Tag Archives: challenge

Jan29

hell level.

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today, on national puzzle day

i’m reminded of one of my most memorable puzzle-solving adventures

(sounds like an oxymoron, i know)

years ago, when in grad school

my sister sent me a very special puzzle

i’ve always been a huge fan of challenging jigsaw, crossword, and sudoku puzzles

after reading the description, i thought this would be right up my alley

the puzzle was all black, with a pale, delicate, and finely drawn vine winding through it

it had no straight edges, pieces were mostly all the same shape,

just slightly different sizes, and had no picture to use as a solution

i finally decided to tackle it one snowy day

that turned into three

as we were in the throng of what turned out to be a full-out blizzard

i cleared my large square coffee table, sat on a pillow on the floor,

put on some music, brought over a big cup of creamy coffee

and began

what turned out to be the most challenging puzzle of my lifetime

  determined to solve it

my back was hurting, my hands were hurting, my eyes were hurting

by the end of day one

 all the lights ablaze to detect any slight differentiation

only stopping for brief breaks or to sleep

at one point

i felt like jack nicholson in ‘the shining’

holed up, shut off from the world, snowed-in, and involved in an insane enterprise

but

solve it i did

with the gift of those three long days

when it was impossible to go anywhere

the local world pretty much shut down for the snow

 not going to let this puzzle beat me

after i put the last piece in place

 i tore it apart and put it back in the box

making a decision to never make this puzzle again

i passed it on to a friend at school, told her it was a gift not a loan, and wished her good luck.

—

about this item:

  • 🧩Black puzzles for adults – 1000 pcs. hell level difficulty jigsaw puzzles are made from premium quality materials, the size of each puzzle is different, each is precision made so that every piece fits perfectly, touch smooth, full of detail, Special surface film treatment. It’s a game to enlarge your brain capacity, a game to strengthen eye-hand coordination and your imagination. It’s not so easy to complete the black puzzle, but once finished, you will be proud of yourself.

—

puzzle history timeline:

2300 bc- early puzzles

before modern puzzles, labyrinth puzzles were popular in ancient egypt.

1767 – jigsaws

mapmaker, john spilsbury creates the first jigsaw puzzle

1908 – puzzle-mania

puzzles become a full-blown craze in the united states

1933 – peak popularity

during the great depression, puzzle sales soared to 10 million a week

—

“a puzzle with a solution is a game. a puzzle without a solution is a work of art.”
― marty rubin

Jun26

run amok.

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dirty damsels – 2022 mud run

(i’m the muddy one in the pink, or the 2nd from left if easier)

we ran, climbed, crawled, carried weight, went over, went under, stayed the course, used ropes, tripped,

slipped, offered hands, got stuck in mud, slid underwater, crab walked, balanced, fell down, finished as a team

all with my daughter, granddaughter, and group of friends

not afraid of the mud

certainly challenging, but so fun.

“we sit in the mud… and reach for the stars”

-ivan turgenev

Nov28

cruciverbalist.

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 a wonderful surprise

from one cruciverbalist to another

this full-page spread crossword puzzle with 723 clues

what madness is this?

my dream come true. 

—

“our whole life is solving puzzles.”

-erno rubik

—

cru·ci·ver·bal·ist  (kro͞o′sə-vûr′bə-lĭst)

n.

1. A constructor of crosswords.

2. An enthusiast of word games, especially of crosswords.

Mar30

marathon man.

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confined by virus, frenchman runs a marathon on  his balcony

 In the age of confinement, Elisha Nochomovitz figured out a way to run a marathon anyway – back and forth on his 23 foot balcony.

That’s right. He ran 42.2 kilometers (26.2 miles) straight, never leaving his 7-meter-long (23-foot) balcony.

He saw it as a physical and mental challenge, but he also shared the images online as a way “to extend my support to the entire medical personnel who are doing an exceptional job. He didn’t exactly make record time. It took him six hours and 48 minutes. He got nauseous, and got worried the neighbors would complain about the pounding of his footsteps. But he did it.

Nochomovitz had been training for a marathon, and said “I needed to assure myself that I could still run 40 kilometers whatever the condition.” He lost track of how many laps he did, but his pedometer kept track while his mind wandered.

“I thought about many things, what’s going to happen, when I see that the world has stopped, sports, economy, finance,” he said. “We learned in history about wars between nations, men and weapons, but this is something that is beyond us.” He especially thought about medics, “the real everyday heroes.”

And he had a key helper. “I had my girlfriend here who was giving me drinks and M&Ms.”

Outside, some onlookers stared in confusion.

And his neighbors? “They were very understanding.”

 

 

—

“when you run the marathon, you run against the distance,

not against the other runners and not against the time.”

-haile gebrselassie

—
credits: USA Today Network
Aug3

on the road to mastery.

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i asked two of the grandies

to go bike riding with me

but to have mercy

go easy on me

i haven’t been on a bike in two years

they are great riders

mountain bikers, road bikers, hill jumpers

all i wanted was to get my bike legs back

by starting on a flat surface

they were patient

told me some roads looked tricky

but i’d be okay

along the way they challenged me

and asked me if i could ride

using just 3 limbs, 2 limbs, 1 limb, no limbs?

(no to all)

with 4 limbs, a few minor crashes, tight turns,

near misses, and less than perfect balance

i survived the ride

and rode the next couple of days with them

each day i got a little sorer

but the ride got a little easier

they figured i’d get better by the end of the month

when i asked how they’d rate me as a rider

they told me that i began on the ‘terrible’ level

and had moved up to the ‘almost moderate’ level.

 i took that to mean

‘almost mastery’ level.

—

“she who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.”

-susan b. anthony

 

Feb3

puzzled.

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that moment when you realize

after you’ve laid out 

and built the frame 

of a large detailed 1,000 piece puzzle

that you may have assembled

the perfectly symmetrical framing

upside down

with no way now to turn it without breaking it

due to the limited table size dimensions

(damn math)

and might likely have to build the whole thing upside down.

—

“the art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.”

-douglas horton

Jan12

row your boat.

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mark at home on the water in his boat

i connected to this adventurer, mark slats,

through an old friend in the netherlands.

read below to see what he is currently undertaking.

i am amazed every day.Mark Slats is hugged by his mother Maria in Ramsgate, UK last May.

He was about to row to The Netherlands here, never rowed before in a boat like this.

Now Mark is leading the field in the Talisker whisky atlantic challenge with Row4Cancer

with just two teams of 4 rowers ahead of him.

This is a 3.000 mile journey from Europe to America.

Mark’s mom has cancer and this gentle giant is raising money  

for cancer and for the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Cancer hospital.

(http://www.markslats.nl/row4cancer/ )

UPDATE: (early January) Mark Slats is rowing solo across the Atlantic Ocean for 28 days now and with this blistering pace he’s on schedule to break the World Record with a stunning two weeks!! Mark is competing in the solo class, but he’s ahead of the leaders in the double and trio classes as well. Currently, the Gentle Giant is on the 4th place overall with only fours around him. Be prepared for his arrival, which is expected on January 14th! 






—

UPDATE  (January 8th)

World’s most bizarre rowing competition is approaching denouement:

Does Dutchman Mark Slats crush the world record ocean rowing?

Mark Slats participates in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge , the toughest rowing event in the world, to raise money for the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Foundation.

The route runs from Europe (the Canary Islands) to America (Antigua). He is rowing solo and nonstop.

Until last year, this carpenter from Wassenaar had never rowed. Mark is rowing for his mother who is seriously ill and all those other people who fight cancer every day.

Despite the hardships of the race, Mark remains positive, he enjoys the ocean and feels good. His physical and mental strength are extreme. Blisters, abrasions and contusions do not bother him, he is determined to crush the record. He rows around 100 miles a day and the expected finish date is currently being tested on January 14th.

After his three previous world voyages as a sailor, the sea has few secrets for Mark, yet every day is new on the ocean. Mark talks about birds, flying fish and dolphins around the boat, even a collision with a whale. He can not heat the freeze-dried food because his gas bottle has been thrown overboard. Cold is not tasty so it is a task to get enough calories. He no longer has a feeling in his fingers but jokes that he no longer feels the blisters on those fingers.

Mark has to finish his boat before January 18 13.03 to break the record of 35 days and 33 minutes. Then he has to walk an average of 2.6 knots, he has rowed an average of 3.4 knots from the start and now has 581 miles to go to the finish. He is in the lead in the Solo class from the start and 4th in the overall rankings. Still, the race has not yet run, a technical defect or sudden whirlwind can still be decisive, it remains exciting until the finish.

More about Mark and the race:
https://www.facebook.com/markslatsavontuur?pnref=story

More about the charity:
https://actie.avlfoundation.nl/row4cancer?nieuw=0

—

“and so in time the rowboat and i became one and the same-like the archer and his bow or the artist and his paint. what i learned wasn’t mastery over the elements; it was mastery over myself, which is what conquest is ultimately all about.” ― Richard Bode, First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living

 

 

—

credits: michel porro, magic marine, talisker whiskey atlantic challenge, mark slats

Oct5

neither rain nor hurricane nor turtles, can stop the wolverines.

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the university of michigan wolverines

rose to victory in

the university of maryland terrapins

football challenge

put forth by fellow blogger/sportswriter, mark b. –

http://markbialczak.com

and even

the 8 hour move-up game time

to head off the hurricane

and an away game location

couldn’t help

those turtles from maryland

who took to their shells

as

the wolverines from ann arbor

showed them what a real storm looked like

with a 28-0 win

and mark was a good sport and gracious enough

to honor his side of the losing bet.

a shot of him in the rain

dressed in the gear of his losing team.

onward!

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