I'm a geek, week thirteen

It was a very good week: 11-5 for the spreadsheet. Things are looking up!

1. Bears (9-2, unc)
2. Cowboys (7-4, +1)
3. Chargers (9-2, -1)
4. Ravens (9-2, unc)
5. Colts (10-1, +1)
6. Patriots (8-3, -1)
7. Jaguars (6-5, +1)
8. Eagles (5-6, -1)
9. Bengals (6-5, +8)
10. Chiefs (7-4, +1)
11. Saints (7-4, +2)
12. Dolphins (5-6, +4)
13. Rams (5-6, +1)
14. Broncos (7-4, -5)
15. Giants (6-5, -1)
16. Vikings (5-6, +3)
17. Falcons (5-6, -7)
18. Panthers (6-5, unc)
19. Steelers (4-7, -4)
20. Seahawks (7-4, +1)
21. Jets (6-5, +4)
22. Redskins (4-7, +1)
23. Packers (4-7, -3)
24. Bills (5-6, +2)
25. 49ers (5-6, -3)
26. Lions (2-9, -2)
27. Titans (4-7, +2)
28. Cardinals (2-9, -1)
29. Texans (3-8, -1)
30. Raiders (2-9, +2)
31. Browns (3-8, -1)
32. Buccaneers (3-8, -1)

Lots of movement this week. I'm kind of surprised at the churn at the bottom of the standings; there doesn't seem to be a true cellar-dweller between the Bucs, the Raiders, the Browns, and the Texans. I guess that means look for the Bucs to have a better-than-normal performance this week, although whether that will actually mean they beat the Steelers is doubtful.

It's a good thing anyway

So a few weeks ago, I got a letter in the mail from my apartment complex telling me I had 21 days to completely clean and sanitize my apartment, or be evicted. (Of course, that deadline was today.) Well! I knew I wasn't the best housekeeper, and in fact I had at that time a pair of garbage bags sitting there waiting to go out to the Dumpster when it wasn't raining, and a few pizza boxes as well. So I spent the last three weeks stressing about getting this apartment as clean as I, a single male, could make it. (I knew it wasn't going to match my aunt's standards, or even my mother's, but why let the perfect be the enemy of the good?) I will say that I can see much more carpet now (not that I don't have a lot of books, it's just that instead of a lot of really small piles, I now have fewer, larger, ones). I scrubbed down the kitchen, and as much of the bathroom as I could given the fact that the drains went wonky over Thanksgiving weekend.

It turns out that that wasn't the point *at all*. The point, as far as my apartment complex was concerned, was that since I was supposed to get my carpet replaced (see water heater, above) they wanted *everything* out of my living room. In fact, during the walkthrough this morning, the maintenance person went straight to the living room, looked around, and said, "You know you'll still need to have all this stuff in boxes to get the new carpet in." I agreed, we set a date for new carpet (which I cannot decline, since I didn't make the first one), and that was that.

The place needed to be cleaned up anyway. Good thing I had three weeks.

It may have taken an extra day

... but I did come up with things to be thankful for.

I'm not going to tell you what they are, though.

God works in mysterious ways

"We wanted to express God's love to you in a practical way--no strings attached! Let us know if we can further assist you."

So says the note in the bag that was left on my door (and everyone else's door, looking around) by the local non-denominational church*. The bag also contains one (1) trick-or-treat-size bag of M&Ms (plain), one (1) 9-V battery, one (1) teabag (no idea what brand; the cardboard tag just has a picture of a rose), and one (1) tea candle. Oddly enough, the teabag does have a string attached. I seriously doubt if I'll ever use three of these things (bet you can guess which three), so I guess our ideas of practical don't match. And I can't imagine any of these things being ... Biblical ... in any way.

*Consider the following analogy: Denominations are like conferences in NCAA sports, making these sorts of churches the Notre Dame of religion. Discuss the accuracy of this analogy in your religion, and determine the religious/societal equivalent of the BCS exemption for Notre Dame.

I'm a geek, week twelve

Another 9-7 performance for the spreadsheet this week. There are some very-nearly-tied teams this week, so I'm providing the computed score for the teams as well so you can see where the big gaps are. (The real reason I'm doing so, though, is so that these posts now contain an example of each of the four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.)

1. Bears (9-1, unc) 16.8
2. Chargers (8-2, unc) 14.6
3. Cowboys (6-4, unc) 12.2
4. Ravens (8-2, +1) 11.1
5. Patriots (7-3, +2) 9.6
6. Colts (9-1, -2) 8.8
7. Eagles (5-5, -1) 7.6
8. Jaguars (6-4, unc) 7.3
9. Broncos (7-3, +3) 3.4
10. Falcons (5-5, unc) 2.6
11. Chiefs (6-4, +3) 2.5
12. Rams (4-6, -1) 1.7
13. Saints (6-4, unc) 1.6
14. Giants (6-4, -5) 1.6
15. Steelers (4-6, unc) 0.4
16. Dolphins (4-6, unc) 0.3
17. Bengals (5-5, unc) 0.3
18. Panthers (6-4, +2) 0.2
19. Vikings (4-6, -1) -1.2
20. Packers (4-6, -1) -5.3
21. Seahawks (6-4, unc) -5.8
22. 49ers (5-5, +6) -6.1
23. Redskins (3-7, +1) -6.4
24. Lions (2-8, -2) -6.4
25. Jets (5-5, -2) -6.5
26. Bills (4-6, -1) -7.1
27. Cardinals (2-8, unc) -7.2
28. Texans (3-7, -2) -9.0
29. Titans (3-7, +1) -9.3
30. Browns (3-7, -1) -9.5
31. Buccaneers (3-7, +1) -11.3
32. Raiders (2-8, -1) -11.4

How about that NFC West?

Things you discover when Googling your own name

University Microfilms Inc. has apparently partnered with amazon.com to bring Ph.D. dissertations (from fine participating institutions, such as Duke) to the masses at $69.99 a pop. All the ones I've looked at have sold a grand total of 0, based on their (lack of) sales rank. And one of my classmates' dissertations is unavailable, or at least I can't find it either by author or by title. (Granted, I never knew that there was an Victorian (Australia) premier with the same name in the earlier parts of the 20th century, so I learned two things here.) I don't know how far back they go--random names from a year or two earlier weren't finding anything either. It seems that, for whatever reason, they're not in a huge hurry.

Pain

It's bad form to talk about yourself, but I don't have any readers anyway, so why not?

I've always had a weird relationship with pain. I am extraordinarily non-pain-tolerant; and if I have to "cause" the pain myself I become positively pain-avoidant. I put up with allergy shots for seven years or so, but I could have never given them to myself. If I ever become diabetic, I might as well just shoot myself.

I've always thought that my inability to work the social/dating scene (or, for that matter, to even find it) was mostly laziness, with some fear-of-crowds thrown in. And while I am still an amazingly lazy person, and I don't like crowds, I am starting to think that the pain issue might be the biggest block. High school was what it was -- no one expected any better and that's all right then. But the women I went to college with were experts; they could make borrowing a pen a painful experience. (Compare "Have you ever had Professor X before? Is he any good?" with "Have you ever had Professor X before? My boyfriend's on the football team. Is Professor X any good?" For that matter, compare "You can give me a call; if I'm not in, leave a message" with "Give me a call. No one will be there to answer it, because both I and my roommate really live on the other side of campus in our boyfriends' rooms, but we check our messages every day or two" in a situation where I was being asked a favor. And I did it anyway.)

But I find myself avoiding any situation where someone could make any sort of personal comment at all. Work--no problem--even out for drinks afterward. But talking to someone who doesn't have to remember that they have to see me in the office every day? I'm avoiding it (I can't even bring myself to look things up on the internet, and you know that's bad), and I can't see how it's going to happen (even when someone has tried to shame me into leaving the apartment, it hasn't happened). But in the long run that's okay, because I am Broken.

(This has been part one of many in the series "Whiny Narcissism".)

I'm a geek, week eleven

Well, we did a little better this week, at 9-7. I don't know that we're ready for Vegas yet. Here goes:

1. Chicago (8-1, +1)
2. San Diego (7-2, -1)
3. Dallas (5-4, +2)
4. Indianapolis (9-0, unc)
5. Baltimore (7-2, -2)
6. Philadelphia (5-4, unc)
7. New England (6-3, unc)
8. Jacksonville (5-4, unc)
9. NY Giants (6-3, unc)
10. Atlanta (5-4, +2)
11. St. Louis (4-5, +2)
12. Denver (7-2, -1)
13. New Orleans (6-3, -3)
14. Kansas City (5-4, unc)
15. Steelers (3-6, +2)
16. Miami (3-6, unc)
17. Cincinnati (4-5, +1)
18. Minnesota (4-5, -3)
19. Green Bay (4-5, +2)
20. Carolina (5-4, +3)
21. Seattle (6-3, -2)
22. Detroit (2-7, -2)
23. NY Jets (5-4, +1)
24. Washington (3-6, -2)
25. Buffalo (3-6, +1)
26. Houston (3-6, +3)
27. Arizona (1-8, -2)
28. San Francisco (4-5, +3)
29. Cleveland (3-6, -2)
30. Tennessee (2-7, +2)
31. Oakland (2-7, +1)
32. Tampa Bay (2-7, -4)

Yes, I know a lot of teams that lost moved up and a lot of teams that won moved down. I very carefully avoid thinking about that sort of thing.

It's that time

Finals are graded now. Yay. :(

Eleven-Eleven

It's a day late, for weekend reasons, but I can only give my thanks to all veterans, who have far more courage in their little toenail than I have anywhere.

Bad Sign

When your skin is so dry that you can't successfully apply lotion, as the lotion merely slides over the hard surface.

I'm a geek, week ten

And because I'm a geek, I have a spreadsheet with statistics from the current NFL season and home-brewed power rankings based on those stats. I think I'll have to improve the algorithm, as the model only went 6-8 last week. Did you think you weren't going to see them?

1. Chargers (6-2, +1)
2. Bears (7-1, -1)
3. Ravens (6-2, +2)
4. Colts (8-0, unc)
5. Cowboys (4-4, +1)
6. Eagles (4-4, +2)
7. Patriots (6-2, -4)
8. Jaguars (5-3, +3)
9. Giants (6-2, unc)
10. Saints (6-2, +2)
11. Broncos (6-2, +4)
12. Falcons (5-3, -5)
13. Rams (4-4, -3)
14. Chiefs (5-3, +3)
15. Vikings (4-4, +1)
16. Dolphins (2-6, +2)
17. Steelers (2-6, -4)
18. Bengals (4-4, -4)
19. Seahawks (5-3, +4)
20. Lions (2-6, +5)
21. Packers (3-5, -2)
22. Redskins (3-5, -2)
23. Panthers (4-4, -2)
24. Jets (4-4, -2)
25. Cardinals (1-7, -1)
26. Bills (3-5, +2)
27. Browns (2-6, +2)
28. Buccaneers (2-6, -1)
29. Texans (2-6, +2)
30. Raiders (2-6, unc)
31. 49ers (3-5, +1)
32. Titans (2-6, -6)

Just think--week by week proof of how bad statistics are as predictors of sports events!

The lake is gone

You wouldn't think leaving an industrial-style fan stuck under your carpet blowing air from 7:30 am until 11:30 pm would dry a carpet that well.

The perfect wording

You ask a question about a change that's recently been made above your pay grade. The answer comes back: "We need to discuss that issue." Does that mean that we need to discuss that issue (so you can tell me the answer), or that you need to discuss that issue (so that someone knows what the answer is)? I don't know the disambiguating, yet politically correct, question for this.

First Posts Should Always Be Cryptic: A Haiku

Hot water good to have.
Carpet surely does reek, though.
Febreze can help some.