Date-nomics Part 2

the following is to whom it may concern. It contains a lot of numbers. You have been warned.

For everyone at BYU, there is one thing that is joked about and talked about more than anything else (save the Gospel and Church). Sadly, it is not what we can do to rid ourselves of today's social problems. It is not starcraft. It is not sports. And no, it is not zombies (but you were thinking it weren't you? Yes. you were). Its marriage and dating.

I read through a word document I had written down a awhile ago (because really, I have nothing else to do with my life besides listening to Lights). January 26th, 2009 to be precise. The previous day in church our high councilor had made a very interesting remark. It went like this, "20% of the girls at BYU get 90% of the dates on campus". Surprising? Possibly, but from everyone I've talked to, its actually believable. I approached my sociology teachers about this, and one of them said she'd round up some numbers to see if this accurate. I'm not sure how much sociologists would know about this stuff, but hey, they deal with people and numbers right?

But before we jump to conclusions we shall apply what we've learned in statistics (oh how I love thee) to real life because after all, what else is statistics good for? If there's one thing we all should have learned in statistics, its this: statistics can lie. And in this case, they are, at the least, deceiving. I should have asked the high councilor where he got his information, but I didn't. sorry.

First, there are about 33,000 students on campus (32,995 to be exact according to this). We'll just assume for now that half is female and half is male. Making, 16,500 males and 16500 females. The numbers straight up mean that 3300 girls are garnering 90% of the dates. Do you see a potential follow-up question here? It might go something like this, "well...how many dates are actually going around?" Assuming EVERY guy is going on one date a month, it would mean, 3300 girls are receiving 14,850 dates a month out of a possible 16,500 dates. That's 4.5 dates a month per girl. If every guy is going out three times a month, the number jumps to 44,550 dates and 13.5 dates per girl in the 20% category. And from what I know, there are girls receiving that many per month.

Of course, there's a flaw there. I mean, its blindingly obvious. Not every boy goes on one date per month, much less three. The statistic given us could be vastly misleading. Consider this what if only 20% of guys are actually going on dates (we'll assume once a month to for simplicity sake)? That means there are only 3300 dates per month, and 20% of the girls on campus are receiving 2970 dates. The other 330 dates are being divided between the other 13,200 girls on campus. See how one statistic can reveal different things?

One last thing with the numbers. There are more married men on campus than married women. So even though there are more guys than girls, there is an uneven percentage of single girls to single guys.

So what does this all mean? Well....first. Whatever the actual numbers are, it is still horribly skewed toward those 3300 females on campus. That means, either guys need to do better in asking a larger variety of girls or more guys need to go on dates. If every guy went on three dates a month with a different girl, every girl on campus could go on one a date month. EVERY girl. I can say that I've done a better job with that. I've dated the girls who haven't been asked as much as well as the girls that go on dozens of dates (even though it feels like the girls who go on a lot of dates actually seem to enjoy it more, but that's another story).

But here's a bonus. I have some actual hard facts. Haha, yes of course. you didn't think I'd just spout off numbers without some hardcore evidence did you? My class and I have actually collected some data together. Out of 91 males surveyed, 21 say they either don't date or have gone on an average of 0 dates a month. That's about 23%. But the rest on average are in the 1-6 dates a month range (39 in 1-3 dates/month, and 20 in the 4-6 range). So what does it look like for the girls? Well, the data there is a little incomplete because we had a lot more girls who didn't answer that question and there are actually a lot more girls surveyed, but even comparably we see slight differences. For example... 31% of the first 91 girls surveyed either didn't date or had zero dates on average. Is it statistically significant? Do i have enough knowledge to run a test that will prove so? How did the dinosaurs die? The answers to those three questions are all the same. I don't now. I can say though that the girls' graph seems way more varied than the guys' graph (which looks more like a normal distribution).

So does the statistics hold up? Not really. As far as I was able to tell, its more like 19% of the girls at BYU get 67% of the possible dates on campus. Which is actually still very skewed. but those are very rough numbers. Still, bottom line, if we were to take anything from this, its that its still very skewed. So...there ya go.

Anyway. I think I want to stop doing numbers now. I hope that provided some sort of information, or entertainment, for now.

I Want to Punch Her in the Face

I've been influenced greatly by many different people in my life. I think I was a pretty impressionable youngster growing up kinda just absorbing whatever person the world threw my way like a drop of water absorbing other droplets (yes...weird comparison there...). Now that I have more of a mind of my own I'm more prone to pick and choose. But I read a few of my stuff that I've written over the past year and its been interesting to see where some of my habits and things come from.

I remember writing (but can't find it now) a paper titled "Because of a Girl" that chronicled major events that helped shape my life that happened because of a girl. For example (and this is the best from memory that I can put it...but after all it is my memory so its more or less the same as what I originally wrote):

Because of a girl, I was born into this world.

Because of two girls, I am a better older brother.

Because of a girl, I decided to go ahead and transfer into a college prep school.

Because of a girl, I gained a love for service.

Because of a girl, I felt welcome at BYU.

Because of a girl, I had my heart broken and met my best friend Mike (and I would add here also, Luke Davidson).

partly because of no girls, I went on my mission.

...and on and one it went mostly just talking about really close friends that helped me make tough decisions or changed the outcome of my life.

Here's another one while we're at it.

I realized where I get the violent/affectionate phrase of "I want to punch her in the face" when I refer to people I actually care about. I got it from Dezzy. Reading back on some things tonight it was like a light came on in my head. Of course it was Dezzy. Consider the following:

Kelsey: He's going to go back to BYU in a few days.

Dezzy: WHAT?! Why didn't you tell me?

Me: I don't know...

Dezzy: Steven, I'm going to stuff this brownie into your face.

Affectionate right? Or...here's another one

Me: (i don't even know what I said)

Dezzy: Steven. I'm going to punch you in the face.

Sweet.

I have a word document entitled "Things I Learned from People". Its now a practice of mine that after every date I evaluate the good in the other person and try to live it in my own life. I also pick up things I see other people do and try to do it if I can think it is good. In some situation I might actually pause and think "how might this person approach this?" For example.

*finds a sword at Wal-Mart*

Me: Now...what might Luke do with this sword? And what would Mike do with it?

Because what Luke would do with it is completely different than what Mike would do it with it. But practicality included, some of the things listed on that document next to people's names include

"how to be a gentlemen"

"how to work hard"

"how to be patient and humble"

"how to be more studious"

"how to talk/communicate to people"

However, as is always in life, I absorb the good and the bad sometimes. My current pet peeve right now (and I'll write more next time) is:

Girls who don't talk to you/be your friend anymore because you aren't romantically interested in them. OR. Girls who only use you when they want attention.

It annoys me so much. More the former than the latter. I hang out, study, eat, go on dates, and help stuff with you and you ditch me because I'm not interested? Not Cool. Thanks a lot. Then they just get upset, and...anyway. Its understandable because I find myself doing it too. i react to the way they're reacting to me.

I have found out that one reason I am sometimes flirty (in an outgoing way) is because some of the girls I hang out with are that way and that's what I've grown accustomed to. I learned from the best.

So the conclusion is...I am a sum of my experiences mixed with my own personality. Some people have had a greater influence than others, and often times, the people that I'm hanging out with currently have the greatest influence.

Well...I didn't even get around to what I actually wanted to write about (the dating statistic at BYU. how did i get here? i don't know).

Grade Jumps in Biology

I read an example of a job interview question on one of my friend's websites that asked something like this, "Can you give me an example of when you demonstrated integrity in your life?"

The first thing that came to my mind as I tried to answer this question was a flashback to cold chilly day in early November last year. Ok, I don't remember if it was cold or chilly, but that's how I imagined it (and yes, it was only a few months ago, so sue me. Actually, don't. anyway...). i was at Wal-Mart. I had a biology extra credit assignment that I badly needed. For some reason, biology was killing me that semester (actually, I think all my classes were taking turns beating me up like i was a pinata on cinco de mayo...which is how I think you celebrate cinco de mayo without getting drunk). In short, I needed it because I was hovering in C range and anything the teacher was giving me was a mercy shot.

The extra credit assignment required me to draw several examples of tRNA coding, translation, and transcription (I remember this stuff? wow) and then explain it to seven people and get their signatures. I admittedly was late in starting it and the assignment was due that Monday at midnight. So...when do I usually go to Wal-Mart? On Mondays. Before midnight.

Well, by the time I was making my Wal-Mart run I had hurriedly compiled six signatures but couldn't come up with anymore people (because honestly, that's the number of friends I have). Anyway, one of my friends was encouraging me to just force the seventh one and she actually did it for me. Her argument was convincing. I needed it. No one would ever know. Besides, I had actually put in the work for it. And it was just such a little extra credit assignment. Its not that big of a deal. If I didn't do it, I would be an idiot, or at worst, a pansy. Sounds convincing right? Thank you Satan (no attack on her personally XD) .

But then came this thought (ok, this is gonna sound cheesy, but this is how it went). I thought about what kind of person I was. What kind of person I wanted to be. What kind of person I was becoming. I knew if I wanted God's blessings, I needed to be obedient. Even more so, I knew to become the person I wanted it to be, it was little moments like these, when no one else would really know what you did, little choices like these that built people into the heroes I admired. When crunch time came to perform they already proved themselves a thousand times over in a plethora of tiny personal decisions. I wanted to have integrity, even if it was a seemingly insignificant thing. It was a self-conscious evaluation of who I was. I made the decision, and put it away and didn't think of it anymore.

And yay. Moral victory. But wait...this is one of those happy ending stories. hahah.

The next day, there was a devotional by Jon M. Huntsman. His voice was monotone, his talk didn't have any cool stories, his personality wasn't flamboyant, but one thing touched me deeply. He talked about integrity. And halfway through the talk I started to realize that the talk applied to me personally. To me, it was God's way of letting me know I had done the right thing.

But WAIT. it gets BETTER. Yeah, that's right. I'll tell you the story, and you tell me it was coincidence.

At the end of the year, our biology teacher did something unexpected. He told us that if we got a better grade on our Final than our grade in class up to that point it would be replaced by that final grade. I had a C+. I felt I could at least get a B-. so I studied. a lot. And got...

a B-! YES! So it replaced my C+ grade. ..... but that's not all. My teacher then...CURVED the FINAL.... so my Final's grade became a ...get this. 89.6. I was like....."are you seriously kidding me?!?!?" I ended up with an A- that semester in biology (C+ to A- in, basically, one day), a good endorsement from my biology teacher, confidence to do research for the ecology department, a $10000 gift certificate, and backstage passes to all Lights concerts. Ok. Not the last two.

I do understand this doesn't happen all the time. More often than not it ends up with just you knowing what you did. But let me tell you... these little moments take you down a road where you can look back and see how far you've come. I have to say, its worked out so far (Its also worked out winter semester, D+ to A- but that's another story).

So. Don't forget. Integrity. Trust. It matters.

Stronger than Friendship

I beat last year's June texting record by 316 texts. With a collective group effort and massive contributions from various individuals I broke the 3100 set last year by 202 and Katie, and arrived at a sound 3416 texts for March 13th-April 13th. I would like to take this time to thank my mom, my brother, and the peeps from my Chinese class. Thank you. Without you guys, I would never have done this on my own. I now look forward to sometime next year where we can beat the record again. :)

In other news...

... my roommates are awesome. We have all bonded over something that has, time and time again, continued to bring people together. Is it love? No. Is it brotherhood? No. Is it girls? Close. Its Starcraft. That's rights. Its done it again folks. Consider the following exchange.

Me: Austin, what were you talking about?

Austin: Oh, my brother sent me a link to a starcraft 2 beta key.

James: What? You guys play Starcraft?

Austin: Of course, it was like my life in 5th grade.

Me: Yes, in fact, I have it right now in my CD drive.
Austin: I accidentally brought mine.

James: Well, I have it too. And we have LAN. So...

all of us colletively: STARCRAFT PARTY!

And so...a bond was created between men that may last a lifetime. Or at least until we start trash talking each other and kicking each other's butts. I for one, am going to try not having my butt kicked too much.

Austin is a premie and a music major. He seems pretty chill. Always relaxed, always soft-voiced. Kinda like a gentle giant. He's pretty normal except for one thing. He disappears at night for large swaths of moments at a time. He always takes a backpack with him. He's not going to practice his trumpet...because when he does he takes his trumpet case. James says he's witnessed him coming back late at night dressed up as a Crusader.... not like the full gear, but just like a cape here...a gear there. James thinks he might be a larper (which I found out means Live-Action Role-Player...who knew?). But after further consideration, many conversations, and speculation, we've come to the realization that it could only be one thing. He's a superhero. Yes. You heard that right. I mean...the late nights, the cape, the secretiveness, the backpack... it makes sense. Musician by day... SUPERHERO by night. Hopefully, his superhero skills doesn't translate to computer gaming skills.

And James.... what can I say about James? I guess this pretty much sums it up.

(James coming out of his bedroom): I woke up because I sensed people talking about video games without me.

...

:)