Author: Teel

So today my library book came in. It would have cost $65 via Amazon, more elsewhere, if even available. It was written for Engineers working on their Masters degrees. Luckily, this book is fairly well written and I am following it fairly easily so far. I expect that after mastering this book I shall have to move on to more advanced books on the subject… but also that after mastering this book I will be able to move on to more advanced books on the subject. It is A Primer on the Taguchi Method. Once I have the Taguchi method in my brain I will be able to … well, I will know how to … Well, to select a small set of experiments that will give statistical data enabling the analasys of a large number of variables, and to know the statistical methods for interpreting that data and understanding the outcomes… in such a way as to optimize performance and reliability in a process (manufacturing or otherwise) while at the same time minimizing the cost of production and of error, as well as of the actual experimentation itself. Yes. That is it.

I actually have a fair grasp of the basics of the Taguchi Method already, having got through nearly 5 full chapters in a couple of short hours, and could, if pressed, work out the rest on my own… but .. Oh, I’m lazy; I’ll just keep reading.

But … oh, there was a point to saying that last bit, and it is that upon learning the basics of the Taguchi Method and its applications and limitations and begining to try to dream of how I might utilize it, it occurred to me that I may never have a use for it. Still, I may subject you to it via a survey or two regarding web site design or … I don’t know … comics art style… I keep thinking that it would be really interesting to be able to follow an experimental process to optimize an essentially creative act in some way… to scientifically engineer good art or compelling characters. Just talking about it, I’m thinking about how it may be done… hmmm… Except … it will require actual user feedback from people … something I’ve never quite been able to garner.

I wonder if I could get good data from people about their preferences about comics I do. Thinking about it, I would probably have to (using the Taguchi Method to select the parameters) create at least 16 distinct comics, several ‘strips’ or ‘episodes’ long for people to give feedback on… then, using statistical analysis, I could generate the optimal comic for my audience! As the audience grows and changes, the experiments could be repeated to generate the ideal comic for the new audience!

The trick to using the Taguchi Method, for me, is that in order to use it to generate a certain result, you must know the result you want to generate. In the case of an online comic, the desired result is that readers like the comic, and ‘the more the better’. The Taguchi Method will work with this. But how can I apply it towards my paintings? What is the desired result? My own satisfaction with the work? Volume of sales? Average price of sales? Public adoration? Groupies who trade sex for paintings?

Theoretically, the Taguchi Method could be used towards obtaining any result… as long as you were aware of the desired result and the controllable factors affecting it… I may try to optimize the Buccala recipe a little this year, taking into account size and saltiness of fish pieces, and perhaps re-checking that egg matter… as well as doing an actual comparison of the two yeasts available and single vs. multiple rises of the dough. Any other factors you can think of that might be testable? I could have two more variables without increasing the number of experiments necessary to create an optimal result. At least with Buccala, my family is around to give me feedback on optimal Buccala. I know how much they can and can’t eat… I actually managed to make a little too much last year… as long as by a little, you mean several pounds too much.

Anyway… what else needs to be optimized around here? I’m itching to put this to use… Too often my brain decides to learn a thing and I have no idea why, or how I’ll use it. I figure someday I’ll get stuck in the equivalent of an adventure game and all these strange and curious things I’ve been learning will add up to survival, while my vast ignorance of many of the subjects that seem to be ‘common’ or at least ‘classic’ general knowledge won’t make a smidge of difference. So what if I’ve never read any Dostoyevsky? I know how to optimize things with complex variables using a small number of controlled experiments! Hah!

So, I’ve been using Abreva the last couple of days… it really does seem to help; all symptoms recede within a day or two (or never appear, if you start using Abreva soon enough) instead of lasting a week or two. But I was thinking about it and realized that due to the high price of the product, the small amount in the container and the dilution of the actual drug in the cream, the actual product, docosanol, costs around $100/gram. That’s right, there’s a drug I use that I pay nearly one hundred dollars a gram for. Luckily, it’s legal. Oh, and I had a coupon when I bought this container of it, so saved 15%! Woohoo! $100/gram!

Luckily I only very rarely find myself in need of this costly drug… this is the first time I’ve used it all year… at least!

Have I ever mentioned to you that the United States Postal Service is odd? Sometimes they do things much, much faster than expected, and other times they do them much, much slower. Right now I’m in a drought of mail… today I did get my WIRED and my Entertainment Weekly, right on schedule, but … well, there’s a book I ordered used via Amazon for a steal, the complete works of Oscar Wilde, and they ship that out, typically, at ‘book rate’, which takes “from 4 to 14 business days” to deliver. I’ve done this before and got it in two days, but this time we’re nearing the other end of the spectrum. I know when it was shipped. I don’t know what’s taking so long. Actually, here’s a thing: me writing this down will very likely mean that on Wednesday afternoon (Post Office is closed on Monday due to some sort of “holiday”, and I will be in PHX from Monday night through Wednesday morning… I believe) when I go in, the book will be waiting for me. I am also waiting for a “Return Receipt” or… returned letter… from a letter that I sent out, Certified and Return Receipt a couple of weeks ago. First class mail is supposed to get to any destination within 7 days, if it is forwarded from there, up to seven more, and the recipient has 15 days to sign for a certified letter before it is returned… whether they sign for it or not, the return receipt or returned letter may also take up to 7 days to return… so, hopefully the original has at least got to its destination by now… though I could have up to three more weeks before I hear anything back, one way or another… it still is something I hope to see some sort of response to in my box… someday.

Do you remember when I wrote about wanting Modafinil (Also known as Provigil), six months ago? Or when I was talking about it 12 months ago? Or … perhaps you were reading my mind and knew I wanted it back before it was out of FDA trials? (It was approved in 1998, btw, for narcolepsy.)

Well, WIRED has an article about it (and some other sleep/wake-related drugs in development) this month, so now … I don’t know… they say it may become easier to get… but if every geek is trying to get their hands on it… will it become easier or harder?

How is is possible I’m ahead of the curve of WIRED magazine? They predict things years in advance that never happen… or at least haven’t happened yet. Back in 1997 they devoted dozens of pages to explaining the details of the hydrogen-cars that would be 5%-25% of the new cars by last year. Damnit, where are my hydrogen cars?!?

Couldn’t allow the posts for the day to just set there at fourteen, no could we?

Not that I really have anything to say.

I was just going to bed. Not getting things done as quickly as I’d like to be. I mis-read the deadline of the only project I’ve got in the works with a real deadline, and it turns out I have a lot more time than I thought. Still not enough time to really do what I want to do (Seriously, I got this idea, and the final comic should be around seven feet tall and twenty-one feet wide. On your screen. And yet I have to try to get two complete (or semi-complete) stories into only six “panels” each. Except that what I want to do … well, each panel is at least 6″x8″, photo-realistic, well, maybe both… and then there’s the mural-sized background image which … well, unless my dad gives me time off heavy lifting (which, in retrospect, he could have done today, and hardly missed me) I doubt I’ll have the background the way I want it when I reach the deadline.) so I may end up either giving up or downsizing the quality … or something, but I think it’s a good idea. And the painting I’ve been actually working on lately … needs some digital work done… and some geometry done … and I may have to ask my little brother to do the geometry, because I can’t remember this little bit and he’s in Geometry right now… Bah. It may turn out to be trigonometry or calculus, and I may end up just inventing a new way to calculate it. Do other painters need math for stuff like this? Do other painters DO stuff like this? I’m sure that when I’m done you wouldn’t even be able to guess that I’d used math at all, let alone what part I’d used it on… unless we’re both standing in front of it and I explain it. The math USED TO be evident in my art, but more and more it’s … a tool to get what I want on the canvas.

And I can’t really complain, because they’re all volunteers, but up to eight Mouse artists may be entirely AWOL (that’s over half the panels moving from ‘assigned’ to ‘GOD DAMN IT, FUCK THIS STUPID FUCKING PROJECT, I HOPE MOUSE ROTS IN HELL FOR ETERNITY FOR HAVING ENTERED MY MIND, BECAUSE THAT’S HOW LONG IT WILL BE BEFORE THE GOD DAMNED THING IS FUCKING DRAWN!!!’), and only one person who volunteered to help me edit my novel has even finished reading it, and as far as I could tell, it was almost entirely typos that she caught… which is either a good thing, because the story works and the characters make sense, or a disappointing thing, because it either made so little sense that she didn’t know WHAT to say about it or she was afraid to say there was anything about it that she didn’t like or thought ought to be re-worked due to our relationship. So, yeah, neither of those things is going as quickly as I’d hoped, but I really have no room or place to complain, considering it’s an entirely volunteer population working on them.

And my relationship with Laura is out of sight, but on my mind … and either the next time I hear from her at any length we’ll work things out and continue our relationship in one capacity or another, or … or she’s simply not the woman for me right now, different in fundamental positions regarding meaningful inter-human relationships, and it’s all really as ‘over’ as it feels right now. And… and… And I’ve almost come to terms with the waiting, so that each day is like a single moment stretching outward, not weeks upon weeks, but a single difficult moment that will pass with the sound of her voice… a time outside of time, into which I have put a piece of my heart.

And … and… and I’m tired and sore … and sore in ways that don’t make sense … and I’m going to bed… and I guess I had something to say after all. I suppose forcing myself to write is the way to get it done.