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Another day at the MSR...
Jan. 17th, 2007 06:53 pmI'm noticing that working days at the MSR is a completely different deal from working the night shift. There are many more opportunities to get in front of people and discuss just about everything you could imagine. (Which isn't to say that I'm going to break down and spill the beans about what goes on... oh, no! I like the way my head sits on my shoulders, thanks!)
During a break, I tried my first kakuro puzzle. It seems the world has gone crazy over various simple puzzles that require no language-specific knowledge (and the bookstores are filled with puzzle books, dig?). Whereas sudoku appears to turn the concept of a magic square on its head, a kakuro is like a crossword puzzle, only with numbers. I found today's example about as difficult to do as an "advanced" sudoku, perhaps because unlike a sudoku, you don't get any fill-in clues in a kakuro (apart from the across/down information).
The telecon went well; I've got another one scheduled for tomorrow morning, followed by another day at the MSR.
A couple of weeks ago, before the trip to Colorado, I shelled out less than $10 for something called Medieval Kings 2, a chess game for the BlackBerry that allows you to play against the machine and/or to engage in network play against other owners of the game, who presumably own BlackBerries or similar phones. So far, I've been winning my games, almost exclusively by forfeit after move one (the one notable exception was a win by forfeit after nearly 50 moves, where I had a clearly winning position). Right now, I'm down to one game being played over the network, in which I have gained an opening advantage. Overall, the game has been worth the price of admission, but just barely.
A talking head on one of the talk shows yesterday demonstrated how many calories some breakfast meals have by piling an equivalent amount of calories - expressed in jam-smeared slices of bread - next to said foods. I was only listening with half an ear, but when I heard that one of my favorite snacks - the scones sold at Starbucks - weighed in at more than 900 calories, I was stunned! (...so much so that I don't remember how many slices of bread and jam one scone is equivalent to.) All I can say is: Wow!
Galina wants me to chase paper tonight, but my heart just is not in it. It's been a long day, and tomorrow promises to be more of the same. (OTOH, I generally don't need much encouragement to avoid chasing paper, so I don't know...) I'm going to walk softly.
Cheers...
UPDATE: In looking over my one current game, I noticed that the stats for the game stated we were at move 15, which surprised me somewhat, as we are still duking it out in the opening. It turns out the programmers at Magmic count each 'ply' (or "move by a side") as a move, which may make sense to non-chessplayers, but not to people with any experience pushing wooden figurines about a board for fun. <Le sigh...>
During a break, I tried my first kakuro puzzle. It seems the world has gone crazy over various simple puzzles that require no language-specific knowledge (and the bookstores are filled with puzzle books, dig?). Whereas sudoku appears to turn the concept of a magic square on its head, a kakuro is like a crossword puzzle, only with numbers. I found today's example about as difficult to do as an "advanced" sudoku, perhaps because unlike a sudoku, you don't get any fill-in clues in a kakuro (apart from the across/down information).
The telecon went well; I've got another one scheduled for tomorrow morning, followed by another day at the MSR.
A couple of weeks ago, before the trip to Colorado, I shelled out less than $10 for something called Medieval Kings 2, a chess game for the BlackBerry that allows you to play against the machine and/or to engage in network play against other owners of the game, who presumably own BlackBerries or similar phones. So far, I've been winning my games, almost exclusively by forfeit after move one (the one notable exception was a win by forfeit after nearly 50 moves, where I had a clearly winning position). Right now, I'm down to one game being played over the network, in which I have gained an opening advantage. Overall, the game has been worth the price of admission, but just barely.
A talking head on one of the talk shows yesterday demonstrated how many calories some breakfast meals have by piling an equivalent amount of calories - expressed in jam-smeared slices of bread - next to said foods. I was only listening with half an ear, but when I heard that one of my favorite snacks - the scones sold at Starbucks - weighed in at more than 900 calories, I was stunned! (...so much so that I don't remember how many slices of bread and jam one scone is equivalent to.) All I can say is: Wow!
Galina wants me to chase paper tonight, but my heart just is not in it. It's been a long day, and tomorrow promises to be more of the same. (OTOH, I generally don't need much encouragement to avoid chasing paper, so I don't know...) I'm going to walk softly.
Cheers...
UPDATE: In looking over my one current game, I noticed that the stats for the game stated we were at move 15, which surprised me somewhat, as we are still duking it out in the opening. It turns out the programmers at Magmic count each 'ply' (or "move by a side") as a move, which may make sense to non-chessplayers, but not to people with any experience pushing wooden figurines about a board for fun. <Le sigh...>
