All posts by George Evans

About George Evans

I think, therefore I think

Change Log of July 9, 2014

Change Logs, George, Miscellaneous Posts

At the end of every day (or, at least every day that I change something), I’m going to make a post that highlights all of the changes and/or posts that have been made that day. This way I can change previous posts and actually have the changes be found, plus reader will be able get to all the new posts without scrolling down too much. Note: Since this post will be the last thing I post each day, it is less likely to be properly cleaned up, as I will be rather tired at that point

New posts:

  • Weirdly Spelled Words: This is something that came out Tricia (my sister) mentioning that Sergeant is hard to spell. After that I started trying to other bizarrely spelled word (including bizarre). I have many more words ready to be edited in as soon as I have the time.

Major Changes:

  • I moved a few more the posts around to their new categories. As I said last time, when I’m done figuring out the categories I will specify which posts are moved around and have links to them
  • I added a new paragraph (the 4th bullet point) to Interesting Observation: Social Norms. I thought of what I wrote after re-reading the post today.
  • I added the miscellaneous section on my main page, and I added a category for the change logs.

Minor Changes:

  • I added a short explanation of my joke in Joke – Funny Bone, in case anyone didn’t get it. I also added my signoff ” ~ George”

Of Special Note:

  • From Thursday to Saturday I (probably) won’t have access to a computer, so there won’t be any changes then
  • If I fix a small typo or change an unimportant word in a post then I won’t report it in a change log

 

~ George

Change Log of July 7, 2014

Change Logs, George, Miscellaneous Posts

At the end of every day (or, at least every day that I change something), I’m going to make a post that highlights all of the changes and/or posts that have been made that day. This way I can change previous posts and actually have the changes be found, plus reader will be able get to all the new posts without scrolling down too much. Note: Since this post will be the last thing I post each day, it is less likely to be properly cleaned up, as I will be rather tired at that point

New posts:

  • Published Joke – Funny Bone, a joke I came up with a bit ago and finally got around to publishing

Major Changes:

  • I made the “Idea Polish Level” pages 1 – 4 sub pages to one page called “My ideas”, as part of my new organization method
  • I added sub pages Idea Polish Level 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 under Idea Polish Level pages 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, to hold pages that aren’t quite cleaned up enough to be published officially yet, but have been worked on. These may end up being private (not see-able by the public)
  • I edited the descriptions of “Idea Polish Level” pages 1 – 4 to fit better with my new organization method. The descriptions will probably change as I figure out this system
  • Moved a few of the posts around to their new categories. In the future I will specify which posts are moved around and have links to them, but this time I’ll just say that it’s because of “my new organization method” (I feel like I’m saying that a lot 🙂 )

Minor Changes:

Of Special Note:

  • Tomorrow I will continue my reorganizing of my posts and clean up, and I’ll also publish a few drafts

 

~ George

Certified Brilliant – June Edition

Certified Brilliant, George

Certified Brilliant is something I’m doing in which every day I post something that I found on the internet. To qualify, I must think that it is simply brilliant, epic, and/or incredible. Since I don’t want to have too many posts doing small things, I’ll edit this post every day, adding a new brilliant/epic/incredible thing. Every month I will make a new post and start updating it. My favorite brilliant/incredible/epic thing in each post will be starred.

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June 7 – Certified Brilliant <–*Star*

“The distance from this sentence to your eye is my sculpture”

– Rethinking Curating – Art After New Media, By Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook

I found the sentence in this video, about 1 minute and 30 second into it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VztSdwYPFCE&index=5&list=UU6nSFpj9HTCZ5t-N3Rm3-HA

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June 6 – Certified Brilliant

…found tucked between the pages Julius Caesar’s diary…

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June 5 – Certified Brilliant

Blog - Certified Brilliant - DHD Crimes of Opportunity

 

Title Text: “Oh right. This isn’t the Sahara desert, because in the Sahara desert water is CHEAPER”

Sign off text: “This water is gonna go great with my sandwich, which apparently is made out of a bar of gold.”

I may or may not do this someday ; ) . Source: http://thedoghousediaries.com/4577

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June 4 – Certified Epic <–*Star*

One day my friends were all talking about what their dream car was. Someone got the bright idea to ask me, the guy who had probably spent little more than a few minutes in his life thinking about the question. “Hey George, what about you? What’s your dream car?” he said.  I looked up. “The Batmobile”.  Then I got back to my book

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June 3 – Certified Incredible

Apart from repeated use of the word “freakin” (which actually isn’t a bad word,  just associated with them),  this is an incredible sounding technology which I hope is as good as it looks. Support them at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home

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June 2 – Certified Brilliant

That night, retired USAF pilots covertly replaced the '62' with '50'.

Title Text: “That night, retired USAF pilots covertly replaced the ’62’ with ’50’.”

Who knew that space was so close? Link: www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1375

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June 1 – Certified Incredible <–*Star*

A poem to inspire you to put down your phone and look up

 

~ George

Joke – Learner’s Permit

George, Idea Polish Level: 2, , , ,

Having recently gotten my learner’s permit, I’m considering putting a sign in the back window of any vehicle I drive to warn of my lack of skill. My current favorite warning that I’ve thought of:

 

“n00b driver, please don’t PWN me“

 

At least they can’t get angry at my (probably) poor driving skills while they’re laughing 🙂

~ George

Certified Brilliant – May Edition

Certified Brilliant, George

Certified Brilliant is something I’m doing in which every day I post something that I found on the internet. To qualify, I must think that it is simply brilliant, epic, and/or incredible. Since I don’t want to have too many posts doing small things, I’ll edit this post every day, adding a new brilliant/epic/incredible thing. Every month I will make a new post and start updating it. My favorite brilliant/incredible/epic thing in each post will be starred.

May 25 – Certified Incredible

do_hard_things

This book. It’s Incredible. The world would be much better if we all did what this book said.

May 24 – Certified Brilliant

Lifting Rocks

Source: http://thedoghousediaries.com/3566

May 23 – Certified Incredible

Blog - Certified Brilliant - Signature

“The Mother of All Signatures”

May 22 – Certified Brilliant

“Think outside the quadrilateral parallelogram”

May 21 – Certified Brilliant

“There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don’t”

May 20 – Certified Brilliant

Blog - Certified Brilliant - xkcd Explorers

Title text: We’re going to have to work together to get over our hangups if we’re going to learn to move on Catan’s hexagonal grid. It’s bad enough that we lost our crew of pawns when we passed within firing range of Battleship.

Source: xkcd.com/839/

May 19 –  Certified Brilliant

My dad left me this note when I turned 16:

Happy Blog - Certified Brilliant - 16th Note Birthday!

May 18 – Certified Incredible <–*Star*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

May 17 – Certified Epic  <–*Star*

Arctic

S3 Krypton Series

Lunar

Inferno

Buy one here! Somehow, someday, I’ll get one of these…

May 16 – Certified Incredible

Blog - Certified Brilliant - Roundabout

The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England. Also know as the roundabout from “down there”

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

May 15 – Certified Brilliant

Blog - Certified Brilliant - xkcd Tetris

The comic: http://thedoghousediaries.com/4374

The comic’s sources: http://xkcd.com/724/, http://xkcd.com/888/

You can play the Heaven version of Tetris here: http://www.gudmagazine.com/games/heaven/Heavenx.swf, and the Hell version can be played here: http://www.kongregate.com/games/banthar/hell-tetris

May 14 – Certified Brilliant

$2 Undecillion Lawsuit

What if Au Bon Pain lost this lawsuit and had to pay the plaintiff $2 undecillion?

Find the answer here: what-if.xkcd.com/96/

May 13 – Certified Brilliant <–*Star*

 

Get Real Be Rational

 

~ George

Definition

George, Idea Polish Level: 1

I’m wondering if the following would be possible:

  1. Take any word
  2. Give it a definition
  3. Give every word that you used in the definition you just made it’s own definition
  4. Repeat step three until every word you’ve used has been defined (note, you cannot define a word with itself)

I’m thinking it’s possible to do it if you use looping definitions, like this:

Hello. Hello means Hi. Hi means Hello. Means means equals. Equals means Means.

I’m not sure if that should count though, but if it doesn’t then unless you use a video or some other media you’ll keep defining words with other words until you simply run out of words. Maybe I need a better meaning for what counts as a definition.

 ~ George

Standing Around

George, Idea Polish Level: 1

We were at Disney recently, and Dad said that we could do whatever we wanted. He commented that we could even stand around all day, although that would be a waste of money. So I started wondering, where (on Earth) is the most expensive place to stand? To qualify, it must be a place where people have gone (and survived). The bottom of the ocean wouldn’t count, but the top of Mount Everest would.

~ George

Interesting Observation: Social Norms

George, Idea Polish Level: 3,

Having participated in a discussion about social norms recently, I realized something that I don’t think anyone else there picked up on.

There are way more social norms than we usually think there are. Many things are social norms, even if we wouldn’t think they are. To help identify a few, here’s the definition which I’ll use:

A social norm is something the majority of society does/finds normal

Using that definition, you can find more social norms by realizing a few things about them:

  • Possibly the easiest to realize, something can be bad and still be a social norm (slavery in pre-civil war ear, for example, and smoking nowadays)
  • The next easiest to realize might be that something can be the right thing to do and still be a social norm (not interrupting someone who is talking is the right thing to do, and a social norm; it’s also a social norm to let the other person talk sometimes so that they don’t need to interrupt you in the first place)
  • Less easy to notice, something can be both common sense and a social norm (driving on the right side of the street, for example, is a social norm. Obeying the law is too,  although for some laws (such as the speed limit), it has become the social norm to not strictly obey)
  • Even harder to notice, something can be nearly unnoticeable and still be a social norm (eating 3 meals a day is a social norm, and so is waking up before noon during a weekday)
  • And the strangest of all, something can be “of course you don’t do that” and still be a social norm (of course we don’t randomly punch people in the face, but it’s still a social norm. Not punching someone in the face is, after all, “something the majority of society does/finds normal”)

The last one is the most interesting to think about. There are so many things which are “yeah duh, of course we don’t do that”, which I hadn’t even thought of as social norms. Of course we don’t randomly set fire to forests. Yes, it’s common sense. Yes, it’s the right thing to do. Yes, it seems crazy to even think about doing on purpose. And yes, it’s a social norm.

~ George