Saturday, January 31, 2009

Silent Lucidity

Thanks to the recently reactivated Princess Blogonoke for a really easy filler post that was very nearly fun.

Check out numbers 2, 4, 13, 16, and 20.

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Set your music library to shuffle on whatever player you use and write the name of the songs one after the other for each question. Leave it to chance, you'll be amazed!

1.) IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
Wonderwall (Paul Anka Swing Version)

2.) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Let's Misbehave (Elvis Costello - Delovely Soundtrack)

3.) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Lonesome Valley (The Fairfield Four - O Brother, Where Art Thou Soundtrack)

4.) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Old Man (Neil Young)

5.) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
In The Car (BNL)

6.) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (They Might Be Giants)

7.) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Blue (Yoko Kanno - Cowboy Bebop)

8.) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow (Instrumental) (John Hartford - O Brother, Where Art Thou)

9.) WHAT IS 2+2?
Why Can't This Be Love? (Van Halen)

10.) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Take It Easy (The Eagles)

11.) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Told You So (BNL)

12.) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
That Old Black Magic (James Darren)

13.) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Fantasies Come True (Avenue Q Soundtrack)

14.) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
And We Danced (The Hooters) We don't dance.... that is, I don't dance

15.) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
In The Name of Love (U2)

16.) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Lucky Ball and Chain (They Might Be Giants) Hilarious... too late now though

17.) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Gypsy's Kolo (Borat - Stereophonic Musical Listenings That Have Been Origin In Moving Film (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture))

18.) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Broken Wings (Mr. Mister) I'm apparently a sicko... with bad musical tastes

19.) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
I Turn To You (Melanie C) Who the f**k is Melanie C? What is this crap doing on my Ipod?

20.) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Goth Girls (MC Frontalot) Surprisingly accurate.

21.) WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Silent Lucidity (Queensryche)



Here's a version with my Ipod set to repeat instead of shuffle:
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Set your music library to shuffle on whatever player you use and write the name of the songs one after the other for each question. Leave it to chance, you'll be amazed!

1.) IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

2.) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

3.) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

4.) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

5.) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

6.) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

7.) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

8.) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

9.) WHAT IS 2+2?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

10.) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

11.) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

12.) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

13.) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

14.) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

15.) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

16.) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

17.) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

18.) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

19.) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

20.) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

21.) WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
F**k The Pain Away (Peaches)

Thursday, January 22, 2009

This is Why I Stick to Inland Lakes

Friday, January 16, 2009

Crosby Complains About... More Things

http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2008/12/13/crosby-calls-flyers-fans-vicious/
http://www.pensburgh.com/2009/1/15/725160/sidney-crosby-to-alex-ovec
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/95074-sidney-crosby-punk-of-the-nhl
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/16211/sidney_crosby_golden_boy_no_more
http://puckupdate.com/2009/01/06/will-crosby-find-his-own-wings/

It occurs to me today that the much ballyhooed Sidney Crosby (a.k.a. Cindy Crysby) of the Pittsburgh Penguins is The Great Gatsby of the hockey world.

I say that as both the hockey player and the book are much lauded as paragons of greatness by their respective establishments. And both the hockey player and the book seem to continually indulge in copious and petulant whining.

There is some justice in the world though:
1.) F. Scott Fitzgerald is dead.
2.) If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Penguins would be golfing.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

National Boundries and Labor

Will Wilkinson finally returned from vacationing in Thailand, being denied entry to Burma, and getting engaged, so that he might freeze his ass off in Iowa and blog for my amusement again.

See him beat the premise for Nationalistic Labor Protectionism with a rusty, blood-spattered, spiky cudgel and leave it for dead.

Ignore the fact that what I'm doing barely counts as blogging.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Playoff Beards Invade the NFL

I was wondering why Andy Reid was beginning to look a bit like Michael Moore.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090108_Shaggy_Eagles_fans_let_it_grow.html

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Challenge: Nerd Reference of the Arbitrary (Multi-rate) Time Period

What is this a reference to:
lO"$

Anyone who knows what it is without Googling it gets the coveted Sarcastic Weasel Big-Ol' Nerd Award.

A successful Google search answer deserves a Sarcastic Weasel Minor Nerd Prop (given the fact that the search term has a quotation mark in it).

A person successfully describing the above reference and guessing how it came to my attention (and who has an email address that I know) will win an actual, honest to God prize (not like all of the metaphorical prizes I've (not) given out in the past.

Disclaimer: The Sarcastic Weasel's judgments are arbitrary and life is unfair.

Monday, January 5, 2009

More Self-tuning Control, No Blogging

I am currently banging my head on some self-tuning control algorithms.

A popular approach is using recursive, multivariable least-squares (generally ARARX or ARMAX) to update the system parameters then there are a great many different techniques for updating the control feedback gains depending on your computational power and time horizon.

My problem is the recursive, multivariable least-squares algorithm. It's flipping complicated. In the adaptive control references, it tends to presented in pretty much the same manner as "Step 2" in the following (rather ubiquitous) cartoon:

I'll figure it out... (I hope)...

Messages of pity or of disdain are welcome in the comments section.