- Why does Massmotion run faster on my laptop than the lab computers with 12GB of RAM?
- Why do my VIP customers interpret "prefer token" as "THIS IS THE ONLY SERVER WHERE YOU'LL GET VIP TREATMENT GUIZE"?
- Why do ALL the customers jump over the barriers?
- How do I turn off the escalator and force the users to evacuate through the stairs?
- What does the alembic do?
- Why doesn't this simulation reflect real life?????

- I was invited to the staff holiday party! That will be fun :) Unfortunately this is right before my urban ops final. So I will manage my time tyrannically.

- I volunteered to rebut arguments in the transport planning debates. Haven't been in a debate in years. Ying says she knew I'd volunteer to do that. Thanks, Ying.

- Tomorrow's quiz on matrices and finite differences is going to be so much fun to mark.

- Karen is WRONG about statics but I can't tell her so because it'd make Justin look bad.

I didn't see the lunar eclipse because it was cloudy.

I did see a little asian kid, about four, with a mohawk, pee on a tree in the park.

This was not an acceptable substitute.

--

Maybe going dogsledding in the winter...

Terrible Doctors Are Uploading Selfies Taken Next to Women's Vaginas During Childbirth

Another reason that I don't want kids.

.., to mention nothing of the "husband stitch"...

--

Just finished my first silver solo! With a kroguard, using incendiary ammo on a Reegar, shield booster, a cyclonic mod, shotgun rail amp, and incendiary ammo. Lol. In my defence, the cyclonic and incendiary ammo consumables were both Level 1. On the other hand it was still really stressful. I wouldn't have done it if not for the solo challenge, and I still need 2 silver runs and 2 gold runs to complete this. I am nowhere near ready to attempt a gold solo. But I might try a different character for my other two silver runs - maybe the geth trooper? Or the Batarian soldier?

Comparing this with my Drell infiltrator attempt two weeks ago, my drell died getting shot in the back when kiting enemies... obviously, this is not a problem for the kroguard. And being able to withstand fire to kill things in between power cooldowns helps tremendously.

--

My first geocache has been submitted! It's a 3/3 puzzle cache. I did tote a ladder into the park to suss out other potential hiding places, but settled on a coniferous tree, fairly easy to climb, with a very secure twig to anchor the cache at the top. The puzzle itself is relatively complex, but not elegant. Did you know there's a bylaw that says you can't climb trees in Toronto parks?

I hope the regional reviewers approve and publish it soon! 

On Saturday:
I dreamed I was in French, with my 4YDP group, being taught by Ms Hermann from grade 7/8, except she was having an off-day so we played French Cards Against Humanity and ate pastries instead. The classroom was a shack across from a swanky stationary shop where I worked in a previous dream. Then the next class consisted of a fashion show organized by a man with a moustache, as blue light filtered through the huge aquarium behind him.

On Sunday:
Sirens (or harpies?) caused a man and a woman in Regency garb to jump over the railing on the ship deck, landing on meat hooks at the bottom of the ocean, where they started rotting. They looked normal from the front but at the back they were bloated and their skin was blackened and peeling. Thanks, Internet. I really needed to know how dead bodies looked so I could flesh out the details in my dreams.

---

I think that, despite (because of?) being kind of ghetto-ish, Flemo/Thorncliffe is one of my favourite neighbourhoods in the city.

1) It's next to the valley. It's pretty. There are trees. I like looking at the dimension of it. Kind of like Sven: once you hit that other chicks just seem flat.

Until I visit BC or San Fran, at least.

2) I don't want kids of my own but Flemo is crawling with them and it adds vibrancy to the neighbourhood. Flemo is like Milliken, except on drugs, since people in Milliken are getting older, whereas in Flemo you don't get old... I think you just get out.

3) Fine, it's not next to a subway or anything, but the bus service is okay. Because it's a dense area.

Only slightly disturbing. Originally written in gchat at work. Edited perfunctorily for basic spelling and grammar.

( slightly disturbing )

I dreamed I married a slim girl in a small boat floating down a nice river, much like the one in the Lady of Shalott painting, except that nobody was dying. Now that I think about it, she might have been Persephone, or Eurydice. Ahead of me was another boat where someone else, presumably a buddy, was also getting married. We jumped through a hole in the fence into a small clearing, like the one behind 221's old apartment. She disappeared and I entered Hera's Garden, where the buds on bushes bloomed and died in the span of a few seconds as I walked past them. Then I found a supermarket selling nothing except processed foods like cereal bars and little pouches of trail mix. Obviously I couldn't help myself. I ate four cereal bars before finding the produce section, and realized I shouldn't have eaten the cereal bars in the first place. 

Hera terrifies me.

Then there was this thing with alpacas that looked like Jacob Black, dragging takeout trays like chariots. The race course was two laps around the Agnes Macphail P.S. yard - like I used to do in k-club. Obviously the alpaca-powered vehicles lost.

This message is brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood wifi. Thank you, WEP encryption!

It's been a very pleasant and uneventful break, filled by the first four/six discs of the X-Files (Season One). Nothing else I can say :)

Uncomfortable conversations with my parents that I am not looking forward to

• "Oh, those condoms in my purse."
• "What is this rubber cup used for?"
• "I'm moving out. Like, permanently."
• "I'm moving out of the province."
• "Oh is that the police at the door? Hide my laptop and call a lawyer, please."
• "This is Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot, who you've heard about but was never discussed in great detail due to great fear and procrastination on my part. We're engaged."

1. I dreamed I was either Beyonce undergoing a messy divorce. In the Queen of Heart's garden, I manipulated reality by assembling a 3-D puzzle. 

2. Then I was in CHERUB basic training, but in the Banting and Best P.S portables. In the books basic training is said to be hell but... no.

I am vaguely and inexplicably angry at the world. 

Was it "glingers" on Regretsy (google that)? Learning what an anal prolapse was right before studying stats (don't google it)? Having to study stats at all? 

*
( hindsight )
*

Four rhyming couplets (January 2007).

A life is short for morning glories -
The moonlight marks their end of stories.

Ah, sweetest lily from the valley mire
A gilt of gold would dim thy beauty's fire!

How calm and tranquil, munching green bamboo
The giant panda takes its time to chew.

Fluttering rainbow in a jelly jar - 
Each moment adds another scar.

NO EXCUSE FOR THIS PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR IAMBIC PENTAMETER. NONE AT ALL

Alright. So. I feel a little bit inspired right now. Being mentally unable to force myself to study structures (seen too much of it), stats (I'm serious, there's nothing there) and econ (pretty much caught up now, plus :(  open book) and just plain unwilling to shower or do laundry I am going to attempt to bastardize some theory in order to address this post on Reddit. It reminded me of one of the things you said during one of the previous conversations we've had, YST, and I hope you recall it too because it means that someone is reading this :D

---

Assumptions 
Given a sample population P, consisting purely of heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual males and females.
Let bisexual= a 3 on the kinsey scale, i.e. 50/50 for the math. 
Assume that 90% of a population is heterosexual, 7% is bisexual, and 3% is homosexual (proportions approximated from wikipedia)
Assume 10% chance of success with someone of compatible orientation, for the sake of calculations.
Let number of females = number of males.
Assume gaydar does not exist, depression and desperation is equally distributed among groups. 

Calculations
Probability that a person will experience homosexual attraction - 10%
Probability that a person will experience heterosexual attraction - 97%

The pool of attractive people is the portion of the population that a subject could fined potentially attractive, based purely on biological criteria for simplicity.
Pool of attractive people for a heterosexual person - 0.5P
Pool of attractive people for a bisexual person - 1.0P
Pool of attractive  people for a homosexual person - 0.5P

The compatible pool is a subset of the attractive pool that could potentially find the subject attractive, based purely on biological criteria for simplicity.
Pool of compatible people for a heterosexual person - 0.485P
Pool of compatible people for a bisexual person - 0.535P
Pool of compatible people for a homosexual person - 0.05P

Overall success rate is calculated as (attempt success rate*compatible/attractive)
Overall success rate for a heterosexual person - 9.7%
Overall success rate for a bisexual person - 5.35%
Overall success rate for a homosexual person - 0.5%

For reference, an asexual person has a attractive pool of 0.0, a compatible pool of 0.0, and a success rate of 100%.
A foreveralone has an attractive pool of >=0.0, a compatible pool of >=0.0, and a success rate of 0.0%. 

---

Ok. Now we will attempt to apply Methods of Economic Analysis onto the poor dataset. But we can't. 

People in general aren't looking to maximize their bedpost notches. Eventually they start looking for The One. Once they have found The One, they will stop looking. Assume that The One can be found after an average of ten successes. Nobody is reading this. A person will want to find The One in the minimum possible time. Therefore it is easier when the success rate is higher. The heterosexual subject clearly has a statistical edge using this method, as well as in reality. Statistically speaking, of course.

(Whenever people in rom coms talk about finding The One I think, "Mr. Anderson to aisle six, Mr. Anderson to aisle six." Poor Neo.)

On the other hand The Economic Methods favours maximum bedpost notches, until diminishing returns kicks in hard enough. The bisexual subject has a slightly larger pool of compatible people than the heterosexual subject and thus a larger potential number of successes. This is also at a significantly lower success rate.

I could also try evaluating the alternatives by putting a cost on every attempt made, every rejected attempt, every successful attempt, finding The One, and so on, but, no.

Final point - according to the numbers the homosexual subject gets the crappy end of the stick, having the lowest statistical success rate and compatibility pool. If gaydar exists in real life, then this is why.

---

For 221 and sunshine - it was mentioned either on Friday or Saturday that one could prevent oneself from falling for another, or effect damage control and stuff. So, this is part of the thread linked above, approaching another side - is it possible to, through determination, allow oneself to be attracted to someone who would normally be found nonattractive for whatever reason? (I agree somewhat with some of the comments.) 

And for anyone else, the video mentioned, since the ad site is down.