Making cents

Like most Americans (citation needed), I'm a vortex from which coins rarely escape. I'm in the habit of paying for everything with bills and then throwing any change I receive into a jar once I get home. The jar fills up until I swap out the coins for paper (less 8%).

That was all fine and good for a while, but I figured that that 8% could really add up over the course of a lifetime. Rather than paying a periodic fee to maintain my current habit, I could just change my habits by—dun dun dun—spending my change. So, I decided that I should carry coins around with me. But how many? And which coins?

Whenever I go out, I usually don't make more than one transaction, so I'd only have to be able to produce 0-99 cents. Recall for that any amount of money, there's a minimum number of coins you can use to make it. (I'm talking about US coins here, and I'm going to assume that people only use pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, which is generally true.)

To make change with the fewest number of coins, you use a greedy algorithm: use as many quarters as you can without going over, then dimes, then nickels, then pennies. To make 44 cents, you would use a quarter, a dime, a nickel, and 4 pennies, for a total of 7 coins. You could also use 4 dimes and 4 pennies, or 44 pennies, but with those combinations or any others, you can't beat 7 coins.

So, I decided to carry around only the coins necessary to make any amount from 1 to 99 cents with as few coins as possible:

• 3 quarters
• 2 dimes
• 1 nickel
• 4 pennies

I'd never been one to carry change around, but since I started doing this, I've realized what I've been missing out on. When I go out for a drive with my friends, I can actually contribute to the parking meter. Recently someone asked me to pay for her bus fare, and I was able to give the exact amount. I no longer have to decide whether to tip a waiter $2 or $3. And, for those times when I've run out of singles or someone just needs change for a dollar: the quarters, dimes, and nickel add up to $1.

Coincidentally, today's links also have to do with money, although in a roundabout way.

An article about the services that come with those fancy credit cards: How to Make Visa Obey Your Every Desire... with ridiculous real-life examples! (Via The Consumerist)

From Slate: Heartwarming long-lost wallet stories happen more often than you may think. (Via Josh of mcgees.org)

Seven links

I don't usually participate in these memes, but I thought I'd take the 7 Link Challenge (thanks, Kirsten). These answers aren't necessarily authoritative since I've written over a thousand posts and can't be bothered to go back and look at all of them except in special circumstances.

1. Your first post: The World of Stuff Opens, April 6, 2003.
2. A post you enjoyed writing the most: [sic]. You could say I started writing this one in junior high, when I would keep track of my teachers' many slips of the tongue. In the post, I listed some of my favorites.
3. A post which had a great discussion: Tough one. We usually don't have those around here. The discussion on Brain Damage went on for a while, though.
4. A post on someone else's blog that you wish you'd written: That would have to be The Ultimate "0.999… = 1" Guide over at Greatplay.net.
5. Your most helpful post: My Sony DSC-H55 Digital Camera Review seems to have helped a fair number of people so far.
6. A post with a title that you are proud of: Man, what post title am I not proud of? Half the time they're clever as hell. Sometimes I think of them ages in advance. I was going through some old titles, and this one made me chuckle: A Turtle (And Also the Meaning of Life).
7. A post you wish more people had read: Any post with no comments. Seriously, I think if my every post generated a huge discussion, it would compel me to write more often. Not that I don't write a lot, but I used to write more often than I do now. One post I like that seemed to go under everyone's radar was By the Way... It brings back a lot of memories for me.

I guess this post should be called "Nine Links" because here are TWO MORE LINKS!!

Here are some Useless Fliers. (Via waxy.org)

Here's a pretty extensive article about the guy Nintendo named Mario after.

Let them eat cake (and let me eat pie)

You know what I have done in a while? Some Ask Jordon!

Kate: What are the main problems of the US, which really affect people's lives and need to be solved as soon as possible, in your opinion?

Well, we finally got universal health care (or health insurance, or whatever), so check that one off the list. I'll admit that I'm having a hard time thinking of other things. A lot of the things I care about don't have a direct impact on people's lives.

Are they still giving tax cuts to rich people? If they are, that's going to have to stop. If anyone needs tax cuts, it's the people who, you know, have nothing.

Eh. I don't know. Obesity, maybe? We have a lot of fat people here. But there's not much you can do about that. You can tell people that they ought to exercise, but you can't drop them onto a treadmill and make them run all day. You can tell them they should eat more vegetables, but you can't tie them up and force-feed them brussels sprouts. And anyway, it doesn't bother me that other people are eating however they want, and it shouldn't. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg, as they say.

I hate brussels sprouts, by the way. I would empathize.

So, I guess I don't really have a good answer to your question.

Kate: What do you like most for dessert? :)

What don't I like for dessert? I'll eat pretty much anything. That said, I like pies. I think pecan pie is my favorite. My mom made one for my birthday, and it was great. Blueberry pie is also good too.

I had no idea green screens were used so much in TV and movies. Here's a four-minute video showing many a green screen scene. (Via The Presurfer)

Some guy spent 24 hours in a Super Walmart. (Before you get too confused, he replaces profanity with other random words.) (Via The Consumerist)

Get carded

As you may know, my parents have sold our house, and last weekend, I went there for the last time. When I wasn't attending the Red Bull Flugtag, I was in my room, going through all my things and deciding whether to pack them, sell them, or throw them out. One of the things I came across was a brochure called "Legal Guide for New Adults," produced by the state bar association. It consisted mainly of questions and answers such as (paraphrased):

Q: Why is the drinking age 21 and not 18?

A: The Florida Legislature has the power to set the drinking age, and that's what they've decided is appropriate.

In other words, the classic because-we-said-so argument with which we are all familiar. (For the real answer, read about the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. The history of alcohol purchase age limits by state is also interesting.)

Anyway, Tuesday was my 21st birthday. After I wrote my birthday blog post, I continued studying until the exam (except for a brief study break at Taco Bell). I was gradually joined with other people in my class, and we all sort of ended up commiserating. That's always fun. The exam itself was pretty challenging, but I don't think it was harder than the last one, which I got a pretty good grade on, all things considered.

By the time I was done with my exam, it was already 9:30. Andy picked me up, and we went to Gainesville Ale House on Archer Road. Andrea met us there. I picked the place because it was one of the only restaurants in town I'd ever been to that was open after 11 PM (the others being the Original Pizza Palace and Chili's). Plus, there would be a wide variety of alcoholic drinks to choose from if I so desired.

I so desired. I needed to unwind after that exam. After much deliberation, I decided to get a whiskey and soda (Jack and Pepsi, to be exact). I almost thought the waitress wasn't going to card me, but she did. To eat, of course, I got a burger. Since this establishment was half-bar, they had a trivia contest going on, with the questions and answers being announced over the speakers. The three of us put our heads together and got most of the questions right, although we didn't actually participate.

Andrea had the audacity to ask the waitress whether I would get a free desert. She said I could get a free slice of ice cream cake and brought one out. The three of us enjoyed it together. Andy covered my part of the check since he owed me money (it's a good thing he remembered because I didn't). Then, Andy and I went back to our apartment, where Andy had decorated the living room with balloons and other birthday decorations as a surprise. We threw the balloons around for a little while. After midnight had passed, I started working on homework.

I report my music listening habits to last.fm because I enjoy seeing the statistics. Here are some more statistics for last.fm users: The Obscurometer tells you how obscure your musical tastes are compared to others'. Apparently, my obscurity level is 30.1%, and my musical tastes are more obscure than 27.9% of all users.

This article does a great job of explaining how The RIAA and MPAA Have Failed to Understand a Cultural Shift. Everyone who doesn't understand why the RIAA and MPAA's tactics are wrong should read it.

Birthday

Yesterday was my friend Andrea's 21st birthday. She had a little get-together at her apartment with her parents, her boyfriend, a couple of other friends, and me. One of the gifts she opened was a diary her grandmother had been keeping since she was born. She read from it for about an hour. I thought it was interesting to listen to since I haven't known her for very much of her life. After that, we went to a Cajun-type restaurant downtown, where Andrea ordered her first drink. We returned to her apartment for cake and ice cream (but of course!) and then went our separate ways.

And today it's my 21st birthday. I went to work in the morning, and now I'm taking a quick break from studying for the Operating Systems exam I have tonight. Yes, when I decided to take summer classes, I expected that I would have class on my birthday, but the reality was far worse. After the exam, I'm going out to dinner with a couple of friends. And after that, I have to do Operating Systems homework, which I'll probably have to pull an all-nighter to finish. Yay...

(I know, I know, I have to update my age on the sidebar and the bio and everything. It's not like I forgot, but I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really busy.)

This link goes out to all my friends who misspell "a lot": The Alot Is Better Than You at Everything.

Falling with style

It's been a while since my friends decided to participate as Team Kiss in the Red Bull Flugtag in Miami. The big day was Saturday, and I went down there just to see them. (Well, mostly.)

I took the train to Bayfront Park and got there a little late but before Team Kiss went on. During this time (I found out later), they and some of the other groups were posing for photos with audience members. My friend Nick (a.k.a. Gene Simmons) said that they were probably the most photographed team, a fact that didn't escape the notice of the other teams: "You guys know they're not really Kiss, right?"

After a series of silly dances, impressive flights, and epic fails, Team Kiss with their giant flying bass guitar had their moment in the spotlight. After a brief introduction in which the guys pretend to chug some Red Bulls and then pretend to rock out on fake guitars, they pushed their craft over the edge with one of them staying on as the pilot. He actually got pretty good distance. The rest of the guys jumped into the water for good measure.

After a few more teams' flights and a finale that involved a flyover by a Coast Guard helicopter, the crowd thinned, and I found not only Team Kiss but also the rest of their posse. We stuck around for the awards ceremony (they didn't win), and then followed the team up to their room in the swanky InterContinental Hotel, just footsteps away from where the Flugtag was.

In their room, we congratulated them on a job well done and then left them to rest. They deserved it.

I was busy recording a video, so I didn't get to take pictures of their actual flight, but I've found some on Flickr: 1, 2, 3. Check 'em out.

Via Andy: Some guy gets really, really inappropriately excited about a double rainbow.

How the classes are going

Two summers ago, I stayed home and hung out with friends. Last summer, I went to Europe. But if I want to graduate in Spring 2011 while taking a relatively light course load along the way (which I do), then I have to take a summer semester (which I am doing now).

Here at old Florida, there are three summer semesters. Summer A is six weeks long. Summer B, which follows Summer A, is also six weeks long. Summer C spans both Summer A and Summer B. I took Intro to Public Speaking during Summer A, and during Summer C, I'm taking Operating Systems and Finance. Summer A has ended, so the latter two classes are the ones I have left.

Summer course offerings are more limited than during the Spring or Fall semesters, so for my computer science major, I had no choice but to take Operating Systems with one of the department's more infamous professors. He claims that the average score on his exams is 60%, which includes 20% extra credit. He also gives lots of homework, and he's just assigned the term project.

The flipside, as I've been told by my friends who have survived his classes, is that you learn a lot from him. And I seem to be doing just that. I didn't think I would do very well on the first exam, but I got a 77 (which I first misread as 11, my mind precluding the possibility of such a "high" grade). The next exam is on Tuesday night, which also happens to be my birthday. I hope the exam makes it a good one.

The other class I'm taking right now is for my business administration minor. It's Finance (properly, Business Finance), and it's one of the classes that the business college has done a great job with. They record the lectures and post them online, so there's no need to actually attend class. Instead, I download the lectures and watch them at my leisure. The quizzes are also online (but the exams, alas, are not).

I chose to be a business minor because it would give me valuable skills (and because my major requires me to take a minor, but never mind), and this class hasn't disappointed me. I've learned, among other things, the importance of saving for retirement. Plus, I've been doing very well in the class. The way things are going, I could end up with an A. Yay.

I was actually very worried that I wouldn't do well in either of these classes (Finance is said to be the hardest class in the business minor), but I've been busting my hump for them, and it shows. I just hope I can keep up the good work.

I've been linking to a lot of infographics lately, some good, some not so good. Here's a parody of pointless infographics. (Via waxy.org)

Another one of those montages of clips from movies and TV shows: We've Got Company! I first saw this before watching Avatar and groaned upon hearing the line in the movie. (Via The Presurfer)

Stupid Fight compares the spelling and grammar of celebrity Twitterers' fans to see whose are dumber. (Via waxy.org)

New house

I'm coming off the tail end of a long Fourth of July weekend. I guess I've never thought about it, but it seems that we get a long Fourth of July weekend more often than not: whenever the day falls on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. That's a majority of days! (This is the first July I've ever gone to school, which is why I've never realized it before.)

On Saturday, Andy and I went to a fireworks show on campus. As we got there, it was drizzling, and the community orchestra had just started playing the national anthem. When they finished, it was raining harder, so we turned around and left. We had dinner at a Singaporean restaurant called Merlion before going back home. I hadn't been to one since I was in Berlin last year. Good stuff!

This weekend, my parents were looking at houses in the area (since they've sold theirs). On Sunday, I met up with them, and they took me and my grandmother to see the one they liked the most. They called the real estate agent, who let us in to look around. It's a portable, but it doesn't look like one inside (or outside, for that matter). An enclosed porch has been added on in front. It's sort of secluded, with tall trees and stuff all around. It's near Fort White (pop. 531) and the Santa Fe River, so my dad would still be able to go boating.

Today, my parents told me that their offer on the house had been accepted. Within a month, the place will be ours. Well, I'll have a room there, but I don't know if I'll make it my permanent residence after college or what. That's something I've been trying to think about. I'm graduating in less than a year, but it seems like a long way off.

Vittana is similar to Kiva in that it allows you to make microloans to people around the world. The difference is that with Vittana, the loans are used to help people go to college. I can't vouch for the service, but it's a cool idea.

I wish all my lectures were as interesting as this April Fool's Day prank. (via waxy.org)

Here are some fun facts about Nintendo in cheesy infographic form. (Via The Presurfer)

Yo dawg, we heard you like interest so we put interest on your interest so you can get money while you get money

I'm taking a finance class, and it's been reasonably interesting so far. The professor has told us young persons how important it is to save for our retirement: we're not likely to have Social Security or a pension to help us out. He said we should start investing in the stock market. If the average annual return on stocks is 10% (which supposedly it is), and you invest $1,000 per year for 40 years, you should end up with something like $487,851.81. A penny saved is a dollar earned.

I've always thought of the stock market as something that would do me more harm than good if I tried to mess with it. Several times in school, when I was too young to care about these things, we would have to invest imaginary money in real stocks, and whoever had the most imaginary money at the end would win. I lost an incredible amount of imaginary money in these things. I just didn't get it, and I'm still not sure that I do.

Now that my finance class has taught me a little more about investing, I'd be interested in putting my money in stocks if only I could wade through all the acronyms and jargon and figure out how to get started. Two of my professors now have recommended Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street in class, so that might be a good place to start. Or maybe I need Investing for College Students Who Know Essentially Nothing About These Things and Just Want Straight Answers.

I don't doubt that a lot of you readers have investments and know your stuff. What do you recommend for me?

For today's cool link of the day, I give you Lemonade and Other Things, a new blog by my friend Andrea. She's already written a lot of posts on various subjects, and I've found them pretty interesting. Let's hope she keeps up the good work.

O Natasha

When I wrote my last post, my friend Natasha was halfway through her visit. Here's how the rest of the week went.

On Wednesday night, Natasha and I joined my sister and her friend Jennifer for dinner at Sushi Yama, a Japanese restaurant in Boca Raton. A good time and sushi were had by all. After that, we went home, and my sister's friend Nathalie joined us to hang out. We decided to go and hang out with our friend Mike in the neighborhood for a while.

The next day was a slow one. After hanging around at home for most of the day, Natasha and I made it out to the Coral Square Mall so we could hit up Build-A-Bear Workshop and make a stuffed animal as a souvenir for her nephew. She had seen on their web site that there were alligators and Florida Gators football uniforms available, but at this particular store they didn't have them. She chose the just-as-Floridian Florida panther wearing a Gators hat and t-shirt. She has good taste.

After milling around a bit at the mall, we went back home to have a homemade dinner of eggplant parmesan with my family and my sister's friend Kelli. Later, Natasha and I watched sixth Harry Potter movie, which I hadn't seen; it came out while I was in Europe last year.

Friday was a big day. Natasha and I went to the Deerfield Beach train station, as seen in one of her favorite movies. From there, we took the Tri-Rail and the Metrorail to Miami. Even though we started early, it was already getting to be lunchtime when we got there, so we had lunch at a smoothie place. Next we went to the Bayside shopping center in Bayfront Park, where my sister and our friend Kevin met up with us.

Andy met up with us there as well, and he went with Natasha and me to the Miami Seaquarium. It was a common destination for field trips when I was a kid, and I figured it would be a great way to show Natasha some of the wildlife all in one place. I hadn't been there in ages, and I forgot how small the place was. But still, there was enough to do. We saw crocodiles, manatees, parrots, sea lions, dolphins, a killer whale, and more. Natasha loved it.

Next, we decided to have an early dinner, so we went to Little Havana and ate at a Cuban restaurant called La Carreta. Andy was pleased because he got to practice his Spanish. They got my order completely wrong, which led me to believe that they didn't know much English. The food was good, though. After that, we met up with Kevin and my sister again and drove to Miami Beach, where we checked out the Lincoln Road Mall. Once it was dark, we walked over to the beach to check it out.

As we were leaving Miami Beach, we got an invitation from our friend Mike to hang out with him and our friend Nick, so once we made it back north, we hung out for a while with them and then got home pretty late.

Natasha still hadn't been to the beach during the day, so on Saturday—her last full day—she and I went to Deerfield Beach. It was extremely hot, even for me, so we were done pretty quickly. Still, I'm glad she got to experience it. After burning at the beach, we cooled off in the pool at home. We spent the rest of the day getting ready to have a semi-fancy dinner at P.F. Chang's in Boca Raton for Natasha's last night in Florida. Kevin, Nathalie, Andy, and my sister joined Natasha and me there.

After dinner, we hung around for a while, wondering what to do. Eventually, we decided that it was late and that we should just go our separate ways. For Natasha, my sister, and me, that meant going back to the house, where we took another dip in the pool before going to bed.

On Natasha's last day, there wasn't time to do much except have Sunday brunch with the family and take a few photos of all of us together. After that, my mom took Natasha and me to the airport. We hardly had any time to say our goodbyes, but I knew we didn't need to say very much. Whatever she would have said, I knew I could feel it in here [pounds chest with fist].

The week Natasha spent with me was a very special one that I won't soon forget. In real life, with her smile and quirks and turns of phrase, she was every bit as fantastic as the Natasha I had gotten to know online over the years. I probably do say it enough, and maybe even too much, but I really appreciate Natasha and consider her one of my best friends. I look forward to visiting her sometime soon.