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The Setup (You need this) ...sorry, RBF inside joke - I've always wanted to write blog posts that dig a little into all that is Neal but I've usually chickened out and found something lighter to write about. In the past couple months I've had nothing to write about...since I went on vacation in May, so without further adieu...

About two years ago, during deer hunting (note for 3 years in a row, November was pretty much the low point of my year and therefore I'm in "thinking mode") I was watching Demetri Martin a lot. If you know anything about Demetri Martin, you know he loves to draw witty charts. Around this time I drew a chart of my own which I've thought endlessly about for the past couple years.

Above is my version of the chart I jotted down on paper back then (although it looks a lot nicer using Google Charts!). The bottom axis represents time while the side axis represents my happiness. I was recently in a short relationship (I no longer am) but once the dust settled, there I was thinking about my chart again.

Single

The single line on the chart represents my happiness/mood when I'm single. As you can see, life is less interesting but also less stressful. Each day is very predictable and I know exactly what I'm getting. I like to call this the safe route as I'll never really dip that low.

In a Relationship

The in a relationship line on the other hand is quite different than the single line. Life is full of excitement on this line. I liken it to riding a rollercoaster whereas the single line is more like walking from one side of the amusement park to the other.

The downside to the "in a relationship line", is of course, the second half of it. Unless you've found the person you're going to grow old and die with, all relationships have a start and an end.

Gambling

It's always a gamble. It's like investing your money, and not just a little, but more like all of it. Relationships have a greater potential for return but are also extremely high risk. Single is a safe investment, but isn't going to pay off anytime soon but you'll never lose it all.

I could also relate it to Final Jeopardy. Do you risk your entire amount or just a little? It's a choice you need to make because only you know how much money you're playing with.

Equality

I titled this article Yin & Yang because there's another hidden meaning in the chart. You'll notice that if you were to add up the negative (-) and positive (+) for both lines, you'll find they're equal to one another.

It's all the same in the end

I interpret this as saying "It's all the same in the end". What this means is that neither route will give you more happiness or lack of happiness than the other. They're equal. This means that neither route is right or wrong but simply just is.

For every positive experience you have, you will have an equal and opposite negative experience

The quote above is another philosophy I've recently subscribed to. I think it fits nicely in the lens of single vs in a relationship. I'm sure not everyone would agree with this, but at least in my own experience this seems to hold true for me.

Obligatory Final Paragraph Where I Draw a Conclusion

Haha, okay this is blogging OCD on my part as I always feel like I need a final conclusion paragraph.

I think the gist of my post is it's ultimately up to you to choose what you want. Life too boring? Try a relationship. Need some stability? Go single. Both paths lead to the other eventually. My other point is of course its all a wash. Pick the path you think is best for you at the right time and roll with it.

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I'm not going to lie, using nth-child has always made my brain hurt when using it in CSS. Maybe it's the fact that math is involved and for the most part, I can avoid math in most other areas of CSS except this. I'm certainly not the first person to take a crack at explaining it but I thought I'd give it a try.

View the Nth-Child Visual Calculator »

Simply Algebra

Using nth-anything in CSS takes many of us back to our 9th grade Algebra class. The reason for this is the formula used for nth-child uses "variables". These are represented as n. The example below is an example:

ol li:nth-child(2n+1) { ... }

Nth-Child Iteration Table

Below is a table illustrating how our formula above works. It will loop until there are no more elements to loop through using the base selector ol li

Nth-Child Iteration Table

N	Nth-Selector	Math Formula	Result
0	2n+1	2 * 0 + 1	1 (first element)
1	2n+1	2 * 1 + 1	3 (third element)
2	2n+1	2 * 2 + 1	5 (fifth element)
3	2n+1	2 * 3 + 1	7 (seventh element)
4	2n+1	2 * 4 + 1	9 (ninth element)

The selector ol li:nth-child(2n+1) will therefore select every odd element in the ordered list.

Keywords

CSS also has some keyword values that can be used for nth-child to make writing the formulas easier for common nth-child selectors:

ol li:nth-child(even) { ... } ol li:nth-child(odd) { ... }

Common Nth-Child Selectors

A quick shortcut to remember if you want to select every "x" element is to take the number you're looking for and multiply it times n.

Common Nth-Child Selectors

Child	Selector
Every Second Element	ol li:nth-child(2n)
Every Third Element	ol li:nth-child(3n)
Every Fourth Element	ol li:nth-child(4n)
Every Fifth Element	ol li:nth-child(5n)

Other Nth-Child Selectors

Nth-Child also accepts negative numbers and subtraction as well as single numbers to select a specific element by its index.

Other Nth-Child Selectors

Child	Selector
Only the First Element	ol li:nth-child(1)
Only the Third Element	ol li:nth-child(3)
Only the First Three Elements	ol li:nth-child(-n+3)

Still Confused?

Check out the handy nth-child visual calculator I created and enter in some of the examples I've provided in my article. It will visually run and select the elements from your selector.

Further Reading

• Sitepoint.com Article
• CSS-Tricks.com Article

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Pop Punk's not dead? For the last 10 years the genre of pop punk has been dying a slow death. In the early 2000's Emo, Screamo and Metalcore took over as the predominant genre in the scene and because of that, pretty much every pop punk either disbanded or converted to another genre. Probably the best example of this is Blink 182. Their self titled CD wasn't even close to pop punk, the genre they helped create and popularize. So for the last 7 years, I've been listening to pre-2005 bands.

Enter The Wonder Years. I did a random Google search one day on the term "pop punk's dead". What I found is during the last couple years there's been a revival and The Wonder Years are one of the bands leading the charge. Their second CD, The Upsides is a perfect example. After my first listen, It sounds eerily like The Starting Line's "Say It Like You Mean It" which has always been on my list of top 10 CDs.

No surprise, the band grew up a mere 30 miles away from The Starting Line in a Philadelphia suburb. While the lead singer sounds almost exactly like Kenny from The Starting Line, the band does have some differentiators.

The Wonder Years are a bit faster in tempo than The Starting Line. Their lyrics are also a bit more personal to the lead singer. He frequently makes references to friends, inside jokes and locations that the average person would know nothing about which is somewhat of a drawback but I've never been too lyrically focused with music.

The guitar riffs are the real standout on this CD. It's melodic punk to the extreme. There is seldom a second on the CD where there isn't at least two guitars playing two separate melodies to combine them into one great sound.

The overall arrangement and song selection is pretty good. There are 2-3 songs that I don't "love" but when compared to other bands releasing music now days they are well ahead of them. The songs that are my favorites are REALLY my favorites. They're of the charts on a 1-10 rating. Say, a 15/10. I've found that their faster songs seems to fit into this category more than their slower songs.

My favorite songs are well spread out through the track listing:
2. Logan Circle
4. Dynamite Shovel
7. Hostels & Brothels
9. This Party Sucks
11. Washington Square Park

Overall I give The Upsides a 10 out of 10! It's by far my favorite CD purchase of this year and I'm extremely happy to have run across this band. View Comments (0)