Last week Stephanie and I were discussing the game of hangman. I commented that “rhythm” and “myth” are good words because the only vowel is y, and most people try to find the vowel first. I wondered what might be the best possible words.  When I remembered that I’m a programmer, I said “hey, I can write a program to figure this out!” And since I haven’t posted on this blog in quite a while, I thought I’d share.

I found a list of 58,112 words and got to work. I decided to first count the frequency of each letter in the word list.1 I figured that the probability that a letter would be guessed is approximately equal to the frequency of that letter in the language. This could be a bad assumption, but it’s all I had to work with. Then I computed a score for each word by averaging the frequency of each letter in the word. I don’t know that this is the best way of measuring the difficulty of the word, but it’s the best one I could come up with.

Here are the words with the lowest scores (and therefore the most difficult hangman words, according to my algorithm):

fuzz     1.28%
fuzzy    1.37%
buzz     1.39%
why      1.57%
by       1.79%
jazzy    1.95%
jazz     2.01%
huffy    2.02%
buff     2.03%
huff     2.10%
jug      2.17%
jumpy    2.18%
puffy    2.18%
my       2.20%
hubby    2.20%
muff     2.23%
jump     2.29%
puff     2.29%
buy      2.33%
foxy     2.36%

And here are the easiest:

see     10.55%
eerie   10.15%
ere     10.13%
nee     10.08%
sees    10.05%
tee     10.04%
ease     9.81%
eire     9.79%
seer     9.73%
seen     9.69%
eerier   9.67%
tees     9.67%
serene   9.60%
eases    9.56%
settee   9.54%
lessee   9.54%
eel      9.52%
seine    9.52%
seers    9.50%
eeriest  9.47%

While I was at it, I did some other searches on the word list.  Here are the 49 words that have no vowels besides Y:

by
cry
crypt
crypts
cyst
cysts
dry
dryly
fly
fry
glyph
glyphs
gym
gyms
gypsy
hymn
hymns
lymph
lynch
lynx
my
myrrh
myth
myths
nymph
nymphs
ply
pry
pygmy
rhythm
rhythms
shy
shyly
sky
sly
slyly
spry
spy
sty
styx
sylph
sylphs
sync
thy
try
why
whys
wry
wryly

Seventeen words contain all the vowels, including Y:

consequentially
counterrevolutionary
disadvantageously
facetiously
gregariously
heterosexuality
homosexuality
neurologically
neurotically
pertinaciously
precariously
precautionary
questionably
revolutionary
simultaneously
supersonically
tenaciously

And only two words contain all the vowels, including Y, in order:

abstemiously
facetiously

Please if you make web pages or web apps you really need to know this please
A haiku by Kip Robinson

It is so easy
to make forms much friendlier
with the label tag

Last week I came across Ian’s Shoelace Site, which describes several ways of tying your shoes. It turns that there are several more ways of doing it than they teach you as a kid. The “Ian Knot” is a much faster and easier way of tying the standard shoelace knot.  And the “Ian’s Secure Knot” produces a secure knot (it won’t easily come undone through the day), but it’s better than the traditional double knot because you can still easily untie it by pulling the loose ends. I’ve been using these for a week now and it’s a pretty nice timesaver that I thought I’d share with everyone else.

In the six years since college, I have put on about forty pounds and added about 2-4 inches to my waistline (depending on the brand of pants). I keep thinking eventually I’ll do something about it, but I keep putting it off. So I’ve decided I need to stop this infinite loop.  I’m going to start off with the goal of completely eliminating the following from my diet:

• Soft drinks and sweet tea (pretty much any drink besides water and milk)

• French fries

• Ice cream

• Cake and cake-like substances (this includes brownies and doughnuts)

Assuming I manage to keep to this, I will re-evaluate the list in a few months and maybe add other things I really shouldn’t be eating. I realize that regular exercise would probably be an ideal approach in a perfect world. But I’m pretty sure the odds of me continuing to exercise regularly for a long period of time are pretty close to zero. Maybe if I worked at a company that had a gym on-site there would be a 25% chance I would actually spend some time there, and a 7%1 chance that I would go regularly for more than a year. So I’m hoping that attacking the most unhealthy parts of my diet will pay off.

Now I must apologize for boring you with aspects of my life that no one but me could possibly care about. I’m hoping that I will be more likely to stick to it after making a public announcement.

You may have noticed that the thumbnails for albums on our photos page are each little collages. Here are some examples:

Well as of today I’ve received three requests for the code behind these images, so I figured it was time to write up a proper blog post about the it. I mentioned the code in 2006, and that it was inspired by this article from A List Apart. I took their idea and came up with several more layouts to use, and some code to generate the thumbnail from dynamic layouts.

The class takes four image files as input, and generates a thumbnail for them. It does have the annoyance that the generated images have varying heights. I’ve thought about writing a fancy “2.0” version of the code, using Javascript to position/crop/scale the images, then use PHP to render the final result. But who knows if I’ll ever get around to it.

For now, I’ll just show you how it’s used. It’s very easy:

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5
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$at = new album_thumbnail();
$at->add_image('/images/001.jpg');
$at->add_image('/images/002.jpg');
$at->add_image('/images/003.jpg');
$at->add_image('/images/004.jpg');

$at->make_thumbnail('/images/thumb1234.jpg');

On my admin page, I initially pick four images at random from a given directory. I can then try again with four more images, or specify to keep some of the images and pick random images for the others, or I can specify the ids of all the images I want to be used. That part is left as an exercise for the reader. Without further ado...

View the source code here.

To think that five years ago, Kip and I came together and promised our lives to one another.  Many of the people that follow this blog were in attendance that day.  It was a warm and blustery day that ended rather cool.  But I had a good time, and I hope that Kip did too! :)

I wanted to make this post as a retrospective on the past five years that I have spent with my husband.  A lot has happened over the years.  I didn’t link back to all previous posts I’ve made on this site, because there would have been a lot of them, so I’m just going to list the major events that have transpired as I remember them.  Please be advised: there is a lot of text here!

We spent our first week together visiting Hawaii, and had a marvelous time in the sun, sand, and sea.  We also enjoyed it from the air in a helicopter ride, that neither of us could fully enjoy due to motion sickness. Kip came home with a wounded foot after a snorkeling accident on the second day.

The next month Kip got to experience helping my family with a yard sale at my parents’ house, and was amazed at the crazies that come out at five in the morning and don’t allow you to fully set up the sale before they totally decimate the merchandise.

In June of 2005 we nearly got in a fight at Carowinds while waiting in line for the Borg.  It was quite terrifying at the time, but now, to look back on it is pretty funny.  I’m proud of my brother-in-law, who was brave enough to stand up for us when people tried to jump the line, when it wasn’t moving.

The month of July didn’t bring many exciting events, just a lot of reviews by my husband.  Things like movies, video games, and radio stations.  Not very exciting stuff.

August, however, was a pretty big month because we found out that our family would be increasing in number by 1.  We were going to be gaining a puppy that was left on Kip’s mom’s front door step.  We lost her a month later to a heart condition that was terminal.  It was a very sad thing to go through.  We then were able to adopt another dog, Punky, that we still have today, she turns five sometime this month.

Sometime in November Kip decided that he needed to reconnect with his stick figure days, and pulled out all his old drawings.  I’m not sure I approve, but they are kinda funny.  I also took up heavy-duty baking in all my free time, and created the infamous cupcake turkey army.  I still can’t believe nobody wanted to eat them.

In 2006 Kip learned how to file our taxes, which was a little stressful, but a necessary evil.  We had a winter Olympics in February, which made recording what we watched on tv interesting.  And I went on a job interview in March.

April brought around our first wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by going to the mountain house up on Roan Mountain.  We enjoyed warm fires, and year old wedding cake.  And I got the job that I interviewed for back in March.  Kip bought a new car, the Solara.

The next couple of months are pretty mundane, with Kip talking about computer stuff, and me being excited about getting the complete collection of Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre.  Kip then made a really long review of games and showed off his cubicle at Dassault.  And, we became Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Kip (but it wasn’t mentioned until October).

In September we celebrated Labor Day with my parents at Chimney Rock, and Kip talked some more about computer stuff.  (Have you sensed a pattern on what he talks about a lot!)

October had quite a bit going on with Kip getting excited about the upcoming release of the Nintendo Wii, I made a top 5 list of movies I would want with me if I were stranded on a desert island (in which I waxed romantic at the end), Kip created a MySpace page for some unknown reason, and we made a jack-o-lantern ghost.

The remainder of 2006 went as follows: we went to the Renaissance Fair with my parents, Kip led game time for AWANA at church one Wednesday night when there were apparently no other people available, Kip turned 25, he lost his cell phone while furniture shopping at the Hickory Furniture Mart (and later found it, Thank God), my car was broken into while I was at work and my purse with my cell phone was taken, the police called us late that night to tell us they caught the guys that did it and had my purse and cell phone in custody (again, Thank God), and Kip got a Wii for Christmas!!

2007 came in with nothing too exciting happening.  Kip talked a lot about programming stuff, and video game stuff.  I complained about mandatory work, that isn’t work, but menial labor.  Then we went to Florida for spring break to visit the newest addition to our extended family.

Our second anniversary was spent at home that year, but I got Kip the most awesome gift ever.  He was graced with his very own Kip Bobble Head.

May started with Kip complaining about filters on different programs, and me telling everybody about falling down the stairs on Easter Sunday and ruining two pairs of shoes.  The month ended with Kip warning people to watch what they say in airports.

The summer had several gaming highlights including us beating Super Paper Mario, and a 5 year old impressing Kip with his gaming skills.  I quit my job, and we bought our first house.  Kip continued blogging about LOST (which he had done several times previously on the blog).  Kip then had a crazy week in which our air conditioning went out in our new home and he got rear-ended on his way home from work.  The summer ended with us announcing our “big news” and Kip sharing quite a lot of his violent stick figure art with the world.

The year ended with Kip going on a business trip to Seattle, us finding out that we were going to have a bouncing baby girl the following spring, Kip and I both had birthdays, the carbon monoxide detector went off in the house, and we decorated for our first Christmas in our very own home.

The year 2008 began with the return of American Gladiators on tv, Kip realizing that Dane Cook is not nearly as funny as he used to be, and us taking our babymoon to Atlanta.  Kip also reviewed some games and determined that we would be traveling to see the full lunar eclipse in 2017.

March of 2008 brought Emma Leigh Robinson into the world and our lives.  She has been a true blessing to both Kip and myself.  For those of you that don’t remember, her arrival was a bit traumatic, but well worth it.  Looking back, I’m thankful that we were able to learn so much with her and help prepare ourselves for her little brother, who will be joining the family in mid-July of this year.

After Emma’s birth we posted a lot about her, and Kip did some more programming stuff.  For my first Mother’s Day, Kip bought me a brand new Honda CR-V, which I still love today.

Over the summer, Kip programed some more, there was stuff on video games and Facebook, Emma had her first beach trip (she didn’t like the water), and we went back to Florida.  The summer Olympics took place in Beijing, and USA did a pretty good job in the swimming events.  By the end of the summer, Emma had gone swimming at her Mimi’s house, and started eating “solid” foods.  It also held the life changing information that Kip’s current employer was closing the Charlotte branch in six months.  It was yet to be learned which layoff he would be included in.

The fall included a nice date night, and Emma going to the polls for her first voting experience.  We also posted quite a few videos of Emma growing, developing, and being really cute.

January 2009 brought snow, and Emma got to go sledding with her daddy.  February had Emma learning to walk, and Kip going on a mission trip to Matamoros, Mexico with our church.

March brought Kip looking for a new job since his would be ending at the end of the month, and his new use for all those business cards they gave him.  Emma also had a pretty big milestone when she turned 1.

Thankfully, Kip was hired for a new job in May, so we didn’t have to go into the unknown world of unemployment for very long.  Before he started, we took a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, and Emma had a blast in the lazy river at the resort.

During last summer, Kip got to experience the guy that sells meat out of a freezer strapped in the bed of his pick-up truck.  We also made another trip to the beach, this time with Kip’s extended family.  The summer ended with me going to the first planning meeting for my 10 year high school reunion.

In the fall and winter of 2009, Emma went trick-or-treating for the first time, and was quite the hit among the other parents and groups we passed or visited.  Kip also realized that he was getting old while I helped throw a wedding shower for my little sister.  My sister got married, and we had Christmas with my family at the beach.  We also found out that we were expecting our second child before the end of the year.

Although 2010 has barely begun, some things have happened since it began.  I was curious if anybody had any old wive’s tales that would help predict the gender of the newest Robinson, and Kip learned that teaching Emma her pronouns was going to be a challenge.  We also had more snow, and therefore more snow fun with Emma and her penguin sled.

Kip quit watching the Simpsons and found out that there is another him in the world.  A second winter Olympics started and ended since we’ve been married, and this time we did pretty well in downhill skiing and speed skating.

In the last month, we found out that the next Robinson will in fact be a little boy to be named Grayson Matthew Robinson, and Emma had her second birthday.

I can’t believe so much has happened or that the time has gone by so quickly.  I’m so thankful for all the fun times and many blessings we have had together.  I’m sure most of you found this post rather boring, but I had a lot of fun going back through all the things that have happened since we got married five years ago.  The day is almost over, so I guess I’ll go to bed since I have another busy day tomorrow, and lots more to do before our next big milestone gets here.

It’s hard to believe it, but it has already been two years since Emma was born. I just posted a bunch of photos from her second birthday party, which we held on Saturday. Enjoy!

As I mentioned a few months ago, we got a new digital camera for Christmas.  I was curious to see how it would perform taking pictures at night, so I waited until a clear night with a full moon and took a few photos.  Below is a comparison with a picture I took during the lunar eclipse in 2008.

Now, this isn’t exactly a fair comparison. The exposure on the first picture was too long, and it’s grainy because it was using a higher ISO setting. Maybe I’ll try to do a fair comparison sometime, but I doubt I’ll get around to it. I’m not even sure if I can fully specify the settings manually on my old camera.

One thing I don’t understand is why the size of the moon in the two photos is so similar, given that one camera was 4 MP, and the other was 15 MP. If the images are taken with the same focal length, and the moon is 89 pixels wide in an image 2304 pixels wide, then in an image 4752 pixels wide the moon should be 184 pixels wide. But it’s only 112 pixels wide. Now, that would be true if they are the same focal length, but according to the metadata the 4 MP image is 18mm, and the 15MP image is at 55mm, which is more zoomed in, so the moon should be even more than 184 pixels wide.

My best guess as to the reason is that the old camera has a much smaller sensor that records the image, so an 18mm focal length is a much higher zoom. I’ve seen the term “35mm equivalence,” and I’m not 100% clear on what that means, but I think that’s the difference here. The focal length isn’t the only factor to be considered. I think this means that the new camera has a much wider field-of-view than the old one, but I could be wrong about that too. One of these days I might get a decent telephoto lens; I’d definitely get a much larger moon that way.

Before I go, here are two other pictures I took with the new camera the previous night, when it was a little cloudy.

The next one was interesting because I used a long exposure and I was zoomed out, and I got a lens flare from the moon, which I thought was cool.

Many of you already know this from Facebook but I thought that I would make a post about it anyway because it is pretty big news in our family: we will be having a boy!

We went to the doctor on Thursday with Emma, Grammy, and Mimi in tow, to find out what the next little Robinson would be.  Grammy and Mimi were both fully expecting a girl, and Emma, when asked what the baby was, she responded “Gurl!”

After all the checking and measuring of the important baby stats, the technician had Kip call in the rest of the family to have the gender of the baby finally announced.  Once everyone was in the room, the Tech announced, “Well, it’s a boy.”  Her inflection showed no excitement or interest.  It sounded like she was telling us that “Well, it’s going to rain today.”  The reactions that followed though were more interesting.  Kip, according to my mother, beamed with a big goofy grin.  Mimi was so excited she teared up and exclaimed, “I know what to do with a boy!”  Grammy was all smiles, and asked me if I was ok.  (You have to understand that Kip and I really wanted another little girl, much like my sister Emily really wanted a little boy.)  I was in a state of shock and surprise for a few seconds, and then I just thought, “God is giving us a little boy, and he is healthy, moving, and going to be very precious when he gets here in less than 20 weeks.”  I was a little disappointed at first, and terrified because I figured out what to do with a baby girl with Emma, but I have no experience with little boys on an extended basis.  There are little boys in the nursery at church, but I usually let them be on their own and when they need a diaper change, I let the other worker handle that.  I am happy that we are going to have a little boy, and I am looking forward to buying him his own new wardrobe now that I know I need to have clothes for a little boy.

For those of you that have been living under a rock or don’t keep up with our lives like a stalker or super-fan, the plan as of now is to have the baby on July 19, via c-section, and name him Grayson Matthew Robinson.  No, the name isn’t a family name, it is just a name that Kip and I picked out when I was pregnant with Emma (in the event that she turned out to be a boy) and we still like it, so it will be the name of this baby.  And if you’re wondering, we are not naming him “Kip Robinson, III” because Kip says having the same name as your dad makes things too confusing. He figures maybe someday he might have a grandson named Kip. And I’m OK with that.

I thought I’d point you guys to Geronimo Jack’s Beard. It’s a podcast about Lost from Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and some girl named Beth (I think she’s Jorge’s significant other, or maybe she’s just a friend; she’s not one of the actors though). They recorded these podcasts after initially reading the scripts, but they are only releasing them as each episode airs (for obvious reasons). It’s interesting because Jorge is just as confused as the rest of us, even though he is on the show. They are only doing it for this season, so there’s only three episodes out right now if you want to listen to them all.