Tag: random

Random 2018: Poisson Voronoi

It is the Poisson Voronoi, and I have no idea what that means.

At the beginning of each year, I select a post for each month of the previous year, using a random number generator, which may actually be random, or not, but is adequate for this exercise. I like to see how well it reflected that year just passed, or did not.

Statistically, I do one ABC Wednesday a week, at least one music piece each week, link summaries twice a month, maybe a couple dozen folks turning 70, pieces about my daughter once a month. So the frequency should be related to that, theoretically.

I’m fairly sure I got this meme from Gordon, who lives in Chicago and still remains the only non-local blogger I’ve ever met.

I love it because it’s quasi-mathematical, like doing the first level of these Brilliant quizzes that I get in my email and occasionally get right. “You have a one-day streak going.”

The graphic came from typing into Google the phrase random site:.gov and picking the first image containing the color green. It is the Poisson Voronoi, and I have no idea what that means. It came from meshing.lanl.gov, the Los Alamos National Lab.

January: “[Messina] also assembled The Kenny Loggins Band by summoning old friends..” -belated 70th birthday for Kenny Loggins
February: “This means your visitors may see errors or be unable to access your website at all for brief periods of time.” – Technical difficulties with blogging.
March: By 9th grade, I started carrying around my Bible to school. – Obit for evangelist Billy Graham

April: It is “a phrase popularized by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis… to describe how a ‘state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.'” – ABC Wednesday about the marijuana laws in the US
May: “This two-record set was issued in 1971 by United Artists Records and features music which Winwood performed with The Spencer Davis Group, Powerhouse, Traffic and Blind Faith.” – Steve Winwood hit the big 7-0 on a Saturday
June: It’s getting warmer and you may find yourself gazing out windows that you will once again have to fill with ugly old a/c units instead of the beautiful Kapsul you hoped for. – Another delayed Kickstarter I’ve supported

July: They must have determined I’m no longer a likely terrorist. – The infrequent airline passenger.
August: PORN STARS, PLAYMATES, AND PRAYER CIRCLES – linkage, and the title, no less, of the post
September: After BlacKkKlansman, which the three of us saw at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany, my daughter wanted to be held by her parents. – Movie review

October: The Rule of the Uber-Rich Means Tyranny or Revolution – linkage
November: Neither victim was a publicly known person; they weren’t activists in their respective civil rights struggles. – I connected Matthew Shepard with Emmett Till
December: Those of you too young to remember the days of disco may not understand how truly reviled it was. – Another double play, with Donna Summer: music and she would have been 70

Interestingly no political ranks except in the links.

Random 2017 posts, a New Year’s tradition

Someone had suggested I put some pro-vaping info on my blog recently, as a result of my previous annual Great American Smokeout posts.

In the beginning of each year, I select a post for each month of the previous year, using a random number generator, which may not actually be random, or not, but is adequate for this exercise. I like to see how well it reflected that year just passed, or did not.

I figure if I do ABC Wednesday once a week, it should show up once or twice. Those link summaries are 2 or 3 times a month, so a couple of those too, I imagine.

And Allah help me, but I have no idea how many times I mentioned, or at least alluded to, the current American regime. It was painful enough to live through, and I might have to regurgitate it? Them’s the rules.

I’m fairly sure I got this from Gordon, who lives in Chicago and still remains the only non-local blogger I’ve ever met.

But I love it because it’s quasi-mathematical, like doing the first level of these Brilliant quizzes that I get in my email and occasionally get right. “You have a one-day streak going.”

The pic is me putting in a random search in Google limiting to .gov site. The pic’s from NIST, but I don’t know the context.

January: Mary Tyler Moore: “girl with the three names”
1974: AITF, Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers#, MTM#, Bob Newhart#, Burnett (hr)

When one of my favorite actresses died, I noted the CBS lineup during the run of the show named after her. AITF is All in the Family. MTM is of course the Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show is the one based in Chicago, and Burnett is The Carol Burnett Show. The # indicated shows produced by her and then-husband Grant Tinker’s production company.

February: Smoothing over rough edges with friends
The message the sender thinks she’s giving is “I’m a good friend/relative, just trying to be helpful.”

Answering Chris’ Ask Roger Anything question, citing Deborah Tannen’s 2001 book “I Only Say This Because I Love You: Talking to Your Parents, Partner, Sibs, and Kids When You’re All Adults”

March: March rambling #2: Vitiligo As Body Art
This is what happens to your body when you stop having sex

Landing on a provocative link.

April: Systematically listening to the music
LOTS of Paul Simon gets played in October, so the S&G is played in November, for Art’s birthday.

Explaining the pathology of my CD playing.

May: Q is for Quisp and Quake cereal
It [Quisp] was brought back in the mid-1980s, then again in the 1990s and in 2001, where it was relaunched as the “first Internet cereal”.

ABC Wednesday post about my fascination with breakfast cereals.

June: June rambling #2: Sheila E. and Lynn Mabry
Anita Pallenberg Passes Away at Age 73

The second death I’ve hit on.

July: Music Throwback Canada Day: The Guess Who
“Quality Records credited the [1965] single [Shakin’ All Over] only to ‘Guess Who?’ in an attempt to build a mystique around the record…”

I’ve been doing Music Throwback almost weekly as well.

August: August rambling #2: Mamihlapinatapai
He has a fake Civil War monument at his golf course and Lies About His Reaction To Charlottesville

Ah, the first tRump references

September: Enroll in the Equifax free ID theft protection ASAP
You may have heard about the Equifax cybersecurity incident potentially impacting approximately 143 million U.S. consumers.

One of the relatively few times I posted twice in one day.

October: Q is for a Famous Quotation
That apparent need to always say SOMETHING is often to the detriment of the speaker, and, quite often, of us all.

For ABC Wednesday. The quote was: “It is better to remain silent and be thought of as a a fool than to speak up and remove any doubt.”

November: E-cigarettes: a solution to smoking?
“In addition to the unknown health effects, early evidence suggests that e-cigarette use may serve as an introductory product for preteens and teens who then go on to use other tobacco products, including cigarettes…”

Someone had suggested I put some pro-vaping info on my blog recently, as a result of my previous annual Great American Smokeout posts. But, in doing the research, I became less than enthralled with this alternative, though I suppose it’s better for people already smoking.

December 18: Xmas: St. Nicolas Day to Russian Christmas
What is Santa’s favorite sweater?
His Fleece Navidad

ABCW: I HAD to give you the following line, or you’d be lacking the payoff
***
And now the Kickstarter I’m supporting (deadline: Wed, January 10 2018 11:59 AM EST). LOLISTRAW is the world’s first edible, hypercompostable straw aimed at replacing the 500M plastic straws used every day in the US.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial