This post brought to you by the number 6

I found while sending grades to the freshmen for Lab 6 that 6 is a hard number to type. I usually miss and hit 7 or Y or a combination of those three letters. It's in the middle, so I never know which hand to use, but it's in the "column" with Y, H, and N, so I think of it as being on the right. This causes me to overshoot and still hit 7 or Y when I use my left hand.

1AM Haymarket

I visited Jesse and Lincoln down in the haymarket tonight. I started walking back shortly before 1AM. It was strange to see the place so dead. I don't think I've ever been there when there were not hundreds of people running around, leaning against the buildings smoking, or doing whatever. It was a little eerie, but mostly calm and interesting.

I am kinda strange in that I get a sick satisfaction in being the only person around sometimes.

'Tis the Season

Christmas music has permeated every part of my existence. It's everywhere. Even ringtones. Especially ringtones. I hate ringtones.

I Quit

I resigned from my research position today. I have been too busy to get to work lately, and I haven't done much productive this semester except attempt an implementation that ended up failing due to the code I got (open source by a grad student :( ). I hope to finish what I started when time allows, but right now I'm just too busy and my weekly schedule is too full.

Arrested Development: Season Two

I've been back in Lincoln for just over 24 hours and I've finished season two of Arrested Development. It's that good. I probably should have finished grading the freshmen homework assignments instead of watching episode after episode, but oh well.

Now I just need to watch both seasons with commentary and the bonus materials and find downloads of season 3 and all that jazz.

Ownage: Arrested Development

I tracked my Amazon package of the first two seasons of Arrested Development and found that they were delivered to Selleck before I left on Tuesday. However, I left before I could get that little slip of paper that says I have it. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to get it tomorrow.

DIY: Poster Hangers

Contrary to popular belief, I have done more than play videogames all weekend. I worked on a project I've been putting off for far too long. One of my favorite sites is MAKE, a Do-it-yourself website/magazine. I've always wanted to do some of the projects I read about, but never have the time, skill, or materials.

Well, I once read an article about a guy who made his own poster hangers. I can't find the link, but it's out there somewhere. I just want to state that this idea is in now way my own. I just got done with cutting the PVC pipe as necessary. I will go back to Nebraska tomorrow and try to hang my posters as best as I can. After I know this will work, I'll paint the pipe black, take some photos, and step through the whole process.

My Safety Word Is: Roomegrot

Tonight is my last night in Minnesota. The Stolee family went out for a nice dinner at the Playtime bar and grill. Afterwards, on the car ride back, the three boys were packed into the back seat. Naturally, the ride consisted of a three-way brawl, with dad shouting safety words for those being tag teamed. The fight ended as we approached the house, so when we broke it up, I immediately sat back in my seat. In hindsight, this was a bad move because Tom decided to get one last jab in before finishing. I got a good fist in the mouth and my lip is swelling up. It shouldn't be too bad, but someone needs to teach that boy the etiquette of fighting. Earlier, he tapped out and then elbowed me in the crotch. Dirty fighter...

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was full of family and food. The day started with a game of flag football... not as fun as tackle, but nobody got hurt this time. Food is always good. I then hid away for my annual nap (the best of the year). I also got to play with my cousins, they are getting old, though. One of them is driving, now. Crazy.

Today I went to go work out with my brothers. I normally don't like going to weightrooms, I'm not comfortable at them. It has something to do with the fact that I never go there, so I never know what to do, at what weight, for how long. It only gets worse when you add the awkward interactions with people I haven't seen since graduation. Seeing people I never expected to see again is one of my least favorite things about going home.

I guess I'll just have to remain hidden in the basement playing videogames all weekend. I'm okay with that.

Uhoh, I have learned things

I am dissappointed by myself. I have not gotten through my business courses without being brainwashed a little while learning a little. Here are two things that bothered me:

First, at confession, my pastor described the distribution process as "continuous." First, you can't have a continuous process with discreet units like people and it's more like a batch, anyway.

Second, my cousin showed me his fantasy football stats and all I could think about was portfolio theory.

I am ashamed in myself...

Xbox 360: Worst Launch Ever

It seems that the Xbox 360 is deliberately trying to mimic the Playstation 2 launch: Sell out of consoles, be the "first" next gen system on the market, etc... however, they are doing things horribly wrong. First: the launch game lineup is mediocre at best, and buggy at that. Second, they are selling out of accessories, too. The split of the system into full version and core system acheived two benefits: hype the additional accessories, and drive the price for people buying equivalent systems when the full systems sell out. However, this is not possible without the accessories being available for sale.

Here's a sad tale: my little brother, Tom, waited 7 hours at the local Wal-mart for a 360. He was third in line. They only had two full systems. They didn't have any accessories yet. After we checked this morning, they still didn't have any harddrives. Fargo is sold out of them, so we can't get them elsewhere. Tom has an Xbox that he can't save his game. Buying a memory card would just be a waste of money.

Oh well. I'll get a 360 when there are several really good games out, and I have a media center box. Until then, there are plenty of good PS2 games I haven't played yet.

DQVIII: lv. 27 report

I am currently devoting every spare moment of my life to Dragon Quest VIII. I'm home and typing this between commands and running errands for my mom. Current status: level 27, 28 hours, and level D champion in the monster arena (go team "Boson Foot").

The only way I can fully describe this game in a single word is "perfect." This game just keeps getting better and better. The balance is perfect. The timing of new abilities and features is not too slow to make the game boring but not too fast to be overwhelming. The story is presented simply, but with a little nosing around I get a hint of a deeper story that will come out sooner or later. I'm excited. Here are a few fun facts that I've gathered:

Favorite Environment

Trodain Castle. The castle is full of throny vines that have overtaken it. Very detailed and moody.

Worst Enemy Name

Cockateer

Worst Attack

Sultry Dance. You may catch the dancing bug.

Hardest Enemy

Giant Colossus

Biggest Time Waster

Casinos

I'll keep updating as I get further in, but since I'm 25+ hours into a 100+ hour game, I thought I should report.

Dream: Rent

I had a wacky dream last night. It started by a small group, including myself, buying out Perham's old, rundown Comet Theatre and renovating it to be a private theatre for dinner parties.

The rest was me watching Rent in there with everyone I've ever talked to about Rent and then some. Here's a short list of people who were there: Beermann, Adam, Katie, Laura, Lori, Bone, Jordan, and I think Jesse and Spomer were there, too. Maybe a few more.

The strangest part is that we were watching the movie, but we were also starring in it. By the time we left, we all had AIDS.

Preparations

Today, I feel a little better. Good enough to drive, anyway. Now I'm scrambling to get ready for the weekend. This includes cleaning a little, my room is a sty. Also, Spomer is still sleeping and I need to bring my PS2 and some movies home, but I don't want to stumble around him. I guess I'll go to finance first, wake him up later.

I get to drive 8 full hours at the speed limit because I have an expired license. Yay! I'll get it renewed tomorrow.

Sickness is Dumb

Somehow I developed a sinus infection, and awful cold, or the avian flu overnight Saturday night. I just rested all of yesterday, playing DQVIII and studying for a test I'm going to take in an hour. I feel worse today than yesterday, but I just need to get this out of the way so I don't worry about it over Thanksgiving. Wish me luck.

Spomer's Here

For those of you who pay attention to the Kauffman blog "ring" of sorts, Spomer has made it safely to Lincoln, and is staying on my air mattress in the living room. John and I took a break from our rounds at Dragon Quest and were social for dinner at Ticos, a game of Citadels, and pissing off the staff at Amigos with 6 shake orders at midnight.

Blog Summary

There was quite a busy morning, lots of text. Not everyone will want to read everything, so I'll give you an overview of what to hit and what to miss.

First, this account of the morning explains why I posted so much this morning.

Anyone who's frustrated by walking on sidewalks or has ever driven in Minnesota should read my discussion on niceness.

Those who like console RPGs should read my preview of Final Fansasy XII and my first thoughts of Dragon Quest VIII.

Choose your reading material.

Dragon Quest VIII

The eight installment of the Dragon Quest/Warrior series was finally delivered with proper timing for me to buy it. I never had an NES or SNES, so I never played I-VI, and VII came out for the playstation after the PS2 launch, and relatively soon before Final Fantasy X. I just didn't have the time, places to be, other games to play.

But now, I've stopped to enjoy the classic nature of this game. The updated anime-style graphics bring the old-school feel into this generation of games. The game is rather beautiful in its animated sort of way, and the battles are exciting and challenging. The need to level up is more prominent here than I had seen in other games, but is not terribly monotonous. It keeps the element of strategy in the game by having harder bosses than the enemies surrounding it. Each area has noticably harder enemies, so I never get to a new area and can immediately kill anything with one hit. That's a good feeling, and keeps me on my toes as I travel from place to place.

The story hails back to days of old, you are an anonymous hero with a small gang of friends. You set out on a quest that builds in difficulty and importance while gathering new members to your party. The story telling is quite nice even for this "simple" story (so far). I'm not too far into it, so maybe I'll give an update on the story once I've completed it.

Anyone who played and enjoyed RPGs in the good ol' days would really enjoy this game.

Final Fantasy XII: Preview

Last night I bought the video game goodness that is Dragon Quest VIII, which I'll mention later. But first, I'd like to mention the brief Final Fantasy XII demo that was packaged with it. This demo has an extended trailer to get psyched up about the story, but more importantly gives an introduction into the new battle system.

This game departs from the random-battles and fighting entirely with menus in a separate arena. This game is very similar to the fighting style of KOTOR. You have 3 characters fighting at a time, you control one of them. The "turns" are defined by a time bar very similar to the "Active Time Battle" of old, but this time the turns are decided when the bar is empty, and used after the bar fills. This way you can see the moves that your automatic allies are about to use, whether it be an attack or a cure spell. This helps you to plan what your main character should do. You can also quickly move between characters with ease, if you want to micromanage a little more. Little beams of light are visible to show who is targeting what enemy or ally, which helps with strategy, so you can make everyone focus on a single enemy or several at a time.

The demo featured some goals that must be completed before continuing to a boss-like enemy. I don't know if the actual game will be set up like this, but it reminds me a little of Crystal Chronicles' levels in multiplayer.

Overall, this got me really excited for a game which I knew I would buy, but knew little about. I mean, come on... it's Final Fantasy. They own a good percentage of shares of my soul, I must do as Square-Enix bids me.

Sidwalks, Collisions, and Niceness

Let's define a new variable in the statistics of real life: Niceness. Your level of niceness is measured by how often you open doors for people, help old ladies cross the street, and change your pace when about to run into someone on the sidewalk.

While walking on campus, there are many people using the sidewalks at any time; it's busiest between classes. The many paths people take intersect wildly and people would normally run into each other if everyone just walked on their expected path at their expected pace. However, people with a high "niceness" measure will slow down or speed up as necessary to avoid these collisions.

Why do they do this? They could be really nice, not in a hurry, in a hurry, or socially inept and the mere thought of touching people is a fear too great to measure. For whatever reason, when two people are bound to collide with their current velocities, one person will change his/her pace to avoid the collision. This is determined by the person with the higher niceness level. When two people with low niceness are on a collision path, it is more like a game of chicken, and the loser will have to stop dead in his/her tracks to barely avoid the collision. These are fun to watch, and usually involve sorority girls talking on their cell phones. Probably to each other.

A problem with this system occurs when two people of similar, high niceness levels are on a collision path. Both people will change paces one way or another at very similar times and the collision will not be avoided until the miniscule difference is discovered in the previously mentioned game of chicken. This happened to me today. It's awkward, unavoidable, and usually only happens to people so obsessive-compulsive that they are forced to tell other people about it later.

Of course, this whole topic is void when in Minnesota, where everyone has equally high niceness levels. A collision will be encountered and velocity changes will be perfectly matched until they meet, stop, and argue about who should step first.

P1: "After you."
P2: "No, after you!"
P1: "I insist!"
P2: "I insist!"
P3: "What are you guys talking aboot?"
P1&P2 (simultaneously): "This jerk won't step first"
P3: "Well, it seems that I've come into this predicament as well, but one of you two must go first."
P1: "It won't be me, I wasn't here first"
P2: "Neither was I"
P4: "What are you guys talking about?"
<this continues until the population of Minnesota is centered in one location and everyone freezes from the outside in, until the last one alive was clearly the first one there, passes, and seeks to repopulate the northern region.>

Clock Reading...Bah

I woke up this morning with a startle, thinking I was late for my 9:30 class. I rushed to get dressed, out the door, and across campus to Avery. On the way there, I thought the amount of sidewalk traffic was far lower than normal, but could be explained by the Fridayness of the week and the chilly weather. However, it was easily explained when I saw someone I didn't recognize walk into the room ahead of me, which prompted me to check the time on my cell phone: 8:29. I woke up an hour early, and would have been on time had it been an hour later.

Now I have a spare 45ish minutes to blog about other worthless topics.

GMX-POP

I have been using my GMX account for spam-related reasons. Whenever I needed to enter an email for registration I would use that address. Sometimes I actually got some good email from there, so I continued to check it. However, they have seemed to remove their POP support, as my email client no longer picks it up. I'll have to find some other email address to accept spam.

Anyways, if you send emails to stolee@gmx.net, I will no longer get them.

Sinusoidal Regression

Today, I was going through my MRP folder to find an ancient cave painting of Grindor when I stumbled across the excel spreadsheet that will calculate sinusoidal linear regression. The formula is as follows:

For a given t and s, find the necessary b₁, b₂, and b₃ so the equation

y = b₁ + b₂x + b₃sin((x - _s)/t)

will minimize the square difference between this function and the plotted points.

If anyone is bored enough to play with it, I've placed it here. I doubt this is incredibly useful unless you know the period (2πt) and cycle initial time (s) of your data. This was meant to be an optional forecast module, but the required inputs would be too different than the other formulas. Maybe I could make an algorithm that will find the optimal t and s. The s would not be too hard, because I could iterate through values between 0 and π/2 and find the closest. Finding an accurate period without knowing something else about the data might be an interesting, but probably fruitless adventure.

Arrested Development Inspires Me To Be Legal

After watching an illegal version of Arrested Development in order to "preview" the show and decide if I like it, the result is a addictive need for more. This, coupled with a good deal on Amazon, inspired me to buy seasons 1 & 2. I will hold myself from watching any of season 2 until I get the DVDs. I think I need to focus on my homework a little more right now.

Hopefully I get them before Thanksgiving so I can get my dad (not mom) hooked, as well. I sure hope the commentary on these episodes is as good as Futurama's. It seems that intelligent comedies are written and starring intelligent people, and they have intelligent things to say.

I Heart Canon

I got my camcorder back from repairs from Canon today. They fixed more than just the CCD sensor majig, they got me a new lens cap. I thought it was too fast for them to actually fix my camcorder in that time, but a few of the scratches and marks from the good old days remain. Ah, the memories.

Time to go record more. What a time to pick up my interest in skateboarding.

Moving: Addendum

I realized after I was finished rearranging everything that the bundle of PVC pipe I have for a project I'm working on (see: Thanksgiving + Dad's Workshop = Picture Blogpost) had no place to go in my room. I ended up shoving it under some chairs in the living room. I sure hope my roommate doesn't care in the morning.

A New Room... Sorta

I spent the last couple hours moving my room around. I was really trying to be productive while watching episode after episode of the glory that is Arrested Development. I am angry at several people. I'm angry at myself for never watching it while it was on. I'm angry at Lincoln, Spomer, and anyone else who watched it that didn't invite me to watch it, FORCE me to watch it, or do everything in their power to get me to watch it. Spomer put his most valiant effort, the distance

Oh well, I finally got my hands on season 1 (in HD, no less) and it's very good and keeping me up late. I should probably call it quits before 4AM for sure. I knew I would not be able to stop as soon as I heard the very first spoken line of the pilot. Fans of the series should know it. This is a blog read by family, I will not utter those words here.

New Phone

Yesterday I replaced my phone of 2+ years that doesn't pick up all calls and has bad reception quite often with the LG PM-325. It's a very good phone, and fixes every problem that I had with my old phone. It's small, compact, and feels good in my hand. This was a good purchase. I have no complaints about the "phone" part of it. I have always like Sprint service, and they do a good job.

However, this phone fails at a few other features because Sprint wants to make more money. This is the only Sprint phone with Bluetooth (unless you count the $500+ Treo 650, which is really a Palm) and the capabilities have been significantly crippled. A few of the standards that would allow it to work with iSync, or file transfers have been kept off of the phone. This seems rather odd until you realize that Sprint makes buttloads of cash through picture transfers. Allowing people to download them to their computer and email them around would not be padding their pocketses. It also keeps me from making my own ringtones and loading them wirelessly.

My phone does have J2ME capabilities, so I look forward to developing some small apps when possible. However, I don't know how I could put them on my phone without buying a $20 cable. Hopefully a firmware update or a hack will allow me to use my phone to its full capabilities. Until then, I have a better phone than before. That's nice.

Saturdays

I love Saturdays after long, hard weeks. I got to sleep in until now, and then I can do anything I want for the rest of the day. That will probably include skateboarding, watching movies, getting some drinks with friends, or naps. Mostly naps.

Today is a good day.

I Hate Academic Writing

There are two kinds of writing:

1. Technical writing: includes user's manuals, technical specifications, and research papers.
2. Academic writing: includes book reviews, opinion papers, and pretty much anything with a required length.

For the past two years, I've done nothing but the first. Now, I need to write a book review and I have made it half the length required. I now need to inject 2-3 pages of absolute bull before I can hand it in. Personally, I believe I am thorough enough, have covered enough topics, and have fulfilled all parts of the assignment except the length requirement. I hate that.

I even read the book! No cheating! I READ IT!!!! Do you know what that means?

It means that doing good work isn't what is required. I hate general courses.

Bad Day

This morning I woke up. Like every morning, my body didn't want to move. So, as I always do, I went through my schedule for the day:

• Finance
• Paper Writing
• Design Studio
• Team Time
• More Paper Writing

It was so disappointing that I had absolutely nothing to look forward to except to go to bed and have tomorrow come.

That was, until Stack told me about an Adult Swim event at Bricktop tonight at 10. Now I have something to look forward to and a reason to get my paper done sooner. Thanks, Stack!

Glorious Internet!

I got my ResNet connection port switched due to some connection issues, and now it works perfectly (so far). It got to the point where it was offline more than it was online, and that was unacceptable. Now I can live, work, and play without fear of cutouts. Oh happy day.

Blogger + ResNet = Angry Stolee

I just wrote a long post about new shows on Adult Swim and clicked "Publish Post" but my resnet connection dropped, blogger's javascript deleted the text, and now I have to write it again. Later.

Bragging Rights

Team GRRRIIIIIIIINNNDOOOOOOOOOOR! scored the #1 spot at the North Central ACM Regional Programming Contest with 6 problems. The other members of the team were Yuliy Pisetsky and Travis Meinders, two incredibly smart guys who rocked these problems.

This secures us a spot at the international competition in San Antonio this spring.

What a happy birthday I had...

Friday: Miscellany

There are a few things about today that are wonderful:

I'm a master procrastinator. I managed to finish half of my paper due today in my history class, an hour before it was due. I started last night, with a whole page, and another page this morning. I'm awesome.

I saw a picture of campus with snow cover. I want snow right now because it is really great.

Of course, by right now I mean after frisbee. Today is one of the last frisbee days to play outside.

Post Hoc

My finance professor had the most wonderful post hoc argument today.

"Your test scores matched pretty well with your quiz scores, so obviously the quizzes work to prepare you for the test."

The fact that people do equally well on poorly written quizzes and poorly written tests as they always do doesn't mean that taking the quizzes help people do better, they just do better. Period.

21 Soon

In two days I will be 21. I've been getting mentally prepared for the programming contest that day, but also excited for the bar crawl afterwards. It should be a good time, but I have two goals:

1. Don't die
2. Don't get arrested

Optional goals:
3. Don't puke
4. Don't get let Beermann take me to the Q

Goal #2 was inspired by my older brother Andrew, the drunken ninja.

All jokes aside, I'll be safe with lots of good friends (who will keep me from buying a single drink the whole night).