Here's some random Facebook stats!

Something wonderful happened today. Facebook updated their "Flyers" ad interface to allow people to more specifically target their flyers. Now don't get confused just because the old interface is still inexplicably up -- the new shiny interface is right here. Update: The "old" interface is for "Flyers Basic" and the new one is for "Flyers Pro" -- my mistake.

Why is this such an awesome thing? Well, to hear some of the regular Web 2.0 mouthpieces, this kind of targeted advertisement will mean laser-accurate ads and big money for everyone involved. But that's not why I'm excited about it at all. I'm excited because the interface happens to open up more of Facebook's deep well of stats to the public.

For example, I can tell you approximately how many US Facebook users list Grey's Anatomy as one of their favorite TV shows (1,774,560). Or how many men list Braveheart in their favorite movie as opposed to women (257,320 vs. 82,140). Or that more than five times as many Conservatives list "The Bible" or variations thereof than do Liberals (dirty pinkos).

I'll be honest, there's very few things that can hold my attention as fervently as good statistics fodder. To that end, I spent far too much time in Google Docs creating spreadsheets and graphs of all kinds of data lovingly torn from Facebook's cavernous depths. I haven't quite gotten into anything too deep, but what I have done is:

a.) Facebook Users by Age (about what you would expect, really. Nineteen is the age to be, apparently)


b.) Users by Age and Gender


c.) Percentage of users by their political views over time


(Percentage based on people who responded)

d.) Percentage of users by their relationship status over time (Note that steady increase in married people starting at age 22...)


(Percentage based on people who responded)

That's all the stats I've had the time and motivation to collect so far (I haven't found a way to automate it yet but if you've got any ideas, let me know). If there's interest, let me know what you'd like to see and I'll do it up.

It's worth it to mention that Facebook's stats obviously aren't without their biases, so this is far from scientific data. Update: For example, all of Facebook's numbers are multiples of 20 for some reason. Also I'm not a professional statistician. But it's still fun to play with, right?

Oh yeah, and if you're interested in seeing more of the raw data, I've shared the Google Spreadsheet I used to make the graphs. It's right here.

What's this, like the nineteenth time I've tried to start a blog?

Some people say I'm a quitter. And it's true. But there's something to be said for continuing to hop back up on that horse after you get thrown off again and again and again. By "get thrown off" of course I meant "decide to stop riding the horse and watch TV," but it just didn't flow as well.

Yeah, that's right, I'm back. Same old story; same old tired blog, new title, still no point in posting most of the time. Update your feed, and try to pretend I won't put you through this again a few months from now.

So I guess the title's a bit outdated...

The last few weeks have absolutely flown by, and now I'm back in Ohio, finished with my internship at Google. All good things must come to an end.

I had full-time hire interviews at Google on Friday, flew out last night and started my final semester of college this morning (I'm in class right now, don't tell anybody).

I don't really know what to say about it. Google, I mean. I've done what I can to go back in January, I should find out if they'll have me in the next couple weeks. Obviously I'll be pretty happy to get the job, but even if I don't I think I learned more in three months than I learned in four years of a CS degree, so at least I've gained that much.

From the start I've thought of the whole Google experience like a really nice rental car. You like it, it's comfortable, fun to drive, nice acceleration. It's exactly the kind of car I'd like to own some day, but you know that, for now at least, you'll eventually have to give it back.

People have asked me (and will probably continue to ask) what the best part of Google was. The food? The scooters? The general kindergartenian atmosphere? Nah, those were cool and all, but by far my favorite part was the work. I'm serious. The best part about Google is that they're doing interesting, innovative things, and that I got to be a part of those things. Things I cared about, and things I knew others would care about.

I would rather come in every morning and feel hopelessly overwhelmed with new technologies and problems and stupid questions (and I did, a few times) than to leave at the end of the day feeling like what I worked on wouldn't matter to anyone. It's the reason theoretical Computer Science doesn't interest me nearly as much as application development and software engineering.

Even if I don't get the job at Google I think I'm going to look for a job in New York. I really did like it there. Sure, there were things I'd do differently, but for the most part it was basically the maximum amount of input per square inch, and like Johnny 5, I love input.

For now though it's a combination of enjoying the next four months in Kent, with Lauren, and trying not to fall asleep during all of my classes. Wish me luck...

Oh yeah, so I guess I should stop blogging here, what with my adventures currently not happening in New York. In fact, I'll probably stop blogging entirely, for now at least. If you just can't stand not hearing about my banal minutiae, feel free to check out my tumblelog -- it combines my shared items and tweets, as well as the rare Flickr photos, del.icio.us bookmarks, YouTube favorites, etc. Better yet, subscribe to the tumblelog (in Reader, naturally) and unsubscribe from everything else. All the minutiae you can stand, and more!

Highlights of the last few weeks (with ratings!)

1.) I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. A fantastic book, but I'm sure you've heard that already. I thought it tied up all of the series' loose ends perfectly, which is saying a lot. It left me supremely satisfied. *****

2.) I went to an off-site at Coney Island. It was alright. The Cyclone made me miss Cedar Point, and there wasn't much there that you couldn't find at any local fair or carnival, but we pooled all of our tickets together and got a bunch of army men and rubber duckies, so that's cool. ** 1/2

3.) I went to the Googleplex for a week. Fun fact: the land area Silicon Valley is 95% office parks, 4% hotels for business travellers, and 1% Google cafeteria. I also got to go to In-n-Out Burger. If it's good enough for the Dude and Walter, it's good enough for me. ****

4.) On the plane ride to California, I finished A Feast for Crows. It was my least favorite of the series, for a few reasons. A lot of the characters in the book are the left-over supporting characters from the rest of the series (a lot of the main ones got killed off), and half of the surviving main characters just aren't mentioned at all (See here for why). It was still a good book, but noticeably lacking compared to A Storm of Swords and the rest. ****

5.) Almost as soon as I got back from California, I went to Cape Cod for a day and a half with some work people, mostly on a whim. I was only there for about 36 hours, but in that time we managed to hike a mile through sand piles toward the beach, play Mafia and Mario Strikers Charged, and watch Tron. Time well spent, I'd say. ****

6.) And tonight I saw A Camp at the Knitting Factory. A Camp is the side-project of Cardigans leading lady Nina Persson, a more alt-country, acoustic take on the Cardigans typical style. It was a good show, but the doors didn't open until 10:00. A Camp didn't even take the stage until 11:30. Reading that back makes me feel very old. *** 1/2

And that's the highlights. The next few weeks will probably be just as jam-packed, if not more so. Alan's flying into town tomorrow morning, Jessica and friends are driving up next weekend and my brother's coming for my last week in New York. Then it's back to Ohio, to Lauren, to school, and this blog has to find a new name.

I'm taking suggestions, 18 days and counting...

The Decemberists in Central Park

I've been to my fair share of Decemberists shows. Six, in fact. And even though they do tend to play some of the same songs each time ("crowd-pleasers" I think they call them), they never get old. Whether that's because the songs themselves are timeless -- they are -- or whether the band just never plays them the same way twice -- they don't -- I'm not quite sure. But the fact remains, as long as I live, I don't think I'll ever walk away from a Decemberists show unsatisfied.

The most recent such show was last night, at Central Park's SummerStage. I left work a little early and got to the park at about 6:00 pm. It was a hot day, but the sun was setting and by the time the band got on stage it had cooled down enough. But before that were two openers, Land of Talk and Grizzly Bear.

Land of Talk really impressed me. They had a certain Cardigans-esque quality, probably attributed to the singer's accent, that made me instantly want to hear more. Where have the Cardigans been, anyway? Are you out there, Nina Persson? If so, make another album. Anyway, Land of Talk were good, good enough to follow up on, anyway. Grizzly Bear, on the other hand...

Let's just say, if it weren't for the sweltering heat, I may have fallen asleep on the astro-turf during Grizzly Bear's performance. Each song was the same mixture of soaring vocals and one line repeated for what seemed like eight minutes apiece. Sometimes the drums or the bass would play a nice fill and give me some hope of enjoying the song, but they would inevitably be drowned out by high-pitched warbling and/or that song's one line repeated for the ninetieth goddamn time. D-, Grizzly Bear. See me after class.

But then the Decemberists came on. Oh, Decemberists, you can make any opener worth putting up with. You and your 9,000 instruments and your lovable bass player.

They opened with "July, July!" which I suppose I should have expected, and they tried to put together a Summer-themed setlist as best they could. But when a band has songs like the Decemberists', it's hard to play too many songs that are even remotely uplifting or "Summer-y."

After leaving the stage due to their park-mandated curfew, they returned with the announcement that they in fact had plenty of time left to play, so their encore lasted for three more songs. They even had time to finish with their trademark "Mariner's Revenge Song," which included a nap in the middle for all the tired children in the audience.

In all it was a great show, exactly what I've come to expect from the Decemberists. They never fail to impress me each and every time I see them play. Even after so many years of touring, and so many times seeing them play, each show is a beautiful and unique snowflake.

Remember when I used to be a music blogger?

No, you probably don't. It's tough to believe it's been more than a year since Radio Free Internet, my little slice of musical heaven, closed down for good. Those were the good ol' days, though. Back when Dreamhost was actually worth $10 a year.

I say it's time to resurrect a little bit of music blogging love, just once. Who knows, maybe it'll get me back in the habit.

First up is (are?) Tegan and Sara, who have an album coming out on the 24th called The Con. It's a CD/DVD, actually, and the music is produced by indie-King-Midas Chris Walla, so there's two good reasons to check it out. Here's a preview of the DVD, for those interested.

The album's definitely pretty standard T&S fare, but that's far from bad. The title track is especially catchy, and at least half of the songs could easily be singles. I still don't know what it is about them that makes all of their songs so infectious, but if we could bottle it we'd be half way to world peace. Have a listen:

• Tegan and Sara - The Con


• Tegan and Sara - Back in Your Head

Iron & Wine is also releasing an album, The Shepherd's Dog in September, which has me pretty pumped.

From what I've heard of the album, Sam Beam's definitely continuing the trend of filling out the band's sound a la Woman King EP. Long gone are the sounds of a single guitar in a dusty basement on badly-recorded tape, that's for sure. I kind of miss that down-home feel, honestly. The album sounds a bit too polished to be Iron & Wine.

I do like the rhythmic direction they've taken, though, toward a more African sound and away from their Southern roots. I think "Boy With a Coin" proves my point pretty well, especially:

• Iron & Wine - Boy With a Coin


• Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth

And if that wasn't enough for you, then there's just a little more. Below is the video for Rilo Kileyr's new song "Moneymaker" from their upcoming album Under the Blacklight. Be warned, though, the song and video are all about porn stars so it's borderline NSFW. But the song's so catchy I couldn't help but share it.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Today after work I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I have been looking forward to ever since I finished the book. I loved the book, so I had high hopes for the movie. And I was not disappointed.

Yes, plot elements were cut -- they always are in Potter movies. Kreacher and Grawp and the Centaurs got about a minute of screen time between the three of them. But when someone takes a 900-page book and condenses it to a little over two hours of film, sacrifices must be made. I felt the story was perfectly workable, and probably the best it could have been given the book's length.

One thing that did bother me was Daniel Radcliffe. His acting was really good, as usual, but the kid's turning eighteen in a couple weeks. Hard to believe that little kid from Sorcerer's Stone is going to be able to buy alcohol (in the UK) soon. There's a huge difference between the size of an 18-year-old and that of a 15-year-old, and there were a few times it was painfully obvious. Hopefully they finish the next two movies before he hits 30. And it wasn't just him, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson looked a little old too. Not to mention Maggie Smith.

Aside from the occasional over-sized adolescent, the rest of the movie was spectacular. The acting especially blew me away at times. Whoever decided to cast Helena Bonham Carter as Belatrix LeStrange deserves a medal, as does the genius that picked Imelda Staunton for Delores Umbridge, and Alan Rickman stole every scene he was in (as usual). Gary Oldman didn't blow me away, but I couldn't put my finger on why that was.

And beyond the acting, the special effects were also pretty stunning. The CG was well-done, but I still think it'll be a few years before entirely-CG'ed characters (e.g., Grawp, Kreacher, etc.) don't distract the viewer at least a little. But like I said, they weren't on-screen for very long so it didn't matter much.

The battle at the Department of Mysteries was really well done, but I wish it had lasted longer, and Dumbledore v. Voldemort was just as pulse-pounding as it was in the book, if not moreso.

All-in-all, well worth the price of admission. I passed a theater on the way home and thought about going to see it again, but I thought nah forget it, yo home to Bel-Air! (I don't know where that came from, I apologize)

Great movie, stop reading this and go see it.