(no subject)
So I up and quit. And it felt GOOOOOOOOD. I felt a lot better as I drove home. Today I turned in my intent to vacate my apartment, and about a month from now I'll be back in Seattle. I loved San Diego, but it's time for me to move on and do what I can to build my career in zookeeping. I've got one internship application in the works, and I'm looking at other options right now as well.
Circus today!! OMG, I had a blast. I haven't been to the circus in YEARS. roguecows and I went along with (and courtesy of!) onekid18. Too much fun!! The elephants were absolutely adorable! And it was a blast to see all the acrobats after doing Cirque. I have SO much more appreciation for the acrobats now! And they even had Russian swing! *huggles it* Although I have to say I was REALLY amused that during the cat/bird routine, they were using an instrumental cover of Hilary Duff's "Why Not" from the Lizzie McGuire Movie. That's like, the last place I ever would have expected to hear that song. :P They did a decent job of not making it obvious, though - it took me half the routine to realize what I was hearing (you know, that feeling that you recognize the tune, but it takes you a bit to decide if you're just hearing things). And it was really awesome having someone with us who could fill us in on the scoop and answer questions. Very cool!! :D I took a TON of pics, and they're all up here! That cute little elephant!skip was SO hard to get pics of. None of those came out particularly well, but it was so cute! I can't remember all the names of the elephants in each photo, though... :(
As far as the Stargate ratings debacle goes... oy. Those ratings are getting sad. I'm not going to claim to know exactly what's causing it, because I think it's a BIG MIX of issues (everything from Tivo to disgruntled fans to a flawed and outdated Nielsen system). But I will say this... and I will put it in caps so that it gets through to people: ADDING MORE HOUSEHOLDS TO THE NIELSEN SYSTEM WILL NOT MAKE RESULTS SIGNIFICANTLY MORE ACCURATE. There seem to be very few people out there who understand basic statistics, and are under the impression that the bigger you go, the better your sample. Yes, this is true... to a point. But you have to look at the margin of error provided at various sample sizes. This is modeled by the equation 1/(n^.5), where n is the sample size. Plug in 1,000 for n, and you get a margin of error of about 3%. Plug in 10,000, and you drop to about 1%. There are approximately 13,000 Nielsen boxes out there. That means your approximate margin of error is LESS THAN ONE PERCENT. Adding more boxes will NOT make the ratings significantly more accurate! This is very basic statistics, people!! I can't believe how many times I've seen "add more households" suggested, and I *headdesk* every time, because people are farkin' stupid.
That being said, I think the Nielsen system DOES have flaws - just not in its sample size. For instance, DVR users have recently been excluded from the program. IMHO, that effectively biases the system - you no longer have a random sample of the population. Say that DVR owners tend to have personalities that lead them to watch certain types of shows more than others. Those shows could now be very under-represented in the ratings. Second, Tivo is not taken into account unless the show is watched live. If it is even so much as paused once, it no longer counts. Again, I think you're looking at a sample bias there. I do understand, though, why they do this: advertising. If you Tivo a show, it's very possible that you're not watching the commercials, and so the companies buying advertising time could care less about your viewership - so why would they want you in the ratings? It's sort of a nasty situation all around for any shows that tend to attract more technologially-savvy viewers, unfortunately. Especially on a cable channel that has much more limited viewership.
Wicked again tomorrow!! WOOOOOOO!!! XD
Circus today!! OMG, I had a blast. I haven't been to the circus in YEARS. roguecows and I went along with (and courtesy of!) onekid18. Too much fun!! The elephants were absolutely adorable! And it was a blast to see all the acrobats after doing Cirque. I have SO much more appreciation for the acrobats now! And they even had Russian swing! *huggles it* Although I have to say I was REALLY amused that during the cat/bird routine, they were using an instrumental cover of Hilary Duff's "Why Not" from the Lizzie McGuire Movie. That's like, the last place I ever would have expected to hear that song. :P They did a decent job of not making it obvious, though - it took me half the routine to realize what I was hearing (you know, that feeling that you recognize the tune, but it takes you a bit to decide if you're just hearing things). And it was really awesome having someone with us who could fill us in on the scoop and answer questions. Very cool!! :D I took a TON of pics, and they're all up here! That cute little elephant!skip was SO hard to get pics of. None of those came out particularly well, but it was so cute! I can't remember all the names of the elephants in each photo, though... :(
As far as the Stargate ratings debacle goes... oy. Those ratings are getting sad. I'm not going to claim to know exactly what's causing it, because I think it's a BIG MIX of issues (everything from Tivo to disgruntled fans to a flawed and outdated Nielsen system). But I will say this... and I will put it in caps so that it gets through to people: ADDING MORE HOUSEHOLDS TO THE NIELSEN SYSTEM WILL NOT MAKE RESULTS SIGNIFICANTLY MORE ACCURATE. There seem to be very few people out there who understand basic statistics, and are under the impression that the bigger you go, the better your sample. Yes, this is true... to a point. But you have to look at the margin of error provided at various sample sizes. This is modeled by the equation 1/(n^.5), where n is the sample size. Plug in 1,000 for n, and you get a margin of error of about 3%. Plug in 10,000, and you drop to about 1%. There are approximately 13,000 Nielsen boxes out there. That means your approximate margin of error is LESS THAN ONE PERCENT. Adding more boxes will NOT make the ratings significantly more accurate! This is very basic statistics, people!! I can't believe how many times I've seen "add more households" suggested, and I *headdesk* every time, because people are farkin' stupid.
That being said, I think the Nielsen system DOES have flaws - just not in its sample size. For instance, DVR users have recently been excluded from the program. IMHO, that effectively biases the system - you no longer have a random sample of the population. Say that DVR owners tend to have personalities that lead them to watch certain types of shows more than others. Those shows could now be very under-represented in the ratings. Second, Tivo is not taken into account unless the show is watched live. If it is even so much as paused once, it no longer counts. Again, I think you're looking at a sample bias there. I do understand, though, why they do this: advertising. If you Tivo a show, it's very possible that you're not watching the commercials, and so the companies buying advertising time could care less about your viewership - so why would they want you in the ratings? It's sort of a nasty situation all around for any shows that tend to attract more technologially-savvy viewers, unfortunately. Especially on a cable channel that has much more limited viewership.
Wicked again tomorrow!! WOOOOOOO!!! XD