Today, 3/14 on the US calendar, is Pi Day. To celebrate you should bake a pie and enjoy it at 1:59. I could tell you all about the history of Pi, how people approximated it, or when we learned it was a transcendental irrational number. Instead, wikipedia will give you the lowdown and I’ll give you a link to the first million digits of pi. A million out of infinity doesn’t sound like much, but seeing it is very cool. Next Pi related holiday: Pi Approximation day on 22/7. (The 22nd of July in non-US format)
If you’d like to celebrate Pi Day with more than just a pie. You could memorize the first numbers of Pi, see how far you can go. Some guy in Japan recited it to over 80 thousand digits, you could hang out at piday.org or you could make pie chart jokes like this:
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I have probably spent as many days awake as nights in my 4 years of college. I was always more active past midnight than I ever was in class. I think it had something to do with dorms only quieting down around midnight, only then could I really think. Not that noise bothers me, it just stifles creativity. Then again, I’ve been reading a lot about circadian rhythms lately, maybe mine is just backwards.
Stumbling around the internet, I have again found something I’d like to share with the BWW, Bob Wide Web. Anatomy of an All Nighter is a college study done at the University of Texas Austin, where I happen to have been born. It covers the best way to go through the night alert and ready to work. When I compare it to my all nighters, its very different. I usually never had protein, the best snack for an all nighter. My night time meals were usually ramen or pop-tarts. Also, when I wrote, everything seems smarter the later night got. That isn’t to say I actually write better when I’m sleep deprived, but I think I do, and that is all that matters.
I also looked up WikiHow’s all nighter strategy. It seems like a bunch of quick fixes rather than a plan to last all night and get any work done. How often do you stay up all night? What is your plan of attack?
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I slacked off a bit today and now only have 45 minutes before I’m kicked out of work, thereby severing my internet connection. I looked for some news that I hope everyone hadn’t already found and decided there wasn’t anything exciting enough for here today. Instead, I’ll be treading the grounds of ‘livejournal, myspace, facebook whoring’ by posting about my presidental pick for 2008.
There are currently 6 candidates for the democratic nomination for president, among them is Barack Obama. He’s relatively young, very outspoken and not Hilary Clinton. I’ve read over several of his speeches after signing up at my.barackobama.com. He’s very well spoken, and if its not him, he has several great speech writers working for him.
Personally, I’d love to be able to support a libertarian candidate, but with our current electoral college voting system, there’s no sane person who would waste their vote on a 3rd candidate.
While I was in college I created a voting system that used the Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) system. Cornell didn’t often have more than 1 candidate, but doing the research learning how IRV works enlightened me to a system that the US needs. If you want to have a wide candidate base, with people unafraid of wasting their vote and creating a Gore/Bush or Kerry/Bush disaster, then you need a system that lets people have a ‘back-up’ option. IRV allows you to rank all the candidates so everyone is your back up, even the people you hate you can order from least to most hated on the ballot. This would also make sure people read the entire ballot before voting and no careless 1/2 hole punch ballots could be cast.
In short, I’m voting for Barack Obama. I’m also waiting for the day when our country fixes it electoral system.
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I have no excuse for not updating my blog. I’ve got plenty of reasons, most of which might even be valid, but that doesn’t make you happy. A blog is here not as a personal diary for one to anonymously post their thoughts to the world (mostly because its not anonymous at all). A blog is here to entertain people. If someone wants traffic, they must give people a reason to come back. I haven’t been overflowing with reasons lately, but that will change soon.
I’m at work everyday without fail. I get a word of the day from my calendar, daily. I’ve decided to post once a day, even if its just talking about Russian or technology news. Most of my readership wouldn’t otherwise get such cool news. Although, if I can manage to post something that I thought up myself, news will be pushed aside for another day.
Most of the people who visit Bobg.net also visit the blogs of other American Home teachers. I don’t feel that I need to retell every little story that has happened here in the past month or so. If you want to read about the puppy, the ballet, Valentines Day, or Moscow you know where to go.
This, however, will not stop me from posting my own pictures.
If you are reading this through RSS, you might want to see if my new site design is more pleasant on the eyes. I designed everything myself, the first time I’ve made a page 100% of my own creation. Behind the scenes I set up an Apache webserver, PHP, and MySQL database software on my laptop to speed up the update and refresh process I go through when coding. Its been far too long since I’ve had any technological challenges (besides Eric asking me to stand near the DVD player so it’ll magically work). Ubuntu linux is also running and happens to be how I’m updating right now.
I’ve put up my resume for potential employer review. Its not in a polished/finished state and I’m having a hard time cleaning it up. I like bullets too much. If you wanted to drop me a line with your suggestions, please do.
Uncategorical, Work
There will be a small break in posting this month. As a whole, the teaching staff will be going over their allotted bandwidth this month. To conserve bandwidth, I won’t be posting until the 1st. My apologies to those without lives who might read this blocks.
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