As I run to class sometimes, I almost always have my headphones in, listening to some sort of music. I’ll skip over slow songs (slow songs, slow feet). When it comes to Celtic music though, I speed up. This past Thursday, as I was dashing to Technical Communication, the Nova Scotia Set started playing. I literally felt like I was part of the opening of a movie, which is why the Nova Scotia Set is my song of the day.
Oh, and I made it to class two minutes early.
Children play in the park, they don’t know
I’m alone in the dark, even though
Time and time again I see your face smiling insideI’m so happy that you love me
Life is lovely when you’re near me
Tell me you will stay, make me smileLiving life is just a game so they say
All the games we used to play fade away
We may now enjoy the dreams we shared so long agoOh, my darling, got to have you
Feel the magic when I hold you
Cry sweet tears of joy, touch the skyNow I need you more than ever
No more crying…we’re together
Tell me you will stay, make me smile
We played this song in pep band the other day. I’ve played it maybe only once, and the flute part doesn’t do well on its own. With the band playing it though, it sounded so good, I got the track from iTunes. When I told my dad that I had been listening to the song, he seemed a little surprised…maybe it was because it’s from the late 70s.
Every now and then, I’ll go ahead and post a song that I’ve been listening to recently.
Here’s a few more basic Python things. For this one, you’ll need to import factorial from math.
def C(n, r):
return factorial(n)/(factorial(r)*factorial(n-r))
That one finds the number of ways to choose r things from n items (combinations)
This one gives you a Catalan number. Note that you need the above function.
def catalan(n):
return C(2*n, n) – C(2*n, n-1)
Again, real basic. This is how I study for tests though; write them out as functions. Trust me.
…but in the meantime, I made this short Python function that calculates elasticity for my Economics course using the midpoint formula.
def midpoint():
q1 = float(raw_input("Initial quantity: "))
q2 = float(raw_input("Changed quantity: "))
p1 = float(raw_input("Initial price: "))
p2 = float(raw_input("Changed price: "))
if(p1 == p2):
return "Perfectly Elastic Demand (Elasticity is infinite)"
answer = abs(((q2 – q1) / ((q2 + q1) / 2)) / ((p2 – p1) / ((p2 + p1) / 2)))
if(answer == 0):
result = "Perfectly Inelastic"
elif(answer < 1):
result = "Inelastic"
elif(answer == 1):
result = "Unit Elastic"
elif(answer > 1):
result = "Elastic"
result += " Demand (Elasticity is "+str(answer)+")"
print result
Enjoy!
EDIT: So the aforementioned real blog post is below this one. I started the one below as a draft, so it’s “publish” date was back in mid-January instead of the last day of January.
So a few things that have been going on this month!
I’ll start off with saying how much fun I had New Year’s Eve. After Christmas with my mom’s side of the family, went to Jenna’s. We watched On Golden Pond together, watched the rest of the Virginia Tech – Tennessee Chick-Fil-A game with her and her family. As the countdown to 2010 continued, I started thinking back on the year. I remember getting back to Woodies after the bowl game exhausted and frustrated with our team’s play. So much better this year. My flight home was on January 1st, but I’ll see Jenna again mid-March. Can it come sooner? I wish so.
So the bowl game…yeah…we didn’t quite do so well. Started off by going to Orlando and playing at Universal Studios and riding the rides for a day. The music roller coaster is awesome, Hulk was awesome, ET and Mummy…it was a good day! After that, we went to Ft. Lauderdale. First full day, we practiced at a local high school, then went and got food at All About Food (a favorite for our group), then went to the beach. The beach was pretty cold, but it was good fun, and Buzz was there! FanFest included our first glimpse of iowa’s band. They were in polos and shorts, which must’ve been chilly (then again, it was well warmer than they were used to). After we got back to the hotel, the band basically took over a nearby Italian restaurant.
GAMEDAY!!!!!!!!!!, we went to the ocean and enjoyed(?) the water. At 3, we left for the stadium. The policeman assigned to us was very amused by our cheering on every car that passed by. We played for the fans, played for the alumni on the other side of the stadium, then went into the tunnel to the field to wait for our turn to do pregame. After a few minutes, the Iowa band came in to join us. We started singing our various songs for other schools to each other, then they started the Gangbang song, which of course we started singing along with them. Good times! After they went out, we went out, I got by my new spot by Ana and Margaret, and we did pregame. The game itself was rather uneventful in the first half, save a Jerard Tarrant interception returned for a touchdown. During halftime though, Kool and the Gang performed, and I was able to get the following video…
Anyway, we did lose the game. Played the Horse and left. Next morning, we were to leave by 9, but the sax bus broke down…again. Finally left around noon, many people cranky, but we did make it back to Atlanta by 1am.
The next few days were filled with Mario Party, cooking (Julie and Kristen made pirogues and I made bread one night), and general relaxation. Good fun. On Sunday, I played along with Chu and one of the singers at Mass.
The first week of classes…Combinatorics looks like it’ll be better than the semester that I dropped it, User Interface Design is going to be a lot of work, Social Psychology will be relatively easy, Technical Communication will be a lot of writing, Research Methods will be a lot of time outside of class doing experiments, and Economics will be relatively easy as well. I was taking Stats and Prob instead of Economics at first, but taking two math classes in the same semester would be a bad idea and I could not understand the professor very well.
Oh, and Monday, we played Duke in basketball and WON. A few days ago, we played UNC in basketball and WON. Yet, after all these wins, I’m still wary about our team. I still have fresh memories of last year’s 12-17 season, our two ACC wins coming against Wake Forest in the regular season and Clemson in the ACC tournament.
To finish off the month, I have another awesome Little Brother! Thomas is a first-year trumpet, and my co-Big is Anna.
My family is growing too; my first Little Brother (Amanda) has a Little Sister!
So I went through Facebook, looking at all the statuses I’ve posted in the past year. Here are a sampling of them in chronological order.
Chris Forrence has had a bad week…but that was 2008! Happy New Year’s! Nightswimming deserves a quiet night! Congratulations Julie Cecilia on being Confirmed and the GT Hockey team on a win over climpsun! As I pass her by, I could see her cry. I heard a plea for Sherman’s return to Atlanta. I’m probably Audiosurfing. They’re playing a commissioned John Williams piece! I love OIT! I have an awesome Little Brother! Visiting the MOSES lab tomorrow! Watched the Jackets win! Watched the Steelers win! I believe in skies forever blue, why shouldn’t I believe the same in you? Ruckus died!? I want to dance. My hard drive is dying. I’m gonna be a mentor for next year! I don’t have a tie to wear to your affair. Rising from ashes to create ourselves anew. Congratulations Snowday Class! Nyquil isn’t working. Narwhals Narwhals swimming in the ocean! Business class on Airtran U! I got stared down by a second-grader. I’m switching majors to ME. April Fools! THUNDER AND LIGHTNING! SED! GAC! Turn straight! TOE-MAY-TOE! I can’t swing dance very well. Puff the Fractal Dragon was written in C. Streakers in the library. Great presentation! C in Physics! Home! Helped Alex study for AP US. Three days of dreaming of Tech. Alex didn’t change the oil at all during the school year!? My computer parts are coming! They came! French Open final guy who ran onto the court is an idiot! Finances and work. I’m going for a run. Sunburnt, but had a great jog/walk, along with great talking! Chris is in a relationship with Jenna Hoffman! Amazing day, amazing day, amazing day! Now I’m sick. Everyone died. :D. Fireworks! Carnival with Jenna! Rob is a gentleman and a scholar! Mailserver. Western Maryland for Jess’s wedding! And I smile what a wonderful life! Fantasy Football draft! Apartment is Coruscant Tweet Star. Leaving for Atlanta! Welcome to Atlanta! Band camp! I got adopted! I got adopted! Campanile fountain is going! Dwarfing! Teehee…RAT poison. Classes. Swine flu? Mentor group! Caught a football but broke my piccolo. MVAs. Three months! Swine flu. Phone call from Mr. Cree? HOLY THAT WAS WAY TOO CLOSE!! Punch the rain droplets to prevent boredom! Chuck Norris is afraid of one man: Coach Paul Johnson. Damn good VET! Damn good RAT! Damn good RAT! I got to see Jenna today! Frederick In The Streets! I’m on a bus! Surround sounds! ALL THE WAY TURNT UP! Got a hat from an alum, rode in the back of Kevin Lindsay’s pickup, played O-line, saw a Stingerette get towed, saw the Mystery Machine running on campus! Why T-Square? I got my bag signed by the volleyball team! Broken printer. Fixed printer! Brunch, Vandy. I’m just trashy! I think Father Tim used a sports simile to compare CPJ to God. Topher <3 Jenna! Rockapella! Rest in peace Fr. Murphy. Five months! Time to rock this test! Wasn’t the New Moon a few days ago? Ton of music from Julie! Skype with the family! I has a T on my head. Rest in peace, Woody. Flapjacks on Monday! Pasta on Monday! Midnight Bud! Done finals, now to the airport! What a wonderful life! Six months! Smalltalk again! Sally Cotter and the Censored Stone! Snow? Snow! SNOW!!! Welcome to Atlanta for the BYU-Oregon State game? Happy birthday Jesus! Cooked a great dinner for Jenna! Now to spend an evening with Jenna! Happy New Years Eve!
See y’all, faithful blog readers (all seven of you), in 2010!
Hark! The herald angels sing “Glory to the newborn King!”
To all of my dear readers, have a wonderful Christmas!
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Well, I’ve finally got Windows 7 on my laptop! I’m trying out the Windows Live Writer thing, which basically lets me do blog posts from outside the website in a WYSIWYG UI. So far, so good.
Oh, and chrisforrence.com is finally usable. Hurrah! |
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/21/cyber.challenge.hackers/index.html
There are two ways I can see the reasoning behind a contest such as this. The first? An easy way for the feds to identify any hackers so that they can track them. The second is to identify any hackers so they can help contribute to keeping the United States secure from cyberattacks. Certainly a great strategy, and one that most 17-year-olds would like; they get the chance to work for the government doing something they like doing. Winning strategy all around.
Well, I’ve got a few projects that I should work on this break.
Of these, the flowchart for graduation is the most intriguing. Basically, a student would be able to login, get their data pulled in from OSCAR and be able to see which courses they need to graduate. Speaking as a third-year, this would be handy since I theoretically only have three semesters left, and only two left to schedule. Busy times!
Anyways, when I get a working version (or any version) up, I’ll upload it to somewhere on the site.
Oh, and I’ve got Heartland by Celtic Thunder stuck in my head.