3D Logic

I finally completed the 3D Logic game without any hints!

I discovered this game on http://mypuzzle.org/ about five years ago. For the next year, I would spend all of my free time trying to connect the colored squares and pass all the levels. Unfortunately, with my spatial reasoning abilities, I kept getting stuck at level 16. Every time, I would try and try and try until I had to look up how to solve it. Frustrated with myself, I eventually stopped playing because it was no longer fun.

Skip forward to today. I needed a break from work. Looking for something to kick-start my brain, I played random puzzle games before I remembered this frustrating logic game. Curious to see if my spatial reasoning had improved, I loaded it up.

Amazingly, I completed all the 30 levels in about 20 minutes. I momentarily stunned myself when I solved that tricky level 16 after two tries. After I finished that level, my focus increased ten fold in an effort to complete everything else.

Despite the feeling of slow accumulation of intelligence, I can at least say that my spatial reasoning has improved over the years.

With this accomplishment under my belt, I think I will try my hand at the 3D Logic 2 game next time.

Who knows, maybe these games will help me someday solve a Rubik’s cube…

Sudoku and Kakuro puzzles

I learned about sudoku puzzles when I was in middle school and got addicted. For those who do not know what they are, please go to this link for an explanation. I would try to describe it myself, but these is a good chance you and I will both get confused. Therefore, please go to the previously mentioned link, where someone has already comprehensively explained this activity – including a step-by-step example.

When I first started working on sudokus, I found it was much easier than trying to solve a crossword puzzle since I rarely used the complex words that these games asked for. On the other hand, I loved math and it was quite fun solving a puzzle using arithmetic and logic to eliminate the possible choices for each box.

My algebra teacher, who taught the class about sudokus, would keep a pile of the puzzles on his desk for us to pick up whenever we had free time. I ended up taking a lot of those sheets and was solving them at every chance I had. He saw my interest and introduced me to kakuro puzzles. This game is similar to sudoku, but rather than me trying to explain the differences, here’s another link.

At that time, I was completing sudokus at a decent pace and felt confident about this new challenge. 20 minutes later, I decided that the kakuro he handed me … was difficult. I was never able to complete it. Eventually, the puzzle was lost and I forgot about it. Life went on and my time was filled up with all sorts of things. A few months ago, my schedule changed and I got about 10-15 minutes of free time each morning. Not willing to sit idly, I started to solve online sudoku puzzles. I quickly became stuck between the medium and hard levels. The medium levels were solved quickly, but the hard levels were so complicated, that I simply did not have enough time to work on them. Curious about what else I could do, I searched for similar puzzles and eventually found a site with kakuro puzzles. It took some time, but I actually managed to solve one!

I think the reason for failing so long ago was because kakuros resemble crossword puzzles, which I am not very fond of. Once I got over that displeasure, I started to focus on the problem and was able to eliminate certain numbers and figure out the correct combinations. It was frustrating because it took me a while to mentally calculate the sum of various numbers and subtract from the given number to see how much I was missing. This issue is a result of using a calculator for so many years. Now, that I have worked through a good number of these puzzles, my addition and subtraction skills are actually a lot better.

I’m glad I found these puzzles again and will probably continue to solve them until something new catches my eye or my little bit of free time gets eaten away.

To you who discovered this post, have you ever tried a sudoku or kakuro puzzle? How was it?

Aspie Quiz

I am not completely sure how I stumbled upon the Aspie Quiz, but I did and decided to go through it. The experience was a bit bizarre since I could easily tell which answer would result in a “neurotypical” or “neurodiverse” diagnosis. Therefore, I had to spend a few minutes on each question to make sure I was as honest as possible. To you who stumbled upon this, continue on if you are curious enough to see what I am classified as.

Am I Driving Safely?

During today’s morning commute, I saw a bumper sticker that contained a variation of the “Am I Driving Safely? Call XXX-XXX-XXXX” message. As I read the unique ID for that particular truck, I realized that I have never seen any of these vehicles drive erratically. It makes me wonder: do the signs act as a deterrent for the drivers to practice defensive driving or do they act as assurance for the rest of the people on the road? Hmmm……

First blog post

To you who discovered this place,

Read the directions

and directly you will be

directed in the right direction.

– Lewis Carroll

1. Have no fear. Nothing intentionally malicious resides here. If the content is not to you liking, you are free to leave.
2. Explore. There are multiple posts about what I think about – mainly about things that I read.
3. Do one or more of the following:
   1. Comment. If you have read the same piece that is the topic of the post, feel free to provide some feedback on whether or not you agree with my thoughts. Please be polite no matter what stance you choose.
   2. Explore outside. If you have not read the piece that I am analyzing, then consider reading it yourself. Warning: You may develop a new interest if you follow this step.
   3. Recommend. If you found my thoughts interesting, perhaps you can suggest another piece that I can read and then write about. You may get my interest piqued and then I will develop a new interest.
   4. Do nothing. I failed to keep your interest or I said something that offended you or etc. etc. Please consider leaving a constructive comment about what I can do in the future to make more interesting posts.

The only purpose I have here is to share my thoughts. While I do not mind posting comments on articles and books, there are simply too many websites for me to remember where I last voiced my opinion. In addition, I have been having trouble keeping track of what I am reading because I tend to stop in the middle for various reasons.

I tried keeping a spreadsheet of what I was reading and what chapter I left off at. However, this did not help me remember what the plot was and all my theories of what the characters were going to do next. Another problem was that I would often forget where I past placed the spreadsheet.

Therefore, my solution was to build this place to hopefully keep an online record of what I am reading, what I know and think about each piece, and to have one place where I can share my idiosyncratic thoughts.