Kyle->GetThoughts();

21 April 2007 @ 02:15 PM MST

Current Music: Mika - Lollipop
Current Mood: Good

This morning Courtney and I went to the Tulip Festival at the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It was really neat. They have 55 acres of gardens which were covered in Tulips. Bridges, streams, fountains, large expanses of green, green grass... it was nice. AND there was a guy from Segway there promoting that they will begin renting Segways to visitors at the end of the month. So we got to ride those a little for fun.

Tulip_1

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18 April 2007 @ 07:53 PM MST

Current Music: Anything
Current Mood: Ecstatic

We're going to call her Chloe for a bit and see how it feels. Thanks to Josh for coming up with the name.

Note: The car is dirty because I drove it home from the dealer in a heavy snowstorm. I have since cleaned it. It looks very pretty clean, and shiny.

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9 April 2007 @ 09:58 PM MST

Current Music: Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark
Current Mood: Good

So I've done the algebra for this little equation about 6 times in the last year, so I figured I'd put it here so I won't have to do it again, and so anyone else in the world can get it, since I haven't been able to find it online.

Suppose you need to calculate an average value; but it's the average of A LOT of values, so many that you can't just add them all up and divide because round-off errors will hurt if you keep multiplying up a huge number every time. You can keep a running average. One benefit is that you have the average of all values so far seen at every step of the way, and you never need to calculate a really big number, you do have to keep track of the number of values already entered, but that's simple enough:

new_ave = cur_ave - (cur_ave / num_vals) + (new_val / num_vals)
-- where num_vals = the number of values input including the new_val

Example:
For values 1, 3, 8, 4
0 - (0/1) + (1/1) = 1
1 - (1/2) + (3/2) = 2
2 - (2/3) + (8/3) = 4
4 - (4/4) + (4/4) = 4

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6 April 2007 @ 01:24 AM MST

Current Music: Pat Benatar - We Belong
Current Mood: Good

I've spent the week working on my History of Creativity Project: The Backwards Chef. I used to be hosting it on Mike's machine, but due to some difficulties I am currently hosting it on Brady's machine (many thanks to Brady for setting that up for me on such short notice). It is now effectively working. You can add recipes, browse, or search. I will be working on it more during the summer when I have time.

During Spring term I will be a TA for CS252. This is a little ironic, as the lowest grade I've received in a CS class was this one (B). So I guess I'll actually get to learn the material this time. I'm looking forward to the experience, as my boss wants it to be more of a mentor position than a grading position. So I'll go to class and we'll split up the students and each work with a group of them. I think it will be a really good chance to see if I like the idea of teaching or not.

I will also be working on my Master's Thesis work during the other 20 hours a week in which I get to work. I'm excited, and so is my soon-to-be new boss. Only a few short weeks and I will have graduated, crazy.

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