May Days

Overall not a terribly exciting month, but in the lab I went through the setup and operation for all our primary unit operations and outside of the lab I got to see friends at the end of the month.

Monday, May 1: Just another day of work to start the month.

Tuesday, May 2: Finished a jigsaw puzzle of butterflies and worked the late shift at work, putting in 10 hours straight to complete my first filtration process from start to finish.

Wednesday, May 3: Worked on the next 1000 pages of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), A Storm of Swords (book 3).

Thursday, May 4: The penguins celebrated Star Wars Day on Instagram with a partially constructed Millennium Falcon; I was voluntold to be my department’s 6S representative and attended the first meeting.

Friday, May 5: Celebrated Cinco de Mayo with burritos and tres leches cake on free lunch Friday at work.

Saturday, May 6: Went to see an outdoor art exhibit in a park, then hiked around a state Fish and Wildlife property, and later listened to the second half of the Revolution’s 2-0 victory over Toronto.

Sunday, May 7: Tried pickleball for the first time at the neighborhood park and didn’t completely suck?

Hiking through a hole

Monday, May 8: Found a bee on the driveway after my daily walk and the phlox continued to bloom.

Tuesday, May 9: Caught the last fifteen minutes of the Revolution’s unsurprising exit from the US Open Cup in their second game of the tournament.

Wednesday, May 10: Completed a jigsaw puzzle featuring dogs.

Thursday, May 11: Received a new-to-us toy in the lab (i.e. a refurbished machine was delivered and installed).

Friday, May 12: Organized the lab in the name of 6S and watched Jeopardy! Masters.

Saturday, May 13: Worked on the LEGO Millennium Falcon, went hiking, took the tomatoes outside for their first field trip, and watched the Revolution fall on the road to Miami (featuring a Dave Romney deflection goal for Miami, an offside ruling on a would-be goal for Noel Buck, a Carles Gil revenge goal minutes later, and a late Miami red card that New England couldn’t capitalize on).

Sunday, May 14: Bagels for lunch and pickleball in the afternoon.

Lily of the valley

Monday, May 15: Halfway through the month.

Tuesday, May 16: Spent the morning testing solutions for endotoxins.

Wednesday, May 17: Got to bring leftover fried rice to work for lunch.

Thursday, May 18: Packed and qualified a chromatography column on my own.

Friday, May 19: Had weird fusion ramen for lunch that nobody liked.

Saturday, May 20: Made sushi for lunch, then baked pecan rolls and triple chip peanut butter cookies (peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, and chocolate chips).

Sunday, May 21: Afternoon at the pickleball courts and laundry at night.

Fern-filled forest

Monday, May 22: Another week, another Monday.

Tuesday, May 23: Went out for dinner with my group before a coworker left.

Wednesday, May 24: Started another jigsaw puzzle, this one with lots of patterned kites on it.

Thursday, May 25: Project meeting, group meeting, and column packing.

Friday, May 26: Talked about shelves for an hour at the 6S meeting.

Saturday, May 27: Put the tomatoes into the raised bed, planted green beans, tried Trader Joe’s strawberry rhubarb soda (tasty), and listened to the Revolution’s 3-3 draw with Chicago (yet another bizarre night where they went down two goals, came back with two goals, and got the final equalizer through Jozy Altidore, of all people, accidentally).

Sunday, May 28: Dim sum in Boston with Cornell friends + family.

Flags on the Boston Common for Memorial Day

Monday, May 29: Used my Memorial Day weekend commuter rail ticket to go back into Boston to visit the Common and Public Garden, Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, the Harborfront, Rose Kennedy Greenway, and Chinatown.

Tuesday, May 30: Back at work after the long weekend, we prepared for a full run through one of our purification protocols.

Wednesday, May 31: Midweek soccer produced another 3-3 draw for the Revolution, who were saved (again) by Carles Gil, who scored a brace.

Falling to Pieces [puzzle time trials]

I was lurking on Reddit when I came across a post from the subreddit Hobby Drama, which details all the petty details of drama in any niche hobby you can imagine. One week in their “hobby scuffles” post where people are allowed to talk about almost anything, someone posted about watching an entire 40-minute video about the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship. Of course I had to see what that was about. At the competition, competitors are given puzzles of various sizes that they have to solve in under a set time. For a 500-piece puzzle, they were allotted 90 minutes, which is a short enough time that I could easily try it out for myself, because I was curious to see how feasible it was for someone who’s pretty fast (I think) compared to a casual puzzler, but nowhere near world champion speeds.

For my first attempt, I assembled a 500-piece puzzle of a giant girl jump roping on a bridge with a city in the background, by Ravensburger. This was not a great choice for a speed solve because of the muted and limited color palette and minimal distinctive features, but it was what we found at the library. At the 90 minute mark, I had completed most of the girl, the sky, and the water and bridge at the bottom. In the end, it took me just over two hours to finish the puzzle, half an hour longer than the competition time limit.

Giant jump rope girl (left: at the 90 minute mark, right: finished puzzle)

A few weeks later, I tried again with another Ravensburger puzzle, this one of a European-looking cobblestone street with a café, other shops and apartments, and people strolling along enjoying the day. This puzzle was a better candidate, with a greater variety of colors, but it still had large areas with a single texture/color (e.g. the street and building facades), which again, isn’t ideal for speed solving. However, I did manage to complete the puzzle in under 90 minutes, with a time of 1:28:32, showing that it is indeed possible for a fast-ish hobby puzzler to finish a 500-piece puzzle within an hour and a half.

European street

To make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I borrowed a very Lisa-Frank-esque puzzle of dolphins in a slightly psychedelic sea from the library. It was manufactured by Cra-Z-Art, maker of subpar crayons but okay jigsaw puzzles. The fit of the puzzle pieces wasn’t as nice as Ravensburger, but was definitely still well within acceptable limits. I was concerned about the amount of blue, but was able to finish the puzzle in less than 90 minutes (in 1:28:49).

Psychedelic sea dolphins

Just for fun at this point, I did one last Ravensburger 500-piece puzzle of lockers containing assorted sports equipment. I thought it would be a straightforward solve because each locker was a different color, but it ended up being trickier that I anticipated and still took me an hour and 28 minutes flat. Since I seem to be stuck around the 1:28 mark, I’ll probably try a few more puzzles to see if I can get any faster without really trying vs. using more optimization techniques (fully sorting pieces, doing the edges sooner, etc.), though it does take some of the fun out of it.

Sports lockers

Another Monadnock [Mount Watatic]

Right before I started work, we went for one last hike so I would really know what I was missing out on while spending eight hours a day in an office/lab. We drove over to Mount Watatic, which, like Mount Monadnock, is a monadnock, or inselberg (“island-peak”). As of 2002, Watatic is managed as conservation land by a partnership of 6 groups representing the towns it lies in, land trusts, and state departments. It stands 1832 feet tall in Ashburnham and Ashby, MA just south of the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border, and the Wapack and Midstate Trails both pass over/around the mountain.

While looking for information about Watatic online, I found a blog post that mentioned the relatively small parking lot filling up at 7 am on a summer weekend. Even on a weekday in spring, the parking lot was consistently almost full, with only one or two open spots at any given moment. We did manage to park without too much fuss, and then we were off on the trail. It’s pretty typical New England hiking, through forests and up rocks. There’s a stream crossing a few tenths of a mile in, but there were enough stepping stones and the water was low enough that it didn’t cause any trouble.

Hiking at a fairly leisurely pace, we covered the approximately 1 mile to the summit in 35-40 minutes. At the true summit, there’s a stone marker with some words about the mountain and a pile of rocks, but not much of a view. If you walk about another couple hundred feet to the south, there’s a shoulder/secondary summit that does have great panoramic views. To the south is Mount Wachusett, Mount Monadnock is visible to the northwest, and on a clearer day than we had, you may be able to see Boston to the east. We spent some time at the summit and lookout point having lunch and enjoying the views, then headed back down.

Mount Watatic summit marker

From the summit, the options are to return down the same way for an out-and-back mileage of 2.1 miles, or go around by Nutting Hill to make a 2.8 mile loop with a less strenuous descent. We I chose the latter. Like the trail up, the way down almost immediately drops into wooded areas with little to no views of the surrounding area, but it’s still an enjoyable walk. On our way back to the parking lot, we also opted to make a detour to walk to New Hampshire so we could cross the state line on foot.

Summit view to the south Wachusett (with ski trails visible) to the right

Potentially Monadnock in the center (with the tower on top)

Overall, Watatic is a nice hike, not too long or strenuous, but with better than average views. Before making the drive home, we stopped by Trap Falls in Willard Brook State Forest a few miles down the road, so we got a mountain and a waterfall in the same day.

Trap Falls handheld long exposure (1/5 s at 12 mm, so don't zoom in)

Springing into April

You never know what spring in New England will be like, or when (if ever) it’ll arrive. This year’s April proved to be wet and wild for various reasons.

Saturday, April 1: No April Fools here, just setting up a Smart Garden with basil, baking a peanut butter cake, and watching the Revolution draw NYCFC.

Sunday, April 2: Finished watching Derry Girls, which I quite enjoyed.

Monday, April 3: Filed my taxes, with two whole weeks to spare.

Tuesday, April 4: After taking a second try at the Discworld with the Guards novels, I went back to where it all began with The Colour of Magic (and also got my first job offer).

Wednesday, April 5: Worked on a jigsaw puzzle of 32 doors.

Thursday, April 6: Grocery day, with a stop at the craft store for yarn for a project that I will get around to eventually.

Friday, April 7: Made macaroni and cheese for dinner.

Saturday, April 8: Officially accepted my job offer, went for a hike at the local reservoir after a trip to the library, and listened to the Revolution beat Montreal 4-0.

Sunday, April 9: Easter lunch at church.

Monday, April 10: Tried goldenberries (surprisingly tomato-y), and started a hidden cows Sandra Boynton puzzle.

Aliens, or fiddleheads

Tuesday, April 11: Did my annual-ish mass Goodreads update to see if they could give me any interesting statistics (for 2022: shortest book– The Sandman vol. 3: Dream Country, longest book/most shelved – A Game of Thrones, least shelved – Everquest: The Rogue’s Hour).

Wednesday, April 12: First day of the year hot enough for ice cream.

Thursday, April 13: Continued reading The Night Circus, and I agree with the overall sentiment that the descriptive passages are stronger than the plot, but I still really liked this book.

Friday, April 14: Took one last hike before starting work, at Mt. Watatic; walked to the Massachusetts/New Hampshire state line; had a Taco Bell taco; and talked to a friend from college.

Saturday, April 15: Watched a 10-man Revolution give up a 98th minute goal to Columbus to snatch defeat (a draw) from the jaws of victory.

Sunday, April 16: Finished a jigsaw puzzle of soda cans.

Monday, April 17: Baked a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Tuesday, April 18: First day of school work.

Wednesday, April 19: Had leftover lamb, roasted potatoes, and arugula for lunch and calibrated a pH meter for the first time in a long time.

Thursday, April 20: Wild violets and phlox were in full bloom, crabapples a few days away.

Some bush in bloom

Friday, April 21: Free lunch day at work.

Saturday, April 22: Went for a hike along the reservoir, started building the LEGO Millennium Falcon I bought on sale last summer, and saw the Revolution beat Sporting KC 2-1 off a brace from Giacomo Vrioni, who also drew a red card for DOGSO (denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity).

Sunday, April 23: Baked a pineapple cake and watched Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Monday, April 24: Laundry day after work.

Tuesday, April 25: Bonus Revolution game against Hartford for the US Open Cup, which they won after bringing on Carles Gil and co. to relieve a young starting lineup.

Wednesday, April 26: Made 50 L of buffer solution in a barrel, stirred it with a metal oar, and pumped it into the world’s largest IV bags.

Thursday, April 27: Eat, work, sleep, repeat.

Friday, April 28: Ran into the wild turkeys crossing the street while on a walk after work.

Saturday, April 29: Visited a neighboring town’s hill and swamp, where we saw a lot of skunk cabbage and an eastern bluebird, and caught most of the radio call for the Revolution’s tie game against Cincinnati, featuring a Djordje Petrović penalty save, a season-ending injury to Dylan Borrero, and Emmanuel Boateng’s first goal of the season.

Sunday, April 30: Finished Heir to the Empire, the acclaimed first Thrawn novel by Timothy Zahn, also the first authorized Star Wars novel that continued events after Return of the Jedi.

Crabapple tree

Piece by Piece [The World’s Most Difficult Puzzles]

If you’ve ever seen a limited edition flavor at the grocery store or anything proclaiming to be the “world’s hardest” and wondered, “who would want that?”, the answer is me. I would like to try cherry jalapeño yogurt, and today I’ll be reviewing a selection of puzzles that all have some kind of gimmick, including one that claims to be the world’s hardest puzzle.

The first puzzle is the Impossibles puzzle “Great Wall of China,” with 750 pieces, no edge pieces, and 5 extra pieces. The Impossibles puzzles are released under the BePuzzled name, which was acquired in 1999 by University Games from Lombard Marketing. University Games was founded in 1985 and creates/distributes a variety of educational and classic games and puzzles. There are several Impossibles puzzles no longer being manufactured (including “Great Wall of China,” which has a copyright from 1994), and a few new ones currently available. One thing to note is that some of the new puzzles have a repeating pattern, not a fully semi-randomized picture (see this Karen Puzzles video), making them significantly easier.

However, even with a moderately challenging picture, I didn’t find “Great Wall of China” hugely difficult (and it definitely wasn’t impossible). I don’t usually start with the edge pieces anyway, so the lack of an edge didn’t throw me off too much, and neither did the extra pieces. They did add a little extra twist, and make the puzzle harder than a “normal” 750 piece puzzle. Quality was good, the image was interesting, and I enjoyed this puzzle overall.

Great Wall of China

The second puzzle up is an I Spy puzzle of almost nothing but marbles. This 500-piece puzzle was released in 2008 by Briarpatch, which began in 1992 as a children’s game and puzzle company and continued until 2014, when they were bought by University Games. Obviously, I chose to do this puzzle because who would be dumb enough to spend a couple afternoons assembling almost nothing but marbles? It wasn’t as bad as the dalmatians, and the extremely obvious red border was an easy start. I thought the idea was fun, because after (or while) fixing the puzzle, you can look for the objects in the rhyme included on the puzzle, like in an I Spy book. The only negative for me is that it’s not cut particularly well. False fits weren’t a huge problem, but the pieces don’t click together nicely, which, yes, is a thing that people care about.

I Spy marbles

Third, we have a puzzle that wasn’t meant to be difficult, but it has a gimmick, so I’m including it here. On the box, it’s called “The Moving Puzzle – Coral Reef,” and was made in 1994 by the Great American Puzzle Factory, which based on the dearth of information about the company online, no longer exists (the Wikipedia article redirects to Fundex Games, Ltd., a company based in Indiana that started in 1986, produced an assortment of toys and games, and filed for bankruptcy in 2012).

For the molecular dynamics people, this puzzle is supposed to have a repeating boundary condition. For the non-MD people in the crowd, you’re supposed to be able to take the top row of pieces and move them to the bottom, or the left-most pieces and shift them to the right side, and still have a coherent picture. However, because of a misalignment in the image or cutting, the picture somewhat noticeably doesn’t match up when you try this after solving the puzzle in the “default” position. Also worth noting is that the pieces don’t lock together at all. They have indents that help to hold them in place, but every piece is exactly the same shape, so the puzzle is solved entirely by the image, which is doable since it only has 294 pieces and the picture has plenty of colors. I really like the idea, but unfortunately, they didn’t quite manage to pull it off.

Moving Coral Reef (left: completed puzzle, top right: box,
middle right/bottom right: misaligned image)

Next is the 131-piece Rubik’s Zigzaw puzzle from 1982, made by the Ideal Toy Company. The company began in 1907, and was eventually sold, first to CBS Toys, then Viewmaster International, and then Tyco Toys, which merged with Mattel in 1997. Ideal Toy Company was at one point the largest doll-making company in the US, but they also produced the Rubik’s Cube, on which the Zigzaw is based. Similarly to the coral reef puzzle above, many of the pieces are the same shape. In this case, the center pieces are mostly frog-like shapes that tesselate, and the objective is to make sure all the Rubik’s cubes are correctly solved. It’s harder than it may sound, because some of the pieces are very similar, differing only in the color of one “arm,” though slight printing/cutting misalignments sometimes let you see the color of an adjacent cube face that you shouldn’t be able to see. The pieces fit together very tightly, so you have to be careful taking pieces apart to not damage the thin arms. Other than that, it was a good challenge.

Rubik's Zigzaw (left: completed puzzle, top right: non-frog interior piece and edge piece,
middle right: similarly colored frog pieces,
bottom right: misaligned printing shows color of adjacent pieces) 

Finally, presenting the World’s Most Difficult Puzzle, jungle edition. The World’s Most Difficult Puzzles were originally made by Buffalo Games, but it seems that the line, with a few new puzzles, is now produced by TDC games, a board game and jigsaw puzzle manufacturer. This is the same idea as the infamous dalmatian puzzle – it’s a double-sided 529-piece puzzle with the pictures rotated 90 degrees from each other, and it’s cut vertically, then flipped over and cut horizontally so the pieces have no “back” or “front.” Probably fortunately for my sanity, the jungle puzzle was nowhere near as difficult as the dalmatian puzzle. The picture was orders of magnitude easier. Dare I say it was almost disappointingly easy? I’m actually a big fan of the concept, but I have yet to find the perfect image that’s more than “a few afternoons” hard but not “sitting on the coffee table for seven months” hard. Maybe I’ll try the penguins puzzle next, if I can get ahold of it.

World's Most Difficult Puzzle jungle edition