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Complex Numbers
Complex Numbers
A complex number is expressed in the standard form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is defined by i^2 = -1 (that is, i is the square root of -1). For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number.
The bi term is often referred to as an imaginary number (though this may be misleading, as it is no more "imaginary" than the symbolic abstractions we know as the "real" numbers). Thus, every complex number has a real part, a, and an imaginary part, bi.
Complex numbers are often represented on a graph known as the "complex plane," where the horizontal axis represents the infinity of real numbers, and the vertical axis represents the infinity of imaginary numbers. Thus, each complex number has a unique representation on the complex plane: some closer to real; others, more imaginary. If a = b, the number is equal parts real and imaginary.
Very simple transformations applied to numbers in the complex plane can lead to fractal structures of enormous intricacy and astonishing beauty.
September 30, 2008 at 9:23pm September 30, 2008 at 9:23pm
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Today, I made my first story submission to an online magazine - my first attempt at paid publication ever (even though the pay would be a token, it'd be ∞% more than I've ever made for publication (the money I got the other day was essentially self-publishing)). Not holding out much hope, but since I finally took the giant leap, future submissions should be much easier.
And my back doesn't hurt, and my tooth doesn't hurt.
Almost makes me want to consider becoming optimistic.
Almost 
(Edited to add:)
And then I stumbled across this little gem of a site that provides a mock interview question and random answer with Sarah Palin...
http://www.interviewpalin.com/n1
...and I laughed my silly, nonpartisan head off!
Artificial intelligence? Who needs it when you have artificial politicianspeak? |
September 28, 2008 at 4:23pm September 28, 2008 at 4:23pm
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I went to see Burn After Reading with some friends last night, instead of, you know, WORKING like I was supposed to be doing.
I was going to provide a movie review here, as I do from time to time when I actually bother going to the movies, but then I discovered that, as with everything else, CRACKED did it better.
(Spoiler warning, but since you're not going to go watch this movie anyway, it's okay)
http://www.cracked.com/article_16664_if-burn-after-reading-was-shorter-made-any-...
If 'Burn After Reading' Was Shorter And Made Any Damn Sense
Whoa, Brad Pitt? I didn't know you still did movies that didn't require you to wear expensive suits or rob casinos. What's with the, you know, acting?
Well, actually, it had its amusing moments, but overall, I should have been working. Or at least writing. |
September 27, 2008 at 7:19pm September 27, 2008 at 7:19pm September 26, 2008 at 4:40pm September 26, 2008 at 4:40pm
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And I have to work almost all of it!
And when I'm not working I have to take care of contests and stuff here on WDC!
And write next week's Fantasy newsletter!
I'm in hell!
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama
Now you are too! |
September 25, 2008 at 5:31pm September 25, 2008 at 5:31pm
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So you're getting Cracked links.
http://www.cracked.com/article_16661_campaign-ads-would-look-like-if-voting-age-...
What Campaign Ads Would Look Like If the Voting Age Was 6
At some point in the next 38 days, you're going to watch a campaign ad and ask yourself if these things could get any more stupid and immature. We decided to find out.
Totally worth it. And rather balanced between candidates. And even some funny used-to-be candidates, like the Hillary Clinton one. MY favorite is #9, and I'm sure you can figure out why.
And my second Cracked link is the best of all possible worlds: informative AND funny as hell:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16656_6-brainwashing-techniques-theyre-using-on-y...
6 Brainwashing Techniques They're Using On You Right Now
Brainwashing doesn't take any sci-fi gadgetry or Manchurian Candidate hypnotism bullshit. There are all sorts of tried-and-true techniques that anyone can use to bypass the thinking part of your brain and flip a switch deep inside that says "OBEY."
Now I know what you're thinking. "Sure, just make an ad with some big ol' titties on there! That'll convince people!"
Not that I'd ever stoop to ANY of those techniques. You know, like those OTHER blogs. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it.
Seriously, though, visit that link - the best defense is knowledge. And laughter. |
September 24, 2008 at 10:11pm September 24, 2008 at 10:11pm
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I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm involved in a Zazzle shop:
http://www.zazzle.com/fetideggplant
I wrote, or co-wrote, most of the slogans there. A person who is, sadly, no longer on this site did the art. I get a small percentage of the proceeds, since art is harder than writing.
And today I got my first-ever check for writing!
It's for $4.34, which might buy me breakfast at McDisease if I were still inclined to eat Egg McMuffins, but hey... I can claim it as my first-ever payment for writing.
(So go buy stuff so I can get my second.  ) |
September 23, 2008 at 9:14pm September 23, 2008 at 9:14pm
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In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines...
Today is Bruce Springsteen's birthday.
(Today was also my day for doing a prompt in "Invalid Item"  , so naturally I made it about Bruce.)
Back in the faraway reaches of the past, I used to celebrate by playing all his albums, in order. Now, of course, doing that would take more than one day (about 27:45, according to my Bruce playlist that includes every song from every album), so I just play them at random.
"But Robert the Bruce Fan, don't you listen to Springsteen every day?"
Well, sure... almost. But I also like other artists, like Counting Crows and Pink Floyd; Brandi Carlile and Bright Eyes and The Waterboys and Dire Straits and this obscure British band called Sniff 'n' the Tears and many more. So normally, I mix it up some.
The real question is why I bother celebrating someone else's birthday, and that I can't really answer. I just know that, over the years (about 30 now), the one artist whose work speaks to me with the most clarity is Bruce.
There are few gimmicks in his music. No popping drum track, no rap whistles, no overproduction. Well, maybe a little bit on "Dancing In The Dark"
I'm dying for some action
I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book
I think I remember the first time I heard "Born To Run" and, thus, Bruce. My parents listened, kind of by default, to country music, because the local country station was all our cheap-ass radio picked up, and Dad liked to listen to the news between Conway Twitty and Willie Nelson.
And then, one day, we were in the car, I was fiddling with the stations while he was driving, and I found the more distant rock and roll station. It played "Born To Run," and I never looked back.
Well, that's not entirely true. I pretended to dislike country for a while, to be "cool" with the high school crowd, but I still like a good deal of country music. Don't tell anybody, though.
I gradually found out that many of the other songs I liked, such as "Fire" and "Blinded By The Light" were performed by others, but actually written by Springsteen.
Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun
Oh but mama that's where the fun is
(It's "Cut loose like a deuce," by the way. Not "Wrapped up like a douche." Christ.)
Hell, that song's one of the main reasons I use the "sun" costumicon on this site.
I ended up seeking out the other albums, in addition to Born To Run, and my obsession was born.
Anyway, enough about that. Just wanted to get it on record (ha) that while there have been a lot of changes over the last 30 years, there's one thing that has stayed constant in my life.
It's important to have some continuity, I think.
Well here's to your good looks baby now here's to my health
Here's to the loaded places that we take ourselves
When it comes to luck you make your own
Tonight I got dirt on my hands but I'm building me a new home |
September 22, 2008 at 4:55pm September 22, 2008 at 4:55pm September 21, 2008 at 4:40pm September 21, 2008 at 4:40pm
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elusive ennui warm inside  : To quote Don Henley, "They ain't here; they ain't coming." I sometimes envy the truly religious - that is, anyone who believes there's an external entity, be it God, Odin, Barack Obama or Space Aliens, that will, if we pray or sacrifice or vote or wish hard enough, come to rescue ourselves from ourselves. I sometimes envy them because I don't think wishing's going to make it so. Oh, Obama might become President, sure, but he's still not going to save us from ourselves.
We have to do that, and we're doing a piss-poor job of it while all we do is watch TV, surf the Internet, complain about gas prices and blog.
Thomas : The rise and fall, the changing fortunes, of business is the cornerstone of capitalism, and it is, simultaneously, its boon and its bane. But that cycle depends on the natural waxing and waning of peoples' needs and faddish desires. And sometimes, something very fundamental changes - imagine what would have happened had government bailed out carriage makers at the beginning of the last century, or typewriter manufacturers at the end of it.
I'm not saying that the need for banking is obsolete, but clearly some of the practices of bankers (that group for which British author Neil Gaiman said the collective noun for was a "wunch") were doomed to failure and, just as evolutionary pressures force some organisms to adapt or die, the evolutionary pressure of business should force some businesses to adapt or die - whether the business is making carriages that were destined to be replaced by motor vehicles, or repackaging bad loans into worse investment vehicles.
orangefiire: I'm talking about the economic problems here in the US, starting with the deflation of the housing price bubble and its ripple effect on banks, insurance companies, the Federal Reserve, and ultimately all of us in the US. And probably some foreigners as well, but no one cares about them unless we have a military force over there. Wherever "there" is.
Just kidding, AL and Mavis Moog
The StoryMaster  : The broker (one which doesn't appear to be part of the collapse) that holds part of my portfolio had a portion of said portfolio in AIG; they only sold it recently, after it had tanked. Before that, they sold the portfolio's position in LEH - after it tanked. Back in 2001 or whenever it was, they also sold its position in Enron - after it tanked.
With the market the way it is, I may just have to wrest control back from the "professional investment advisers" and put it all into Apple and Netflix stock. I figure no matter what happens to the rest of the economy, people will still want their iPods and movies... cheap entertainment while we're all sitting at home, jobless.
Anyway, I do think you're right, SM, in that we as a country are still going to be in a good position to recover from this. And that it's not exactly business as usual. But if I got handed a severance package of $10M or more, I'd take the scrutiny... I could live pretty well for the rest of my life on $10M and to hell with the investigators. I'd like to see them FIND me in Belize. Oops, did I say where I was going? I meant Fiji. Yep, moving to Fiji; look for me there.
I do think banks will continue to lend money, just not as freely as they have in the past, and to me that's a GOOD thing - having an economy based on fake money created by debt is no way to run a country; as I recall, it was unregulated buying on margin that was a major trigger for the Great Depression (which, when all is said and done with the coming Depression, may be renamed as the Great Manic) in the first place, and while there's less *direct* buying on margin, it's apparent that a lot of the 'money' in the market over the past few years has been borrowed.
As for buying businesses at an utter steal... unless Warren Buffett buys it, it's probably not as good a deal as we think
AL : I'm not a socialist, and Sarah Palin scares me to death, too. Apparently mediocrity isn't just fashionable anymore; it's entrenched.
Give me an intellectual elitist ANY day of the week. But especially on Election Day. |
September 20, 2008 at 8:30pm September 20, 2008 at 8:30pm
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...on popcorn, beer and other essentials, to observe the collapse of Western civilization.
Let's see how long the powers-that-be can hold off the worst of it.
Bet they time it for after the November elections. |
September 16, 2008 at 9:16pm September 16, 2008 at 9:16pm
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At home, I have a knife.
My wife got it for me this year for my birthday, because I'd seen one like it at her aunt's house. It's folded Japanese steel, sharp as a Hattori Honsu blade and shinier than a brand-new cell phone.
I didn't bring it with me.
The only cutlery this house has are butterknives and a set of cheap-ass serrated knives. When it was my turn to make dinner, I had to chop an onion with a serrated blade! 
I won't even discuss the pitiful excuse for a corkscrew. If the owners of the beach house can't even stock the kitchen properly, what else did they leave out? Foundation pilings?
And the stove. ELECTRIC! The trendy no-burner range and an oven that's impossible to regulate properly. And the microwave's no better: it has fewer buttons than ours at home!
Don't get me wrong - I like being on vacation. But I didn't know I'd be roughing it! |
September 15, 2008 at 7:22pm September 15, 2008 at 7:22pm
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A good Monday doesn't come around very often, but any Monday of a vacation week is a good one.
So the stock market is an utter disaster and the presidential election has devolved once more into mudslinging (look, John, when KARL fucking ROVE says you're running a negative campaign, you're running a negative campaign) and we're wasting what resources we have left rescuing people who shouldn't have stayed in harm's way (yeah, I went there). So what?
I'm on vacation. |
September 13, 2008 at 8:51pm September 13, 2008 at 8:51pm
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Spent most of the day getting here. Shocked to find that there was absolutely no problem connecting to the house wireless network and thence to the internet. Usually these things end up being a royal pain in the tuchis.
Could probably have done better with the house location - sure, it's close to the ocean, but also on a through road and across from a hotel. Worse, it's right next to a goddamn construction site. I'd better not hear that shit before noon any day next week, that's all I'm saying.
But what the hell. At least it's not work.
Oh, and don't get mad if you IM me and I don't respond. I'm too lazy to unblock popups on this computer. I may decide to do it anyway - or maybe not.
And now for some serious drinking. |
September 12, 2008 at 4:18pm September 12, 2008 at 4:18pm September 11, 2008 at 6:49pm September 11, 2008 at 6:49pm
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http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2008/09/11/COVER-amalg.aspx
Like a delicate butterfly emerging out of a bloated pink pupa, Montpelier has metamorphasized back into its original self, circa 1820. The change is dramatic, the stuccoed mansion expanded by William and Annie duPont is no more, and historians say that's a good thing.
Monticello gets all the attention around here. It's Mr. Jefferson's town, Mr. Jefferson's University, Mr. Jefferson's Hemp Farm, etc. Okay, sometimes Monroe gets a nod, because of Ash Lawn - Highland, which is near Monticello. And okay, I've been known to indulge in Jefferson-worship, myself.
James Madison, however, is a bit of an outcast in the rich-old-white-guy club, with his home closer to Orange (a tiny little town with three stoplights) than to Charlottesville. And like the article says, other people came along and fucked up his house beyond all recognition. I took tours of it back then - lots of art-deco crap, but a pretty neat garden. Mostly, though, I had to endure steeplechase runs on the vast Montpelier grounds - which would be fine, except for all the yuppies around.
There's probably a metaphor in there, somewhere - how the house of the dude who penned our Constitution has been modified, altered, added on to, and painted pink (PINK!) over the centuries, and now, finally, one guy with vision and persistence was able to restore it to its former condition. And how it sure would be nice if someone did something similar with the Constitution.
But the fact is that buildings crumble and have to be protected, and maintained; likewise, the Constitution can easily crumble and it, too, has to be protected and maintained. It's okay to add and subtract from it now and then - the amendment abolishing slavery, for example, was only wrong in that it never should have been necessary; likewise the amendment repealing Prohibition - but the essential form must remain the same, in spite of any efforts to hide it behind sprawling magnolias or pink stucco.
So let that be my nod to... what today is (other than Waltz Is Great Day, of course) - my hope that recent, shall we say, attempts to mask the Constitution, to make it look like other than what it is, can soon be carefully dismantled, so that something resembling its true self can be once more revealed. There's no excuse for what's happened. Not the passing fad of art deco, and not the bitter reek of fear.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. - Amendment IV
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. - Amendment VIII
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. - Amendment IX
Yeah, there's probably a metaphor in there, somewhere, but I'm nowhere near subtle enough to tease it out.
I pretty much just hate the color pink. |
September 10, 2008 at 10:33pm September 10, 2008 at 10:33pm
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Tomorrow, September 11, has a few negative connotations.
Well, I'm negative enough already. So, in an effort to a)celebrate my 4th Writing.com Birthday b)Let myself get cheered up and c)give away my vast surplus of Gift Points, I hereby declare:
September 11, 2008
is
Waltz is Great Day
Here's how to play:
1. Write in your blog tomorrow, September 11, 2008 (WDC time)
2. In your blog entry, tell the world how great I am.
3. Try not to be TOO sarcastic, ironic, or satirical. I can tell.
4. Link to your entry in a comment to this blog post.
5. If I look with pleasure upon your blog entry, I will give you 10,000 GPs
6. My favorite blog entry telling the world how great I am will earn the blogger a Merit Badge
7. If I'm feeling especially generous, I might even give out an Awardicon.
8. All awards will be given out after 9/11/08 is over and I've had a chance to read all the entries.
Yeah, if I have to bribe people to make myself feel better, so be it.
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September 10, 2008 at 8:28pm September 10, 2008 at 8:28pm
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This entry contains some depressing shit, so skip it if you're looking for humor or uplifting shit. Well, not that I'd ever put uplifting shit in here, but whatever.
Tomorrow I'll have some good things to say. But not today.
It's been nearly a week, now, since the steroid shot that was supposed to magically help my back. Naturally, it has not done any such thing. In fact, things are worse now than they were before the shot - which, frankly, I didn't think was possible, thus proving once more the benefits of being a pessimist: at least I don't have to add disappointment to my list of woes.
That doesn't stop me from being angry about it.
No, actually, I'm not angry. I don't have the energy to be angry.
It's worst when I get up, either in the morning or from one of my ever-lengthening naps. And I'll lie there in bed, wondering why I should get up and subject myself to the agony?
I've never been that way before. Usually, I have a reason to get up. Maybe I'm hungry. Maybe I get to see my wife. Maybe I feel the obligation to go to work and try to make money (increasingly difficult as well). Maybe I want to write, or play a video game, but the point is, I've always had a reason to get up.
These days it's harder and harder to find such a reason.
Everything is difficult, now. All my activities (such as they are) are circumscribed by whether or not they'll cause pain, and, usually, they do. So I don't want to do them. I'm tired of things being difficult. They say you don't appreciate what you get too easily, but I call bullshit: I just don't have the energy to appreciate anything that isn't dead easy right now.
I'd rather just stay in bed.
Today would have been my father's 91st birthday, and I know what he would have said: "Shut up and go hoe the garden."
Sorry, Dad, I guess I'll be disappointing you too.
I just want to stay in bed and forget everything else. |
September 9, 2008 at 8:10pm September 9, 2008 at 8:10pm
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As in, I don't think they've thought their cunning plan all the way through.
http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=122520&article...
PETA members shower on Public Square
People walking by said they were not really sure what message PETA was trying to get across – other than gaining attention with barely clothed women showering in a public place.
Now, let's be perfectly clear about this: Whatever your cause is - "don't eat meat," in this case, or "keep abortion safe" or "abolish the death penalty" or "eat more crackers," when you use naked or nearly-naked young women to do it, it makes me want to go and do whatever it is you're protesting against so you'll continue to send naked or nearly-naked women out to protest it.
In other words, if you want me to stop eating meat, you'll have to send out hordes and hordes of naked chicks carrying signs promoting the goodness of meat.
I think I'm not alone here, right guys?
Now, you'll have to excuse me - I gotta go flip the steaks. |
September 8, 2008 at 3:17pm September 8, 2008 at 3:17pm
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I came across this little slideshow at some point and bookmarked it for later. "Later" would be now.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/1,28757,1658545,00.html
The 50 Worst Cars of All Time
Now, let me say that I hate internet slideshows with an all-consuming passion. And to have a slideshow with 50 slides is... well, wtf? But this one turns out to be worth the trip... because, apparently, it was written by someone slumming from Cracked. Only they had to leave out the cuss words.
A 3,200-lb. motorcycle with training wheels, a V8 engine and enough copper tubing to provide every hillbilly in the Ozarks with a still...
Though unworkable, this three-wheeled suppository was the boldest of a series of futuristic, rear-engined cars...
It wouldn't be the last time American car buyers looked at the future and said, "no thanks."
The most ineffective bit of French engineering since the Maginot Line...
Less a car than a 5th-grade science project on seed germination, the Peel Trident was designed and built on the Isle of Man in the 1960s for reasons as yet undetermined, kind of like Stonehenge...
You get the idea. There's even flying cars in there.
Well... unworkable prototypes of flying cars.
Dammit. |
September 7, 2008 at 8:20pm September 7, 2008 at 8:20pm
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Robert Waltz has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
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I'm more than happy with Carrion Luggage, however.
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