' posts about Gustav.... I worry for NO/LA. After Katrina, I worked volunteer phone lines to help people who were trying to find out what had happened to their loved ones and people trying to find help/rescue for them.. (Disgustingly, I was one of only 3 people who did it as volunteered time out of the thousands who could have). A storm like that sweeps through and destroys everything in its path without selection according to ability to deal or understand what is at hand. It hits everyone. Everyone is created equally valuable, but not equally skilled, strong or able. I worry for those whose strengths don't fall in places that will work well for them in the face of this storm. I worry for those whose weaknesses or lack of material facilities will put them in danger. Going to send them good energy/pray/spells (the same thing in my h.o.). If you have some to spare and can plug into all, one or some of those channels, please do so. They will need it. Their loved ones too.
I hope Goldie got out this time. I saved her life last year. I won't be there to help her this time. |
tozgirl
|
4:24p |
Two churches As I was wandering today I went down the main street of a small town. One of those towns that is largely unnoticeable unless you live there, in which case it's the biggest place in the district. And as I drove down the street, a church caught my eye. Churches don't always catch my eye, except as architecture. But this one had something about it that said "I'm interesting to visit". So after mumbling under my breath to myself, I U-turned and went back and parked nearby, and walked over to take a look. First surprise: there were actually two churches, one either side of the little street I'd turned off onto to park. The second was almost invisible. Not physically, you could see it OK, but it was just... not noticeable. Like you would keep looking past it even when you knew it was there, kind of shrouded in a disinterest/insignificance field. To the best I could tell, it wasn't a general field, I don't think everyone would be caught by it. But it certainly sent my eyes past it a couple of times before I twigged that I was repeatedly failing to notice it. And even once I looked straight at it, I was unable to convince myself to bother looking at it. So, on to the church that had caught my eye - which had one of its front doors open. I'd seen that from the road, and thought it boded well for going and investigating. Churches are funny things for me - some I can't go into comfortably, others are OK if alien, and the occasional one or two is quite friendly. But if the door's open, it means they're willing to have people come in who they might not know. That usually means I can at least stick my head in. The church itself was physically very similar to its counterpart across the road, but was Anglican rather than Presbyterian. Unlike its counterpart, it had a gorgeous garden and lots of flowers growing in the church yard. That boded well as well, though I thought it was curious that they'd planted white/orange daffodils instead of yellow ones. Lastly, I checked the noticeboard - as expected, service was at 9:30 am, and this was around twelve. So Sunday morning church would be over, and I wouldn't be disturbing anyone. Second surprise: I took one step into the churchyard, and got chills. It would only be six or seven steps to the church door - but I wasn't supposed to take them. The church grounds were very clearly consecrated in a manner which, while not directly hostile to me, meant I wouldn't be able to enter without a direct invitation. So I backed up immediately, and stood at the edge of the path, watching that open door to see if anyone was there. No signs of life though. Which is a pity, because now I was *really* curious as to what the church was like -grin-. I haven't run into that effect at the churchyard gate before. Usually if I do, it's at the doorway, and it's more of a "you can look in but don't enter, and please leave as soon as you're ready". The "you need an invitation to enter" is new. I'd love to talk with their priest. Edit: I posted this, jumped over to Facebook and started playing a word scramble game. The first word I got was "warded". This is not the first time I've had reason to think that today is very lightly touched with things that are not quite coincidences. |
| Saturday, August 30th, 2008 |
anaisdjuna
|
5:31p |
Did some computer chores that needed doing. 'tis good. Was gonna get alllll dolled up and post pix of that, but my hair dryer defected to Zurich, my eyebrows would make Brooke Shields jealous, and I have no translucent powder. Poo. Still I have on eyeliner. It's nice. Been a long time. Burned a bunch of Kate for new friend alchemikon As the Lord of The Kate Bush Underground pointed out..... Now, I've ruined him for life. He'll never be content with mere earthly pleasures again. *snicker* I must serve Kate. Procured one more soul for the goddess! Burned some other surprise cds for you xo. Memory cards are clean and ready. Cam is charging. Shit which means no cam tonight. Oh well there's always the cell.... Off to Lil 5 and later to con some Dragons..... |
saizai
|
6:22p |
Two-dimensional clustering algorithm problem A somewhat interesting problem from work: I have a stats project that, in part, involves various scatterplots. Let's abstract and say that for users U(1...U'), for any particular scatterplot, each user has scalar variables A and B. I could scatterplot that data directly - one dot for every user, with X = A, Y = B. However, I want to reduce this to exactly 200 dots - one for every 0.5% of count(U) (aka DAU) per below. So, I need to group the records into local cliques. - i.e. groups of 0.5% DAU in size where sum( avg(intra-group distance) , groups) and avg( aggregate-point to user-point distance) are minimum. Moreover, I have some constraints: - The plot must be processable preattentively - e.g. it should rely on the ability to intuitively grok relative numbers of dots, rather than the (very poor) ability to compare areas of circles, etc
- Inter-graph comparability must be simple despite differences in DAU (e.g. over weekly cycles, growth / decline over time, or between the same analysis of different applications)
- Intra-graph comparability must be simple (i.e. 3 aggregate dots in one area vs 2 in another means the first has 50% more people). Some amount of jitter here is allowable - i.e. an aggregate dot could vary from the 0.5% DAU target by say +/- 20% or so - but any more causes problems with interpretation.
- Outliers and 'jitter' should be minimized where possible
- "Popping" (aka apportionment paradox) should be minimized where possible (e.g. this would be a problem for a heatmap style display w/ large granularity)
- If I could draw lines around intuitive groups in the userpoint chart, I should be able to draw the same lines around groups in the aggregate chart. Put another way, the aggregate chart should be the "zoomed out" version of the userpoint chart.
- It should preferably be renderable using the Google Visualization API Scatterchart
- It should abstract away absolutely everything OTHER than two-dimensional distribution of A and B, and preserve all actual two-dimensional patterns within that
- It should have N small enough to be easily comprehensible (I chose N=200)
- It should take <~0.3s to process in PHP + MySQL. However, I strongly prefer algorithmic complexity if it results in something that is psychologically and analytically better. Ultimately the goal is that it must be as easy as possible for humans to draw accurate conclusions at a glance of the results.
I've thought of two ways to do this so far. Both require getting the entire set of userpoints from the database. Here's the better one: - Normalize A, B such that each is on a scale of 0-100 (to allow a sensible two-dimensional linear distance function)
- X = 1; N = 200; DAU = total count(P); tC (count threshold of clustering) = DAU/N; tP (density threshold of clustering) = ?
- For each user point P, find count(points) within radius X of P
- If max(count) < tC, X++
- If max(count) >= tC, insert an aggregate point Q such that Q is located at ( avg(A(P')) , avg(B(P')) ), and remove all points within P'
- If X > tP or count(P remaining) < tC, end
I think this is O(DAU^2 * (N + max(X))) ish. Which kinda sucks, really, given DAU is ~100-800K. I can't think of a way that is cleaner, faster, or e.g. would operate purely by some nice MySQL GROUP BY statement. How 'bout you? Edit: Alex proposes another method, a variant on K-means clustering. - Take N random points, and create one cluster point C on top of each. Normalize per step 0 above.
- Take a random point P
- Find the nearest C to P, and call P "attached" to C
- If C has more than ~tC * 1.2 attached points, do not allow further points to attach (call it "saturated")
- Repeat with all points
- Move C such that it is at the average A,B of its attached points
- Repeat from 1, clearing the saturated statuses, until the movement in step 5 is less than jitter threshold or time is exhausted
This will result in cluster points that are *approximately* tC in size each, at ~O(DAU * N * repetitions of step 6). I'm not sure how well it performs on the other desiderata, but it seems potentially viable if the jitter does settle out within the time constraint. One possible problem is that it may be significantly affected by outliers, where I want to simply ignore stuff that isn't both statistically and practically significant. |
anaisdjuna
|
2:42a |
I don't wanna edit any more. |
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academic_empath