wanito's world

I took video of me ZUMBA!ing.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:37:00 -0500

Yeah... i took the video, but left my card reader at work, and my camera's USB connectivity is pathetically slow, so... oh. Karen's card reader is right over there. But i would have to get up... and walk over to her desk... i'm looking at it....... Nope. Too much work.

So the video will go up later. Plus, i always think i look stupid on video. I mean, i know that's what i really really look like, but i guess i think i look cooler than i do.

But my Zumba class went so well. Two fellow instructors showed up, and they made it cray-zee. But even not counting those two, more than eleven people showed up. In fact, i bet it was twenty. May i say... YES!!! I've been hoping to get a lively group of people in my class, and as they all are learning my dances, and as they're showing up repeatedly, and dragging along their friends, it's getting more dope and more live and -- dare i say it? -- more fly. It was really good, and i'm kind of totally overjoyed, but now my bed is calling me.

And Karen, poor Karen, is still coughing and itchy. I will creep into bed like a guilty philanderer, to keep her from awakening enough to cough herself into insomnia.

The pants work. And i'm still not sick.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:55:00 -0500

They work very well. The studio where i lead ZUMBA! has giant mirrors, and i'm so confident that the pants work, i didn't even ask anyone for their opinion. Because seriously, that's just fishing for compliments.

In other news, Zane doesn't seem sick, while Houston seems to be coming down with something. And Karen, who's been sickest longest, is kind of miserable. Big hacking coughs. Poor lady.

Okay. I'm going to pick up Beth now from the airport. She feels horrible too.

My dreadlocks

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:12:00 -0500

Today at the Young Men's Christian Association a guy on a workout machine randomly said to me "Hey, you got a minute?" I was like... "maybe?" because i don't want to, for instance, join in a multilevel marketing venture. I don't care how many times you "ran the numbers" -- those things just don't work for normal people like the kinds of people i know. Although if i ever DID get involved in an MLM, i would call everyone i know and say "Hey, i just got involved in an MLM, and it only works if i have lots of people on the level below me, and you can use this same pitch to get lots of people on the level below you, and if you do, you might make some money." None of this crap like "Hey! It's Philliam, the guy who lived across the hall from you at college! Could we get together for a chat over coffee to catch up on old times??? I'm buying!!!!!!exclamation point!!!!"

So the guy on the weight machine said "sure you do!" so i went over and he asked me "Do you know where dreadlocks came from?" I believe the first time they were called "dreadlocks" was in Jamaica, where the African immigrants rebelled against the white establishment, and started letting their hair go crazy just to piss off the silly English types, who called them "Dreadful locks of hair". The fellow told me about the nazarite vow from Numbers, and we had ourselves a nice little conversation about dreads. John the Baptist, Samson (a Nazarite for life), Elijah, these people may have had dreadlocks, although i'm sure they were called something else.

I'm really happy with my locks at this point. I used to spend hours working on the ends of the locks, trying to get them blunt and rounded. I'd even snip off the straight haired bits. But no longer! Now i'm leaving them to just get wispy, letting them partially fall out at the ends. I think it looks rad. And possibly a little more obviously clean. No Doritos stuck in my hair, thanks. Actually, the other day, somebody came up behind me and said "You have a feather in your hair", which was from my pillow, but we had a nice conversation about pet chickens, and now i have a contact in the pet chicken community.

Also, i made some pants today. They're specifically ZUMBA! teaching pants. This means they're loose enough to move freely, but not baggy enough so nobody can see my legs. And there's different color pockets on the knees and seat so, again, people can see what's going on. Which brings me again to the rather weird thought that when i lead class, people staring at my butt. Or at least paying attention to it. Again: weird. I guess i should put pictures up. Of the pants. Not my... uh... nevermind.

Happy All Hallows' Eve

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500

Yesterday we carved pumpkins and built costumes. Today we finished up costumes, including trying on the bird cage, the wings, and the dog house, and went to a couple parties and went trick-or-treating. So we had a good Halloween. Problem: we're all a little under the weather from the aftereffects of some mild virus. Maybe the H0N0, since it wasn't nearly as bad as that other one. Karen got overwhelmingly itchy, the boys got a fever, Katrina got a tummyache, and i'm tired.

Zane was a dog in a big cardboard dog house. I put some straps in, anchored to the bottom and the sides, with a tie around the waist, to keep it steady. It was steady enough to wear, but awesomely top-heavy, and Zane's not a big guy, so he tottered and wobbled all over the place in the doghouse. We all laughed a lot. I'm so glad Zane also thought it was funny and was laughing too, because even if he'd gotten all sad that we were laughing at him, i don't think i would have been able to stop. It was awesome.

Katrina was a delicate flower. Karen made that costume, and it is cute and robust. It was also cumbersome, so she walked about the one party wearing a simple green outfit (green for the stem). And then she overheard somebody complimenting another kid on their costume, and she gazed up at Karen: "Can you go to the car and get my flower costume?" We ladle positive affirmations on that girl (and our sons) and she accepts it with natural ease, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love and crave it. "Notice me! Adore me!" Of course, i can't imagine not adoring her.

Houston was a bird in a bird cage. I made the cage out of straightened-out coat hangers (pro tip: free at any laundromat). Then he had wings and a hat i kind of made without planning, and they worked out great. I winged it. Har. Har. Houston originally said he wanted to be a bird in a bird house, but "bird house" in my brain got translated to "bird cage" every time i heard it. Thus, the bird cage. He was somewhat frustrated by his costume, especially the cage, so he only wore that while actually trick-or-treating. But people liked it.

Karen was someone who'd been dumped. A pint of ice cream. Bathrobe. Running mascara (except i don't think you can buy tear-soluble mascara anymore) and messy hair. It was cute.

I didn't notice many dads wearing costumes. When a father was dressed up, they'd always be something manly, like a cowboy or a hockey player. I didn't see a single adult male dressed as a nine year old girl. I didn't even see any nine year old girls dressed as nine year old girls. They were all fairies or princesses or soldiers or somehow affiliated with sports teams. Or a superhero -- young Ella was Superman. But i was bold and courageous, and carpe'd the diem, and dressed up like a nine year old girl. I was Pippi Longstocking, but since i'm a thirty seven year old dude, i was just Creepy Longstocking. Witness the power.

Look! A picture! Of me!!!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:31:00 -0500

Okay, so when our KIA was sitting in the garage during our vacation to New York, the alternator rusted and refused to turn. I replaced the alternator, but was in a giant hurry, so i didn't put the belt on the power steering pump and AC compressor, which is okay, because i never use the AC, and i'm so gigantically macho, i don't need no stinking power steering either. Karen didn't like the no-power-steering thing... So today after i finished the roof (which has been waterproof, but is now totally snow-proof, and we'll never have an ice dam let water leak anywhere ever again) i figured that as long as i was dirty, i'd pop the belt back on the power steering pump.

But the power steering pump got messed up. There's a slotted shaft which has vanes which are slightly spring-loaded, and wipe the inside of a off-center (to the shaft) cylinder. There's inlet and outlet in to the cylinder... okay, i'm not explaining this very well (oh! i found a picture, but suffice it to say that now when i stress the power steering system, it growls and howls hilariously loudly. Sigh. I didn't even know that a power steering system COULD do that. I mean, everything, including the slotted shaft and impeller vanes is immersed in hydraulic fluid. Which is a kind of oil.

Oh well. I'm hoping it sorts itself out.

Experimenting with kids from work

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:23:00 -0500

Today at work i took a small cookie, placed it in a small bowl, and placed that on the counter. Then i looked at one of the kids and said "Bart, you are NOT allowed to eat this." So i walked away, keeping the cookie in my peripheral vision. Bart immediately picked up the cookie and started nibbling on it. I scolded him and said "I am not joking, Bart, you are NOT allowed to eat that cookie." So Bart picked it up and took another tiny nibble. Earlier that day, i had talked with Bart about "urge control" and "frustration management", which he seemed to develop a working understanding of. But he remains the most deficient kid i've ever seen in those areas. I mean, i don't know if it's possible to have less than zero impulse control, like, in the negatives, but if it is, he does.

When i took the cookie from him, and crumbled it into the sink and washed it down the drain, Bart seemed a bit put out.

Tomorrow it'll be the "You may eat this quarter-cookie right now, or get a whole cookie in five minutes" trick to see what he does.

Fun!

Also, in my other job (i have TWO JOBS!!! i'm blessed) i started the dance which goes to "La Vida Es Un Carnaval" to the music "La Negra Tiene Tumbao". I was almost a minute into the song when i realized my error, and had to stop the whole class to find the "Carnaval" one so we could dance it. Whoops! Also, it turns out that the "Zumba Posse Grand Rapids" has a website. It is GRZUMBA dot com, and is a hilarious mixture of animated-gif-heavy amateur web design and prefabricated web site templates. If you get far enough into the menu system on the left, you'll get links for "Zero Debt Solutions"... so i'm not really sure what's going on there.

But there's a lot of videos of Tara, my favorite ZUMBA! instructor. And i want to be part of the Zumba Posse Grand Rapids.

Fun!

About teh ZUMBA!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:01:00 -0500

Back in June i started offering ZUMBA! classes at Wedgwood. At first, a bunch of people showed up, and lots of kids, and they were pretty enthusiastic. But then summer came, and no paying people came (staff or teachers, who'd toss me three bucks per class CHEAP!) and kids started not coming anymore. So i kind of quit even going. I wonder if anyone's noticed yet.

But it is so much fun! I know people who're doing (or at least starting, which isn't the same thing) P90X, which is a ninety day workout plan which makes you seriously fit, in a ridiculously short amount of time. But it's just WORK. You have to spend at least an hour a day doing various kinds of push ups, pull ups, sit ups, and simple weight lifting. It would be kind of neat to have, like, a ripped torso... but... who cares? It's not like i need huge muscles at work, and Karen loves me just like i am. I don't care about impressing other people. ...except maybe i do, being such a show off. But not enough to actually work out ugh.

Okay... rambling... but today in my funnest ZUMBA! class of the week, i was noticing that many of the people, even some of the long-time-regulars participate, and do very well, but they look quite grim the whole time. How can you dance to very cool music with lots of people and look grim? "I take my ZUMBA! very seriously." Nope. Don't get it.

Yesterday was Houston and my date!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:24:00 -0500

Yesterday after my ZUMBA! class, Houston and i discussed where we'd want to go for our date. He said "The Children's Museum", but it was going to be closed by the time we got there. So he thought and thought, and then: "Craig's Cruisers!" So there we went.

We got to ride the go karts twice, because the first time, some rowdy kids were crashing the whole time and they had to shut the race down. Houston and i and another dad-son team were allowed to go again for free because we'd been so careful to follow the rules.

The other activity Houston wanted to do was the high ropes course. He leaped and frolicked like a mountain goat high on coffee beans. Then, for much too long, he played the games which give tickets. When i was a kid, i never -- NEVER -- played those ticket games. I never even wanted to. I kind of thought everybody who did play them was ... stupid. Probably it was my parents who showed me the mathematical absurdity of the whole system, but i don't remember any conversation of that sort, so maybe i figured it out on my own.

But seriously, why would i blow ten bucks on games to win tickets which can get me three bucks worth of crappy plastic already-broken junk? But... Houston wanted to play. The ticket games can be fun, and when you see people sitting in front of machines with yards of tickets spewing from the front, it does make you want to start pumping the money into them. Kind of.

At the same time... the games i did want to play were racing games or shooting games. Houston gets his fill of racing games for free, and they look much much better than the ones at the arcade. So maybe i'll forgive him his ticket-lust.

After the money on our card ran out, we went to Steak-N-Shake. Retro fast food, and not cool-retro, just retro. Houston and i sat there for about an hour, and talked. Can birds fly with just one wing? Why not? What would you do if an airplane you were on landed in the Hudson River? And Houston says some silly things. Often they're just silly, but sometimes, they're silly-clever, and i love that. A lot.

When the date was over, i asked Houston what his favorite thing was, and he reported that the go-karts were his favorite thing. When i said that sitting talking to him was my favorite thing, he said "Really???" and screwed up his face. Affirmative, said i, and he spent a second or two being pensive. I hope he was processing in his little brain that i LOVE him, and talking with him is one of the coolest things in the world.

Get busy!

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:06:00 -0500

I'm proud of how hard i worked today. I awoke at six thirty, worked at my "real job" until i got to leave early around one, then i bought some shingles. When i came home, i made a really sturdy ladder out of 2x4s, (normal boards that you build house walls out of) and kind of rebuilt part of the roof, and then started putting up the shingles. It was raining, sometimes hard. It was kind of awesome. I like doing stuff like that -- roofing in the rain. While i was building the ladder (also in the rain), Katrina was holding an umbrella and handing me nails. She was adorably helpful, and full of compliments: "That looks like a really great ladder, Dad!" And after that, i led a ZUMBA! class. Whew.

So there's some bible verse which talks about how sweet is the rest of the hardworking. Tonight my rest will be sweet. So far Karen and i have rested by watching The Office. Jim was really mad.

Also, Houston made a first-gen Scion xB out of paper! I just can't say enough how much i love watching my kids do this kind of stuff.

Hyena

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:11:00 -0500

I guess it is possible to have a pet hyena. They're still incredibly strong and frightening, though. Like, they had one in the Tower of London which tore up a floorboard in its enclosure "without any apparent effort", and they do eat bones. Just kind of munch them down. Like pretzels. The only land animal with a stronger bite is the Tazmanian Devil, which also eats bones.

I'm fascinated by that picture. At first i thought it was fake, because of the unnatural stance of the hyena on the ground, but then hyenas always look unnatural to me because i'm used to looking at dogs, and hyenas aren't even closely related to dogs. Also, i thought that the absurdly thick chain part of the leash was just for the gnarly look, but then i remembered that hyenas munch bones like pretzels. Anything not thick steel would present a mere mild annoyance to any hyena wishing to be liberated of its leash.

WaanTube

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:12:00 -0500

Houston's circle

Dreadlock guide

Sun, 25 Jul 2004 00:45:00 -0500

I just told a couple people from camp how to do dreads, so here's a quick link to the article i posted a while back about locks. Nothing new, just a link. That's it.

Urban Literature

Wed, 19 May 2004 01:09:00 -0500

My critique of some works of Folk Art as seen in a nearby park.

Tymmdogg

Thu, 13 May 2004 13:25:00 -0500

The post from May 13th, third anniversary of Tim Wetzel's death. A chance to rejoice in the memories of his life, and look forward to seeing him again!

It's may thirteenth. Katrina turns three months old today, and it's the third anniversary of the passing of one of the best friends i've ever had, TIM WETZEL! Katrina's age is a reason to rejoice, and the opportunity i had to be part of Tim's life is also cause for rejoicing. We look forward with eager anticipation to when we'll see him again in heaven, so whevever i say "used to" or "was" i mean does and is, but not, you know, HERE, right now.

We met Tim at wedgwood. He worked at the boys unit right across the hall from where i work now, and did Young Life club with me. Tim and i met for real at Young Life club, where he and his twin brother Aaron (with whom i'd already become aquainted) were volunteer leaders. My first impression of him (them both, really) was probably the most common one: "TAAALLL!!! Baggy clothes. Hmm, bump on his chest...? Cool guys!" My very first foray into the realm of extremely ridiculously baggy jeans was when Tim let me wear some of his for the first YL club i was part of, where i was Guy (or "Man"), Dude and Dude's friend. They both told me i was a crackhead. Later that night, as Karen and i were leaving, i mentioned my computer, and Aaron was like "How fast?" and i was like, "I've got a Celeron 300A overclocked to 450MHz and a TNT2 video card" and he goes "Over-WHAT??? to HOW FAST???" and Aaron's and my friendship has been cemented ever since. Tim didn't like computers yet, so he kind of made fun of us that new years party (the 1999-2000 one) when we were all playing multiplayer games.dove and nails Karen knew Tim from working on the same campus, and she immediately liked him a very much amount, so when he came over to burn copies of his band Task At Hand's demo CD (music available here) she was of course fine with that. Eventually, Tim saw the folly of his "not liking computers" thing, and got an AMD K6-2 450MHz system with a Rage Pro Turbo AGP card backed up by a Voodoo2 PCI 3D-only card.
So then we started having little mini-LAN parties, where Karen and i would take our computers over to his apartment and connect to each other and play mostly Midtown Madness, but sometimes Unreal Tournament. He was always the best person to have at a LAN party, so friendly, patient, funny, and so on! I miss him a lot.

Right, so some of the most dear memories i have of Tim (Tymmdogg): he invented the term CYBERJOCK, which means "a person who is very good with computers, but is not a jerk about it, helping those less knowledgable with patience and courtesy, like a nice jock who is willing to help the less athletic but with computers, not sports." That sticker on the back of his van was the first cyberjock sticker ever, and he liked it a lot. We made it with silver retroreflective tape and black sign stickers. His tattoos were a permanent statement of his strong faith in God: the hebrew words for grace and emmanuel, a cross, a dove and nails, and a big old Jesus Fish or Icthus, which Dave Wildey did with a "jailhouse gun" that he made, and finally a trinity knot. Tim would use his body ink as a way to evangelize, particularly to those who seem magnetically attracted to tattoos and magnetically repulsed from church.

Another cherished memory was from a LAN party. Tim's cherished little brother, Richard, had a complete junk Acer computer with specs so pathetic, that typing them would seem obscene. We went upstairs to where Richard was already set up, and Tim went over and started disassembling his computer. I think he even started unscrewing the CD-ROM drive before Richard turned it off. Richard said "Uh, what are you doing?" and Tim told him, "Oh, can you power down your machine?" so Richard obliged. After removing the only parts worth anything, (CD-ROM, hard drive, memory, Voodoo2 video), Tim picked up the machine and carried it downstairs where - in front of Richard and all of us - Tim lobbed the computer into the air, watching it crash to the parking lot. Richard really liked having his Very Own Computer 'cause he was, like, twelve, so he repeated "Uh, what are you doing?" with a concerned grin on his face. I'm not sure when he deduced that there was something better in store, maybe when Tim handed him the baseball bat. Richard smashed and smashed, watching with glee as CMOS chips, chunks of circuit board and jagged wrinkled shards of metal flew through the air. Eventually a twisted chassis and box of microchips were all that was left, which went into the dumpster, and walking back upstairs rewarded Richard with a much faster system than he'd walked down with. I don't remember the details - it might have been a Celeron 566 that would do 850MHz. I put the parts together, and Tim, me, Rick Senior and Dave and maybe others chipped in to pay for the new hookup. Richard is still using the case today, although it looks somewhat different, and now contains a water cooling system. The look on Richard's face when he saw the new machine was absolutely amazing. I think i almost cried. Seriously.

That was one of Tim's favorite pictures of himself, because as he put it "I actually look cool!" Hmm... yeah, he always looked cool to those who knew him. He loved people. Karen told him once that she wished he'd quit smoking, because she wanted him to live to be really old. Tim told her that he wasn't going to die of smoking related disease, he was going to die doing something he loved. I guess God told him that much, because that's what happened.
He loved music as well, going everywhere with his guitar, and being part of a band for most of his adult life. Shade of Grace, Cephas (perhaps the most successful of his bands) and Task at Hand are the ones I know of. He recorded his first all-by-himself song, Music to Frag By (which should be Music by Which to Frag, but that was before my obsession with prepositions) with nothing but his super cool electric guitar and computer. He just kind of FIGURED IT OUT, which impressed me no end. He went on to make two VERY well done industrial mixes based on movies, Transformers, and Aliens. I've never met anyone who could figure stuff out like he could... i mean, i'm pretty good, but i never met myself. Heavy music really spoke to Tim. In his van, he'd crank really aggressive, fast tracks and just go nuts, pounding the wheel and saying "so much energy!" He really liked punk, particularly covers of 80's songs. John Denver was a favorite... Bill Maloney and the Vigilantes of Love were also a favorite... but more favorite. Tim introduced us all to Brian Regan, the funniest comic alive. I remember one Tuedsay night, Tim played some of Brian Regan's stuff, and Travis was seriously almost falling off his chair laughing so hard. I think he did fall off his chair one time.

I told some people at work today that it was the third anniversary of Tim's death, and they were very sympathetic. But i rejoice and praise God that i got to be part of Tim's life here on earth. Sure, i want him here still, and i would love to be able to have him know my kids and share in my life. But what we've got - all of us - is pretty amazing, and when we share it with others, we're taking part in what we shared with Tim - love, fellowship, Godliness... i dunno, maybe i'm not making much sense, but i think about Tim, and i'm glad, not sorrowful. Tim was an earnest follower of Jesus, a faithful friend, always honest, never hurtful, like, First Corinthians 13, the love chapter describes well the way Tim lived his life. I can only seek God's help to live my life the same way!

Juanito the Genious's Test to See if Your a Geenius too.

Tue, 04 May 2004 16:16:00 -0500

Go see!

IDE cable modification

Sun, 14 Mar 2004 00:55:00 -0500

Little article written a while ago. Humorous, Useful, Emotionally Available.

You almost certainly don't exist.

Tue, 09 Mar 2004 14:49:00 -0500

More accurately, you probably don't exist. Or: the chances of you existing as you are are infentesimlly small.

�What are you talking about, you weirdo?� I hear you say, but I intend to demonstrate mathematically that You Almost Certainly Don't Exist.
Before i even start, let me give MAD PROPS to Eric who shares at least half the credit for this. I could never have figured this out.
Ever since I heard of the Many Worlds model that solves some problems that face quantum physicists, I've been a fan of science fiction books and shows that explore the concept. There's a little promotion of a book by a physicist named Deutsch (in which you can find an error to which I enjoy drawing attention) that has a very brief explanation. In shows like Quantum Leap, Sliders, and Jet Li's The One, people leap to parallel universes and find copies of themselves and people they know from their own universe. This has always seemed ludicrous to me. Yeah, I know, the idea of jumping from universe to universe is also ludicrous, and even the concept of Many Worlds defies common sense, but suspending all those disbeliefs still left me with the conviction that the idea of parallel universes happening to produce identical (or even less likely - similar) people ludicrous. Another explanation of the theory may make the idea less ludicrous; that the Many Worlds are very close physically, and interact constantly, and the "yous" are duplicated across them all, or at least the ones closest by. Sounds a bit like branes.
Eric, my brother-in-law who shares credit for this article, is really smart and took a bunch of math classes in college. I SHOULD have taken math in school, but I tested out, and took tons of drawing classes instead, because that's pretty much all I did anyway to relieve boredom (and to show off). So when Eric was visiting here last weekend, I entreated him to help me figure the probability of any specific person existing. We've worked on statistical problems before (like, with Pass the Pigs but it looks like somebody already figured out those probabilities and posted a java version of the game) so i figured he'd be up to it, so we sat down with a couple sheets of paper and a calculator and a pen.
At first, I wanted to figure it out for the entire world population back till the time of Christ, but the numbers were going to be really, really large, and we didn't have access to any kind of population data, meaning no encyclopedias or computers were within reach of the kitchen table.

So, let's start:
Our problem:
What is the probability of a particular conception event within the population of the United States since the foundation of the country.

We made our assumptions - not intended to be accurate:

We'll look at the population of the USA starting at year 2000 � est. 270,000,000. Ignore immigration and emigration.
The population decreases as we look farther back, down to 1,000,000 people back in 1775. We made some simple guesses, as documented here.
There's one generation per 25 years, for a simple ten generations between (and including) 1775 and 2000.
One egg is released per month during a woman's childbearing years, which lasts 35 years, for a total of 420 available eggs.
Three million sperm are manufactured per day during a man's childbearing years, which lasts 60 years, for a total of 65,700,000,000 available sperm. 6.75x10⁸. Scientific notation will become useful now.
Everybody has a chance to producing offspring.

First, we had to find the probability of two people within the population coming together, which we calculated by dividing the population in half (no same-gender relationships, even though the USA is the gayest country) and squaring the result. This variable we'll call U for union.
Then, we had to find the probability of a specific egg-sperm combination. We multiplied the number of eggs by the number of sperm (fig2.), for a result of 2.7594x10¹³. This variable (although it doesn't vary) we'll call C for conception (that's as opposed to c, which is the speed of light.)
Next, we had to figure the value of U for each generation (the probability of two people coming together).
Then, we figured the total value of U for all ten generations, which we did by multiplying all the single-generation probabilities. We got 4.243x10¹⁴².
Finally, the probability of any one, specific person being conceived and born within the population of the United States since the countries founding is C times U, or 4.243x10¹⁴² x 2.7594x10¹³. This final number is 7.0024x10¹⁵⁵.
This is an astoundingly large number. There are about 10⁷⁸ many atoms in the universe, which meant that if you took each atom in the universe, turned each of them into a universe, you'd get 10¹⁵⁶ TOTAL ATOMS!!! That's pretty "close" to the odds against you existing. You know... as you are.

You have a one in 80 million chance of winning the 20 state Powerball Lottery. That's 8.0x10⁷. You are almost one and a half googol times more likely to win with one ticket than you were of being born, and you've already done that, so GO PLAY!!! (please don't).

Buying a Cheap PC

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 01:03:00 -0500

somewhat out of date, but... It's old.