Planer Graphs!

Who knew that Planer Graphs could be so much fun? I just stumbled across a game called Planarity where you start with a tightly laid out Planer Graph and move the edges so they don't cross one another. It starts out with small graphs and quickly increases the number of edges. The FAQ said if you could beat Level 10, you'd be in select company. Guess what?

Ahh, smell that? Rarefied air, friends.

Also, I think my final result puts me firmly in the 'messy thinker' camp.

I don't think that if I just started with Level 10 that I would have solved it. All of the tricks and intuitions you build up through the previous 9 levels aid greatly in figuring out the more difficult levels. Such as, looking for vertices that are obviously out of place and should be grouped with their neighbors or that moving lesser connected vertices (2 or 3) to the edges will give you more space to work with. I found levels 9 and 10 a cakewalk because level 8 took me almost a half-hour. Waiting for a furniture delivery, I had plenty of time.

And in the original French even.

I have 24 pages in my wishlist. I throw no stones.

Who needs a pick-me-up?

So who needs a pick-me-up after seeing Rosco's dinner all over the woodland floor? You know, the woods don't stay green by themselves. Anyway, Stacy was grossed out so here are some pictures from Rome: A gyspy stealing a baby on a bicycle. Aunt Linda gave the Roman Forum a 'Wha??' and a 'Oh Brother'. I was struck by a ray of light in the Pantheon. It started to talk to me but I excused myself as I would with any other panhandler. At the Spanish Steps, a guy "guessed" I was American and said I looked like Tom Cruise. I "guessed" he was a bad pickpocket and fled. There are a lot of great stories about this statue of Laocoon; a beautiful piece of antiquity currently housed at the Vatican. But I can't be bothered. Go to Rome yourself and stop mooching off my dime. (Maybe I'll tell you later. tee-hee!)

Where is Steve?

I am painfully late getting my travel photos online. Here's my most recent journey: to the balcony off our bedroom. A nice, albeit hazy sunset tonight. Hey, it only took us a year to finally get furniture for the balcony. Only 2 more pieces of furniture, a paint job, and a new coat of stain for the deck and I think we'll have a party. Holy crap, who's ready to party? I am. Want proof? Greg Stein would be proud! These are the two boxes of booze my two friends and I took to a cabin near Heppner, Oregon for Memorial Day weekend. Yes, it seems like overkill. 'seems' is the wrong verb. Holy Lord... On this particularly bad night, we started drinking around midnight and "finished" around dawn. I woke up to the sounds of a bear attacking the cabin and realized it was just rosco still dry heaving 6 hours later. Happy birthday, buddy!