HAIR Math

Sarah always ridicules me when she gets her hair cut and I don't notice. She says she always notices when I get my hair cut. Being the engineer that I am, I turned to math to explain why. Sarah's hair was twenty inches long. She got four inches cut off. My hair was three inches long and I got two inches cut off. Sarah had twice the length or fifty percent more hair cut off but that's only twenty percent of her total hair. I had 66.66% cut off of my total, a much larger difference.

Excel Mulitple Combinations

I have 3 columns of data, not all the same length. I then have Excel 2007 create three more columns of data which will show each possible combination of the three sets of original data. Here are the formulas I created that works. No headers are in the columns and the original data is in the first three columns A,B,&C.

=OFFSET(LookUp!$A$1,INT((ROW()-1)/(COUNTA(LookUp!B:B)
*COUNTA(LookUp!C:C))),0)

=OFFSET(LookUp!$A$1,INT(MOD((ROW()-1),
COUNTA(LookUp!C:C)*COUNTA(LookUp!B:B))
/COUNTA(LookUp!C:C)),1)

=OFFSET(LookUp!$A$1,MOD((ROW()-2),(COUNTA(LookUp!C:C))),2)

My question now is how do I do more than three columns, say four or five? And is there a way to modify the formula to put headers above the data but not include that in the combinations? Help! Anyone?

New Music Tuesday

Today I've been listening to The Fray's new album, ingeniously titled The Fray. It's been four years since their last record and I've got to ask what the holdup has been? Nothing has changed in terms of the band's sound. They use the exact same instrumentation on every song. Not totally a bad thing, although sometimes it's hard to distinguish one song from the next. It's all too formulaic. I guess they were going by "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra. I'm not asking to reinvent the wheel here, just change it up from time to time. I think my favorite track so far is from the bonus disc, called "Uncertainty," as it is different enough from the other songs but still maintains the emotion. Similar to last week's No Line on the Horizon, just another "ehh" album for me so far, nothing that really excites me and makes me want to get up and dance or create music. The last two songs I can think of to do that were Bloc Party's cover of "Call the Shots" and Radiohead's performance on the Grammys with the USC marching band. I also downloaded Depeche Mode's new track "Wrong." While this song isn't amazing, it has whetted my appetite and I anxiously wait to hear the rest of the album that comes out in April. It can't be any worse that "Exciter" right?

Tokyo Disneyland Resort Help!!!

I have always wanted to go to Tokyo Disney Sea, even since I first saw pictures of it. I always assumed that I would never be able to. Well now that I have graduated college and have a job it might be possible for me to go one day. I need help with information. I can't seem to find any sites with vacation packages. Here are some questions: About how much do you think it would cost? Are there any good sites with packages that can set you up with flights, tickets, and hotel?

This isn't going to happen anytime soon, I just wanted to get an idea of how feasible it would be and what kind of cost so maybe I could start saving up for it. Let me know if you have any information. I would appreciate it!

Game Station

I recently purchased Playstation 3. Here is my review on the three games I bought for it and have slowly been playing through:

Starting with the best, Metal Gear Solid 4 has justified the purchase of the PS3 all on its own. The game is everything I expected it to be and more, and I am only about halfway through it (even after playing for twenty some hours). Everything about the game is amazing, but most importantly, it has a great STORY. My only complaint so far has been the boss battles. The two I have completed were less than epic. The characters were alright but there are much more memorable battles in the other games of the series. There is still hope though as the game continues on.

Call of Duty 4 is another title I purchased at the request of my brother. Though it is a fun game, I grow bored with it if I play too long because the game is a little too linear for me. All you do is shoot stuff. That's it. Shoot shoot shoot.  Blowing shit up is only a blast for so long, then it just gets tedious. And everything in the game is pretty much spoon fed to you. I have enjoyed the story thus far and am excited to see where it leads, which is why I keep playing, to follow the story and see where it goes.

I bought Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga because it was one of the cheapest PS3 games I've seen and it got really good reviews. I have heard really good things about it, especially from older folks (thirty somethings) who have had fun playing it with their spouses, who aren't really into video games. I hope I can have the same experience as them as I think it would be a lot of fun to play with another. Lego Star Wars is a family game but I think this game is just teaching kids to be greedy.  Chasing after all the Lego studs gets annoying, but the game is fun and will take awhile to complete 100% because of all the hidden items and puzzles to figure out. If I like this game a lot I might look into the Indiana Jones edition. The only other game I plan on buying anytime soon is either Rock Band or Guitar Hero (leaning towards RB).  People flame those games and say "why don't you learn a real instrument?" Well, a step in that direction is that those games teach kids tempo, which is very important and will be helpful if a kid does decide to learn how to play the real instrument.

U2's No Line on the Horizon

"If this isn't our best album, we're irrelevant," Bono declared when asked about U2's new album, No Line on the Horizon. Well, after listening to the album today I can say U2 is irrelevant. The highlight of the album is Bono's singing as he is in great form and can still belt it out. Too bad the lyrics aren't as good as his voice: "Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady." Real creative. I think "Get On Your Boots" may be the only song from the album we hear on the radio. Here is a good quote "No Line On The Horizon is an awkward album, difficult in places, but that in itself is admirable: Fez -- Being Born and Unknown Caller, among others, feature the sort of experimental pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm for lazy rock stars with bloated waistlines and bank balances to match." "...which push U2 towards the invisible horizon of the title, at once more linear (they tend to be driven, with singular grooves, often pulsing along on particular sound effect or rhythmic repetitions) and lateral (they defy obvious song-structure, choruses drop rather than soar, Bono's rich, high voice subsumed into stacked harmonic chants)." Overall, the album is just "ehh", not bad but nothing to get excited about either. Just another money maker for the band. I prefer the classics like "War". BTW, the beginning of "Fez-Being Born" sounds like it was in a movie or video game but I can't place which one. Any thoughts?

15 Step

The best quote I've read about Radiohead's performance on the Grammys on Sunday came from here: http://www.antiquiet.com/features/videos/2009/02/radiohead-at-the-grammys-odd-men-up/ "Radiohead did more than steal the show; they made U2 look like out of touch old men and all the "special guest collaborations" look like empty hype magnets by comparison...there was a spastic, majestic energy to Radiohead's 15 Step that eclipsed every other performance last night. Watching Thom Yorke's shaggy, one-eyed electrocution dance as the USC Marching Band backed Johnny Greenwood was more than entertaining- it was inspiring. Theirs was the only performance that made me want to turn off my TV and make music afterward- and that's perhaps the best compliment I can bestow on an artist." It was an awesome performance and I dug the drumline having such a huge roll in the show. I think it could possibly be the most energetic Radiohead I've ever seen. USC drummers, I am officially jealous.

Kick

Does anybody remember the soft drink Kick? It was bascially Mountain Dew before Mountain Dew was popular, and dare I say stronger? About the only info I can find on it is this excerpt from wikipedia: "Kick was a citrus soft drink in the mid 1990's. It was created by The Dr Pepper Bottling Company (TDPBC) to compete with more popular citrus soft drinks in North America such as Mountain Dew and Mello Yello. With its tagline, "The hardcore, psycho, nitro drink in a can!" Kick hoped to carve out a niche market in the extreme sports and punk subcultures similar to the success Sprite had with hip hop and streetball markets. However, the drink didn't catch on. This was partially due to the perception that the tagline was an artificial shibboleth created by marketing executives. Kick was discontinued shortly after Mountain Dew and Coca Cola's new product, Surge, began targeting the same audiences."

Toilet Seat Scale Video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XCqlgLASrX8