Archive for the ‘None’ Category

My mother-out-law said my brother had told her she could count into the hundreds with just two hands. I corrected her/his faulty value. Using binary, you can count to 1023 using only two hands.

My brother-out-law asked me to demonstrate (smart-alec!) I explained that I didn’t have the time to count all the way up from 1 to 1023, but if he’d like to choose a number within that range, I’d be pleased to demonstrate.

He chose 843.

Here it is:

The technique is simple.

First you need to choose a side to begin with. I chose to have my right pinkie represent the ones place.

In binary, this means that each finger represents the following place values:

If a finger is extended (the “1″ position), this means that you sum in that value. If a finger is not extended (the “0″ position), you do not sum in that value (or you add in zero, if that’s easier for you).

Thus, the above image (in which all ten of my fingers are extended) represents
512+256+128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1
which is 1023

When I demonstrated 843, I extended the fingers that represented
512, 256, 64, 8, 2, and 1
512+256+64+8+2+1=843

Easy as pi, right?

That’s the interpreting. If you want to do the counting, I find it easiest to work from the top down, subtracting as you go.

Thus, if I wanted to represent 765, I would start at the largest place value that can fit into 765.

This is the 512.

Extend that digit (in this case, the pinkie of your left hand) and subtract 512 from 765.

This gives you 253.

The largest value that can fit into 253 is 128.

Extend that finger and continue on until you have:

512+128+64+32+16+8+4+1=765

Ta-Da!

Now you’re an absolute pro and are ready to do some numbers of your own. Use the random number generator to get a number to practice with.

Please recognize that while both of my selected numbers are symmetrical, not all numbers will turn out to be such. Since my numbers were symmetrical, you could read them the same way regardless of which side was the ones place and which side was the 512s place. For non-symmetric numbers, you need to pay attention to which side the counter started from (for example, in my picture of 743, my ones place was MY right pinkie–which is the pinkie to YOUR left.)

After a brief (or really long, depending on how you look at it) hiatus into the murky world of “Love”, we will now be returning to regularly scheduled programming.

Except that I’m not exactly sure what regularly scheduled programming looks like any more.

Am I a wanna-be Mommy blogger?
Am I a book blogger?
Am I a thinking blogger?
Am I a crafty blogger?

Dunno. I’m somewhere in between.

So look forward to some eclecticism from bekahcubed–which I guess might have been what I’ve always had. But I’m not quite sure.

What category do YOU put me?

What category do you like reading most from me?

Tell me what you like. I can’t promise you I’ll give it, but I might. So let me know!

In what has become a Thursday habit, I must again apologize for not having a Love Month post ready. I will post on “Dating isn’t for Kids” later today.

Once again, I have bitten off a bit more than I can chew. I’ll be back with the promised Love Month post today or tomorrow. For now, don’t forget to check out Joshua’s “Code of a Gentleman”.

If you’ve already read that one, you could also take a look at Steve’s reflections on the word “Love”.

I’m thankful to have a few brothers who are willing to add some input to my “Love Month”!

I have just posted two new segments of the Bible study on desire:

• God’s desires
• What God doesn’t desire
• God doesn’t desire sacrifice

If you haven’t had a chance yet, take a look at the whole study and leave me some comments so we can dialogue together about what Scripture says about desires.

I’ll bet you (Becky) thought I’d forgotten about answering those blog-o-versary questions. If so, you’re only partially correct. I’ve been preoccupied with my new clinical rotation and with redesigning bekahcubed and with fixing my hair each and every morning.

At the beginning of March, I wrote in my journal (yes, I keep a paper one as well):

Sometimes hair’s more trouble than it’s worth.

Which begs Becky’s question: “Why is your hair long?” (Or the less kindly put, “If it causes you so much trouble, why on earth do you keep it long?)

Good question.

One, I don’t really mind it that much. I like it as long as it stays on my head–it’s just the limitless strands that shed everywhere that bother me.

Second, I sort of made a vow.

Okay, there’s no “sorta” about it.

As a incredibly romantically minded fourteen year old, I decided that my hair would belong to my husband. I haven’t cut it since.

I’ve made some discoveries throughout my long-haired journey. 1) I’ve discovered that this is as long as my hair gets. 2) I’ve discovered that long hair often evokes the question “What religion are you?” 3) I’ve discovered that long-haired individuals CANNOT take chances when it comes to cooking with an uncovered head. (Face it, it’s pretty easy to figure out whose hair is in the food if said hair is two feet long.) 4) I’ve discovered that I go through shampoo quite a bit faster than my short-haired peers.

But I still look at my hair in the shadows I cast on the pavement walking and think “Man, if only I had that gorgeous of hair in real life.” And I still look behind me to see who someone’s talking to when they comment about long hair. And I still gasp a bit when I pull out a hair, just for curiosity sake and hold it up to a yardstick. Twenty-six inches. It sure doesn’t feel that long. But I like it. So I keep it.

A little schoolgirl romance, a little longing for the eighteen-hundreds, a little (penny-wise, pound foolish) laziness thrown in, and I’ve got long hair.

If you think of it, please pray for my aunt Ruth. She’s been taking care of my grandpa since he’s been home from the hospital–and the strain can be incredible. Caregiving is difficult no matter what the circumstances, and these are less than ideal. Grandpa is not always physically or mentally there–and he can get pretty hurtful when he gets frustrated and angry.

So please, pray for Aunt Ruth. Pray for grace and rest and peace. And pray that we as a family would be able to support her as she labours so tirelessly for our family.

Over a month ago, Becky @ Boys Rule My Life awarded me with the “Beary Sweet Blog Award” Since I was in the midst of seminar stress when she awarded me, I put it on the back burner–where it’s stayed for way too long! So now, before the year’s done, I’m going to accept my award. Thanks, Becky!

I’ve received this award because I fit one or several of the following parameters:

• Has an inspirational blog
• Blog is updated at least 2 times each week
• Shows faith
• Has a positive attitude on life
• Makes mistakes
• Shares real life stories/experiences
• Enjoys blogging

At this point, I now have the opportunity to pass the award along to six other bloggers who meet at least one of the criteria listed.

I’m awarding:

• Emily @ A Roller Coaster Ride-She’s smart, she’s funny, and she’s homeschooled. How can you beat that?
• Davene @ Life on Sylvan Drive-I’m loving following Davene through the ups and downs of her pregnancy (baby #4)–and appreciate how real she always is.
• Teresa @ You are Here-she never, ever fails to crack me up
• Jolanthe @ No Ordinary Moments-I love her kids’ antics (and Jolanthe is pretty much Super Homeschool Mom–without pretending to be perfect)
• Grace @ An in-depth look at a teenage girl’s mind-her random blurts/rants on high school life, band, and politics rock my stockings off
• Okay, so I’m not giving out six. I’m not sure exactly why. I have about a dozen runner’s up and I just can’t pick. Sorry! Look forward to getting picked next time!

Once again, thank you Becky–you made my day by being the first person to tag me for a meme–and now for awarding me with my first blog award!

After a quick look at my finances this afternoon, I have decided that I will not be buying a house. Yet.

I’ll be quitting my job in about a month, preparing for my clinical rotations (during which I’ll be paying for the privilege of working full time.) My budget assessment revealed only about $500 of leeway for January through September 2009. Which isn’t a lot. So, I probably shouldn’t try adding anything more to it right off.

Instead I’ll be transferring all my loose change over to a slightly less accessible account for now–and playing frugal to eke out a bit more throughout my internship. Things always come up, you know–babysitting, professional patient gigs, part-time jobs, withheld income taxes returned, organ donation (JK on that last one). And I might have estimated a bit high on some of my expenses.

So with a bit of patience, a bit of prayer, and some serious penny-pinching, I should be ready to start looking next fall.

Ten years ago I said I wanted to own a house by age 25. I’ve let that dream/goal/whatever fall by the wayside in my pursuit of an advanced degree. Now, as the time draws near and I rapidly approach my mid-twenties, I think I might be getting close–it’s just not. quite. yet.

I’m not exactly procrastinating. After all, I’ve gotten a lot done today. But I have been wasting a significant amount of time seeing what celebrities I look like. What do you think?

In this case, first is a charm. Christina Ricci and I really do look pretty similar in these particular photos–wouldn’t you say?

Second time around, I begin to see a theme. Big mouths. Great. At least I wasn’t matched to Julia Roberts. Gah!

Hmm… This layout doesn’t have any names. Which means I don’t know who any of those people are. They’re all really pretty though.

I’m a guy, apparently. Or at least I look like one.

It really is all in the photography. ‘Cuz my jaw doesn’t always look like that. But in this picture at least, they’ve got my jaw matched pretty well.

Now those are some new faces. Amazing what a sneer can do for you. I’m a whole new person!

MyHeritage: Family trees – Genealogy – Celebrities

Oh, this is exciting. I put in a photo of me as Posh Spice–and guess who one of my matches was? Victoria Beckham! And guess who Victoria Beckham is? Posh Spice! (Sorry, I’m getting a little “Firefighter Swenson”ie about now.)

I can see your question plain as day. “Did you really do 1000 photos?” No. I definitely did not. I did what you saw here plus two or three more. I simply lost count and started writing random numbers.

But, having wasted entirely too much time choosing faces–do me a favor by comparing yourself and sending me a link so I can waste some more time (without being an absolute narcissist).