Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

When I was in elementary school, I remember (sort of) being taught this mnemonic device to remember my Order of Operations.

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Wtf?

This stands for Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.

Okay, now that we've finished the review for the old people, I'll elaborate on how I was taught this and why I think I had some major problems doing math in Physics.

When I was taught the Order of Operations, we were told that Multiplication and Division can be done in any order, you'd still get the right answer.

We were also told that Addition and Subtraction can be done in any order, you'd still get the right answer.

Well, yeah, with Addition and Subtraction, you can do that.  But not Multiplication and Division.

It's easy with adding and subtracting:

9 -2 + 6

7 + 6 = 13

or

9 - 2 + 6

9 + 4 = 13

See how I got there in both cases?  First I did the 9 -2 subtraction to get 7, plus 6 is 13.  In the second version, I did -2 + 6 first (remember, the - is attached to the 2, making it a negative number) and got +4.  So 9 + 4 also equals 13.

Try to do that with division and multiplication and you'll get two different answers, but not with every equation.

Here's one floating around the interwebs right now that'll net you two different answers:

48 / 2 (9 + 3)

I saw this and thought oh how easy.

48 / 2 (12)

48 / 24

2

Nope.  Chuck Testa.

That's wrong.  You apparently have to do multiplication and division, if they're the only operations remaining, from left to right.

48 / 2 (9 + 3)

48 / 2 (12)

24 * 12

288

Doesn't need to get more complicated than that.  You don't even need to explain it such that 9 + 3 is a variable x and you're being given a value to put in to x.  Straight up, I was edumacated wrong.

This type of crap came up a shit ton, not in my math classes (I seemed to do perfectly well in those classes) but in my Physics class in high school.  I managed to get so much math wrong that my teacher wanted me in remedial math classes to review elementary level shit because that's what I was fucking up on.

But whenever I was in calculus, I'd get it right.  Somehow.

Because of shit like this

9 * 2 / 3

You can do this in any fucking order and get 6.

18 / 3

6

or

9 * 2/3 (2 divided by 3 becomes the fraction 2/3)

9/1 * 2/3 (put 1 under 9 to represent whole number fraction)

3/1 * 2/1 (reduce numerator 9 to 3 and denominator 3 to 1)

6 (multiple straight across to get 6/1 which is 6)

Yes, technically the first method is the "correct" method because it is less work.  But this shows that our teachers thought that there was no case in which you could get two different answers out of an equation in which only the operators multiplication and division remained.

I'm almost positive this is why I nearly failed high school Physics.

When I think it matters most is when the division is in the front of the equation.  Let's take the example above and mix it up.

9 / 2 * 6

This equation will net you two different answers.

4.5 * 6

27

Okay now ...

9 / 2 * 6

9/ 12

1/4

I've been testing this out a bunch this morning, and it still seems like the only case in which you must do multiplication and division in the order in which they show from left to right, is when division precedes multiplication.

Let's make it a bit more complex.

8 / 4 * 3 * 5 / 6

So far, I've gotten 6 different answers.  I won't go through them all but you can see that if you have several of the two operations, it makes for some confusion when you've been taught you can start anywhere in the problem and go to town.

From left to right (the correct way):

8 / 4 * 3 * 5 / 6

2 * 3 * 5 / 6

6 * 5 / 6

30 / 6

5

Weee.

Now let's get rid of that first division, see if we can get one answer no matter where we start in the equation.

4 * 3 * 5 / 6

4 * 15 / 6

60 / 6

10

or

12 * 5 / 6

60 / 6

10

or

4 * 3 * 5/6

12 * 5/6

12 * .8333~

10

Yup.

Looks like it just so happens that if you have a division operation at the beginning of your equation, you must do it first, then you can do the equation in just about any order you want.

8 / 4 * 3 * 5 / 6

2 * 15 / 6

2 * 2.5

5

or

2 * 3 * 5 / 6

6 * .8333~

5

Math is fun!

"No Poo" Movement Week 1

As of tomorrow, I will have completed my first week of not shampooing my hair at all.

Last Friday was the first day I decided to start this; I had not shampooed my hair since the Tuesday prior.  I was typically going 2-4 days without shampooing.  It has been six days since I've shampooed.  It's the longest I've gone, as far as I can remember.

It's tough going.  The roots are constantly greasy looking.  I don't know if I should stop using conditioner or not because my hair would be an absolute bitch to comb out without any type of detangler.

When I rinsed last Friday without washing, it was an ode to willpower.  The next day I felt so gross, I showered again before going out.  My hair still felt gross that day too.

I haven't rinsed/conditioned again since.  I think the next time I rinse it (tonight) I'm not going to use conditioner and see if that makes a difference.

There is a ton of stuff built up on my scalp.  It's gross.  But it doesn't itch at all.  That's once thing I've noticed.  The typical dry itchiness I have has gone away.  Makes sense; more oil on the scalp, calms the dry skin.  But it's building up and I don't know if there's anything I can do to make that go away.

I plan on giving this a shot for two months.  That was the longest transition period I read for some people.  So if by August I'm not comfortable for whatever reason, I'll go back to using Neutrogena T/SAL (for scalp build up) and L'Oreal's sulfate-free moisturizing conditioner regularly.

The whole point of doing this is to get rid of the frizzy halo I've had with my hair my entire life.  I also want to leave it naturally wavy/curly all the time (for the simple fact that it's faster than styling it, by two hours).  The problem with leaving it naturally wavy/curly is how frizzy it is.  It dries very slowly, one tiny thin layer at a time.  The top layer drives but is so close to the moisture of the wet hair beneath it that it frizzes up like crazy.  Even in the winter, it's frizzy.

So I read that the problem is this: the reason hair frizzes is because it's dry and desires moisture.  So it reaches out to whatever moisture it can find, thus causing frizz.  My hair causes it's own frizz with air-drying. As the layers dry, the topmost becomes frizzy due to the moisture left below it.  The bottom layers of my hair, once dry, have nice beach-bum like waves that are soft (although the ends are a bit poofy because my stylist doesn't know how to cut the bottom layer).  They are completely frizz free.  But that top layer ends up laying flat, dull, and most of the wave has straightened out of itself because of the pure amount of hair I have.  It weighs itself down and dries somewhat straight (in a very frizzy and poofy way).

I typically end up with what I call triangle-head.  I definitely need to get my hair cut, but I have to make sure that the bottom layer is cut thin enough so the ends of my hair air-dry nicely, as opposed to the poof-mess they're making right now.

I'm also hoping that, after a few weeks, my hair will air-dry nicely on it's own due to my stopping shampooing.  I will admit that the rest of the hair between the ends and the root feel quite nice.  Soft and shiny (but not oily or greasy).

Trying to keep it going.  Here's to un-frizzy hair!

The "No-Poo" Movement

Yesterday I decided to start the No-Poo Movement.  I've quit shampooing my hair cold-turkey.  I'm still using conditioner at this time, but I'm hoping to be completely off that in a few weeks.

It sucks.  I showered last night before going out, and sat under the water trying to get the water to clean my hair out.  And I felt pretty gross just putting conditioner in my hair.

But it doesn't really look that bad.  I mean, no one could really tell that it's greasy at the roots.  I'm just hoping the transition period only takes a couple weeks.  Some people were talking two months before the greasiness goes away.

I'm going to document my progress with this here as a way to keep me in to it.  When I finally saw my hair completely dry last night, I was like, fuck this I'm washing it tomorrow.  But I'm not going to.  Just going to leave it.  Willpower.

Drama

I.  Fucking.  Hate.  Drama.

It was the reason I moved away from my family to begin with.  It's the reason I could never live too close to them ever again (any less than 4 hours is too close).

This is more of a rant than anything.  I don't care who reads it, I just need to get my thoughts down some place so I can get it all out of my head and go to fucking sleep.

Earlier today I found a petition to introduce a bill that would require teachers of certain grades to educate children on child abuse, not only from a stranger, but from a person the child may know.  The law is called Erin's Law and the woman courageously stepping forward was sexually abused (raped) as a 6 year old, repeatedly.

So I signed it.  I put a long-winded comment in the post, and posted it on the petition website.  However, it also posted what I had said to Facebook.  Well I removed it because I didn't want people seeing about my sister having been abused as a child.  That's her business to give out, not my own.

My sister didn't see the actual post, but I told her about it and told her about the petition.  She signed it.  Our cousin signed it.  She posted a fairly large rant of her own about how nobody protected her and in a specific way, it's not only our grandfather who is to blame, but our grandmother and mother for not preventing it all together by sending him to jail when he did the same shit to our mother.

A couple hours after this, my mother calls me as I am headed to the grocery store and demands that I get my sister to apologize for saying those things, and take back the fact she still blames my mother, otherwise she (my mother) won't come to my wedding.

What?

How fucking immature do you have to be to say that?  How incredibly childish, to turn to me and make me fix her problems.  If she wants an apology from my sister, call my sister, don't bitch to me about it.

She has every right to blame our mother.  She has every right to blame each and every person that knew about this shit (prior to her abuse) and not have done everything in their power to prevent it from happening to anybody else.

My mom's excuse, which I hate the most out of all of this, is that she asked my sister, repeatedly, if our grandfather was doing anything to her.  She was eight.  She couldn't tell what was right or wrong.  He had manipulated her so thoroughly that she couldn't tell anyone until she was 16.

If my mother had done the right thing 45 years ago when this shit started with her, by going to the cops, or if my grandmother had done that when her daughter told her about it, NONE of this shit would have happened.  He would have gone to jail, and when he got out, we would have had nothing to do with him.

But no.  As a true Catholic Italian family, they buried it deep down inside themselves and took care of the problem within the family by not talking about it.  Put up the facade to the rest of the planet and let everyone believe everything is fine.

Moving out was difficult, but I had a lot of help.  My dad floated me a few months while I was looking for a job, and Luke was the biggest lifesaver in the world.  I will be forever grateful for their kindness while I was breaking out in to the real world.

What I cannot forgive is my mother blaming my sister, the victim, for the prolonged abuse she experienced.  Nothing is ever my mother's fault.  Ever.  All her problems are because of someone else (her father, my father, her boyfriends after divorcing my dad).  See a trend?

And in true Catholic Italian fashion, she refused for decades to get help.  She has yet to see a counselor, to my knowledge, consistently enough to come to terms with what happened to her and move on.

If you don't want to be at my wedding because you don't like my sister's reality, fine.  If you're going to stoop so low as to threaten me with not going to my wedding because my sister said something you don't like, fine.  I don't want you there.  The last thing I want at my wedding is drama.

Diablo III Hell vs. Inferno

Luke and I finished Hell over the weekend and ventured in to Inferno.

Hell eventually became manageable.  I can go back in to Act III and IV now on my Monk by myself and I roll stuff (I also adjusted my spec).  But I couldn't have done that without the Auction House.

I'm worried about the game at this point.  I'm almost reconsidering my stance on the Auction House.  Here's why:

When doing the item hunt in Diablo II (didn't do this in Diablo I), I would find items I could use frequently.  Even if the item wasn't the greatest, it was typically an upgrade, although minor, and something I was able to use. Even though Baal runs were annoying as shit, I still felt like I was accomplishing something.

Something feels different in Diablo III.  I feel like I'm wasting my time dying repeatedly to champion packs and then, when I finally succeed in killing a pack with a couple stacks of Nephalem Valor, I get really shitty gear.  Not even something I can sell on the Auction House.  I'm vendorstriking nearly everything.

The major difference I've felt between Diablo II's end-game item hunt and Diablo III's end-game item hunt is that, at this point in Diablo III, I'm wearing very few pieces that actually dropped for me.  Maybe 1-3 pieces were actual drops.

Maybe because of the Auction House, and with how easy it is to acquire items from it, I am getting impatient and didn't want to farm various difficulties to progress to the next one.  But I don't recall doing that in Diablo II.  I remember leveling up through each difficulty and then eventually getting to Hell and doing Baal runs.  That didn't take very long.  (This is obviously post LoD expansion, I don't want to think about pre-LoD).

To further reiterate the problem, this is my situation.  While progressing through Hell, I used maybe five to six items that dropped throughout the four acts.  That's about fourteen hours of game play, considering that we explore every map in every area in each act.  So after fourteen hours of gameplay, I've managed to find five or six upgrades that may or may not have the secondary, tertiary or quaternary stat bonuses I require as  Monk.  The Monk is heavily gear dependent.  The annoying part about this is that I have comparable gear to Luke's Wizard (similar attack speed, similar amount of increased attack speed, similar primary stat value), and yet he has 30k DPS at this time and I have 11k.  Apparently, Wizard's get more damage out of Intelligence than Monks get out of Dexterity.

So I'm confused about that.  And because Monks are melee, they need a decent bit of Vitality.  Not as much as some people tout, but enough to survive.  With that, comes a balance of resistances to the elements (fire, frost, poison, arcane, etc.) and damage reduction through Armor.

Let's count the stats that Monks need:
1.)  Dextiery (damage, dodge)
2.)  Vitalty (HP)
3.)  Resistances (elemental damage reduction)
4.)  Armor (melee damage reduction)
5.)  Attack Speed (the faster you hit, the more damage you do)
6. ) Life on Hit (every time you hit, you get HP in return).

Life on hit is a recently discovered stat that Monks are stacking like crazy.  That, combined with a high attack speed, prevents a Monk from getting wtfpwnt in Inferno at the moment.  It allows them to actually farm gear from rare and champion packs.

The problem is, Life on Hit is far exceeding the importance of the other stats.  It is so important that, without it, you don't survive.  It's absolutely necessary that you have some, if not a decent bit (1k).

What do Wizards need:
1.) Intellect
2.) Maybe attack speed?

I might be exaggerating here, because I'm not totally positive what it is that a Wizard really needs to survive Inferno, but I can't imagine it's much outside of Intellect, Attack Speed and Resistances.  I don't even know if they actually need resistances because they're typically not getting hit by that stuff (if they play a ranged character properly).

That's just a minor gripe about playing a Monk at this point and can all be solved with good gear.  The problem with that, though, is I think I'm getting too impatient.  I feel like I should be getting more gear I can use more frequently, that may not necessarily be HUGEMAJORUPGRADEZZOMG, but more so linear moves that provide a bump in Armor or a bump in resistances, and possibly take a hit in another stat (vitality, dps, something).

So when I don't get that gear, I immediately jump to the Auction House and find upgrades.  But the upgrades I'm starting to really need now are getting ridiculously expensive.  And I don't have a lot of free time to scour the AH.  So I try not to do that too often and actually play the fucking game.

On top of not getting any type of gear that I can actually wear, I'm also not getting gear I can sell either.  I'm not getting gear that is even worth posting on the AH and taking up one of my 10 available auctions.  I do sell some stuff.  But it's not much.

To me, it feels as though the gear I need to use to successfully kill rare and champion packs without getting my ass kicked isn't dropping.  And even if I do manage to kill the pack (dying six or seven times in the process), the shit they drop sucks.  Ass.

I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything.  At all.  I'm not even making enough money to warrant dying several times to each pack I come across.  At least in WoW, when I do a raid, I get some currency with which to buy gear eventually.

There is no goal at this point.  It's just, survive and hope you make enough money that you're willing to drop a million gold on ONE item.  To further the issue, only certain items contain increased attack speed.  Others are the only ones that contain Life on Hit.  And others yet are the only ones that have a resistance stat on them.  So now I have to determine where I get one stat and where I can get another and itemize from there.

I don't want to use the AH.  I really don't.  I'd like to just sell stuff on it.  I'd rather hunt for my gear but at this point it seems fruitless.  Very little of my efforts in this game have been rewarding (outside of completing each difficulty prior to Inferno and getting a character to level 60).

I'm hoping that things will balance out eventually, seeing that the game has been out for 3 weeks.  Still feels like Blizzard has a lot of work to do yet to get this game to where the community wants it.  It almost doesn't feel like Diablo.  Leveling to 60 wasn't too long, that was nice, but I'm worried about the itemization at this point.  Seems like something is fucked up.