Getting a math problem out of my head

I am up in the middle of the night figuring out factorial like addition in my head. When people talk about factorials they mean multiplication and notate it n! so what do I mean by factorial like addition?

In the middle of the night I decided to do some pushups in a reverse pyramid from 10. So I did 10 reps, then 9, then 8, then 7 and so on until I got to 1. How many did I do in all? 10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1 = 55. While I'm sure mathematicians have figured this out in the past, I still wanted to work out the pattern on my own. After a bit of trial and error here is what I came up with.

n^2/2 + n/2 where n is the number I start with.

Then I thought about a similar thing I do by 5s. I trained myself to be able to do a decent amount of not so decent crunches by pyramiding down by 5. So I'd start at say 50 reps, then 45 and so on until I got to 5. The previous way to work it out didn't match so I kept spinning my wheels to figure out something that works for both(and other numbers as well).

n^2/d*2 + n/2 where n is the number I start with and d is the amount I decrement by each time.
So my example of 50, 45, et cetera looks like this:
50^2/5*2 + 50/2
2500/10 + 25
250 + 25
275 = 50 + 45 + 40 + 35 + 30 + 25 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 5

From my minuscule amount of adding numbers in my head this works for decrementing by 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 quite well as long as you start with a multiple of the decrement amount, thus ending on the decrement amount. For other values it seems like you just need to round up your solution, though I haven't really tried with a lot of numbers to verify.

So, I might not have totally figured this out but I got somewhere so that I can answer this math problem quicker in the future. Most likely it will be in the same context of reverse-pyramiding reps. However, I'd like to know the actual name for what this describes in mathematic terms if anyone knows what that is.

My farewell show at Comedysportz San Jose

As you may have heard, from recent posts, I am moving to Seattle for a new job. They wanted me to start October 31st but I wasn't having any of it. Not because it is Halloween, though I did love Halloween at Gaia, but because I had an improv show to do November 3rd and I wouldn't miss it for the world. I have had a great time training at Comedysportz San Jose and had a blast with my fellow improvisers so I had to see how we'd all do at a honest to goodness Comedysportz formatted show. For your information, we did great. Also, my wife got some shaky video of most of the show. So sit back, relax and have a laugh at my expense. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PLE0AF645B4E373768&hl=en_US&w=640&h=360] BTW - 80's bands should have been my category. Next time I will not falter!

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my previous show that I posted here during the summer. That is long form improv but still quite fun.

If you enjoyed this please tell all your friends by tweeting, posting to facebook, google plus, tumblr, myspace whatever. If you didn't enjoy this...shhhhhh...no one likes a whiner. ;) Seriously, I'd love to hear what you think of the show. If you have any samples of your own improv and/or stand up comedy I'd love to see them as well. Good alternatives for the game of 185? 80s bands that I should have said(this could be a long list)? Post them in the comments.

Halloween themed? - Just Another Magic Monday

In honor of Samhein and/or Halloween I wanted to bring back a classic from my favorite magician, Jeff McBride. Why Jeff McBride? Well, because he is best known for his mask routine. Many who have already followed my JAMM posts have seen his most popular mask routine but I need to show the one that floored me way back when. I couldn't find that original post (it has been removed by the user) but I found another performance from TV that incorporates it. So here it is. Jeff McBride's early Mask routine in honor of All Hallow's Eve: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCKpGauQ2TY&w=480&h=360] [ad#Ellusionist] Do you have a favorite magic routine for Halloween? Do you perform it? Do you have a video? I'd love to see/hear about it in the comments.

Under the mask but I didn't ask - Flash Friday

Masks in the flash IDE are an interesting thing. You may have noticed that masks created in the IDE are not found in the normal "mask" property found on a movieclip. This is because it isn't a normal mask. The mask is working on a layer instead of on a single DisplayObject. This little quirk causes some interesting behavior that you may never have noticed before. If you have a MovieClip with a mask as a top layer of the timeline there is some strange behavior when you addChild to that MovieClip. The added content gets placed under the mask. Wait! What? The added content gets placed under the mask. You may not have noticed this behavior in the past because you may never have done it, you may not have your item cut off by the mask or you just might not have been able to figure out why you couldn't see your item. However, it is happening. [ad#Google Adsense] Another twist on this phenomenon is that if the mask isn't the top layer but your remove the items that are on the top layer then add a DisplayObject. Well, in that scenario your new DisplayObject is also placed under this "Layer Mask". I found this out today when I had a top layer above a mask that was a TextField. For a localization project I'm working on I had to wrap the field in a wrapper class that then gets added back where the textfield was. I was trying to figure out why the textfield was now appearing like it was under the mask. The answer...because it now was.

So how did I deal with this? How can you deal with this if you find it happening? First off, it might be an easy thing to just restructure your timeline so the mask isn't on top. If that isn't possible, the hack easy fix is to add a blank MovieClip symbol to the layer above the mask layer. That is what I did for this asset and all is well.

I haven't extensively tested this but my guess is the quirk may exist if you add something to any layer right above a "Layer Mask" it will placed under the mask. Is this something you have experienced? How have you worked around it? Have you used it for any type of effect?

I don't believe you really want to count on this behavior for anything as I don't believe I've seen it documented anywhere. Someone at Adobe might read my blog :) and decide this isn't appropriate behavior they might fix it in Flash Player 20 or something.

What's your thing? - Wednesday Warrior

As we get nearer to the year long deluge toward the US Presidential election, I'm reminded of a conversation I had during the 2008 elections with a friend of mine. I'm fairly political outspoken, especially during election cycles. I think everyone should get involved in their community at some level. A friend of mine at some point said she didn't like politics because there is too much to worry about. She got overwhelmed.

Do not get overwhelmed!

There is no reason to get overwhelmed and do nothing. All you have to do is find your one thing. You do not need to do everything. Just one thing, and then you can pick up more stuff as time goes by. How do you pick that one thing?

Start asking yourself questions. Is there anything that affects you personally? Could something change that would improve your community? Is there a news story that has been making you angry? Any of these questions could lead to your one thing.

For me it was my sons diabetes. Once he got diagnosed I realized, that while I was able to take care of my son there are many, many people who are in much worse spaces than me. Single parents on low wages who might have children with diabetes or other chronic diseases that require constant management. Also, what happens if my situation suddenly becomes worse?

Insurance will not cover prior conditions, at least not well, so I'll have to have a job with great insurance for many years to come. Then there is the lacking of research. Some people may not like the idea of "socialized" anything. However, a socialized medical system allows research and data to be gathered across the country. Many countries that have socialized medicine are able to put this kind of data together. Blah, blah, blah...I'll talk more about all this stuff in future articles.

It was this line of thinking that has me focused on my thing. You may not agree with it and I may not agree with your thing but I believe it is important we all have our thing and fight for it. What is your thing? Do you have more than one thing? I have more than one thing I stand for but very few things I can really put energy into. But by focusing on one thing we can put more energy in to making a single difference and build up to a larger amount of accomplishments over time.

Who we f'ing need right now - Just Another Magic Monday

I follow a lot of different people on Twitter. One person I follow is David Copperfield. Recently he retweeted a post from someone else.

In these tough times, who we need now is David F**king Copperfield: bit.ly/qL4C0P #amen

Being intrigued, I followed the link and took a look at the premise of the post. Here's a little taste of the premise of the article.

These are dark times we’re living in, kids. Wall Street is occupied. The current GOP presidential “frontrunner” thinks was totally kidding when he said we need an electrified fence between the U.S. and Mexico. “Whitney” got a full season order. Yes, our collective mood is just short of “F*** this noise, we give up.”

What we need is a pick-me-up. What we need is a who, someone to come along and lift our spirits and make us smile, even if what we’re smiling at is an illusion.

Who we need is David Copperfield.

The original poster is right. In these tough times we do need David Copperfield - or someone else like him. Do you remember when he made the Statue of Liberty disappear? Walked through the Great Wall of China? Well the original poster does, along with quite a few other bits of business he performed.

Here's a link to the full article. This article has links to the following great tricks and illusions:

• Making the Statue of Liberty Disappear
• Walking through the Great Wall of China
• Vanishing the Orient Express
• Death Saw
• The Fan - on Oprah
• Cocoon
• Interlude
• Flying
• At home audience participation
• Ghost

[ad#Ellusionist] All of these are great illusions that David Copperfield brought to us in the past. I loved watching all of them. However, in the comments, there is a hidden gem. In the comments someone mentioned a parody of Mister Rogers's Neighborhood that he did as a routine. It is quite an entertaining bit of magic. The quality is low but it comes across fine.

Here it is, David Copperfield parodying Mister Rogers. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj5dCnbLQSg&w=480&h=360] So what are your thoughts. Do we f***ing need David Copperfield right now? Is there someone else you'd like to see take his place? In my opinion, these performances stand the test of time. He is a true master magician. There are new, younger performers out there but can they produce timeless classics such as these? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Sunday Funnies - Seattle

So a few weeks ago I made my way to Seattle on a top secret trip. I went, I saw some sites, met some friends and family and top secretly went to a job interview. I kinda hated the secrecy but things are the way they are in the job world. To make a long story short, I got the job and I'll very shortly be moving back to my old home of Seattle. Since I think of Almost Live! when I think of comedy in Seattle (for now anyway) and I need to be reminded about how to live in Seattle the following playlist is my comedy for the week. I thought about breaking this up into several weeks instead of a playlist but the move is coming faster than I think. [ad#Google Adsense] So here it is. Almost Live!'s Guide to Living in Seattle [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PL0834DD47CB00024E&hl=en_US&w=640&h=360] I am really excited about my move but even more excited to get involved in a new improv scene. Currently, there isn't a ComedySportz in Seattle so I'll need to check out Jet City Improv and Unexpected Productions.

High-Five'n White Guys - Sunday Funnies

This past weekend I got to revisit my old home of Seattle, WA. I wanted to do a Sunday Funnies post in honor of that trip. When I think about Seattle and humor I think of one thing...Almost Live! Anyone who was in Seattle from the late 80's through the 90's probably already knows about this show. For the uninitiated, Almost Live! was a show that came on before Saturday Night Live so thus they were Almost (Saturday Night) Live. It followed a similar skit comedy format with some recurring characters. Lately I've had people bring up high fives, especially high fiving yourself. I have shared the following video. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYafV2dN6vg&w=420&h=315]

Do you remember Almost Live!? Did you live in a city with something similar? Do share your thoughts. I love myself some comedy and I look forward to finding more.

Just Another Magic Monday - David Copperfield

Discussing a book he wrote a forward to, David Copperfield discusses how the brain works with regards to magic. Both Stephen and David do a little bit of magic during this clip. Enjoy watching this clip of the "King of Liars" as Stephen calls him.

As the clip says the book is called Brainworks: The Mind-bending Science of How You See, What You Think, and Who You Are. [ad#Ellusionist] Also enjoy the following magic themed clip that Stephen ended his show with.

The Meta Picture - 50 cent vs Teddy Roosevelt

I've recently been turned on to the website themetapicture.com. They have plenty of witty, silly, thought provoking and downright wierd stuff posted there. However, I knew I could find something that was a perfect post for my first Sunday Funny in quite some time. Here it is. A comparison of 50 Cent and Teddy Roosevelt

There you have it. Museums are historically hardcore.