Monthly Archives: October 2015

Scarily Appropriate Halloween Decorations

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, I was at a Costco store recently.

They already had Christmas stuff up. Or so I thought. It was a slightly terrifying experience.

And then I realized that it was actually the perfect Halloween decorations.

You see, they make us think they’re decorating for Christmas, when really they’re using an obscure math joke. From what I understand, in math, there are different “bases” for counting things. (Fluffy made a post about that for why we should use binary to count with our fingers.) Anyway, one of those bases is base 8. It’s referred to as Octal. Our normal base is base 10, or decimal. They get shortened to Dec and Oct, sometimes.

(Don’t those abbreviations look familiar…?)

Anyway, it turns out that 25 in base 10 is the same thing as 31 in base 8. In other words, oct 31 = dec 25. So therefore apparently Halloween is Christmas.

And furthermore, that means that Costco was being extra terrifying in its Halloween decorations by making us think a) it was going over-the-top consumer-focused to the point of starting Christmas decorations and sales a full two months early, or 2) making us think of math (and puns) in order to understand what they were actually doing.

Well played, Costco.

I hope you have a happy Halloween!

How Negative Time Works

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

I don’t know about you, but I’m living on Negative Time recently.

I am not entirely sure which part of that sentence is worse: Your grammar, the term “Negative Time”, or the capitalization of “Negative Time”.

…I can understand being confused by terminology, but what’s your problem with my grammar?

Webmaster, you mixed present and past tenses. That is problematic. And annoying to read.

Huh. I guess I did. Oh well.

The Negative Time itself should be what concerns you, actually.

Basically, it means that I’ve got more to do than I’ve got time to do, so I’m already needing to choose what necessary/important things I’m not going to do, and therefore ending up procrastinating and not doing (basically) any of it.

Compared to that, neither my grammar nor the terminology should be worrisome.

(And besides, the Capitalization of Negative Time could probably be lumped in with the grammar.)

Anyway.

Have a lovely Thursday!

Tolkien Walking Song!

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, I’ve been needing to walk places early in the morning. Yesterday, I remembered about a newish favorite I discovered a couple years ago. It’s from the Tolkien Ensemble. And it’s a delightful walking song.

I hope you enjoy!

Dragon’s Lair — The Movie!! (Kickstarter)

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, when I was a kid, my sister and I sometimes played a game called Dragon’s Lair. (or tried to, anyway.)

I found out yesterday that there’s a Kickstarter to get a preview to turn it into a movie.

You should check it out!

And have a great Tuesday.

First Person Tetris

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, I discovered something quite amusing yesterday: First Person Tetris.

Strictly speaking, it’s not truly a first person game. But, if you decide to rotate the block, it’s the screen that rotates. So, that’s kindof first-person-esque. Also, “Existential Crisis” mode makes it even more first-person-y. So, definitely give that a try if you’re feeling a bit masochistic.

Anyway. Have a lovely week!

Happy 1,000th!

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, as you’re expecting: HAPPY….

DailyFluff1000

A lot’s happened in these past 1,000 days.

For example, last year. 2014. I made a nice post recapping some of my favorites, so I’m going to let that post speak for me.

And, 700 posts ago, I made a recap post for Fluff 300. It also links to some of my other, older favorites.

So, yeah.

I hope it continues to work out!

Since the Webmaster appears to have forgotten this valuable part– thank you very much to you readers for looking.

Right. Thank you for the reminder, Fluffy.

Thank you, fluffsters, for enjoying. And for sharing. (I think the most shared material has still been Fluffy’s review of Pride and Prejudice…)

So, yeah. I hope you have a lovely Sunday, and a great week! Here’s to more fluff!

Fun with 999

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the number 999.

On the one hand, it’s kinda pretty. On the other, it’s just below a very nice, round number.

Although, to be fair, it would be easy to make the claim that 999 is actually rounder than 1000. After all, the digit “1” has 1-3 straight lines in it. The digit “9” (in this font, anyway) doesn’t.

So, maybe 999 is the last truly round numbered post this blog is going to have for a while…?

Huh.

Well, on that–

-Wait a second, Webmaster. Are you seriously leaving out all of the mathematical and more numeric facts pertaining to 999?

…Umm, yes?

…

No. 999 is too fun a number to let you do that.

For you see, 999 has 3-cubed embedded in it.

Its other prime factor is 37. The digit 3 is again included. The “hidden 3-count” for 999 is now up to 4.

It is, of course, also the last number before 10^3. Thus, it is also the last 3-digit number. There are now revealed 5 hidden-3s in 999.

Furthermore, the digit 9 itself is 3*3. This brings the count up to 6 “hidden-3″s. 6 itself is 3*2; we now have 7.

Therefore, in a manner of speaking, 999 is related to 3 in at least 7 cases.

I personally think that is relatively neat.

…

Whatever you say.

Well, before we turn into an infinite regress or anything like that I’m going to declare this post finished. Have a lovely Saturday, Fluffsters! I hope you have a lovely rest of your weekend, and enjoyed another mathematical(ish) fluff post.

Post 998, or is it Post-997?

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, I started writing my title and the title inspired my post. I wrote “Post 998.” And that occurred to me, it could be interpreted in multiple ways. On the one hand, it could be my 998th Fluff Post. On the other hand, it could have been post (as in “after”) 998. Except After 998 doesn’t work, since this is 998. So therefore, it needs to be Post-997. Or one of the even previouser entries.

Did you seriously just use the word “previouser”?

…Yes? I mean, at least I’m not trying to use Fish as an adjective this time?

So, yeah. This post is post-Previouser posts.

Have a lovely Friday!

Some Halloween Music Recommendations (post 997)

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Hiya, Fluffsters!

So, I know this is a tiny bit either early or late for starting a Halloweenseries. But I was just chatting with a friend, and some music came up, and I remembered it’s absolutely perfect for Halloween.

It’s based off of the original Dies Irae Plainchant Theme.

(The video below is a bit long. You don’t need to hear all of it to get a feel for it.)

So, the words are basically “Day of Judgement, Day of Wrath” in Latin. That right there makes it a haunting refrain. And then a lot of people use it in their music.

One of my personal favorites is the last movement of Symphonie Fantastique.

Another is Rachmoninoff’s Variation on a Theme by Paginini. This one also doesn’t bring in the Dies Irae theme until a few minutes in. I’ve theoretically copied the YouTube time for where it actually starts. (You should listen to the entire piece, though, since it’s gorgeous. And haunting. So, yeah.)

So, yup. Here’s approximately the next location in the piece where the theme comes up. Seriously. It’s a recurring theme. I love it.

I may include more music for Halloween as it becomes relevant. But this will do for right now. And besides, I’ve got the looming terror of the 1,000th post coming up… I’m definitely going to be haunted by how little I do for it…

So, happy 997th post, and happy 9 days until Halloween! And Happy Thursday. Just to give you too many cheerful greetings and all. Because those can be scary. So, yeah. Have a great day.