Data Data Data!

Guess where my work sent me today?

Edward Tufte's one-day course about presenting data and information! Not only was it awesome for all of the obvious reasons, it was double awesome because I got a set of all of his books for attending, and a neat little carrying case for them:

AND I got his autograph in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information:

Somehow I am not surprised that his signature is so... concise.

It was a little disconcerting to be back in an academic lecture setting, since I have gotten used to being a regular working adult. It was also disconcerting to be in a room that was probably 80% men, since I don't work in CS. Oh well. I learned a lot, and tomorrow I will go back to work and yell at everyone about their graphs until they regret having sent me!

(lambda (cross-stich) (awesome cross-stich))

Behold, my latest nerdy cross stitch:

Yes, that's right, they make black cross-stitching cloth!

Figuring out the pattern for this one gave me quite a headache. I kept thinking, "Okay, I'll base this lambda's height off of the shield next to it, but I need that shield to be big enough for a lambda inside of it, but I need that lambda to be the same height as the shield next to it..." and recursing into frustration. But thanks to lots of arithmetic, I finally did it!

See, it is really cross-stiched:

And it is really recursive (to a point):

Bonus nerd feature: The outer shield is 128 stitches wide, the next one is 64 stitches, the next one is 32, etc... I am a nerdy cross-stitching genius!

At the Grocery Store

I usually do the grocery shopping independently, but today Ben decided to tag along. Halfway through, I heard him frantically yelling "Caroline! Caroline! Caroline!" from several aisles over. I ran over expecting to see someone mugging him, only to find him grinning like an idiot and pointing at his handiwork:

"Get it? Get it? The controversy continues!"

No more grocery shopping with nerds.

In Which I Am the Champion of Everything

Ben proposed we play a game he learned from a math nerd friend. The game is called “Axiom/Theorem,” and you take turns stating axioms until one of you accidentally states a theorem that can be derived from the already-declared axioms, at which point that person loses. Ben thought he would win because I haven’t taken a math class in six years, but he forgot that I am the Queen of Impenetrable Logic* and therefore destined to win this game always and forever.

He let me go first, so I said “Axiom: Cookies are awesome.” I think he was taken aback because I was apparently supposed to say some math thing, but that wasn’t a rule and it is an axiom that you can’t change the rules once you start to play, in any game ever. So then he tried to get us back on track with some math thing, and I responded with “Axiom: Cake is awesome.” Then he tried to avert the long list of dessert-related axioms that I clearly had in mind with, “Axiom: Anything with chocolate in it is awesome,” but he underestimated my obsession with all things food-related and the game swiftly devolved.

     Ben: Axiom: Anything with chocolate in it is awesome.
     Me: Axiom: Vanilla ice cream is awesome.
     Ben: Axiom: Anything with sugar in it is awesome.
     Me: Axiom: Fruit dipped in cream is awesome.
     Ben: Axiom: All desserts are awesome.
     Me: Axiom: Mashed potatoes are awesome.
     Ben: Axiom: Anything with potatoes is awesome.
     Me: Axiom: Cheetos are awesome.

At this point Ben was getting frustrated with my apparently limitless categories of food, so he tried to cut me off and defeat me.

     Ben: Axiom: Anything Caroline likes is awesome.

But Ben forgot who he was dealing with.

     Me: Axiom: Ben is awesome.
     Ben: Wait, you lose!
     Me: No, I don’t.

At that point he didn’t want to play anymore. I always win!


*His words, not mine. Apparently he doesn’t find my system of Three Types of Trash – and the corresponding Three Types of Trash Cans – to be as self-apparent as I do.