How to calculate a percentage increase

I used to say I hated math before I realized that's not entirely true: I use some type of math every day*.

Recently, I had a need to calculate the percentage increase of something. Though calculating a percentage increase may be common in industries like accounting, I'm willing to bet most people couldn't perform the calculation if asked randomly.

If all that stood between you and a million dollars was being able to calculate a percentage increase (yes, these are the things I think about), wouldn't you want to be prepared?

All but the most basic math used to make my head spin.
Luckily, this calculation isn't that complicated.

First, work out the difference (increase) between the two numbers you're comparing:

Next, divide the increase by the original number and multiply the answer by 100. (If your answer is a negative number then this is a percentage decrease.)

Voilà, that million dollars is yours 😊💰

* Many thanks to my high school math tutor for helping me reach this place of "math enlightenment"... you da best, JF!

Daylight Saving(s) Time Ends 🌞

Ah, the end of Daylight Saving Time* (DST)... how I loathe thee. True, I do get to sleep in an hour later, but what good is that when it's dark at 4 pm?! Hate it.

Fall back, Spring forward

In an effort to find some meaning behind the madness, I looked up some little-known (to me, at least) DST facts.

Participate in Hacktoberfest 2018 and get a free shirt

There's less than a week left in the month of October, but that's still enough time to participate in this year's Hacktoberfest celebration. What's Hacktoberfest, you ask? It's an opportunity to contribute to people's open source projects on Github by creating something called a pull request.

If you're new to creating pull requests, don't worry: we've all been a first-timer at something 😅 That's the beauty of Hacktoberfest; it's very newcomer-friendly. Start with this helpful guide to creating your first pull request, or find a local Hacktoberfest event to attend for in-person help.

In search of free swag? After creating at least five pull requests through your Github account, you're rewarded with a t-shirt and fun stickers. Be patient, though: the event organizers need time to get the sizes and shipping addresses of all 10,000+ participants worldwide.

Free swag, here I come. 

I'm relatively new to creating pull requests, but can use what I've learned so far to answer any questions that pop up along the way. Teamwork makes the dream work, and open source hacking is all about knowledge-sharing 😉

That said, happy hacking!

What is web accessibility?

In honor of October being Disability Awareness Month, I'm dedicating a post to something I spend a large part of my day on: making webpages accessible.

What is web accessibility? you may wonder. Accessibility refers to the experience of users who might access or interact with webpages differently than expected. Specifically, it concerns users with some sort of impairment or disability, including those that are non-physical (i.e., attention deficit disorder) or temporary (i.e., a broken wrist).

Impairments fall into four broad categories:
visual, motor, hearing, and cognitive.

Accessibility is essential for web developers and businesses that want to create high-quality webpages and not exclude people from using their products and services.

Calculate your lifetime earnings with this tool

I remember it like it was yesterday: my very first job 😄💵💸

I had just graduated high school and was excited to cement my new adulthood with a real, live, outside-of-my-family-or-doing-chores-related J-O-B.

I peppered the mall with copies of my resume, which, at the time, was made up of volunteer work.

In less than a week, I had not one, but two retail job offers. I've never been so happy making minimum wage before... or since, lol.

The other day, I wondered just how much money I've earned since starting that first job. Specifically, I was interested in seeing what my earnings pattern was over time. I recalled seeing the number once before but couldn't remember where, so I searched the internet for answers.

What I found was truly enlightening.

Sesquipedalianism

As a grammar and word nerd, expressions I've never heard before or don't know the meaning of pique my interest. The longer the word, the better. If nothing else, once you figure out how to pronounce it, you can always use the word to confuse the heck out of someone you want to insult lol.

Today's new-to-me word is "sesquipedalianism." Try saying that five times fast... no, really, I'll wait ⏰

Fittingly, sesquipedalianism is the tendency to use big words. According to Dictionary.com, the word is traced to the ancient Roman poet Horace. In a piece on crafting poetry, Horace wrote that one must avoid sesquipedalia verba (Latin for “words a foot and a half long”). 

I see what you did there, Horace: using a big word to denounce the use of big words... clever 😉

Source: Dictionary.com

Large amounts

Every so often, stats are published on the amount of U.S. money in circulation. For those wondering, the amount as of June 2018 is $1.67 TRILLION dollars. That's 1,000,000,000,000, also know as 10 to the 12th power (one followed by 12 zeros), or one million million.

I love huge numbers, ones so big you can barely wrap your head around them 😍 Recently, I was thinking of the largest real number I can think of (quadrillion) and what sequence of numbers comes after that. I've posted them below in case you're curious, too.

Happy birthday :-)

Yesterday (September 19), the emoticon :-) celebrated its birthday. The emoticon :-) was invented by Carnegie Mellon professor Scott Fahlman. He was the first person to suggest conveying emotion through punctuation in online communications in 1982.

As a former English major, frequent emoji user, and someone whose spells her name !i$@ bee™, I'm all over the creative use of punctuation.

See this Business Insider link for more info.

Hello, world!

My name is Lisa, also known around the web as !i$@ bee™. I ran a blog for three years and, along with my education and work experience, turned the skills I learned building my blog into a career as a front-end software engineer and web developer.

I'll use this space to share my thoughts on industry-specific content, issues related to my profession, and topics I'm generally interested in. In lieu of--or in addition to!--leaving a comment, you can anonymously react to each post (see below). Just click the post title and scroll to the very bottom for the reaction buttons.

Leave your reaction at the end of each post.

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