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It's been too long since my last sports update |
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Written by Tyler Hinman
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Monday, 29 June 2009 |
The Stanley Cup playoffs may be over for another year, but I got a nice little hockey thrill this weekend, as my favorite NHL team drafted a player from my alma mater. Brandon Pirri is the third-highest RPI player ever drafted into the NHL. Check him out rockin' the Blackhawks jersey for the first time. Cool that RPI gets a mention, although the interviewer doesn't seem to take any interest in it.
In news more pertinent to the main subject of this blog, I finished eighth in the US Puzzle Championship. Though it represents another solid bump into the ceiling I can't seem to break through, I'm very pleased, particularly because my effort was free of stupid entry errors for the first time ever. Congratulations to Thomas Snyder on his fourth straight title, this one a jaw-droppingly dominating performance.
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Written by Tyler Hinman
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Thursday, 25 June 2009 |
More evidence that I'm a crappy blogger: I failed to post about something that has to do with puzzles AND my place of employment. Google staged its Day in the Cloud today. It was a cool little set of enigmas that were a mix of true puzzles, trivia, and exploration of Google applications. I scored 32,000 feet, about which I'm pretty pleased, although I was frustrated on one puzzle I really think I should have solved. I eventually cut my losses and moved on, as there was a tight sixty-minute time limit. This proved to be a smart move, as I barely made it to the end, having to turn in a truly abysmal attempt at the creative portion of the contest.
And yes, I'm ineligible. In fact, I wish I'd been looped in to be on the team that designed this. Maybe when Virgin goes further afield, I'll help organize Day on the Moon or something.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 June 2009 )
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Written by Tyler Hinman
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Wednesday, 24 June 2009 |
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Check out Dean Olsher's new book, From Square One. While I hope to pick it up soon, I haven't yet read it. How can I recommend it, then? Well, a) Dean's a damn good writer and all-around good guy, b) it's about crosswords, and c) I feel like it.
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Written by Tyler Hinman
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Saturday, 20 June 2009 |
That's what I think I got on the USPC. Here, have some bullets:
- I almost didn't get to take the test at all; Comcast chose absolutely the worst possible day of the year to stop functioning. Thank God for people who don't protect their wireless networks. Still: Fuck you, Comcast.
- The lowlights were breaking Yajilin once and Triangle Skyscrapers twice. (That last one really hurt; that took a solid twenty extra minutes out of my time on a puzzle I knew I could solve.)
- The highlights were a solid SuDUOku solve and recovering from my Skyscrapers debacle to nail both Lucky Sevens and all the Switch Cheese differences in the final twenty minutes.
- I felt like there were an awful lot of puzzles I didn't even get a look at. So either I solved slowly (don't really think so, aside from my aforementioned stumbles) or the test was harder or longer. In any event, I'll likely spend more time with the test later.
- I checked over my entered answers several times, which will make it even more infuriating when I find out which one I screwed up.
- No, this won't be nearly good enough to make the US Puzzle Team, but should safely be in the top 25 to earn a neat puzzle toy. Par for the course. I'm still a long way from being a legitimate contender in this thing, but maybe someday.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 20 June 2009 )
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My more difficult national championship |
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Written by Tyler Hinman
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Friday, 19 June 2009 |
Tomorrow is the US Puzzle Championship, a 150-minute test I'll take in the comfort of my own room. The instructions for the puzzles were released today, and I looked them over. It looks to me like a tough test. I plan to attack the Nikoli puzzles I know well, as well as the USPC mainstays. There are few puzzles that seem pretty terrifying, but most of them seem to be right in between "Oh, I can do that" and "Good God, I'm not even gonna look at that one." Which is strange.
Oh, and one other thing: Every single year I've done this test, I've screwed up entering the answer to a correct solution. I'd really like to avoid that this year, as it always causes much more anguish than failing to finish a puzzle to begin with. There's really no excuse for it.
I guess I'd better get back to sorting out my plan of attack. I'll be back here right after the test to share my score, and I'll present a write-up later on, including the preparatory notes I'm working on right now. Good luck to everyone, except to those who don't need it, and you know who you are.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 19 June 2009 )
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Written by Tyler Hinman
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Sunday, 14 June 2009 |
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A little over a week ago was my first Shinteki Decathlon, an all-day Bay Area puzzle game. I joined a team of Nick Baxter (US Puzzle Team captain), Wei-Hwa Huang (perennial US Puzzle Team member), and Wei-Hwa's girlfriend Trisha. Together, we were the Burnin' Beaters, an offshoot of the Burninators (get it?). I was really excited to see what lay ahead. An absurd level of detail lies after the jump.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 14 June 2009 )
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