life outside netflix

Counting Crows concert

By Tina - October 04, 2015

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I love to play Tetris, and I play a lot on www.tetrisfriends.com. My favorite Tetris variation is the Marathon setting where the goal is to clear 15 levelswhile accruing as many points as possible. To move forward to higher levels, an increasing number of lines have to be cleared.

Tetris terminology
Now before we can start the insightful Tetris discussion, we first have to cover some Tetris basics.

Mino - the building block units to build tetromino pieces (four minos to one tetromino)
Tetromino- the geometric Tetris shape formed by joining four Mino pieces

All seven geometric Tetris Tetromino

Tetris - the action of clearing four lines at once by using the I-Tetrimino piece
T-Slot - a block formation with T-Tetrimino shaped hole in the matrix, allowing a T-Tetrimino piece be spun into the space
T-Spin - the action of rotating a T-Tetrimino into a T-Slot
Play to win BIG
To win the Marathon setting, you must be able to beat all 15 levels. But if you want to win properly, you need to be able to beat the levels while scoring as many points as possible. A lot of people think that clearing lines with simple I-Tetrimino Back-to-Backs is the way to go for big points, but the Tetris game rewards a lot more points with T-Spin actions.
There are different types of T-Spins. A T-Spin Single is a T-Spin that clears only one line in the matrix. A T-Spin Double occurs when the T-Spin action clears two lines. And a T-Spin Triple clears three lines. On Tetrisfriends, a T-Spin single rewards as many points as a Tetris and a T-Spin double rewards 1.5 times the points of a Tetris.
Another bonus for clearing lines with T-Spins over clearing lines with Tetrises is because Tetrises clear the maximum number of lines (four) at once with less points (this is important because the Marathon variation of the Tetris game has a finite number of lines to clear before the game is over).
How to set up a T-Spin
To set up a T-Spin, you must prepare the matrix with a T-Slot block formation. If you are new to T-Spins, it is helpful to visualize a T-Spin set up by imagining the space where the T-Tetrimino would be and then placing one more Tetrimino piece where one Mino would just be in the way of the T-Tetrimino pathway (like an overhang).
Below are examples of T-Spins.

T-Spin double (rotate counter-clockwise)

T-Spin triple... this will only work if the matrix block formation has an overhang for the T-Tetrimino to slide to the T-Spin single

Building Back-to-Back T-Spin maps
There are many ways to set up Back-to-Back T-Spin maps. The easiest set up to follow is the LTJT pattern, although the heavy T-Tetrimino dependence of this set up makes this block formation heavily flawed. A very reliable set up is the OZJ formation because it reduces the number of T-Tetriminos needed.

LTJT pattern

OZJ pattern... if you set up the formation to the right, it would be OSL instead

There are also lot of T-Spin map examples you can view on Youtube. These are a few of my favorites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVzKVVgy0Mg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xBNcYO3FGA (for funky music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f81zUq14M8c (T-Spin Doubles)

Setting up T-Spin maps may seem hard at first, but it's pretty easy once you get the hang of things. In Tetris, there are seven reflecting tetromino pieces up to rotation, with nineteen total rotations overall... which isn't so bad. Once you get the hang of all the rotations, playing Tetris with T-Spins will become natural.

IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.thedailycrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/tetris-usa.png, tetrisfriends.com
SOURCE: wwww.tetrisfriends.com, www.tetris.wikia.com

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life

Travel diary: Santa Barbara and Death Cab for Cutie concert

By Tina - September 28, 2015

A group of friends and I had a mini vacation in Santa Barbara this past weekend. We made the trip out to see Death Cab for Cutie at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

We stayed at the South Coast Inn in Goleta for a little over $200/night - not cheap!!! But the hotel was quite nice. There was a pool (heated all the time to a wonderful 80-some degrees) with a jacuzzi, a ping pong table, a fitness center (which unfortunately is currently being renovated so we didn't get to enjoy) and a cappuccino machine. It was a happy caffeine weekend for me. I drank my weight in vanilla mocha lattes. The inn also offered free continental breakfast, which was quite good. They served the usual: bagels and assorted schmears, cereals, oatmeal, and fruit, but also the nicer stuff like bacon and sausages and waffles and frittatas.

Hotel lobby

Hotel continental breakfast eating area

Hotel courtyard... felt like we stayed at a mini golf course

Double queen room

While in Santa Barbara, we did some major hiking. ...It was horrible. We hiked the Jesusita Trail to Inspiration Point. Wow was it intense under the sweltering heat. When we finally got up to Inspiration Point, it was too foggy and the view left much to be desired. I felt so so cheated. Also California drought = no water in creek.

Jesusita Trail :(

Not even close to Inspiration Point...

Rock says YOU DID IT!

Inspiration Point view

Inspiration Point view 2

We went kayaking the day after the hike at Shoreline Park. It was $15 per hour for double kayaks for students, which we said we still were (you know, like a liar) through the Santa Barbara Sailing Center (although the website clearly states $10 per hour for the students so maybe we didn't get the deal after all). Kayaking was so much fun. I've only kayaked in still waters before, so the ocean waves brought a sense of adventure.

Shoreline Park and boats

Kayak rental location

Kayaking on the beach

Definitely the highlight of the trip was seeing Death Cab for Cutie. The opener for the concert was a band called Best Coast. They sucked. Everything about the band felt lame and predictable. The musicality of the group is comparable to these foxy felines and yes if you did not click on the link they are real cats in a band. Really though, the contrast between Best Coast and Death Cab made BC look and sound even more like a joke...

Death Cab for Cutie!

But speaking of Death Cab, i luv!!!!! Their set list featured many songs from their older albums (love!) as well as songs from their newer albums (love 2!). Ben Gibbard sounds really great live. I also like his little upbeat side to side dancing he does while jamming. The best moment of the night happened during the performance of I Will Follow You into the Dark- a shooting star fell through the sky! Really pretty. The brief illumination in a way made the song feel even more hauntingly beautiful and bittersweet.

Santa Barbara Bowl entrance

Walking up the steps to the stage

The stage

Bad photo of Best Coast

Bad photo of Death Cab for Cutie

IMAGE SOURCE: http://csw2015.ece.ucsb.edu/Santa%20Barbara.jpg, http://www.granadatheater.com/files/2015/05/247d68db447319949bfa7cebff47390e.png, http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/2015/article/death-cab-for-cutie-new-album-title-20150112/180173/medium_rect/1420840139/720x405-DeathCabForCutie_2014_DCFC_WeAreTheRhoads_CR_0717-[original].jpg

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opinion

Sodagreen and Foo Fighters concerts

By Tina - September 22, 2015

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opinion

Super Mario Maker game review

By Tina - September 11, 2015

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fact

Ice, ice baby: working with ice cores

By Tina - September 07, 2015

When I was in college, I worked at an ice core vacuum lab interested in the history of trace gases obtained from ice cores (they also researched about oceanic trace gases responsible for atmospheric processes affecting climate change, but during my stay at the ice lab, I only handled ice cores). These trace gases were extracted and then quantified using gas chromatography mass spectroscopy. It was pretty labor intensive work, but I liked it. Not many people have had the experiences I had while working there.

The entire experimental process starts with the ice core. Now what is an ice core? And what makes them so special? Ice cores are samples of ice drilled from ice sheets. These samples offer direct information to past atmospheric and climate conditions. This is because the ice forms from layers of incremental buildup of annual snowfall, trapping atmospheric concentrations of gas bubbles, particles (like dust), and human pollutants.

Some of the trace gases of interest include: halocarbons (methyl chloride and methyl bromide → ozone depleters), carbonyl sulfide (COS → statospheric sulfate precursor), and hydrocarbons (ethane → biomass burning emission tracer).

What the Autospec mass spectrometer looked like

These trace gases are able to be identified and quantified using GC-MS (gas chromatography mass spectroscopy). The mass spec used at the research lab is really cool- it uses a double focusing magnetic sector mass analyzer.

A mass analyzer separates the ionized particles based on charge to mass ratios. In a magnetic sector mass analyzer, a magnetic field separates the charged particles by deflecting the charged ions to a circular motion perpendicular to the magnetic field... basically this means that moving charged ions will have a curved trajectory because of the magnetic field. Ions with distinct m/z values will have the same trajectory paths because their degree of deflection will be the same (degree of deflection proportional to the square root of m/z ratio), and only ions of mass to charge ratio with equal centrifugal and centripetal forces will go through to the detector. All this just means that magnetic sector mass analyzers focus angular dispersions.

A double focusing mass analyzer has a magnetic and an electrostatic sector. The electrostatic sector mass analyzer can be thought of as a kinetic energy selector (focus energies). The ions are separated while in flight by the electric field. The force on the ion (from electric field) is equal to the centripetal force. Passage to detection is only allowed for ions with specific energies. Having both sectors make the resolution loads better, producing some awesome data.

IMAGE SOURCE:Alamy... image taken from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/03/climate-change-scepticism-denial-lukewarmers, second image from http://www.ess.uci.edu/group/esaltzman/instrumentation

SOURCE: http://chemistry.clemson.edu/ChemDocs/marcusgroup/software/CONCEPT/DFA/DFA.HTM, Skoog et al, Principles of Instrumental Analysis, http://climatechange.umaine.edu/icecores/IceCore/Home.html

Counting Crows concert

How to T-Spin

Travel diary: Santa Barbara and Death Cab for Cutie concert

Sodagreen and Foo Fighters concerts

Super Mario Maker game review

Ice, ice baby: working with ice cores

Part 1: Making the Netflix cat game

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