Let's Get Brainwashed.

I am off to the airport. This week was much more manageable. I felt like things I learned stuck in my brain, so I was able to follow along. I was a little frustrated at times with the guy sitting next to me. I got through another 3 presentations. And I had a fun night out (I have to remember to focus on that part, and not the miserable day after).

Next month is the last time!

I am still suffering from last night's drunken parade. I went with the ladies for sushi, and there we drank a ton of wine. I think it worked out to be about 1 bottle per person. I became somewhat of a comedian, and had them laughing like crazy. And then I suggested a trip to another bar, where we had even more bottles of wine. And then we went dancing. At The Library. It's quite a workout to be the only male trying to dance with so many ladies. I kept laughing - it was so funny to be dancing with married women. And the way we danced! There was a lot of grinding and rubbing.

Then, we started going back to the hotel, but two of them decided to keep dancing. So of course I went back. More sexy dancing and putting those college kids to shame. We were there very, very late.

So yeah, this morning....sucked. I could barely move. I considered not going to my class, but it wouldn't have been wise. They probably would have started looking for me. That would have been embarrassing. When I had my first 15-minute break, I came upstairs and took a 10-minute nap. I really needed sleep, and just....time. Lots of time to recover. I skipped lunch, and instead went to sleep. I felt so much better after that. The headache comes back every so often. I have not left the hotel today. I ordered room service for dinner.

Oh, and this morning the girls had to tell the other girls what they did last night, so within 1 hour everyone knew about me and my dancing shoes. The guys teased me all day about it. The interesting thing, though, is that I received a lot of invitations to dinner tonight. I had to pass, though, and they understood why.

Labels: babes, books, booze

Wow what a silly night. Some of the ladies who wore sweaters in the previous motnhs invited me out/



More later.

This sounds like such a fun book, and would be even better in a class. Look at some of the assignments!


Website here.

What do you think of my new t-shirt? I bought it tonight after having a falafel at the student union for dinner.

I think Pr0k0fiev's sonata no.7 appropriately matches my mindset here.

I made a small file of it using a detuned Rhodes sound. This is just the opening of the piece. I LOVE it. In order for you to love it too, you must listen to it several times to get a sense of what it's like.

Here it is: AGH!

Labels: loose marbles, music

"Conducting a hypothesis test is analogous to a prosecuting attorney trying a case in a court of law. The objective of the attorney is to collect and present enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant is guilty."

Labels: jury duty

This afternoon we studied hypothesis testing. In some ways it sounds so basic, but the method of getting the answer is rather involved.

For example:

You want to know if something made a change or not. So you have two statements:

There was no change.
There was a change.

You could take a guess, but why do that? Let's make some signal noise for numbers! Conceptually, all hypothesis tests are the same in that a signal (lambda)-to-noise (sigma) ratio is calculated (lambda/sigma) based on the before and after data. This ratio is converted into a probability, called the p-value. So now, calculate the p-value and compare it to the alpha. (The alpha is usually 0.05).

If:

p-value < alpha, go with statement 2 (there was a change).
p-value >= alpha, go with statement 1 (there was no change).

But only do this if your confidence level is 95% or higher.*


*Confidence levels depend upon each situation's set of circumstances. 95% is only a guideline.

Labels: loose marbles

We will be talking about data analysis of variations. Doesn't that sound grand? I have been interested in applying some of these statistical studies to other fields, such as literature. There was an interesting book I read called Graphs, Maps, and Trees, in which the author - an English literature professor of Stanford - graphed out the various genres of novels. It was really interesting. I think I could work with him and apply my new education. What a team!

That's how new fields can be forged. Apply techniques from one field to another. Can you think of any other things like that? How did we get the social sciences? Applying scientific methods to people?

Let's change the world!

Labels: on the brink of insanity

So, a funny thing happened when I got to the hotel. I was the first off the shuttle bus, and was the first into the lobby. There was a man already at the counter, and he was waiving around some piece of paper with a drawing on it.

It looked like a child's sketch of a hundred dollar bill.

And the man was asking the front desk clerk to cash it! The clerk was very calm, and said he couldn't. And then the man asked if his reservation was in the system. But it wasn't under his own name. It was under Tupac Shakur, and the reservation had been placed by his friend George Bush.

The clerk actually went along with this and checked the computer. "No reservation for Tupac," he said, and the man snatched the drawing off the counter and went outside. As I approached the counter, we could hear the man scream: "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKK."

It was so strange! The clerk confided that he thought it was a prank for TV or something. I agreed, even though I knew a TV crew for a show like that would never come down to this city to pull a prank on a hotel clerk on a Sunday night. It's just too expensive. And - the terror alert probably prevents them from doing so much business travel.

Dear gentle reader:
Please forgive me for not posting much during week 3. It was a tough week, and almost brainwashed me. It had some hefty doses, and I nearly lost it. I feel much better, now that I have had a month off. I have been told that week 4 is even more intense, so I will try to stay calm throughout it.

It may please you all to note that I have applied for 3 jobs since I started attending this training. Although not one has panned out, the motivation is there to find something new. In the meantime, I will go along with the training, and try not to have thoughts of hitchhiking back home.