January 31, 2021 5:47 PM
Winnie-the-Pooh
About a month ago, I said I was going to read all the Roald Dahl books. And since writing that post, I haven't read any more of his books. The problem is that I don't own any of them, so I have to take them out from the library, and with Covid, they only do curbside pickup. I have to request the book first, and the first few books I requested have taken a really long time to be available.
So, I decided I would read a book that I already own. At the moment, I only own four reading books, and one of them isn't even in English. I hadn't read The World of Pooh in such a long time, and it's my favorite book ever, so I figured I was due for a re-read.
One of the things that I don't think I appreciated before are the poems. Pooh is always turning his thoughts and adventures into songs and poems.
It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees,
They'd build their nests at the bottom of trees.
And that being so (if the Bees were Bears),
We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs.
There is so much in these two books that makes me smile and laugh. I love the writing style and the nonsensical logic. Every character is just so damn snarky and mean to each other without meaning to be. Well, except for Eeyore. I think he means it. It's all lighthearted, so no one takes anyone else too seriously.
"Thank you, Piglet," said Pooh. "What you have just said will be a Great Help to us, and because of it I could call this place Poohanpiglet Corner if Pooh Corner didn't sound better, which it does, being smaller and more like a corner. Come along."
But besides the silliness, there are also really touching moments in each story. And sometimes those are a little silly as well.
"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said.
_ {" `,.-~--. ,"\ _.-~~~-._ `; ` ,; ,-' `~. : :____,'_________________`._ ,'. .,; /\ .,.' `. ; },~ ' { / / \ \ (\, -' `. ,: : : : ; : : ; ,'~~'. \ : . .\ /. ` ., __,./ Y _ : `-.; ; ; { } :' ; Y~-~'; .~: ; `.,.-' y~-'_. `~-~" /////// J) "~' ////// /////// ,, /// ////////////////// //////// Piglet is actually much smaller than that, but, you know, limitations of ascii art.
Winnie-the-Pooh always gets a solid 6 out of 5 stars from me.
January 6, 2021 9:12 PM
Rubik's Cube
A few weeks ago, one of my coworkers told me he learned to solve a Rubik's Cube. I learned how to solve one in middle school, but I was never able to get really fast. One day, after I was kind of exhausted from work, I decided to pick mine up again to see if I remembered how to solve it.
I think it's like riding a bike.
.-'`'-. .-'`'-. .-'``'-., ,.-'``'-. .-'``'-., ,.-'``'-. .-' `'-., .-'` `'-., .-'``'-. .-' `'-., .-'` `'-., .-'``'-. ("=. ,.-'``'-., ,.-'``'-. ,.=") ("=. ,.-'``'-., ,.-'``'-. ,.=") | |"=., .-'` `'-., .="| | | |"=., .-'` `'-., .="| | | | |`"=.,.="`| | | | | |`"=.,.="`| | | |`-.,| | # | |,.-'| . |`-.,| | # | |,.-'| | |`-.,| # |,.-'| | -----|`. | |`-.,| # |,.-'| | | | |`-.,#,.-'| | | -----|,' | | |`-.,#,.-'| | | |`-.,| | # | |,.-'| " |`-.,| | # | |,.-'| | |`-.,| # |,.-'| | | |`-.,| # |,.-'| | ( | |`-.,#,.-'| | ) ( | |`-.,#,.-'| | ) '-. | | # | | .-' '-. | | # | | .-' `'-.,| # |,.-'` `'-.,| # |,.-'` `'-.#.-'` `'-.#.-'` Was this tedious to color? Absolutely. But it was a little better since I used my colorizer tool.
So, I suddenly decided on a new goal for the holidays. I would try to get a lot faster at solving the Rubik's cube. The method that I already knew is a layer by layer method that goes like this:
- Make a green cross
- Solve the first two layers
- Make a blue cross (2 possible algorithms, possibly performed twice)
- Orient the blue corners (1 algorithm, possibly performed twice)
- Get all blue on the top (2 algorithms, possibly performed twice)
- Fix the top edges (1 algorithm, possibly performed twice)
This beginner method works in a way such that you don't have to memorize too many algorithms. Some algorithms need to be performed multiple times to make this work, but it's easy to learn. I was able to solve the cube in just under 2 minutes this way. There are a lot of websites out there that teach this (though most go white -> yellow instead of green -> blue).
So, how was I going to get faster? Learn more algorithms and take less steps. When I was younger I wanted to learn the Fridrich method, but it was way too much for my 11 year old brain to handle. I would have to learn 53 algorithms. That still sounds like too much for my 28 year old brain to handle. But, I started with the most common algorithms and slowly started adding more to my brain.
I first had to go and learn all 13 last layer permutations. Except it's more than that because some of these you might have to perform backwards or flipped. There were actually 19 permutations that I needed to learn. But I just started with the most common ones and slowly added more to my memory. I also realized that this was a really good use for utilizing Anki flashcards. Once I got this down, I was able to completely remove step 4.
I also wanted to change step 5 from "possibly 2 actions" to "only ever 1 action". It was actually pretty common for this to require 2 separate actions. When I get to this step, I definitely have the blue cross. Looking at all the orientations, there were only 5 other patterns that have a cross on top. I don't know if it was because I had flexed my memory muscles with 19 algorithms already or because the orientation algorithms were just simpler, but adding 5 more patterns to my memory bank was actually really easy.
So at this point, I've shaved my Rubik's cube time down to about a minute. I think I've learned enough patterns to satisfy myself, and I'm just practicing it every day and logging my times in a spreadsheet to see if I can get faster.
December 13, 2020 2:38 PM
Guardian's Crusade
When I was a little kid, I played a lot of Playstation. My family had a PS1, and we also had a decent collection of games. One of my favorite video games was Guardian's Crusade.
,,=. -------------------------------,,=. ------------------- // \| _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ // \| __ _ _ _ _ _ __ || | | ^ |_)|\ | ^ || | }}/ ' || |_)| |/ ' ^ |\ | ` || ___ | ||_|| \| )||_||\ | \_ || | \| |\_ |_|| )|-- \\ || \_// \' '|/ |/ \| \/ \_) \\ _ ' '\_/\_)/ \|/ |_, \\_||-------------------------------\\_//-------------------
Now even though I loved this game, I was never able to beat it as a kid. This was partly because I was (and still am) just terrible at video games. But I was also never able to beat it because I didn't have a slot on my memory card to save my progress. Crazy, right? I would just keep playing this game from the start over and over.
Yeah...I had a memory card, but it was full. If I was smarter, I would have just freed up space on that memory card. But for some crazy reason 10 year old me wasn't able to figure out that.
Anyway, this is a cute little JRPG where you take in a little pink creature thing who helps you to save the world. I happened to see this game in a used game store maybe 7 years ago? I had to get it for the nostalgia. I started playing it again, and the game is way longer than I expected it to be. (Though, you can apparently speedrun it in about 3 and half hours.)
|\ /| \|\/|/ '(O)(O)' ; .. ; \\'. __ .'// ( ) `-.__.-' // \\ ` `
At some point, you actually lose your pink companion and have to fight a boss by yourself. I cannot tell you how many times this took me. I kept losing and I kept fighting more monsters to gain more XP just to try the boss again and still lose. Turns out I just had a terrible strategy. But I ended up overpowering myself so much that once I beat this boss, the rest of the bosses were WAY easy.
The navigation in this game is also interesting. They hide chests in hard to find places, so you have to keep reorienting the camera so you don't miss anything. And of course when I do that I end up getting lost and forgetting which way I entered the cave. Before you get to the final battle, trying to get from one town to another is a pain in the butt. You eventually get this "water spider" that allows you to cross the ocean but it moves. so. slow. Eventually the pink thing learns how to fly and you can use that instead, but I don't think it moves any faster.
But one really interesting part of the game is that you get to collect special items called Living Toys. They're like Pokemon, and you gotta catch em all. You even need to collect a certain Living Toy just to get access to the World Map. They also make battle really interesting.
Anyway, many years after I first played this game, and still many years after I re-picked it up later in life, I finally beat it! (Beat as in finished the story. I did not find all the Living Toys) And I did it without consulting an online guide! Afterwards I did check an online guide, and I realized I was playing this in the most inefficient way possible.
Overall, about 24 hours actually spent playing this game, so it's really a pretty short RPG. I had fun, and I'm glad that I can finally cross this off my list!
December 6, 2020 7:25 PM
Educated
I've been trying to read more lately. Like, read things on paper, not on the internet. I wanted something to do during my weekend breakfasts that didn't involve staring at a screen, since I don't think it's good for me to look at a screen so early in the day if I don't have to.
I've been keeping a list of "books to read" and Educated by Tara Westover was on the top of it. I don't really remember when I added that book to my list, but I have a feeling I saw it at a hipster book store and it looked interesting. Plus it was on the New York Times Bestseller list and had pretty high reviews on Goodreads.
/\ ## /##\ Can you tell this is a pencil? `#*` ...No? Neither can I. / \ . o . / ,^~. \ |`' `'| | | | |
Educated is a memoir, and I like reading memoirs. It's like reading about a celebrity in a magazine, but it's in the form of a chapter book, so you feel like you're doing something productive.
This book wasn't quite what I expected. I thought I would learn more about her education, but it was really about her family issues. It's actually kind of disturbing, especially because it's a true story. But overall, this was a gripping tale. Very enjoyable read.
November 17, 2020 10:03 PM
My DDR quarantine goal
Back when the pandemic first started, I gave myself a quarantine goal of getting an A in every single song in Dance Dance Revolution Konamix. Now I love DDR, and I guess I'm decent at it, but not amazing. But this is a really old version of DDR for the PS1. Getting an A in Konamix means getting a FULL COMBO--nothing but Greats and Perfects. (Marvelous didn't exist in this version)
,=. .*. ,'. ,=. ,+ ,+ . | | . ,+ +. +. +. ,+ -----. + `.| |.' + ,+ +. .===== +. + =====' `+ ` ` +' + .'| |`. + '----- + `+ '+ `+ +' `' | | `' +' +' `=' `-' '-' `=' These arrows were a lot of work to type out.
All of the songs in Konamix have a level from 1-9, 1 being easy and 9 being the hardest. Nowadays, the highest level is 20. The hardest songs in Konamix miiight be a 13 in today's scale. So, getting a full combo on all of them? Totally doable.
EXCEPT, I'm in a second floor apartment and all I have are crappy foam dance pads. Each one seems to have a different arrow that's at least a little broken. Konamix also didn't have a lot of options. Pretty much everyone speeds up the arrows now, but you have to read everything at 1x in Konamix. And on top of all that the backgrounds are suuuuper trippy.
Anyway, this was a really silly quarantine goal, and to be honest, I didn't actually think I was going to finish this because of my pads misfiring ALL. THE. TIME. But! I was determined! And on Sunday I finally achieved my goal. It only took many months and many, many attempts at playing Drop Out.
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