Facts of life

After Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says W T F.

_{(yes, it's been one of those weeks already)}

VW is officially my favoritest car company EVAH!!!

Evidence the first:


Evidence the second:


I do believe that's all that needs to be said right there.

An education in math

So, I was helping the middle girl child with her maths homework this evening. They are apparently working on ratios. After a few false starts, she seemed to have the hang of it.

Now, keep in mind these units aren't quite multiple-choice, but they are of the "solve the equation to get an answer, then write the question "letter" next to the answer in the grid" type, where you 'decode' a sentence or what-have-you. If you have kids, you know exactly of whence I speak. If you don't, drop to your knees and praise God for your good fortune. (I jest [partially]).

So, anyways. I'm doing "me stuff" and she's doing homework, and she comes to me with a "problem".

Her: "I have two answers that are the same. Which one do I write down in the grid?"
Me: "Are they really the same? Let me see."
Her: "Here, see, these are both 1/2!!!"
Me: "Are you sure? How many stars are there?"
Her: "6"
Me: "How many total shapes are there?"
Her: "Oh, um, well, never mind."
Me: "Isn't math fun?!?!?"
Her: "No, not really."
Me: "It pays the bills."
Her: "But paying bills isn't fun."
Me: "Not being able to pay the bills is even less fun."
Her: "Ohhhhhhhhhh. . . . . . . "

My lesson here is done.

It ain't bragging if you can do it

Last November, Borepatch (you do read him every day, right?) linked to some examples of "Flight of the Bumblebee".

As he said at the time:

It's insanely complicated, to the point that it is an irresistible challenge to musicians of all types.  If you need to prove your musical chops, this is the one to dust off.  The original score is for flute, and the lovely and quite-the-flautist Mrs. Borepatch can actually play this.  Yes, she's that good.  But other instrumentalists pick up this gauntlet, too[.]

Yes, other instrumentalists do indeed pick up this gauntlet. In fact, the officials at Guinness World Records apparently got so tired of aspiring guitarists bucking for the title of "World's Fastest" by flailing away on one note over and over, they chose this work as the competition piece. Want to be named "World's Fastest Guitarist", best be prepared to play some "Bumblebee".

Oh, and you'd best be faster than 600 beats per minute, without missing a note.

Yes, you read that right.

600 beats per minute.

Without making a single error.



(h/t to Wired magazine)

The original point-and-click interface

(h/t to Gun Holsters Unlimited)

Something to meditate on

Serendipitous Facebook is serendipitous.

First, a friend posts the following image, which made me chuckle:

Honestly, my first thought was "they didn't delete their cookies!!!".

Yeah, I'm a geek.

Then, not 5 minutes later, another friend posts this:

Yeah, I LOL'd.

A lot.