I am going to be certifiably manic depressive before this Smithsonian puzzle contest is over.
Puzzle #7 opened yesterday and in short order I solved the surface conundrum but, of course, there is at least one more layer beneath that.
To make things worse, I have made no progress at all on puzzles 4 and 6. It doesn't help when I check Ken Jenning's puzzle blog and find comments from others about how quickly they have found the correct answers and warning not to over-think the problem.
Right now I still have time but, if unsolved puzzles continue to accumulate, that will run out quickly since the winner will be the one who not only solves the last puzzle but is the first to respond. So they all need to be solved before the last one comes up next Monday.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
One of Those Days
Sometimes a bunch of little things that, individually, don't mean anything accumulate in such a way that you just have to say "Well, this has been a strange day."
Today was platelet donation day but my appointment wasn't until noon so I decided to get a couple of things done on the way.
First off was gasoline since the car was running on fumes. As I pulled into the station I noticed a lizard had hitched a ride and was now clinging to the driver's side window opening just off the mirror. It was maybe three inches nose to tail tip, brown with a gorgeous delicate greenish stripe down its back. I tried catching it with the intention of releasing it in some nearby shrubbery and ended by chasing it up and down and around the side of my car while the attendant looked on from a distance. Eventually it got away. I tried looking for it when I was done fueling up but couldn't find it so maybe it got to somewhere green on its own.
Next stop was the barber shop for my semi-annual shearing where I found my barber undergoing some sort of identity shift. He's always been on the doughy side and kind of soft with a Richard Simmons Sweatin'-to-the-Oldies thing going on, especially with his own hair, which I found amusing because of his very vocal full-on-Ebeneezer are-there-no-workhouses? libertarianism. Today I didn't recognize him. He's gone the full "It's Pat!" His voice is still upper baritone but he was wearing big dangly emerald glass earrings and his hair was classic middle-age matron.
Then it was on to the hospital where the TV over the donation couch was playing an episode of "House" and a patient was crashing out. "Oh uh," said my phlebotomist, glancing at the set while she stuck me. "Somebody's dying!" There's a reason the airlines all have a policy against showing in-flight movies involving plane crashes. I changed the channel.
And then on to the Smithsonian website where today's puzzle turned out to be an exercise in three-d. Even now that I'm done constructing it, the lettering makes no sense. I've already rebuilt it once. Well, back to feeling stupid again.
Today was platelet donation day but my appointment wasn't until noon so I decided to get a couple of things done on the way.
First off was gasoline since the car was running on fumes. As I pulled into the station I noticed a lizard had hitched a ride and was now clinging to the driver's side window opening just off the mirror. It was maybe three inches nose to tail tip, brown with a gorgeous delicate greenish stripe down its back. I tried catching it with the intention of releasing it in some nearby shrubbery and ended by chasing it up and down and around the side of my car while the attendant looked on from a distance. Eventually it got away. I tried looking for it when I was done fueling up but couldn't find it so maybe it got to somewhere green on its own.
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| (Not my barber. Although the resemblance is scarily close. Stan's hair is fuller on the back and sides.) |
Then it was on to the hospital where the TV over the donation couch was playing an episode of "House" and a patient was crashing out. "Oh uh," said my phlebotomist, glancing at the set while she stuck me. "Somebody's dying!" There's a reason the airlines all have a policy against showing in-flight movies involving plane crashes. I changed the channel.
And then on to the Smithsonian website where today's puzzle turned out to be an exercise in three-d. Even now that I'm done constructing it, the lettering makes no sense. I've already rebuilt it once. Well, back to feeling stupid again.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The Games Are Back On Track
The unseemly amount of fist pumping, happy-hopping and hooting accompanying my solution to the third puzzle would have been embarrassing if there had been anyone around to see it but, after six days of frustration, my elation was very real. So, take that, Ken Jennings! I'm back!
In the end, the answer just sort of appeared.
The Smithsonian released the fifth puzzle yesterday. It required some effort but was totally straightforward. Step one was basic, if time consuming, and yielded three clues, the first explaining what to do and the other two how to do it. An hour and a half and I was done.
That still left me with puzzles three and four. Letting them age was not working so I took out puzzle three again. I noticed that a few potential components had not been used and in attempting to identify all that might be missing began deconstructing the blamed thing when the answer just popped out. Actually, it more oozed out and I paused part way through when it suddenly seemed to not make sense any more only to realize it consisted of two parts and I was seeing the juncture. Now I'm wondering what the hidden extra steps in puzzle four might be.
Puzzle six will be released tomorrow and I still have number four on backlog but I no longer doubt my ability to work through this challenge. Whether or not I can work through it faster than anyone else is the question.
In the end, the answer just sort of appeared.
The Smithsonian released the fifth puzzle yesterday. It required some effort but was totally straightforward. Step one was basic, if time consuming, and yielded three clues, the first explaining what to do and the other two how to do it. An hour and a half and I was done.
That still left me with puzzles three and four. Letting them age was not working so I took out puzzle three again. I noticed that a few potential components had not been used and in attempting to identify all that might be missing began deconstructing the blamed thing when the answer just popped out. Actually, it more oozed out and I paused part way through when it suddenly seemed to not make sense any more only to realize it consisted of two parts and I was seeing the juncture. Now I'm wondering what the hidden extra steps in puzzle four might be.
Puzzle six will be released tomorrow and I still have number four on backlog but I no longer doubt my ability to work through this challenge. Whether or not I can work through it faster than anyone else is the question.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
The Games Continue
O.K., Ken Jennings is currently kicking my butt.
The Smithsonian's puzzle contest started off well enough. I solved the introductory clues in the magazine fairly easily and unlocked the secret password needed just to get into the contest in plenty of time for the official start. The first on-line puzzle was a riddle and, after a little judicious Googling, I felt confident in my answer.
However, the next two puzzles have now been unlocked, one on Wednesday the other yesterday, and my brain seems to have shut down. My only consolation is that, from what I can gather on Jennings' puzzle blog, a lot of other people are in the same boat. On the other hand, anyone who is breezing through these isn't going to be complaining to Ken.
At least I have the long holiday weekend (thank you Cristobal Colon!) to wrack my brain before the next test becomes available on Tuesday.
The Smithsonian's puzzle contest started off well enough. I solved the introductory clues in the magazine fairly easily and unlocked the secret password needed just to get into the contest in plenty of time for the official start. The first on-line puzzle was a riddle and, after a little judicious Googling, I felt confident in my answer.
However, the next two puzzles have now been unlocked, one on Wednesday the other yesterday, and my brain seems to have shut down. My only consolation is that, from what I can gather on Jennings' puzzle blog, a lot of other people are in the same boat. On the other hand, anyone who is breezing through these isn't going to be complaining to Ken.
At least I have the long holiday weekend (thank you Cristobal Colon!) to wrack my brain before the next test becomes available on Tuesday.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Book Review, Now With Bonus Puzzle
I just finished a book, The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything by Michael Saylor. It was a fun read, with a number of intriguing ideas by someone who ought to know, although it suffers from the boosterism of every title involved in the subject of "how X will change everything!".
One thing that has change in publishing, and not for the better, is the lack of serious editing and proofreading, a decision made, undoubtedly for financial reasons, by virtually all publishers. And very few authors value the services enough to pay out of their own pockets. The results are noticeable, often distracting, and do not do credit to either authors or publishers.
In this case, the book is well written but poorly proofed and, especially in the second half, an increasingly distracting number of extraneous words pop up in the text. Mostly they are conjunctions, articles and prepositions and do not change the meaning or clarity of the author's arguments but occasionally where the author selected a better choice for an existing word the old one was never deleted. Noun/pronoun mismatches and noun/verb disagreements also grate.
The best part, however, is: the author used staff from his own company to work on the book and at least some of them took advantage of the lack of adult supervision to hide their own names throughout the Reference section. (Yes, authors, there are people who will look at your notes, appendices and references.)
I had noticed what appeared to be randomly bolded letters throughout the section which, on closer inspection and connecting the dots as it were, formed the names of several employees whom the author credited with helping. (I've mentioned before that I like puzzles.)
So now I confess: I sent a somewhat snarky e-mail to the VP of Communication (who is also credited with working on the book put did not participate in the prank) sort-of ratting them out.
One thing that has change in publishing, and not for the better, is the lack of serious editing and proofreading, a decision made, undoubtedly for financial reasons, by virtually all publishers. And very few authors value the services enough to pay out of their own pockets. The results are noticeable, often distracting, and do not do credit to either authors or publishers.
In this case, the book is well written but poorly proofed and, especially in the second half, an increasingly distracting number of extraneous words pop up in the text. Mostly they are conjunctions, articles and prepositions and do not change the meaning or clarity of the author's arguments but occasionally where the author selected a better choice for an existing word the old one was never deleted. Noun/pronoun mismatches and noun/verb disagreements also grate.
The best part, however, is: the author used staff from his own company to work on the book and at least some of them took advantage of the lack of adult supervision to hide their own names throughout the Reference section. (Yes, authors, there are people who will look at your notes, appendices and references.)
I had noticed what appeared to be randomly bolded letters throughout the section which, on closer inspection and connecting the dots as it were, formed the names of several employees whom the author credited with helping. (I've mentioned before that I like puzzles.)
So now I confess: I sent a somewhat snarky e-mail to the VP of Communication (who is also credited with working on the book put did not participate in the prank) sort-of ratting them out.
And Home Again Already
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My niece is out of the hospital and home again.
She's on Tylenol and Motrin for pain relief and is walking around, playing her harp, playing card games with Mom and complaining of being bored already. She wants to be back in school again. I'm sure her friends can't wait, either.
Her Mom reports she was running a small fever, but her doctors expected as much, and as long as it stays below 101 everything is supposedly fine.
So, now we can get back to the annual Hallowe'en battle of the inflatable lawn decorations, wherein Neighbor Dan has already taken the offensive and may have a commanding lead.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Let the Games Begin
I'm a sucker for puzzles. Crosswords, acrostics, Sudoku, you name it I have to try it. I will often try to do them in my head, which I can manage for some crossword puzzles (although not the New York Times') and the local letter-substitution cipher (but not the Sudoku).
I once participated, back when I lived in Hartford, in the "Twain's World" contest, a sort of scavenger hunt around the city for clues put on by the Hartford Courant over the course of a month or so with the final clue and solution to be determined by all the participants in a gathering in a city park under the direction of Merl Reagle. I was the first to come up with the correct answer, but my brain works differently and I did it intuitively, a sort of flash of insight, about two thirds of the way through. Merl and his gang were still setting up when I came up and showed them my answer whereupon he immediately made up a new rule, which wasn't in any of the written material, that we now had to "show your work" in order to claim the prize. I have held him in contempt (which I am sure bothers him immensely) ever since.
All of which is a mostly irrelevant introduction to the fact that the Smithsonian magazine is holding a contest designed by "Jeopardy" whiz Ken Jennings (who used to patronize the bookstore where I was a manager in Salt Lake but that's also mostly irrelevant). The first clue was in the magazine itself and I felt very Nic Cage-ish (unfortunately, without Diane Kruger) as I solved that one which gave me the password to get into the real puzzle that started today on line. It took a half hour to solve the first on-line clue. The next one will be released Wednesday and then every second or third day for the next couple of weeks.
It's totally ridiculous how much I am enjoying this.
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| A button from the Twain's World contest. I also still have the T-shirt lying around somewhere. |
All of which is a mostly irrelevant introduction to the fact that the Smithsonian magazine is holding a contest designed by "Jeopardy" whiz Ken Jennings (who used to patronize the bookstore where I was a manager in Salt Lake but that's also mostly irrelevant). The first clue was in the magazine itself and I felt very Nic Cage-ish (unfortunately, without Diane Kruger) as I solved that one which gave me the password to get into the real puzzle that started today on line. It took a half hour to solve the first on-line clue. The next one will be released Wednesday and then every second or third day for the next couple of weeks.
It's totally ridiculous how much I am enjoying this.
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