Age is Just a Number

We have all heard the saying.  But do we all really believe it?  I think it depends on what you are talking about.
When talking about relationships there are a couple different ways to look at things.  A healthy 56 year old man who is married to a 44 year old women (12 years difference) doesn't seem too weird or unusual to me.  However when I think of a 31 year old women dating a 19 year old college student (still 12 years difference) I instantly furrow my eye brows in disgust.  Why is this?  Is it because the gender roles were reversed and now the older woman is chasing after the younger boy?  Or is it because the younger person in the relationship is not even of drinking age yet?
Recently I posted a Facebook status that read "life is still one party when you're still young", it's lyrics from the a song sung by Shaggy.  Within a couple of minutes of posting three adults had commented on my status.  One man, who is in his upper 50's wrote "at what age does the party stop."  This dad of one of my friends is a total kid at heart.  He water skis, snow boards, rides motorcycles, jams rock music at the high school football games, and knows how to throw back a few beers on the weekends.  When other adults commented after him saying they agreed with him it made me smile.  There are a lot of things I am not looking forward to when it comes to getting older.  But these adults definitely still know how to have a good time, which makes me hopeful.  All I need to do is remember, age is just a number after all.

23

This movie is all about an obsession with the 23 enigma, an esoteric belief that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some permutation of the number 23, or a number related to 23.  The movie is pretty creepy and gets you thinking...

Numb3rs

There has even been a TV show created that obviously has something to do with numbers, I mean the title of the show is Numb3rs.  The show's main characters are either members of the FBI or mathematicians at the fictitious California Institute of Science CalSci.  Charlie's (one of the characters) mathematics were always in some way crucial to solving the crimes in the show.  Numb3rs showed on CBS from January 23, 2005 until it was cancelled after it's sixth season on March 12, 2010.

What's Special About This Number?

I have no idea what half of this stuff means but, Go Ahead, Check This Out.

Text Messaging

How many text messages to do you send a month?  My guess is WAY too many to count.  Am I correct?  How long do you spend calling your friends/family members, or chatting with them on Facebook?  It's all about staying connected these days and always knowing what is going on in your friends' lives.  The link below will bring you to an interesting article that breaks down how teenagers communicate.

Click Here To View the Outrageous Article Full of Statics

"Deuces"

This song performed by Chris Brown featuring Tyga and Kevin McCall has given a whole new meaning to the number two and the way someone signals it.  Putting two fingers up in the air (your pointer and middle) is also used to reference peace.  But now people are flashing their "deuces" when they leave or exit an area or event.  In the song Chris Brown uses the phrase "chuckin' up them deuces" (two in Spanish) to signal he is leaving his girlfriend, like "Peace.  I'm outta here."  I now see this trend of throwing up two fingers and saying "deuce" or "I'm deucin'" more and more around campus, in the dorms, or at parties.  Who knows how long a trend like this will last among our generation but I wouldn't be surprised if ten years from now, after the trend has died down, "deuces" made it's comeback with a younger generation.

Facebook Statistics

These stats will amaze you!  Facebook helps keep millions of people connected all around the world.  But it also controls the lives and sucks up the time of millions.  What did college kids waste their time on before social networking sites came about??

People on Facebook

• More than 500 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user has 130 friends
• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Activity on Facebook

• There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
• Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
• More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.

Global Reach

• More than 70 translations available on the site
• About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
• Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application

Platform

• Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
• People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
• Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
• Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
• More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore's U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore's Global Top 100 websites

Mobile

• There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
• People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
• There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

#1 Falls to an Unranked

As I cried myself to sleep last night after a Jayhawk slaughter I was able to think of a positive that could come out of the loss.  I decided I would examine the stats and then blog about them for my Comp 112 class!  The two numbers everyone will remember from last nights game are 84 and 68, the final score.  There is a bar graph on this website that shows the Four Factors to Winning as they related to the in state match up last night. 

Here are some of the Jayhawks most impressive stats from the 2010-2011 season:

POINTS PER GAME - 83.3 - 7th OVERALL

REBOUNDS PER GAME - 8.43 - 4th OVERALL

ASSISTS PER GAME - 18.3 - 2nd OVERALL

FIELD GOAL PCT - .521 - 1st OVERALL <---now THAT is an impressive statistic!

And as of right now they are still ranked first in the nation!  That ranking will most likely drop but none of that matters by the time March rolls around.  "ROCKKKKK CHALKKKKK JAYHAWKKKKK KKKKKKK UUUUUUUU!"

$

Whether it's how much you make or how much you're paying, money plays an important role everyday in our lives.  The most recent run in with money I have had first hand experience with is choosing a destination to travel to for Spring Break 2011.  We have decided on Panama City Beach, FL.  Here is a break down of what we are estimating for total costs:

• Gas: $80
• Hotel: $140
• REFUNDABLE Hotel Deposit: $50
• Nightclub Pass: $40
• Food: $50
• Shopping: $40

So that right there adds up to be $400 for a 6 day fun-filled (two days driving), 2,000 mile plus round trip from the northwest corner of Missouri to the panhandle of Flordia.  Money is THE main thing keeping some of my friends from being able to go.  But oh well, maybe next year they can start saving their money in advance so they are insured a spot on a Spring Break Trip in 2012!

Too bad it doesn't grow on trees, right?

111

"Hey, what's your name?"
"My name's Mackie, what's yours?"
"I'm Hailey.  Where are you from?"
"Kearney, Nebraska.  And what about you?"
"I'm a townie, I'm from Maryville.  How many people did you graduate with?"
"Four hundred."
"Oh wow!  That's how many people were in my whole school!"
"Yeah the kid I sat by I had never met in my whole life."
"Wow that's crazy.  I have know most of the kids I graduated with my whole life!"

I received my diploma with one hundred and ten other kids from Maryville R-II High School.  How many people someone receives their diploma with reveals a lot about a person, or does it?  What are we really gaining from knowing how many people someone graduated with?  A graduating class size is an indicator of how big the town is where that person graduated.  It will also help you gain some insight on how big of a change college and moving to a town the size of Maryville is for that person.  Another big factor I think about when I hear someone's class size is sports.  Was there an greater opportunity for this person to be a "star" on a team basketball team with only 10 people on it, or did they cheer on their team from the sideline after not making it through tryouts?

Blizzardddddddddd!

Happy Blizzard Day!  As I sit in my room celebrating another day off from school the TV resembles a broken record.  "A winter storm warning is in affect for over half of the country, more than 30 states," "Some places are seeing as much as 2 feet of snow, others an inch of ice," "We are in the midst of one of the biggest blizzards in history."

As I listen to the weather forecast for the next hour, 24 hours, 36 hours, and even 48 hours I can't help but notice all the numbers the weather men and women are using.  Over time we have learned to recognize what these numbers mean to us individually.  I know that if it is 33 degrees outside I need a jacket.  If there is a 80% chance of rain, it would be wise to grab an umbrella before heading across campus to our classes.  So much of weather is forecasted with the use of numbers, here are some examples:

• temperature (in degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit)
• wind gusts
• visibility
• wind chill
• dew point
• humidity
• chance of rain or snow percentages
• averages
• hour by hour forecasts

Mathematics?

While writing my interview paper I ran across this video and thought it went right along with what we are currently discussing in class.  The actors and actresses are fighting over numbers and percentages.  The whole video is spent arguing back and forth while using mathematical terms.