Lessons from a bad drink order.

So, here is another post for the least viewed blog of mine. In fact, not a single person viewed the last post I made...

That said, the other blogs, (especially Today I Learned), are doing *very* well. And this is a personal blog anyway, it's not supposed to be the interesting.

So, what inspired me to post today?

A crappy drink order, at Quickly in De Anza.
I have no problem at all with the store, I have had some good food and drinks there. But I have re-learned two lessons from this drink.

1.  If you order something you have never ordered before, *never* get it in Large...
2. If you order something large, you *will* force yourself to drink it all, no matter how sick it makes you. (This one may only apply to me)

The drink, if your wondering. Is Mango flavored milk tea, with mango stars and perls.

Disgusting....

Now, I think I'm going to share this post, so I feel loved by people clicking the link out of pitty.

Some memories for u413.

I've decided to write the title after writing this post.

So, as some of you know, the geek site u413 went down, and so PiMaster took up the job of trying to rebuild it. He wants to do it in python, and is using cgi. Here is the github, for those interested.

Anyway, I have been trying to help. And have been put off by a few things. One is cgi, another is a bit of the way the code works. (which me and pi are working on fixing).

But most of all, I'm having trouble fully remembering python, and not just that. Mysql too.
I'm sure it will come back to me, but I would like it to be sooner rather then later, considering I would like to help pi put u413 up.

At least, until I can start working on my own site, TheLibrary. Which as of now is just in my brain. But possibly will be a project when I have time.

Until then, I will work on C.

Keeping with the rhythm.

Class in 30 minutes, I think I got time for a post.

School has been going decently well, I'll need an extension on the C assignment I have. But it's okay because the teacher is understanding and always gives one when you ask. Anyway, that will give me time to study for the math test, which is the big deal at the end of this (and every) week.

The chapters that this test is on is chapter three of my precal book, which are the ones that introduced logarithms. Which I just learned about. Pretty cool, actually. But I do need to spend a few more hours studying to be ready for the test.

Wow, you just read me talking about logarithms and a math test and you're still reading. You must really love me.


So in other news I have a few more idea's for a youtube channel and blog.
That's not to say I don't want to continue the Today I learned blog, I do. As soon as I have time to write the next article on it, I will. (Which might be today or tomorrow). Anyway, the "problem" with the TIL blog is that each article takes a decently long time, it is like writing a mini research paper. This is definitely a good thing, I did not expect it to be easy to write a good, entertaining blog. People appreciate hard work and enjoy learning and cited sources. So I expect to continue doing the TIL blog this way.

That said, I also enjoy rants, where I can talk or type and not worry about it sounding too professional, just getting some opinions out there. That is why I came up with the idea of "To Consider".

The "To Consider" blog works like this.

• I pick a topic to rant about.
• I say some good things about it.
• I say some problems with it.
• I ask the viewer/reader for further discussion.

I will try to have this more casual, more open to discussion, and unlike the TIL blog, I think this one will be suited for video too. 

I will try to talk about things I already know about with this one, and not do too much research, as I want to keep it more as a discussion as not a presentation. 

Thanks for reading,

JamezQ

My car was recovered.

So, I'm sure most of you don't know. But my car was stolen a few days ago. I live in a pretty good neighborhood , yet the car was stolen from right in front of my house. Amongst other cars, which look a lot nicer.

My guess is this choose mine because they assumed mine did not have a security system, like the other cars did.

Most cars get recovered before 3 days, so my hopes were up because of that fact. It was 4 days past when my car got recovered. Basically, what happens is someone reported it in. Here is my exact guess of how it happens.

1. Some people steal a car.
2. Brag to their friends about it.
3. One friend thinks, hey, that's fucked up. So he calls it in without getting his friends in trouble.

So I think that says something about there being good people in this world. One being that there are good people, and two being that you only need one good person in a chain of ne'er do wells for the outcome to be good.

The car was returned in good shape, some tools and the spare tire were stolen, but overall good. 

Something interesting though, there was a ticket to a broadway show in new york, dated for last year, in the car. So...., I don't know what to make of that. Maybe you can come up with something.

My final point: I hear there are certain secret techniques top bloggers use to get more views. I have decided to start using these. You may not notice them, but they are there. In my research, they are proven to work.

== BEGIN SUBTLE TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE VIEWERS==

== END SUBTLE TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE VIEWERS==

I hate sleep.

I now have a smile on my face, because in the blog statistics, I had 5 views before I came on. That means that some people are actually reading it without me asking them to. (Or there is someone who views my blog 5 times in a row via proxy)

Now to the topic at hand, sleep sucks. It's a waste of time. For all the good things it does to your body, I feel like our species would be better if we were able live like deer, who only sleep 5 minutes a day.

I find it interesting that scientist still don't know exactly why we sleep, or why we have to sleep for as long as we do. [1][2]

But, sleep is something special. It's not a dormant state, where we would try to conserve energy. All animals have dormant states, even plants. But sleep, especially in us. Is *not* a dormant state. We actually use *more* energy sleeping then when we are ideally awake. And our brain is much more active. Which suggests it is doing something.

Of our best guesses are:

• Enforcing memory, our brain runs through the same things we remember doing that day over and over, so that the synapse is stronger, and we will be able to remember it longer.
• Regenerating cells and fighting infections.

The first is the reason scientist's (and teachers) say to get a good nights rest before an exam. And there has been studies that verify that sleep makes a difference in that respect. (But we are only guessing as to *why*)

The second is the reason that people tell you to get lots of  sleep when you are sick. Which also has evidence that it helps.

But the parts of sleep that we have no good guesses about are much larger, why we dream, why we need to sleep a certain amount of time to feel rested. etc.

On that last point, the cracked article below says a man claimed to have not slept for years, he is wrong. (In case your wondering, the record for longest time without sleep is 18 days) 

A little research says that it turns out it was a misunderstanding. Because he thought that getting below recommended sleep meant "no sleep". In reality, he got 2-3 hours of sleep a day. Which we already know is possible with Polyphasic Sleep.

I'm rather interested by the idea that I could be awake for 22 hours a day. Even 4 would be a great improvement. A few sources say that it does not necessarily increase your productivity, but it is really something I have to try for myself.

My current sleep schedule is a 6 hour Monophasic sleep cycle. I go to sleep at 1:30 AM, and then get up at 7:30 AM, I switched to this schedule from a 10-hour sleep day.

Here are a few noticeable differences compared to 10-hours:



• I feel more awake in the morning. (But still feel like sh*t)
• I feel more awake and focused during the day.
• I feel significantly more sleepy at night (starting around 12:30), and I feel that I would not be able to pull an all-nighter on this sleep schedule.
• It have to try slightly harder during my morning class to stay awake, but not that much, and I still find myself more focused.

I'm not sure what effects it will have in the far future. But so far it has been positive. Scientists say that 3% of people have certain gene that allows them to do fine on 6 hours. [3]Here's to hoping I have that gene. 

Citations:
1. http://www.cracked.com/article_19442_8-simple-questions-you-wont-believe-science-cant-answer.html
2. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquestions.html?pg=3#sleep
3. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-08-13-sleep-gene_N.htm

New Youtube, New blog. Some ideas.

Hey look at me, I'm actually posting.

Anyway, I was thinking to myself, about this blog, and my youtube channel and thought to myself.

"It's generally not that interesting to watch(or read) people just talk about themselves, at least unless I know the person personally"

So that means that the maximum about of people that will probably watch those is just people who consider me their friend. Which, is maybe 15 people.

So, what do *I* like to watch? Well, I like funny videos, and seeing funny stuff. But I don't know if I'm the kind of guy who can come up with that on the spot. I like informational videos, but creating long how-to's is hard, and I need pretty good video editing skills to keep people entertained for more then a couple of minutes. So, what do I spend my time viewing, that is short and interesting.

Well, I think back to the time I spend on reddit, and besides the funny stuff and ask science, my favorite part of it is the todayilearned subreddit. So I decided I would make a blog and a youtube channel based of this idea.

I'm not going to copy what is on the subreddit, but rather the idea of a TIL, some short interesting factoid.
Here are some basic idea's of the channel:

• I plan to have videos 1-2 minutes long
• Talk about some interesting fact, along with some extra info about it.
• Try to get idea's for videos naturally, as in stuff I incidentally learn. 
• Research the topic to get more info, and share it.

Along with the youtube channel, there will be a companion blog, that will talk about the same thing as the video, not exactly a transcript but similar, and will also give people sources to whatever I talk about. I will likely write the blog post first, then post the video. 

With short 1-2 min videos, I hope for them to be rewatchable and interesting. And good enough to share.

I will continue to update this blog and my original youtube channel with more personal stuff, as well as introducing new projects. I will also post here when I make my first TIL video.

An exercise in blogging.

So, I have not written a single blog post in about 2 years. That sucks.

But the best way to get started has to be by writing something. So I will. I will try to, a few times a week, write *something* to the blog. And hopefully it will be interesting. As I get better, and the task of writing itself becomes less of a big deal, I can devote more time to content.