Morgantown, West Virginia

I travelled to Morgantown, West Virginia, with my dad for an insurance law seminar at West Virginia University. The scenery there is really nice.

Lots of rolling hills ...
and old houses tucked away in the woods
Before we left, we went to a big football game

Dayton, Ohio

Somewhere on our way to Dayton, Ohio (possibly in Richmond, Indiana) we saw quite a lot of smoke on the horizon.


I think we heard on the radio that there was a building on fire. It was pretty cool to see, but I hope everyone is ok.

On Saturday morning, we watched the Dayton Marathon. It started at 7:35 a.m. The starting line was near the Museum and it was a really nice morning. I overheard one runner say that everyone ran faster since the weather was so nice.
Part of the course went right by the hotel we stayed in, but it seemed like most of the course was on the Wright Patterson Air Force base and was off limits to civilians. After the start, we headed back to the hotel to see some more runners. Here are a few photos:

Later, we headed back to the finish line to see the first person finish. The first person to finish the marathon was in a wheel chair. After that several people that ran the half marathon showed up and a little later, the winner of the full marathon crossed. The first video is the wheel chair participant finishing, the second video is the winner of the half marathon, and the third video is the winner of the marathon.

It looked like several people from the air force base ran the marathon as well.
A lot of people had their kids with them when they crossed the finish line,
and some crossed the finish line alone.
Lots of planes flew overhead, (courtesy of the Wright Patterson Air Force Base).
It's always fun to watch marathons. Congratulations to all the participants. There wasn't much to do in Dayton, but we weren't anxious to start driving again, so we stayed there another night. On Sunday morning, we ate at FirstWatch Cafe. It was really delicious. I had a chickenchanga and almost ordered a second one since it was so good.

On the way home, we saw a giant candle in Centerville, Indiana, and decided to stop and check it out.
It was the Warm Glow Candle Company Outlet Store. Probably the biggest candle store I've ever seen.
It had some pretty good deals,
but I was a little bit concerned about this fire exit.
Luckily there weren't any fires that day.

Later, we stopped in Greenfield, Indiana to go to some antique shops. They were all really cool. I got an old book called, "Problems in General Science".

It was a good trip. I had a really good time.

Ron Paul

Nest above my door

Scratch

Movies

We saw Ocean's 13 last night. I thought it was really good. I'd recommend it to a friend.

Interesting Quote

Here is an interesting quote from Richard Bushman.

What questions does Mormonism answer? David Brooks had those interesting columns a few months ago about how people will die for meaning, and Charles Taylor was on the TV lately saying the spiritual questions are the big questions, which I think is very close to David's sense of meaning.

What Mormons really try to do is to offer a story – a story of human existence that begins in the world before and comes to this world. It answers the classic questions of whence, why, and where. It's not just something that stands above Mormons, but is imbued into their minds. It's related to the Christian story of fall and redemption, which is another story of the meaning of life, but it extends that story into the pre-mortal life and into eternities hereafter.

Over and over again, I talk to people who joined the church, and I say, why did you become a Mormon? And they say, it answered my questions. I don't know exactly what they mean by that, but there is a sense that their perplexities about life somehow were put to rest by what the Mormon missionaries told them.

You can find the entire text here.

Plant

Things that I really don't like today

1. The DMV

Ordinary post

I've posted a lot of pictures recently. I thought I'd just write an ordinary post instead. My good friend graduated from the U of I last week. At my friends graduation, Jawed Karim, the co-founder of YouTube, spoke at the ceremonies. I posted a few clips on YouTube. He gave a pretty good speech. I've been having some trouble getting my router to work--not sure what the problem is. I'm not sure if that is the correct use of the hyphen. I checked with wikipedia. It's the dash, not the hyphen, that I was actually looking for. They have a good example of how the hyphen and the dash are used:

The use of a hyphen where a dash is intended—especially when the intent is to interrupt rather than connect ideas—can confuse readers, since the word-connecting hyphen often conveys the exact opposite typographical meaning of the thought-separating long dash. wikipedia

I was not aware of that. And now I can go free, free from the prison walls that my hyphen-dash confusion had created and now bound only by the enigmatic semicolon.

Nest under my deck

Not sure what this bird is

Robin

www.panaramio.com

CAS Exam 3

I took another actuarial exam today. It was pretty hard, but I feel like I did slightly better than I did last time (which is good, because last time I just barely missed getting a passing score). Now that the exam is done with, that means I get to relax for the next 6 to 8 weeks until the results come out.

Small Bird

www.panaramio.com

Flowers

www.panaramio.com

Rabbit in the morning

A Rabbit

He just sat there for a really long time.

Unit Coin

I tutored a guy in Excel. He was home for two weeks before going back to Iraq. When I told him he didn't have to pay me, he gave me this coin as a gift.

American Tree Sparrow

Mourning Dove

Blades of Glory

We went and say Blades of Glory last night. I really liked it.

TMNT

We went and saw the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last night. I thougt it was pretty good. They have 50 cent bring your own bucket nights on tuesdays.

A bird doing some kind of shakey thing

Cricket

My neighbors are playing cricket in their backyard. I think they are from India. The dad and the son are taking turns pitching and batting. The mom and daughter are watching. Oh wait, the daughter is batting now too. How cute.

What are laws?

An interesting definition of laws:

they are guildelines created by (either small but powerful groups or the conscious of the public as determined by elected officals) filtered through a judge's broad goals of efficency, accuracy, and morals, (occasionally) skewed by the beliefs, opinions and moral outrage of 12 (supposedly) representative citizens, biased by two men who put aside any personal feelings and agrue to the last drop of blood, right to the ethical line for another individual who has to pay the cost -Dave Christensen

New Basketball

My beautiful wife got a new basketball today.

EGM Mystery

I have a subscription to EGM. It started about a year ago. It's a fun magazine to read. I'm not sure how I got it, but thanks to whomever I owe my gratitude.

Walk

We went on a great walk today.

Blood

I gave blood today.

www.panoramio.com

www.panoramio.com/a small church

It's pretty cool. It has pictures from all over the world.

From small churches to great pyramids.

http://www.panoramio.com/pyramids

Flickr

I posted this picture on the map for flickr.com, but it doesn't show up. If flickr doesn't make it show up soon, then I might just think about taking it back off. Then they'll see who's boss ... of this picture.

Nothing has ever been worth it as much as this

dude, I don't think that was actually a hamburger

I just want to see if "dude, I don't think that was actually a hamburger" shows up on Google.

Credit or Debit

My wife made a farting noise with my credit card. She didn't do it on purpose.

Snow 2

Snow

Big snow storm in Illinois yesterday.

Zelda

I beat zelda a couple nights ago. I got stuck at one part and my wife figured it out.

Update

I got married last month.  It's really nice.   

Happy New Year

It's the year of the darling little piggies, but we are still in dog territory until February the 17th.

I voted today.

another wii

more wii

Wii

embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-5201337519796860818&hl=en">

Coke

video.google.com

The sun is big

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060807.html

A little math humor

When it comes to sample variance ...

The two estimators only differ slightly as we see, and for larger values of the sample size n the difference is negligible. The second one is an unbiased estimator of the population variance, meaning that in a large number of repetitions its average value tends to the right value of the population variance. The first one may be seen as the variance of the sample considered as a population.

One common source of confusion is that the term sample variance may refer to either the unbiased estimator s2 of the population variance, or to the variance σ2 of the sample viewed as a finite population. Both can be used to estimate the true population variance. Apart from theoretical considerations, it doesn't really matter which one is used, as for small sample sizes both are inaccurate and for large values of n they are practically the same. Intuitively, computing the variance by dividing by n instead of n − 1 seems to underestimate the population variance. This is however not the case because we are using the sample mean \overline{y} as an estimate of the unknown population mean μ, and the raw counts of repeated elements in the sample instead of the unknown true probabilities.

In practice, for large n, the distinction is often a minor one. In the course of statistical measurements, sample sizes so small as to warrant the use of the unbiased variance virtually never occur. In this context Press et al.[1] commented that if the difference between n and n−1 ever matters to you, then you are probably up to no good anyway - e.g., trying to substantiate a questionable hypothesis with marginal data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variance

Numa Numa

There was a small tribute to this guy at Video Games live in Chicago last night.

From Jelle Van Dun in Europe

I like video games too.

Nothing to report

I'm sure a title like, "Nothing to report" isn't going to grab the attention of too many readers, but I'd hate to fill the world with the false hopes that would accompany such headlines as, "Incredible breakthrough in [something of interest]" or "New discovery in [your field of study]." So, while leaving such headlines and the stories worthy of them to the blogging professionals, I humbly share the information that I have.

First, I would like to recommend the JVC GZ-MC200 Digital Video Camera. It's the video camera I used to make the documentary on my snail. It's small, has 4 GB of memory, and can zoom in really far. It's really a lot of fun. If you use Economy quality recording, you can record over 5 hours of video, which was more than enough to cover the documentary of my 5 day vacation. Which brings me to my next recommendation.

I would like to recommend any car rental company except Hertz in the Salt Lake city area. The service is just too slow.

I would like to recommend sunscreen for obvious reasons. My post-lake activities were comfortable and pleasant thanks to about a half a bottle of SPF 45 sunblock.

My hat goes off to M. Night Shyamalan and "Lady in the water." The movie made me jump 4 or 5 times. Most of which were caused by simple things, like the sprinklers turning on. Coming home that night and being a little bit scared of my lawn is a wierd feeling as well. A movie with an entertaining yet simple plot that leaves you with something to ponder. I'd recommend it.

scottomoblog\command> Over and Out

Gary the Snail

Nothing exciting happens at the end. He is just a snail. I increased the speed to be four times the normal speed. This is the first time I've made a documentary on snails.

Baby Got Book

www.whiteboydj.com
video.google.com

Oh my goodness! Becky, look at her bible! It's so huge!
She looks like one of those preacher guy's girlfriends.
Well, who understands those preacher guys anyway?
They only talk to her because she looks like Mother Theresa. Ok!
But look at it, it's just huge. It's gross.
She just looks so ... righteous.

I like big bibles and I can not lie.
You christian brothers can't deny,
When a girl walks in with a KJV
and a bookmark in Proverbs you get stoked.

Got her name engraved,
So you know this girl is saved.
It looks like one of those large ones,
With plenty of space in the margins.

Oh Baby, I wanna read with ya,
Cause your bible's got pictures.
My minister tried to console me,
But that book you got makes me so holy.

Ooo Mama Mia,
You say you want koinonia
Well, bless me, bless me
And teach me about John Wesley

I saw her praying,
While I was DJing
She got grace ... pretty face
She ain't goin' down to the bad place

I'm tired of heathen guys
Sayin' they like pocket-size
Ask the average Christian to take a look
She's gotta pack much Book

So...Fellas (Yeah), fellas (Yeah)
Has your girlfriend got the Book (Oh yeah!)
Well, read it (Read it!), read it (Read it!), read that Holy Book
Baby got Book

Chorus
(NIV with a ribbon bookmark)
(NIV with a ribbon bookmark)
Baby got Book
(NIV with a ribbon bookmark)
(NIV with a ribbon bookmark)

I like 'em leather and bound
It's 50 pounds
I just can't understand
How it is, some weenie
Wants the Bible on CD
She wanna get you saved
Amen! Double up! A-men!

I ain't talkin' about a paraphrase
Cuz Paul wouldn't use those anyways
I like 'em real thick and red-lettered
You can't find nothin' better
Southpaw's in love
Bibles that big are unheard of

So I'm sittin' here thinkin' "What if...
I find me a girl that shows midriff?"
You can have those bimbos
I'll keep those chick that do devos
A word to the Christian sistas
I can't resist ya
I'll do God's time witcha
But I gotta be straight when I say I wanna pray
Til the break of day
Baby, got it goin' on
Like the wife in Proverbs 31

We just might get engaged
When we finish reading this page
Cuz it's worn and it's torn
And I know that girl's reborn

So ladies (yeah), ladies (yeah)
Do you wanna save people from Hades (yeah)
Then read it...'til the pages fall out
Even white preachers got to shout
Baby got Book

(Thompson Chain with big red letters)
(Thompson Chain with big red letters)
Baby got Book

Yeah baby
When it comes to a good book
Stephen King's resume just can't compare
39 + 27 = 66 books
And if you're Catholic ... there's even more

So your girlfriend quotes Bill Hybels
But does she got a big Bible?
Cuz that little things she's got won't start a revival
My Bible study don't want none,
Unless you got Book, Hon

...You can read Clancy or Grisham
But please don't loose this Book

Some brothers wanna play that hard role
And tell you that Book's too old
So they toss it and burn it
And I pull up quick to just learn it
So your girl likes paperback?
Well I ain't down with that
Cuz my girlfriend's hot her Bible's rockin'
And she's got good doctrine

To the atheist chicks who try to dis
You ain't it Miss Priss
Give me a Christian, I'm insistin'
And I'll greet her with some holy kissin'

Some pervert tried to chase
But he didn't make it past first base
She's quick to resist temptation
And she loves a new translation
So ladies who were lost and found
If you want the triple-six thrown down
Dial 1-800-reads-a-lot
And teach me about those Psalms
Baby got Book

(NIV with a ribbon bookmark)
(NIV with a ribbon bookmark)
Baby got Book
(Thompson Chain with big red letters)
(Thompson Chain with big red letters)

Bible college knowledge but she still got Book
Bible college knowledge but she still got Book
Bible college knowledge but she still got Book
Bible college knowledge but she still got Book

Whip.

America's Got Talent

After two jugglers finish their routine....
Judge: What's with the clothes?
Juggler: Uh, we thought it would be better with clothes.

Independence Day

http://managedmusic.com/launch.html

Superman Returns & Click

Both pretty good movies.

Nacho Libre

I saw Nacho Libre yesterday. It was really funny. I'd recommend it.

Lake of the Woods

I'm not much of an artist, but I thought I'd share this. It's in Mahomet.

Wiisonysoft

"strangely, the only thing Microsoft and Sony can seem to agree on is that the Nintendo Wii looks incredibly cool"

videogames.yahoo.com

Nouri al-Maliki

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2072321
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouri_al-Maliki

Nouri Kamel al-Maliki (Arabic: نوري كامل المالكي, transliterated Nūrī Kāmil al-Mālikī; born c. 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki, is the Prime Minister of Iraq.

He is a Shi'a Muslim, and is the deputy leader of the Islamic Dawa Party. He was appointed to succeed the transitional government of fellow Dawa leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

His 37-member Cabinet was approved by the National Assembly and sworn in on May 20, 2006. Al-Maliki's constitutional mandate will last until 2010. On April 26, 2006, al-Maliki's office announced that he would thenceforth use the first name Nouri instead of his pseudonym Jawad.

Baluga Bubble Rings

video.google.com
Wikipedia: Beluga

Beluga are highly sociable creatures. They move in pods which commonly contain animals of the same gender and age. Groups of males may number in the hundreds.

Belugas are slow-swimming mammals which feed mainly on fish. They also eat cephalopods (squid, octopus) and crustaceans (crab, shrimp). Foraging on the seabed typically takes place at depths of up to 1,000 feet, but they can dive at least twice this depth.

Beluga exhibit a wide range of vocalisations including clicks, squeaks, whistles, squarks and a bell-like clang. One noted researcher in the field likens a noisy Beluga pod to the string section of an orchestra tuning up before a concert. Researchers have recorded 50 distinct sounds; most in the range of 0.1 to 12 kHz.

Their main natural predators are polar bears, especially when the whales become encircled and trapped by ice. The Bears club the trapped whale with a paw and then drag it on ice for a feast. Beluga are easily small enough to also be a target for an orca.

-Wikipedia

Dance Dance 5 Year Old

video.google.com
This is really cool. I'm really impressed.

Elephants

http://www.EricHermanMusic.com

Kids' videos, I like kids' videos. I like the way that they help firefighters get to fires.

No, no, no. That's a fire truck.

Right, yes.

Birthday Card

My sister sent me this cool birthday card that turns into a fire truck. It came with stickers too.

State Farm

I just realized that I work for a Fortune 500 Company.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/states/I.html

The Last Supper

The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock. From left to right:

* Bartholomew, James the Lesser and Andrew form a group of three, all are surprised. Andrew holds both of his hands up in a "stop!" gesture.
* Judas Iscariot, Peter and John form another group of three. Judas is in shadow, looking rather withdrawn and taken aback by the sudden revelation of his plan. He is clutching a small bag of silver, given to him as payment to betray Jesus. Peter looks angry; perhaps foreshadowing Peter's reaction in Gethsemane. Peter is holding a knife, which is pointed away from Christ, also a foreshadowing of Peter's violent protection of Christ in Gethsemane. The youngest apostle, John, appears to swoon.
* Thomas, James Major and Philip are the next group of three. Thomas is clearly upset; James the Greater looks stunned, with his arms in the air. Meanwhile, Philip appears to be requesting some explanation.
* Matthew, Jude Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot are a part of the final group of three. Both Jude Thaddeus and Matthew are turned toward Simon, perhaps to find out if he has any answer to their initial questions.

These names are all agreed upon by art historians. In the 19th century, a manuscript (The Notebooks Leonardo Da Vinci pg. 232) was found with their names; before this only Judas, Peter, John and Jesus were positively identified.

www.wikipedia.com

The Last Supper

Riding a puma

This puma isn't as fast as the ones on tv.
www.pumas are fast.com

kids are funny

The Chasewood Children
video.google.com
I like the part where the one kid slow dances with girl in the blanket costume.
Does anyone want to re-enact this with me someday?

Tennis for Nintendo Wii

A reporter for Time played a demo of the game and loved it so much that Nintendo had to pry the controller from his hands, in his own words.

http://revolution.ign.com/articles/705/705554p1.html

Nintendo Dreams

I had a dream I was playing the new Nintendo Wii last night. It was pretty cool, and I didn't wake up until 11:00 a.m.

Feeling down

I did even worse on the actuarial exam than I expected. It's times like this I turn to the sound advice of a cowboy, a construction worker, an indian, a biker, a police officer, and a guy in the army ...



www.There's no need to feel down.com

E3

I can hardly wait!

How to make a cool Italian Scooter

The secret ingredient is singing. video.google.com

CAS Exam 3

I took a really hard test today. I'm kind of glad it's over, but I think I'm going to have to take in again in the fall. If you're interested, here is a sample exam. It's the one they offered last fall.

Some of the questions are a lot harder than others. There's a penalty for guessing, but I think I can get about 6 or 7 wrong and still have a chance of passing. They will decide the pass mark in a month or so.

This band.

Ok Go - "A million ways"

New Chairs

I bought new chairs for my kitchen table today. They look pretty sweet.

Brain Age update

Since I know every one is just dying to know how my Brain Age improvement is going, here's the run down:

Brain age: 24 (20 is the best)
Calculations x20: 15 seconds
Calculations x100: 73 seconds
Reading: 4.6 syllables/sec.
Low to High: 45 points
Syllable Count: 44 seconds
Head Count: 5/5
Triangle Math: 60 seconds

The last four exercises I should probably explain.

Low to High
This game shows you a grid of numbers for about 1 second. Then the numbers disappear and you have to tap the boxes in order starting with the box that had the lowest number and ending with the box that had the highest number.

Syllable Count
This games shows you a sentence and you have to count the number of syllables in the sentence and write down the number.

Head Count
It starts by showing you a certian number of people, then it covers them up with a house. Then people start randomly walking out of the house and randomly walking into the house. When it stops you have to write down how many people are in the house.

Triangle Math
This game shows you a triangle of numbers and plus signs. The first row has three numbers. The second row has two plus signs. The third row has two blank spots. The forth row has a plus. Your job is to add the first and second number in the top row to the second and third number in the top row. It looks something like this:

4 6 8
+ +
O O
+
O

So 4 + 6 is 10.
And 6 + 8 is 14.
10 + 14 is 24 and that's that answer you have to write down as quick as you can. It gets a little trickier when the have minus signs as well as plus signs.

Try this one:

6 7 4
+ +
O O
+
O

Did you get 24?

My First piece of Fan Mail !

Wow! My first piece of fan mail. I feel really cool. I need to get back out there and make more movies. My fans need me...

I have really enjoyed watch your magic show over and over again. I find it really funny and just very well done. I love that sense of humor. I guess one of the reasons I like the vid so much is the song used in it. If you might find some time to reply to this e-mail with the artist and name of the song I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

poprocz
aka Ronnie

www.Scott's Now-Famous Magic Show.com

Brain Age

So, I should be studying right now, but I have to write about a new game I got for my Nintendo DS because it's so fun. It's called "Brain Age" and I would recommend it to everyone.

Now, just because I'm a math guy doesn't mean only a math guy would find this fun, but one of the things you can do in "Brain Age" is see how fast you can do basic math problems. I think my record is 20 math problems in 16 seconds and 100 math problems in 99 seconds. I know, I know, I'm a little embarrassed - I definately need to improve.

All in all, it's a great game. Only $20. I'll keep you posted the more I play it.

Mice

www.google-oogle-oo.com/mice_videos.html

Red Steel

It has been confirmed that the game will be extremely immersive (e.g.: twisting the controller while handling the gun causes the gun to twist as well). Players can push objects to use them as cover by pushing the controller forward. Pulling the controller backwards reloads the gun. One can also lob grenades in a more realistic fashion, with underhand or overhand, employing the controller as the thing one 'throws'.

wikipedia - Red Steel

Dan

Happy Birthday!

I have no idea who this is, but I hope you have as much fun as she does.

qwantz

"MAN! I don't want to be the only dude with an embarrassing past. You must have something."

"One time I got a little lost while driving in a new town."

"That is so BARELY embarrassing."

Dinosaur Comics

"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God" 1 John 4:2

David Hasselhoff

www.David Hasselhoff is singing this song.com

www.And a kid sings along.com

Simpsons

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/thesimpsonsmovie/teaser/

Miyamoto

An interesting article about nintendo.

March Madness

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure there are Nine quintillion two hundred twenty three quadrillion three hundred seventy two trillion thirty six billion eight hundred fifty four million seven hundred seventy five thousand eight hundred and eight possible ways to fill out a bracket sheet for the NCAA Tournament.

For those of you who don't like to read long numbers, that's 9,223,372,036,854,775,808.

For those of you who don't like to look at long numbers, that's a lot of combinations.

For those of you who don't like to think about it, http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegebasketball

(I'm pretty sure that number is correct, if I'm wrong, please let me know where I made a mistake)

I wish I could draw good

video.google.com

More Zelda

video.google.com

Zelda

video.google.com

Mario

video.google.com

Jeff Ninneman and Jason Harmer

simpsons

www.IDon'tKnowWhereThisCameFrom.com

Zelda

"This [The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess] will be, without a doubt, the last Zelda game as you know it in its present form." (Shigeru Miyamoto, 2005)

N-Sider.com

At the end of the month you're another month older

I've gotten nothing special to report. It's just been a while and I wanted to post another blog.

A video from GoogleVideos:


For more information, visit www.fishbath.com!

Bills

My favorite bill is the water bill. It's a heck of a lot lower than all the other bills.