That was fun. I just spent over half an hour trying to solve algebraic equations for some programming I’m doing. It was to do with scaling right angled triangles up and down -keeping the same angles but making the sides longer or shorter. Essentially I had the length of all the sides of the larger triangle and the length of hypotenuse for the smaller triangle and needed to find the length of the rest of the smaller triangle’s sides. So I started messing around with Pythagoras’s theorem to see if I could come up with a nice simple formula to do it.
After covering several sheets of scrap paper with frenzied scribbling I managed to come up with the following, where x and y are the non-hypotenuse sides of the large triangle, and a and b the corresponding sides of the small triangle…
x = ((((b*b)-1)/a)/b)*y
(That may not even be correct 🙂
After struggling for quite some time trying to get this into slightly more manageable format (hey, it’s been over a decade since I did any hard-core algebra 🙂 I realised that I was basically trying to single handedly derive sine and cosine – no wonder my head was exploding!
So as soon as I go online and look up how to use sine and cosine (it’s also been a decade since I did any geometry or trig OK?) my problem will be solved.
Anyway today is my birthday. Boo! Hooray! Boo! Hooray! (call me when you’re finished). So, what did I get? A coldsore. Well OK, I didn’t get that specifically because it was my birthday – not unless my own body really is out to get me – but one did pop into existence mid Thursday, just in time to look all ghastly and embarrassing at the Red Orchid tonight. I’ve been treating it with Zovirax at about twice the recommended dosage, but it’s still hanging around dagnabit.
Actually the mini pump pack of Zovirax I was using ran out last night, just before I went to bed. I didn’t want to go to bed without putting some more on, so I decided to cut the pack open with a craft knife and scrape out what little was left. Unfortunately this didn’t work, so anyone breaking in last night at about 10:30 would have been greeted by the bizarre sight of me standing in the loungeroom in my pyjamas attacking the thing with a hacksaw 🙂
I eventually managed to cut it open – and frankly I was shocked. A pump pack of Zovirax is a cylinder five centimetres or so long with a diameter of about one centimetre. On cutting it open however you discover that most of that space is solid plastic, and you’re paying $13.95 for a tiny vial suspended in the middle that can’t possibly contain more than about 1.5 cubic centimetres of the stuff. Rip off!!
This vial was completely empty, however the change in air pressure caused by my cutting into the internal cavity allowed the last few dregs caught up in the pump mechanism to escape – meaning I could put some on before I went to bed and then again when I got up this morning. Then I walked into Maylands and bought some generic Zovirax for $10.00 which I’ve been applying all day. The coldsore’s still there though – I’ll just have to hold a menu up over my face all night or something 🙂
Anyway, in addition to turning 28 and trying to re-invent trigonometry I’ve also burned a music CD today and covered it in mouldy tomato juice. No, I haven’t gone insane (or at least if I have it didn’t start just today) I’m trying to replicate the research of this guy. Well, when I say “replicate the research” I actually mean just create some weird and freaky sounds. I can’t remember exactly what I put on the CD, but I know the following tracks were featured…
- Alec Eiffel – The Pixies
- Debaser – The Pixies
- All for Swinging You Around – The New Pornographers
- 99 Luft Balloons (German Version) – Nena
- Reseda Casino – Shivaree
- The Cheesecake Song – King Missile
- Brandenburg Concerto Number 2 Allegro – J.S.Bach
- The Triple J Breakfast Pigeon Song
So, the results should be interesting. For the mould primer I’ve used using a mixture of sugar water, the juice of a mouldy tomato I found in the fridge and some dregs from the bottom of an old vegemite jar (for those extra b-group vitamins). The CD is currently resting on top of the fridge, and if I get a good growth of mould – and if it’s actually playable at the end of the process – I’ll probably post some sound files.
Shanen Noll is at number one? ARRRRRGHGHGGHG!!!!! Worst – Birthday – Ever!!!!!! 😉
