Puzzled 2: Critters

Showing posts with label Critters. Show all posts

Monday, May 17, 2021

Millipede

Last night when I was closing up the house for the night I noticed we had a visitor. It had come in the front door, I presume under the screen, and was heading into the kitchen. After showing it off to Marae and taking a picture, I set it loose in the rosemary.

Friday, June 19, 2020

Curvy Copter

Easy solve. No notes necessary. I must admit that I did not jumble it. But that is the nice thing about the Curvy Copter. Feel like an easy straightforward scramble and solve? Don't jumble. Feel like more of a challenge? Jumble.

I got some relatively inexpensive bird seed. A lot of it ends up on the ground under the feeder. Doe likes it.

Evening Drink, Morning Drink

I was sitting on the patio, glanced up, and whoa! Hello deer. 15 feet away from me.

Yesterday I got this cool mug from Robert and Jaci. My solution strategy for this puzzle is: Brew some coffee. Fill the mug. Drink.

Friday, May 29, 2020

Shower Frog

What I normally call a Tree Frog, today I'm calling a shower frog. Yesterday we had the twin fawns, one at the back door and one at the front door. Today when I took a shower, a frog came crawling out of the overflow drain, hopped to the other end of the tub, and started climbing up the shower door. Fortunately I had seen it in the overflow drain before I started so I was prepared. I grabbed a container to contain it until I could take it safely to the patio.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Deer Me

This afternoon Marae and I were in the living room when we heard a noise on the front porch. I wondered if a delivery was being made so jumped up to look out the kitchen window. Nope. So I opened the front door and there was a little spotted fawn standing right at the front door. I called Marae and we watched it as it lay down. Crazy!

An hour or so later I decided to go out the back door and around the house so I could get a picture of the baby on the front porch. When I opened the back door, whoa! There was a fawn laying up againt the back of the house just a few feet from the back porch!

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Yardwork

If Europeans say garden where I say yard, I guess that means I have been gardening, whereas I thought I was doing yardwork. I've been helping Raymond prune back the blackberry vines that have invaded their yard along one fenceline. As I was working I spotted a snail amongst the thorny branches. Amazing.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Český Krumlov

We went to the castle yesterday. We had been at least twice last year—this year was the best yet, except I forgot to enjoy the cliff face from below yesterday! I can't believe it!

This year we started at the top—the castle gardens. We hadn't been there at all in 2014.

(Below) it amazes me how they built the castle around the rock.

(Below) the kiddos seemed to enjoy looking at the river and the boats from the lookout up above. I zoomed in to see what the boaters were doing. Apparently they stopped to take pictures of one another.

(Below) the Bears are always a treat.

(Below) and of course trdelník is always a treat too! This time we ate it at Zapa Cafe, where we ordered drinks, and let the kiddos play in the playground. David had a ball.

(Below) Most of the time the streets were filled with people walking, but sometimes we had to yield to a car or truck.

(Below) Raymond and I enjoyed a made-in-the-USA Dr. Pepper he found in this little store. Each of the children got to ride in the stroller at some point.

(Below) On the way home we stopped for lunch. It was great! I had fried cheese. Lunch cost less than the local McDonald's and was a beautiful, peaceful, quiet restaurant.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

To the Pond and Beyond!

(Above) Annie wanted to walk across the board. I said no.

The path beside the pond.

The pond.

Annie told me we could see the church (the Catholic Church in the village). I took a picture then zoomed in and took another.

Looking back on the path beside the pond.

Looking ahead beyond the pond.

(Below) Crossing the pasture beyond the pond. We eventually came to a road.

(Below) Beginning the walk back. The sidewalkless part of the trip on the road.

(Above) The winters are long and cold—you see lots of wood stacks like this.

Annie was leading the way as I had no clue where we were. I didn't remember this short road but later learned I had been there on a walk before.

The kiddos posed in front of these flowers for me. This is up the road not far from their house.

These flowers are in the neighbors' garden at the end of the driveway.

Hluboká Zoo 2015

I uploaded 71 photos to Flickr. Here are a few highlights:

Thursday, July 9, 2015

A Walk to the Pond

On our walk to the pond recently we got to see several interesting creatures. I didn't get a photo of the teensy tiny tree frogs we saw along the way, but we did catch one of them and hold it for awhile.

At the pond we saw some beautiful swans. One of them hissed at Annie when she got too close. It kept moving away from her though. The other one came up to me in what I took to be a threatening manner. It did not back off—I did!

After the adventure with the swans we visited the goats.

On the way home we passed by some pretty gardens.

Rubik's Cube Books

I got my first Rubik's Cube in the early nineteen eighties. The only way I could solve it was to take it apart and put it back together solved. Until, that is, I got some little books that explained sequences of moves that could be used to put pieces where you want them without messing up what was already in place.

The Simple Solution To Rubik's Cube
by James G. Nourse
Notes on Rubik's Magic Cube
by David Singmaster
Solve That Crazy, Mixed-up Cube Puzzle
by Don Frederick.

I think I put together my own strategy using bits and pieces gleaned from all three books. Eventually I lost interest and forgot how to complete the cube, forgot I had those books, and lost track of the cubes.

Mark Jeays' Working Corner Method

http://jeays.net/rubiks.htm

In 2007 my interest in Rubik's Cube was rekindled when I watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. Marae found my 1980s cube for me and I tried to solve it. Huh-uh. I could do part of it, but not the last layer. Looking online I found various tutorials. Mark Jeays included YouTube videos with his Solution 2. This method worked for me and although I no longer use it in its entirety, nor could I, as I have forgotten the yellow edges sequences, I still find the basic working corner technique helpful, and use a slightly modified version of his corner twisting technique at times.

In the summer of 2014 we packed 30 or so puzzles and flew to visit Raymond and Fam in the Czech Republic. Breann, who had learned this method and no other, made some comment about bubururu or something like that, and it piqued my curiosity. What were those algorithms, and how similar are they to the EPS technique I use now when using a working corner? So I looked them up. Actually, the three algorithms were for dealing with the two last edges solved, which either needed to be swapped, or flipped, or swapped and flipped. The swapper is very similar to the one I have learned and used since, but I actually like it better in one sense, with a slight modification.

To swap UR and FR without flipping:

U' R U' R' U' R U' R' U'

To swap and flip UR and FR:

F' U' F U' F' U' F U2

To flip UR and FR:

F' U F U' R U' R' U

Will I actually learn and use these? Probably not. But I like them. :)

There is a slightly different implementation of the Working Corner Method. Arnaud van Galen calls it the Keyhole Method. I like his demonstration better than the one I originally learned. It just dawned on me why he is able to get away with doing it the way he does. He goes ahead and finishes the F2L before going to the last layer, unlike the way Jeays uses the working corner (keyhole) to also get the last layer. Since I no longer use the working corner to get the last layer, I should implement Arnaud's technique.

Jasmine's Scalable Method

http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html

This was the next method I learned. For awhile the idea of speed cubing appealed to me. This promised to be a good beginner's method for those that wanted to go on to faster method's later. Now that I know what I know, I wouldn't recommend this method if your goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in less than 30 seconds. Rubik's Speedsolver Champion Leyan Lo presents a beginner's method that I like the looks of although I've never learned it. I have recently watched Arnaud van Galen's complete beginner's method video series and recommend them. Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that is very close to one of my favorite ways of solving the cube. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. Also, if you are interested in speedcubing you should check out this YouTube video.

After trying for months to get under a minute with both Jasmine's Method and the Corner's First Method—and failing, I finally decided to quit trying and just enjoy cubing at a nice slow pace.

Don't get me wrong. Jasmine's Method has its merits. The sequences for orienting the last layer edges and corners, and permuting the last layer edges are still in my arsenal of useful algorithms.

Adam Cheyer's Corners First Method

Philip Marshall's Ultimate Solution

http://helm.lu/cube/MarshallPhilipp/
After learning to solve the cube corners first, what is next? An Edges First Method! This was a very difficult tutorial to follow, but once I got it, it was my favorite way to solve the cube for awhile. It uses only a few algorithms, and when you are finished solving the cube you feel like you've solved the puzzle, not just used memorized sequences to unscramble it.

Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that could be used to solve the cube edges first. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. His technique is much easier to follow than Marshall's.