Monday, January 31, 2011

Monday: Flurry on the lap

Flurry is still sitting on my lap on a regular basis. Tonight she started out like this:

and then ended up like this:

She was a little bit more to the left than normal, so she kept trying to head-butt my arm out of the way.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sunday: dimes or quarters?

The pregnancy center in our area has an interesting fundraiser. Every year they give a bunch of baby bottles to churches and then members take them home and fill them will change (or dollars). It's a nice way to get rid of the spare change that we've accumulated during the year and help out the organization.

While I was putting coins in, I noticed that the dimes felt so much smaller than the quarters. It made me wonder: would it be better to put only dimes in the baby bottles or only quarters? My guess is quarters. But what if weight is a factor? Then would it be better to do dimes or quarters?

So off to do some math. But I started out at the US Mint, where they give handy facts about the coins. (If you don't care about the math, you can go to the end for the tl;dr) (Too long; didn't read)

A dime has a volume of 340.0964 mm^3.

So lets see what a quarter's volume would be if it were equal to that of a dime:
340.0964 mm^3/dime * 2.5 dimes/quarters = 850.241 mm^3

A quarter has an actual volume of 808.9035 mm^3, so if space were perfectly utilized, quarters would be better to put in the baby bottle.

But you can't fill up the baby bottle perfectly, so this becomes a packing problem. I think the baby bottle was about 2" in diameter. We'll estimate that you can get three quarters per row (you can't quite get three flat quarters, but if you put some in vertically it is probably close). We will estimate that you can get seven dimes per layer. If the baby bottle was 35mm (7" tall), we would get 331 dimes or 184 quarters in the bottle. Oh, quarters won again with $46 to $33 for dimes.

However, the bottle of quarters would be about 25% heavier than the one of dimes.

tl;dr
If people want you to fill up a baby bottle with coins, putting only quarters in the bottle would be better than putting in only dimes. My hypothesis was correct.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Saturday: 1000!

Happy 1000th post! How exciting!

Since no one gave me any ideas on what to do for a 1000th post earlier, I came up with an idea on my own. It's rather geeky.

I did a word analysis. I'm not guaranteeing that it is perfect, but I think it is close enough to be accurate.

First: the words I used most often were "the" (1378), "I" (1212), and "a"(1014). Below is a pie chart showing how often words were used. I was surprised that I had only written so many words only once. It seems like I often write about the same things, so I would have thought that the 1x would have been much smaller.
Ben got mentioned 129 times, Flurry 77 times, and Dad 28 time. I thought Flurry would have been written more often.

Here is the number of words per post.
The highest one is 848 words. I average 96 words per post. Per a linear trendline, I am slightly increasing in words per day.

Here's to another 1000 posts!

Saturday: yuck

I haven't been feeling great this last week. Well, I guess I've only been feeling about 98%...not enough to normally complain about it, but enough to be annoyed. My stomach is off. While I can hope it's because I'm pregnant, it's more likely my body getting itself straightened out or stress. Especailly because it started I think before my body would even know I'm pregnant.

I remember not having happy periods before I went on the Pill (although I don't remember it starting this early in the cycle either). I am not looking forward to dealing with a few months of them.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Friday: I'm back

I'm back! Sorry I didn't post for a few days.

Tonight I went to a women's praise and worship service at church. It was nice to take some time to go and spend with God.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tuesday: five question friday

It's Five Question Friday again!

1. Where did you meet your spouse and did you instantly know it was love?
We met at college. The first time we met we barely acknowledged each other...we were just lab partners. That summer we met again and started hanging out more.

2. What is your favorite room in your house?
What an interesting question. I'm not sure I have a favorite room. I'm not really a fan of the basement though because there's no carpet and my feet get cold.

3. Can you wiggle your ears?
Yes. It was a talent I discovered after getting glasses.

4. What is your evening ritual?
I get ready for bed and then read/play iPad games for a bit until it's time to go to sleep.

5. How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
I think I need about seven between sleeping and naps to be happy. It's been a while since I have had less than that.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Monday: today

Nothing of note happened today. So I'll give you a story from yesterday.

NPR announcer: "Today we have with us Melissa. Melissa, I hear that today is Pi day."
Melissa: "That is correct..."

Amanda (thinking): "Pi Day? Wait, what month is it? It's January. Pi day is in March. It's not March, is it?"
Amanda (still thinking): "Oh, they mean pies. Seriously, they put pie day on the wrong day."