• @roguejs Darn font. *old man voice* http://t.co/K0umvXV6 #
• They give out numbers for orders at MOS Burger — no prizes for guessing what number I tend to get… http://t.co/4ZYTWT2b #
• How to waste time: spend half a day parallelizing and abstracting code – find code runs slower than if it were just run in serial. #FML #
• @roguejs Or when Android loses the “back” button. The fact that the Up button is now standard might spell doom for the Back Button. #
• @roguejs iOS users know it as the back button. (to go back one screen in an iOS app or in the case of Android, up one level in hierarchy) #
• Time to build a new function for dealing with time censored information. DATA! Y U NO EASY TO MANAGE?! #
• RT @NathanFillion: Pop. Pop. Pop. http://t.co/SzYXF4Sj #
• @roguejs BUY ALL THE GAMES! http://t.co/gHhcvWaU #goodoldgames #
• Pondering whether to use “The Game Is On” as my ringtone… #
• Computer crashes every time I run code. Chrome screeches to a halt, screen flickers every 5 seconds. #FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU #
• @chewxy isn't despatch the British spelling? #
• OS X Mountain Lion is awesome news. The best news, however, is that Messages is now on OS X. #
• @roguejs I haven't played for many years… and I still remember that price #F7U12 #dota #
• The lazier I get, the larger my SQL queries become. My latest creation is only 47 handcrafted lines long though. #
• My air conditioning broke down two weeks ago — and the service people can't come in until next week. #fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu #
• Best thing to do while working/surfing/chatting. Watch more StarCraft II. http://t.co/UiN6RJC6 #

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My blogging has become very sporadic. In 2011, I made 5 blog posts total. 2 of which were merely photos, 1 was a reflection of the past year, 1 was a random idea and 1 was just a blurb about how things were supposed to change — and didn't.  Hell, even this post – the mandatory New Year post is a week late. It seems my life is simply too mundane – too difficult for me to find things to blog about that's unique. I've been setting standards that are probably too high.

Why should I talk about iOS vs Android? What about the last 3 movies I actually went to the cinema to watch? What about my last few new gadgets? It might be time to throw caution to the wind and simply blog about everything. Who cares if I start blogging about things that don't matter?

But first, I've got to reflect on the previous year:

• I bought a car, it's not strictly speaking the first car I've owned, but it's the first one which I've bought in Australia. It doesn't look like much, but it fits 4 people and runs well.
• I need to work harder on those exams. The single remaining paper remains elusive. Perhaps – it's time to try something new.
• I've returned to buying Apple products. In addition to the iPad I bought in 2010, I now own a Mac Mini and an iPhone 4S. There's a tale to be told behind the acquisitions, especially why I decided to abandon my Android phone.
• My motivation to play video games is drying up. However, I'm not sure I'm the cause. I've played many games in StarCraft II, gone through Deus Ex: Human Revolution, finished Portal 2′s single player and co-op campaigns. I'm begining to think it's not my interest in games that's waning; it's that most games are no longer worth my interest, and my ever decreasing free time (despite not having a social life) is making my standards possibly higher.
• I've finally acquired some new cubes from V-Cube – I haven't learned how to solve the newer sizes and the new quirks I have to deal with, but it's going to happen one day.
• I'm quitting Magic… again. Maybe. I started again during the year for a short while, but I realized the expense was just too high – hell, I even went as far as to build a deck for Grand Prix Brisbane. That's a tale for another day.

There's probably a lot more I haven't mentioned. It's not coming to mind at the moment.

• I was doing a survey today, and realized now I have to tick 25-29 instead of 20-24 for age. #feelingold #
• @roguejs The part where the BioWare logo is displayed. #
• I tried Quake Live today – it is so awesome. #
• More than one year later – we've finally got a new chapter of Liar Game to read! #
• We want something clean. But…. http://t.co/Nv3YWrFN #
• RT @roguejs: "A 30fps engine that never drops a frame is always smoother than 60fps" So true, so true. #gamedev #
• The constant presence of clouds is making me feel gloomy. #
• RT @roguejs: Oh my god. I just realize I am a medically confirmed Indie Games hoarder (I buy shit but never have time to play) #humblebundle #
• The constant presence of clouds is making me feel gloomy. #
• RT @roguejs: Oh my god. I just realize I am a medically confirmed Indie Games hoarder (I buy shit but never have time to play) #humblebundle #
• Clouds make for a fine day. #
• Why do so many threads on AskReddit today seem like they are meant to make me feel old? #
• I have this bad habit of trying a lot of operating systems. The list so far: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Android, iOS #
• Is it me… or are there a lot more "last-minute deals" e-mails this year? #
• I really need to start blogging again. I keep spending year after year promising myself to blog more often… and I don't. #

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It's been quite a while since I last wrote a blog post – so let's start off with a post about something that comes up in everyday life – roundabouts.

Why roundabouts? As you may or may not know, I moved to the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia last year. Queensland loves its roundabouts – there are roundabouts everywhere. There is a roundabout wherever in other places would simply be a 4-way junction.

What does this mean for us? It means that you run into roundabouts all the time – and roundabouts are useful because they slow down traffic. I walk to work everyday – so having cars move slower because of a roundabout is fantastic for me. It means I can cross roads with a little more safety than usually.

Now, being a statistician, there's always the tendency to look at things with a little more analysis than usual. For example, here's a 4-way roundabout, not unlike the one near the office I work at.

Now – there are interesting observations we can make from something as simple as this – the path I labeled number 1 actually leads to an outdoor car park for the office workers and park visitors that are nearby.

Why is this important information? It means cars won't be coming from that direction very often until it comes time for people to leave the office. It also means very few cars will be going into that exit since it doesn't really lead anywhere.

Let's go on to the other paths. Path no. 2 leads towards a main highway, path no. 3 leads towards another main road, and path no. 4 leads to a shopping centre.

Why is this useful information? It tells you which trajectories of the roundabout are the most likely. The most likely paths given the source of the car:

Unfortunately, I am too sleepy to continue for now… more on how to use this information in Part 2!