Virtual Brush Box

Words of the outside world. “By that logic, you can score a word based on how well it narrows down the solution space. This turns out to be a difficult problem to figure out whether you have solved it optimally, making it exactly the kind of problem that computer scientists love.” Life Hacker: Science Thinks It Has Found the Best Wordle Starter, Skwarecki, 2022.

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American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
5-7 April 2024
IRL (Stamford Marriott) & Virtual (me)

New For This Year

After the tournament, I was asked to pontificate about my experience at a crossword puzzle tournament. (eek) Small, casual online group, no big deal. (eek.) It was not at all weird to be on the other side of an interview. (eek.) I handled it with my customary suaveness and aplomb. (eek. eek. eek.)

Things I Learned From This Year’s Puzzles

The emcee reminded us to check for typos & empty boxes before hitting submit. Did both in puzzle #1. Caught both. Whew.

The D-Train goes to the Bronx. I should have know this automatically, I used to commute to school on it. Duh. Got from crossing with MADCAP. (Puzzle #2 40A & 41D)

AREPA is a Latin American food staple & ALS Hilton wrote “White Girls”. They crossed at the initial A. Pick a vowel. (Puzzle #2 10A & 10D)

Tea Leoni spells her name with an I. If memory serves, I’ve gotten this wrong in other puzzles. Probably thinking of the country. This was my one, non-5 error.

Results

Puzzles 1-4 & 6-7. One incorrect letter.

Puzzle 5. Ten boxes wrong. See last year’s post for a discussion of the dreaded #5. [Almost Flawless]

This year, they announced that they had made 5 easier. True, with a catch. You had to get the trick. I got it about halfway through. I probably could have finished with more time. But. The trick affected a majority(?) of the clues. If you did not get the theme, the puzzle was incomprehensible. So, not sure which way that counts in terms of making it easier.

Coda

Once again, ACPT did a great job keeping the virtual folks in the loop.

ACPT posts & Puzzle posts [Archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Progress has a cost. The Atlas of Drowned Towns, Recovering the Histories of Inundated Communities. Project description, BSU: Professor aims to catalog ‘drowned towns’ of the American West, 2020. Site specific, News One: The Black Town Under Lake Martin: A Father & Son’s Dream Of Greatness, Morris 2022.

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Hwy 63 Bridge (Kowaliga Bridge)
Lake Martin/Tallapoosa River
Alexander City, AL USA
November 2023

Lake Martin.com: Bridges at Lake Martin

Technical Details

Bridge, f/16.0, 1/125 sec., 40.0 mm, ISO 100. Manual mode & auto-focus.

Post production. Resized, border, & watermark.

Taken during a walk outing. [Mostly Walking]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Yesterday was state poets. Today is state horses. Netstate.com: Official State Horses.

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I managed to fail on a horse used for beginner walk lessons. I’m so proud. Not.

Lesson at New Barn. Was too glum afterward to discuss next lesson or blog, so they remain anonymous.

Cute little Quarter Horse-cross mare. Fancy, comfortable saddle. We never trotted a complete circuit of the ring.

She shook her head at the trot. I absolutely could not cope. If she’d shake her head sideways, I’d have flashbacks to Rodney at the clinic, when he slung his head so hard back & forth that I could see his tongue flapping. If she put her head down, it was Milton crow hopping around various locales. I knew she wasn’t going to actually DO any of these things, but my early warning system went haywire anyway.

After a while, mare realized that if she shook her head at me, I’d let her walk. Or I’d grab the reins, which she would interpret as a request to walk.

It was weird. One part of me was glad to be back in a saddle with which I was familiar. I’m good at this. I can do this. Let’s go. Another part was, well, see above.

In my defense, one. Not nerves. I know what nerves feel like. This is an error in response processing. They do x. I react to x-times-1000. I could argue that my overreacting is a reasonable conditioned response given past stimuli. I would prefer if it were otherwise. Brains are weird.

In my defense, two. Assistant trainer got on after. Mare tried the same thing. Assistant trainer does not have my baggage. She was able to ignore.

Where do I go from here? No idea.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. I knew about the US Poet. I did not realize that states had official poets as well, Academy of American Poets: Current U.S. and State Poets Laureate.

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Milton and Rodney.

Embodied wind. Eating grass.

Equine dichotomy.

Links

“April 17 is the day the whole world honors haiku.” The Haiku Foundation: International Haiku Poetry Day. Website has not been updated since 2021. Is Haiku Day still a thing? Dunno.

Academy of American Poets: The Haiga: Haiku, Calligraphy, and Painting

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Reuters: All set for Paris 2024 Games torch ceremony after sunny dress rehearsal, April 15, 2024

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Rodney – 8 miles this week, 8 miles total
Milton – 8 miles this week, 8 miles total
Wednesday 10 April to Monday 15 April

Virtual Tevis Cup 2024
100 Miles in 100 Days
10 April to 21 July

Logistics

Started 10 April.

Wednesday to Monday, six morning handwalks, 1 mile each.

Saturday & Sunday, additional afternoon session, 1 mile each. Milton ride both days. Rodney ride on Sat, handwalk on Sun.

All mileage at a walk.

Pace ~2.6 mph. Hand walks take 23 minutes in the morning. Rides take 2 minutes longer, probably spent at the mounting block.

92 miles to go in 95 days.

Commentary

Morning handwalks and weekend afternoon sessions are standard practice around here. So, no Virtual Tevis specific thoughts. Glad everyone is going well.

Virtual Tevis Posts [Archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Taking down these statues and renaming schools is an effort to restore history, not erase it, Maizlish said.” Education Week: Richmond, Va., Schools Rename the Last of Their Confederate-Named Schools, Meisner 2023.

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Baby birds! 10 April

The picture I posted last week, above, was taken on March 20th. [Wordless Wednesday]

Saw nest. Took photo. Set up blog post. Forgot about it.

I don’t have much occasion to go over to the trailer – which was the point of the post – and I figured it was a pile of twigs that would lead nowhere. We get those.

Post came out. Hmm, I probably should check to see if anything happened.

Wow, looks fancier than last time.

Since the nest is wedged up under the overhang of the trailer, it is hard to look down into it.

Wait. Do I see something? Is there maybe an egg in there after all?

Used phone camera with flash as a way to look in.

Chicks!

Took a second picture to confirm and because I was startled. Then I got out of there, so as to not interrupt the family.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Rick Paulus Calligraphy: The White House.

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[Fractal Alphabet]

Onwards!
Katherine