random
Teenage Vernacular Update, circa March 2021
“Yeet” is passé. “Ye” has entered the common vernacular as an affirmative response.
“Pog”, “big pog”, and “poggers” (expressions of happiness or approval) have become common enough that the teens don’t think it’s too weird if Dad says them.
“F in the chat for
Of disappointment and unexpected footwear
A week ago I ordered some foam replacement earbud covers from Amazon. Friday the package showed up. It did not contain foam replacement earbud covers. Instead, it contained this pair of handsome Spider-Man socks, even in my size!
After a brief consultation with Amazon customer service, my order was refunded and they’re letting me keep the socks. Now I’m still waiting a few more days for another order of earbud covers, but on the whole, we’ll call it a win.
Vatican City is not what you think it is...
There’s a fascinating post up on the Strange Maps blog this morning about Vatican City and the Holy See. Vatican City, it seems, is not exactly what you think it is.
So Vatican City is not what you think it is. It is not the diplomatic interface between the Catholic Church and the rest of the world. That role is played by the Holy See, which exchanges ambassadors with most of the world’s countries (rather than Vatican City). Rather, Vatican City is the toehold of sovereign territory that gives the papacy its peace of mind: the territorial buffer shielding the Church’s sovereignty rather than the essence of that sovereignty.
It then follows up with a bunch of interesting maps detailing the geographic boundaries of the tiny Vatican City (only 1/6 of a square mile in area!).
An interesting read.
[Strange Maps: Bigger Than You Think: the Vatican and its Annexes]
If I were from England, I'd be unhappy
Becky and I were wandering the toy shelves at our local Target store recently, finishing up some Christmas shopping for the girls. On one shelf I saw this little set of dolls:
A couple of thoughts came to mind: first, how quaint! This reminds me of something out of the early 20th century, all nicely culturally stereotyped in ethnic garb. I am surprised that the PC police haven’t come down on it. But then I looked a little closer, and noticed this particular doll, which you can still make out even with the fuzzy picture quality from my camera phone:
Notice anything wrong? Yep, the doll is supposed to represent England, but she’s wearing Scottish plaid. If I were from England, I’d be unhappy. Obviously, somebody from Target (or whoever in China designs their toys) doesn’t realize that Scotland /= England. Ah well, a geography lesson for another day.
It happened again.
Yep. Four in a row now. What are the odds?
Dang, I had to ask that. Now I’m gonna have to calculate them.
Probability of a winner is 1 in 8. So the chances of me getting a winner with my first bottle was, well, 1 in 8, or 0.125.
Probability of a winner each time I get 2 bottles is [1 in 8] * 2, which is 1 in 4, or 0.25.
I’ve now gotten the initial winner plus three more winners in sequence. The odds of that, according to these back-of-the-envelope calculations, are 0.125 * 0.25 * 0.25 * 0.25 = 0.001953125, or to put it another way, 1 in 512.
Cool.
It's a trap!
Last week I bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi from a vending machine. I opened it up, and woohoo! The cap was a winner - buy one 20 oz bottle, get one free.
I held onto the cap until Monday, when I was having a bad caffeine craving. So I redeemed it, and when I opened the second bottle, guess what? Another winner.
Fast-forward to today. I turned in that winner and got another two-fer. I opened the second bottle, and guess what? Yep, another winner.
I think it’s a trap.
Random Thought
During a conversation with Becky while driving somewhere the other night, discussing someone:
Me: “He is… unique.”
Becky: “Yes, yes he is.”
Me: “In fact, that’s the one thing you can say about every person who has ever lived - they are or were unique. Isn’t it ironic that the one thing we all have in common is our uniqueness?”
Becky: < changes the subject >
more odds and ends
I’m getting a cold. I’d forgotten how much I hate colds. You can’t breathe, and your throat feels nasty. I’m thinking I might head home and try to take a nap.
On a totally unrelated note, there was a fun little episode with Laura last night that’s worth relating. We were heading out to run a couple short errands last night, and she really didn’t want to get in her carseat. But she finally did, and we ran to the video store and then to pick up cheesesticks from Papa John’s. In both cases, Laura and I just sat in the car while Becky ran in.
While we were waiting at Papa John’s, I could tell she was really getting bored just sitting there, not getting to do anything. So, I grabbed a little toy rabbit and proceeded to play peekaboo between Laura and the rabbit, a game that she’s enjoyed on previous occasions. After bemusedly considering the rabbit, she looked at me with a tired look that seemed to say “thanks for trying dad, it’s not really that interesting, but I appreciate the effort.” Hard to explain, but one of those mundane yet priceless moments that make parenting such a joy.