You know how when you’re doing data analysis, you sometimes get sucked right in? You’re working with the raw data, getting it all organized and pretty so you can drop the whole chunk into a statistics program and watch the Passing-Bablocks and Pearsons fly forth onto the computer screen? But it takes a while to do all the organization, data point exclusions (with valid justifications), reprocessing, manually checking the lines and watching the SD and CV calculations to make sure there are no cut/paste errors, double-checking formulae, making sure no single reps in set of mostly double reps are mucking up the whole scheme, but finally! – you’re ready to define the final data set, you click the analyze button and BAM! SLOPE OF 1.01, R=1.00 BEETCHEZ!
*ahem* So, work went well last night. How about you?
Anyway, after getting home from work and the grocery store at 10:30pm I lazed out on the google reader and blog writing. But here are a few things that I’ve been mulling over.
Et tu, Star Tribune?
I had heard that the St. Paul Pioneer Press wasn’t going to run the Doonesbury strips about abortion and transvaginal ultrasound legislation in Texas, but I was really disappointed to open the Minneapolis Star Trib Variety section on Monday to find reruns of less controversial Doonesbury comics. *sighs* MinnPost printed this Star Trib statement about why they’re not running the strip: ”We have substituted Garry Trudeau’s ‘Doonesbury’ cartoon strip planned for this week with alternatives. We believe the original strips planned for this week regarding Texas abortion laws contained inappropriate material for family reading.” That’s so weak. There was a different comic strip yesterday that featured a woman confessing to assassinating a character because “he was in the way”. But then, we have always had more of a problem with sexuality than violence in our entertainment. You can find all of “the secret Doonesbury” at www.doonesbury.com.
Reason Rally in Nine Days!
Wheeee! I’m so incredibly pumped about the Reason Rally and our trip to Washington D.C. We’re leaving on Friday morning at oh-gawd-o’clock and staying until Wednesday. We’re skipping the American Atheists convention to do sightseeing (ah, marriage and compromise) and we’re going to be right on time for the peak of the cherry blossom bloom! From the Bloom Watch section of the National Cherry Blossom Festival website:
MPCs and a Restaurant Review
And finally, the Hubby and I almost had a Married People Conversation last night, but not really. It was more of an amusing back-and-forth about whether our dog was an inbred domesticated fool or a retarded wolf that went on waaaay longer than it needed to. But it couldn’t have happened at a nicer place. All of our regular haunts were closed by the time I was done with work and looking for dinner at 10:30pm, and I wanted to relax at a restaurant with a drink and a quiet atmosphere. We found what we were looking for at Jasmine 26. They had a lovely happy hour and full menu available, they were open until 12:30am, and the crowd was mellow and intimate. This may be my new go-to neighborhood late night dining spot.
And one aside: My cat is an asshole. She woke me up this morning at 4:30am and then every 5-15 minutes later until 7am. Asshole cat.
3 comments
Yellow Thursday
March 15, 2012 at 14:47 (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My local paper ran the Doonesbury strips this week. I’m a little surprised, but I think it was just that the editors don’t pay attention to what’s actually in the paper. The certainly don’t EDIT it, since the local articles always have tons of typos.
Laurie
March 15, 2012 at 23:31 (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Was that your first stop at Jasmine 26? I love Jasmine Deli, and the only thing that could make it better is a bigger place and alcohol. It’s like the wish fairy went all out on this one.
F
March 16, 2012 at 01:52 (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, no, I totally don’t, but it sounds awesome. I only did anything of the sort as a student, and on paper or by manually creating and formatting the whole shebang on a VAX (not even a common DB or spreadsheet or application stored). Which could have been interesting in itself, but I didn’t have the time (or computing time) to learn more.
My cat is also an asshole. Consistently.