Category Archives: Random

Remember Good Days

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While the day isn't even quite over, a but a bunch of good things happened to me today that I think overshadow the other 'UGH THIS LIFE' things:

  • Work
    • Chased down an invoice into a dark alley and beat a paycheck out of it
    • After missing one deadline way back, all others were met and I'm ready to launch a site this week.
      • Revisions I have to do tonight for this project are super easy
    • After slow development, I'm ready to launch another client's site this month.
    • Got solicited for more work through a reliable referral.
    • Internal projects are rolling again. Stoked.
  • Internet
    • Discovered Betty White is on Twitter
    • Discovered Ze Frank's show is back
    • An episode for my favorite podcast was released today. That was expected, but I always look forward to it.
    • Got retweeted by Wheezywaiter's girlfriend, and I hope it's not too stalker-y to know that but whatever, it still made my day.
      • Note: That tweet is the most shared tweet I've ever tweet... er, what past participle of "tweet"? Tweeten? Regardless, I know it's not consequential in any way but for someone who has always felt unpopular, knowing people shared your tweet feels good, man.
  • Weather
    • It's raining again in Los Angeles. I love rain!1

Look at that list. It's a bunch of random and seemingly insignificant crap. It actually doesn't look that special at all. I was late for my meeting this morning and that should have set the tone for a bad day, but it's that list of crap that makes me still consider today a good day.

So, this post is more for me than it is for you, but there are some days I'd like to remember, and today is one of them. And now that I think about it, what if every day could be like this? Alright, that's unrealistic, but if it's that easy for me to be happy, why doesn't this happen more often?

Actually, wait, it's probably all due to the paycheck.

Nevermind.

  1. Remember this?

Rearrange

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It's strange when you put something out there on the internet and realize that sometimes, people happen to be paying attention. Because it's most important to do anything you do on the internet first for your own personal edification or entertainment, sometimes it's a bit of a surprise to remember that there are other people on the other side of the screen.

Why is it a surprise? The internet is often used for communication, after all. Well, it's mostly a surprise when these people on the other side of the screen help you make decisions that change what it's like on your side of the screen.

Yes, this happens.

All I did, albeit publicly, was to ask if rearranging my apartment might be a good idea.




Alright, well, if you're just kicking around an idea and not being serious about it, don't share it with your internet pals because then you'll look like an ass if you don't follow through.

Right.

So, hey, remember that one time the internet told me to rearrange my apartment?

Before

desk location in bedroom


old bed positioning


Old living room (sorry, it's dark)

 

After (and in the daytime)

Desktop now in the living room!


where the desk used to be (ideas?)


new bed positioning

 

And also, new backdrop for vlogging

The new backdrop for vlogs, now that my desktop is in the living room

Still Down

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Posts I want to write:

-Reflections on the 20SB Summit
-Reflections on Vlog Every Day in August 2011
-Getting back into blogging after the month hiatus

Things preventing me from writing these posts:

-The freelancer scramble
-Intermittent instances of mild depression
-Self awareness vs. existential drama

Aaaaand here we go.

Do people actually still read this blog?

Pooping Gold

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My coworker asked me a hypothetical question today:

Would you rather shit solid gold for an entire year or have $1 million USD given to you in a single moment?

Because I work in a Research & Development department, we took this question as more of a challenge than an evaluation of personality. What we discovered might surprise you.

  • $1 Million in Savings
    • If you place $1M into a high yield compound savings account (which means the percent yield is based on what exists in the bank, even after a month of accrual), you'll probably end up with a rate of somewhere like 2%.
    • To see how much money would be made from putting this money into a high yield compound interest savings account, The formula for this is as follows:
      ($1,000,000*(1.02^12 months))-$1,000,000 = $268,241.795
  • Pooping Gold
    • At the time of this posting, the price of gold is valued at $1,332.69 USD per oz. Keep in mind that this fluctuates per day, but we will be using this as our example figure.
    • Gold cannot be valued by the pound, it is valued in Troy pounds. This means that to get the price of gold per American lbs., you should multiply the value of gold by ≈14.583.
    • The average human adult produces .8 kg or .6 lbs of solid waste per day. Obviously this varies with body weight, height, diet, etc., so this is just an example figure as well.
    • The formula for how much money made from pooping gold works out to (approx.) the following:
      ((14.583*$1332.69)*(.6/16oz))*365 days ≈ $266,011.338

Conclusion:
This means that even within a margin of error of 1%, over the course of 1 year, putting $1 million in a savings account is almost exactly like shitting solid gold.

Perspective can be profound.

******EDIT!******
After a couple of comments were so kind as to refine the cost-benefit analysis of the presented problem, we have now further evidence that it is better to poop gold than it is to put a large dump lump sum in the bank. You guys are geniuses! Check out what our new friend, Math Guy, had to say:

For the value of the gold, you're dividing by 16oz when you shouldn't. 14.583 troy oz / lb * 0.6lb gets you 8.75 troy oz (8.75 is actually the exact number in this case) of gold per day, so dividing by 16oz isn't necessary.

8.75 troy oz / day * $1332.69 / oz * 365 days / year = $4,256,278.69 in a year

So, shitting gold is way worth it, giving you more than 4x what you're left with when take into account Eric's comment ($1,020,184 after the year is up)