Dating Among Friends

The best way, in my opinion, for finding a mate, is to look into your circle of friends. I don't mean "actively" looking, but I think it's easier than the other ways to find love.

You spend time with your friends, and your friends' friends. Like "dating at work", you get to know the person before moving on to something more intimate, and I think that's the most important thing. People need to take more time before falling into a relationship.

If things don't turn out good between you, this could become more complicated, or embarrassing. Just because someone is not your friend anymore doesn't mean he or she will leave your friend circle. That person could still be nearby. Of course, it all depends on how you broke up, and the circumstances leading to it.

Clothing Size

Why is it so complicated to find a piece of clothing that fits?

My waist is 82-83 centimeters, so around 32.5 inches. You would think that buying a pair of 32" or 34" pants would fit, but it's not that easy. My dress pants are from Mexx and are size 34s. If I measure, they are really 34 inches at the waist. On the other hand, my jeans are from Gap and are size 32s. If I measure again, I can find out they are 35 inches at the waist! No wonder they are too big for me! (Actually, all my pants are a bit too big, because I lost some weight in the last two years.)

So why are companies doing that?

First, let's look at the women's side. In the US and Canada, the size of a piece of clothing is unitless. That means that, for example, a size 5 blouse is usually around a certain measure. The problem is that, because of vanity sizing, people are more prone to buy that piece of clothing if they are in a good mood, but the companies are merely changing the sizes over time.

This has led to size 0, size 00, and subzero sizes. Totally ridiculous. This unitless system is too easy to modify over the years. And if you travel to another country, the sizes are not the same.

The best (and most logical) way for this system to function would be that everything be written in centimeters. That would be a worldwide standard. Fines could also be given to companies (like Gap) that advertise the wrong measure. In an ideal world:

Area Problem

That's a small mathematical problem that was bugging my mind a few years ago. Back then, I had solved it by logic, but I thought I could put some numbers in order to know exactly what's going on.

The problem is that we have four shapes, and by only moving them, we get a different area.

The area of the red and yellow triangles is (21 × 8) / 2 = 84 each, and the area of the green and blue triangles is (13 × 8) + ( (13 - 8) × 13) / 2 = 136.5 each. That gives 84 × 2 + 136.5 × 2 = 441, so what's wrong with the second picture?

Please take a few moments to think about it. Sleep on it if you want! There's always that sense of pride when you success in doing something by yourself.

The answer is in the angles. They seem to be the same, but are not. The red and yellow triangle's slope is (21 / 8) = 2.625, while the green and blue triangle's slope is (13 / (13 - 8)) = 2.6. Another way to make sure is to calculate the angles like this:

That means that, on the second picture, the long edge made by the green and red triangles is not a straight line. If I exaggerate the difference in the angles (for comprehension purposes), it would give something like this, which explains the difference in areas:

A few years ago, it wasn't really this problem that I saw, but something that can be solved in exactly the same way. It looked like that:

The rest of the post is only some mathematical rambling...

If we really want to be crazy, we can verify that the empty shape inside has an area of 1 (which is the initial difference between the two areas). We should divide the problem into two large triangles, calculate the area of one triangle, then multiply by 2 to find the empty area inside. I'll keep the calculations as precise as possible.

First, we can calculate all the hypotenuses and angles:

Which results in the following triangle:

We can use trigonometry if we divide the triangle into two right triangles, and calculate the angles:

Then it's only a matter of calculating the other sides with sine and cosine:

and calculating both triangles' areas. It looks messy, but I wanted to show all the steps.

Square root of x, squared, equals x, and sin(θ) × cos(θ) = sin(2θ)/2, so that simplifies to:

We had two large triangles, so this gives us 1, which is the difference in area that was the subject of this post from the beginning.

Writing this post taught me that I should do all the equations on paper first, in case I make a mistake somewhere. Fortunately, I did not, but I was scared to have to correct all the images if I did.

How Come the Human Race is not Extinct?

I was thinking about how fragile young children are. Everything they do is irrational, and it's our job to teach them so they can learn and experience the world around them.

But man, they are so fragile I sometimes wonder how come our race is not extinct. Children are the best magnets to diseases and viruses, and it doesn't help that they put everything they find in their mouths, be it a clean sock, or some unknown thing in a pile of suspicious dust in a corner. I guess only a minority of illnesses can be fatal.

What children put in their mouths can also be round, coincidentally exactly the same size as their throats. They can suffocate and scare their parents to death. Evolution has not a role to play in this, because in the past, the only things they could suffocate on would be some berries and small rocks. With human evolution stopped, children will never know innately about this danger.

Acting irrationally, and doing things without the ability to think before, can easily lead to injuries to themselves and others. Drinking anything that look like juice is particularly bad, when you look at what's under the sink. Parents are not omnipresent, and accidents do happen (unfortunately). Children play in the stairs, cross the street without looking, and do all sort of things that they stop doing at a greater age, after they learn by experience.

I guess we can all be grateful that only a fraction of what children do lead to a tragedy, or else we wouldn't be there, would we?

Funeral Clown

I was talking with a friend the other day about some practical jokes that would be considered sociopathic. One of them was particularly of interest, and that was calling a clown to a funeral.

Granted, that would be a sick joke, as much to the poor clown as to the mourning people. But it definitely would be epic.

If I ever know the date and time for my own funeral, I would call a clown. Heck, I would even ask that as my dying wish! People in a funeral are usually mourning and sad and crying - but I would not want them to! This would be the last time they see me - might as well make it a happy occasion! I'd like people to laugh and remember all the good times we had together. I'd want people to cry from laughter, not sadness. That would be my funeral, and there would be clowns, one or two comedians, and good music from live musicians. Helium balloons, and what the heck, sulfur hexafluoride balloons, for even more laughs! Then just before all this is over and the sun has set, fireworks! Giant flowers of light, so that I can go with a bang.

Oh, and while we're at it, burgers, hot dogs, and steaks on the BBQ outside.

Medicine or Healthy Diet?

There are many things that I hate, and one that irritates me most is the way people do their very best to ruin their own lives.

Take cigarettes, for starters. That's one of the most damaging thing you could ever do to your body, but people smoke. People are out of shape because of it, and people die because of it. It desensitize them to all these wonderful smells and tastes. It turns their teeth yellow, and gives them a wrinkly pucker mouth. It kills them slowly, and they pay a lot of money for that. The government put warnings on the packs, but smokers don't care. There is not a single thing about cigarettes that is even remotely good, but that's still a multi-billion-dollar industry.

But that's not all! Some want to stop smoking. Instead of mustering the resolve and believe in themselves, they turn to nicotine patches and other shit. They end up paying even more, when the only thing that's really needed is to actually stop smoking.

Another very good example is the way people eat. On average, people in north america don't have a good diet. It's too easy to eat fast food, and cheaper too! They have no notion about what the nutrition facts are, nor do they care.

Fat tastes so good because it's an evolutionary incentive to eat the stuff that gives twice as much energy as carbs or protein. Carbohydrates taste so good because it's also an evolutionary incentive to eat the stuff that is most needed in a diet in order to have energy. But the thing is, we live in a society in which food is available all the time. Instead of hunting for a few hours, we take the car to the grocery store and take 10 minutes to buy some food. The need for actual energy has greatly diminished, but our plates are bigger than ever.

Having an unhealthy diet is not the concern of this post. What totally bugs me is how people eat shit, and then go to the pharmacy to buy antacid and aspirin. They have no wish to take care of their health, but they go to the doctor. They have bowel-movement problems. They wake up groggy and dry-mouthed. They are more easily angered, depressed, and irritated. They start "magic diets" without first analyzing what's it's made of. They buy pills after pills after pills. But all that could be prevented by just eating better. All of these are also multi-billion-dollar industries. Why? Because people prefer to feel good for a few minutes while they eat.

Same thing for exercises. People like their sofa too much. Then they buy magic diet pills, or the latest "as seen on tv" exercise scam that's supposed to get rid of all these excess pounds easily, without panting or sweating. The people on tv are so fit! Of course they are. And guess what? Multi-billion-dollar industries.

Healthy diet, regular exercises, no stress, good sleep. That's all it takes. Sure, going 30 minutes to the gym, then eating a healthy meal is no fun compared to ordering a chicken breast and eating it while watching a movie. But a healthy lifestyle feels good, deep inside.

For those who care, the person who most changed my life was Jack Lalanne. It was his lifelong wish to teach people how to live better. His last book (published in 2009) was Live Young Forever - 12 steps to optimum health, fitness, and longevity. It's definitely a book worth reading.

I Want to Play a Game

Do you know The Game?

It's very easy. It's basically a game everyone is playing, even if they don't know it. The goal of The Game is to not think about it. So if you think about The Game, you lose. If you lose, you must announce it.

That's it! There are some variants, like how long you can wait until you lose again, but that's really it!

Here's a link to the wikipedia article if you need some help. Apparently, The Game is played by millions worldwide.



Oh, by the way,

I know I did. ;)

Dating at the Job

I always thought I'd have more chance in a work environment to find someone. You are (usually) around people, work with them, talk to them, and learn to know them. I think this is a very good setup. You hang with someone during lunch hours, and if the attraction is mutual, you get a cup of coffee sometime.

Unfortunately for me, I work in an all-guy environment (I'm a programmer). Sure, there are other people in different departments, but with my work in front of a computer monitor all day, I almost never see them. Even if I was, the majority of them have husbands and kids. Besides, let's be honest - people tend to see the computer guys as anti-social before seeing them as just shy.

This is not for everyone, though. I've heard many people say that they wouldn't want to be close to their wife for 24h every day. They need their time away from her. I don't really understand that - if you're with the person of your life, wouldn't you be happy to see him/her all day, for better or worse, forever? Just a thought...

So I guess this possibility is not for me (unless luck strikes). Seriously, I think that for most jobs out there, this seems to be a very good opportunity.