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comment by mk
mk  ·  1638 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: October 2, 2019

I'm finishing up the painting for my mom.

It's not my cup of tea, but she's excited about it. I'm looking forward to painting something from my head next. If this weren't for my mom, I'd get a bit crazy with lighting and try to give this some atmosphere, but I don't think she'd like it as much. I learned two lessons from this one: 1) the quality of your white paint matters a lot, and 2) don't use ceiling paint instead of primer as a base.

We now have 5 chickens. These are the latest additions.

I made that frame to hold a grapevine. Now it's a perch. Chickens are so endearingly stupid. When they aren't resting, they seem to oscillate between curiosity and freaking out. Misty (the white one) is kind of like a dog. She likes people and likes to be held. Coco (the brown one) is a freak. Joy is just along for the ride. Our two big chickens are starting to tolerate them, but they aren't allowed to sleep on the high perch in the coop yet.

When I was in Norway, mike gave me this puzzle:

I've been solving it every day. It's pretty awesome.

My daughter and I are headed to Maine this weekend for a daddy/daughter trip. It's our first, and it was her suggestion. We are staying at a rustic cabin on the water. I'm really looking forward to it.

I just finished Visions of a Flying Machine by Peter Jakab. katakowsj bought it for me. It's a solid book that deconstructs the Wright's engineering process. It's totally an engineer's book, and the Wrights were totally engineers. They built the first self-powered airplane because they methodically isolated and addressed every issue that had to be overcome to make it happen. It's as simple as that. Everyone before them was building something with wings and hoping that it worked out. Next is David Palmer's Emergence, on wasoxygen's recommendation.

I've been making some tweaks around Hubski. Let me know if you find a bug.

Things are going well enough elsewhere. I haven't had to travel as much for Forever Labs in the last few months, and business is good. I appreciate the return to a slightly less frenetic pace of life. Not all of me could keep up. It's interesting watching Trump fall apart, and I hope our country comes out of this without irreparable damage. I expect that we are falling into a global recession; hopefully we keep our heads.





wasoxygen  ·  1638 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hey mike, I don't see that puzzle in the KickStarter collection, and the DragonFjord inventory is low. Do you have to know somebody? Do you know somebody?

user-inactivated  ·  1638 days ago  ·  link  ·  

i'd like you to buy this and explain it to me, because from that picture i ain't getting it

mk  ·  1637 days ago  ·  link  ·  

There are two open spaces. Every day you need to arrange the pieces so that the two open spaces reveal the current month and date.

wasoxygen  ·  1637 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I thought it would be a good puzzle to try and figure out from the photo how the months and dates are arranged underneath, but the two which are visible suggest that they are simply in order, with months on the first two rows and numbers 1-31 below.

Given that there is a solution for each month and date combination, it seems very unlikely that there would be a unique solution for each combination. Have you tried finding an alternate solution for a date?

mk  ·  1637 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I haven't tried an alternate solution. I will. Oct 3 was very difficult.

This is a good question for mike. I recall that he said an early prototype had a date without a solution.

wasoxygen  ·  1637 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Does your Oct 3 solution look like this?

mk  ·  1637 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well done, but nope! Also, it's Norwegian.

Okt 3 has more than one solution.

wasoxygen  ·  1637 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Here's another one.

I hate these things.

mk  ·  1632 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I am having a heck of a time with Okt 6. Still unsolved.

steve  ·  1638 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    It's interesting watching Trump fall apart

I wish I was so optimistic. Having checked in on hubski several times last week, impeachment and removal felt imminent. Then over the weekend I was at dinner with some folks that reminded me that there are WHOLE SWATHS of the country that think this is a distraction and that "grab them by the pussy" wasn't even worth conversation. I can't figure out what's happening.

    I've been solving it every day. It's pretty awesome.

I haven't been doing it every day - but it was fun to work through all of the family's birthdays and then a couple of days last week. It is really awesome. I want to buy more as gifts. <cough cough> mike <cough>

ilex  ·  1637 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Chickens are so endearingly stupid. When they aren't resting, they seem to oscillate between curiosity and freaking out.

Life is hard when the world is so big and you're just a little bird!

Glad they're settling in well and that they're mostly friendly too.