Normally when folks calculate an asset’s weighted average life they use the formula $$ WAL = {{\sum_n{n \cdot Prin_n}} \over Par_0} $$ where $$ Par_n = \hbox{Par value at time n} \\[7pt] $$ and $$ Prin_n = \hbox{Principal payment at time n} \\[7pt] $$

In a previous blog post I had presented this formula $$ WAL = {\sum{Par_n} \over Par_0} \\ $$ without any context, other than to leave it to the reader to prove.

Advent Calendars

I bought a candy advent calendar for my wife and a whiskey advent calendar for me. I hope to write reviews for both every day, but I’ll give the over under at April for when I actually write it lol =P.

In previous years we got Advent calendars for the animals. Funny thing - dog Advent calendars are almost always treats, cat advent calendars are almost always toys, and horse Advent calendars… okay those don’t exist to my knowledge (or would be very expense). At the end of the day we were left with a bunch of cat toys that that the cats leave everywhere for the Roomba to eat

This year we got the Sugarfina Advent Calendar as well as the 2023 Flaviar Whiskey Advent Calendar . I was content to leave the candy to Barb and the Whiskey to me, but Barb decided she wants to try whiskey, so now I have to share. At least the calendar came with two glasses!

Well it’s the end of the year so it’s that time that I tell you to go check out my media wrap up for the year! Inspired by my friend Jen I started a media log, or at least keeping some kind of track of all the books I read, Jen catalogs all her media and I am not nearly that organized or ambitious. However, I did add a new entry this year for Unconventional Christmas Movies where I ramble on about Christmas horror movies in addition to my annual book writeup (that usually gets procrastinated until the end of the year lol)

You can check out the entirety of my media log here

Die Hard is a Christmas Movie

I said what I said. Read more of my weird assed takes on Christmas movies in my post Unconventional Christmas Movies

Building a Hénon map with javascript

I first found out about the Hénon map as an undergrad and have loved it ever since. Can I simulate it in javascript? Let’s find out!

The Hénon map is a dynamical system that exhibits chaotic behavior. It takes two parameters a and b. Depending on the values the map can exhibit periodic , chaotic or intermittent (switching back and forth between chaotic and stable orbits). It is described by the formula:

$$ \begin{aligned}
x_{n+1} &= 1 - ax_n^2+y_n\\ y_{n+1} &= bx_n \end{aligned}
$$

The Hénon map is basically taking the x-y plane and stretches, folds and squishes it like kneading bread. For some parameters it will tend toward a fixed point or set of points, but for others it exhibits chaotic dynamics - which means that no matter how accurately you describe the current position, it will be impossible to predict where it will be in the future (other than within the bounds of the attractor).

My Random Meditation Video Generator

I’ve been collecting a group of meditation videos on YouTube that I use to manage anxiety. This is mostly a place for me to come, press a button and get a random meditaiton video. So if you’d like a random meditation video to help with anxiety click the button below!

In 2022 I started listening to audio books on Audible and I read a lot of books. Inspired by my friend Jen I started a media log. Jen catalogs all her media and I am not nearly that ambitious and I actually wanted to start writing short reviews and that really doesn’t work with my work load/ADHD. So for the most part my media log is more like a running list of very short summaries of books I’ve read. I am certain that nobody really gives a shit but I’m not doing this for them anyway =)

You can check out my media log here

My group at work recently got moved to a different department. I don’t necessarily view it is a bad thing, but it certainly wasn’t expected. Being moved from Investments into Risk Management almost certainly makes sense given the type of work that we do, I get to keep my manager who is amazing and his new boss is somebody I haven’t worked with before, but I knew socially when he worked on our floor and is a pretty good guy. One of the nice things about the Risk group is they do a lot more social things, which I appreciate because while I’m not against social gatherings, I generally won’t think to organize them on my own. So far the events seem to be well thought out and just the right amount of fun while also being appropriate for the workplace. This year as part of one of our larger meetings there was a poll about our favorite holiday activities, foods, songs, etc. The question about favorite holiday song made me laugh because my favorite holiday songs are almost certainly not the same as most folks.

This is #17. He’s named #17 because over the last several years we have caught, neutered and rehomed or released more than 17 cats (sometimes we get kittens so we end up with 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d - I’m pretty sure we entertain the vet office very much). Thankfully our vet is absolutely amazing and gives us a deal when we fix strays. Because we live right off the freeway, are a bit out of Columbus, and because for some damn reason folks think barns are a great place to drop off cats without asking we end up with a lot of cats that get dropped off. Over the years we’ve begun to refer to ourselves as “Not a cat rescue”.

If you dear reader have ever considered dropping your cat off in the country because you couldn’t take care of them anymore, please consider a few things:

Back at it again Well I certainly haven’t done much with this lately. Part of that is I just feel like I didn’t have much to say and part of it is the setup I had was a little too much of a pain to deploy. Because, you know, actually having to log in and push 2 or 3 buttons is so much of a pain. Anyway, I got a bug up my butt and figured out how to build things with AWS and GitHub and did a small project over at Evil Peep which has been sitting dormant for around 12 years.