Feb 27 Puzzles

Jumble = 1:29 ("BARELY" SEEN)
Word Sleuth = 2:17 (---- Plains)
NEA Crossword = 4:34 (02-27-07)
NYT Crossword = 6:36 (No. 0116)

My mind is on other things, so I'm a little slow today.

Feb 26 Puzzles

Jumble = 1:02 ("BELLE" RINGER)
Word Sleuth = 2:47 (Pioneers of Photography)
NEA Crossword = 3:41 (02-26-07)
NYT Crossword = 4:04! (No. 0115)

"NYT Brainbuilder Crosswords":
#33 ("Marine Crops") = 9:11
#34 ("Ethnic Humor") = 10:29

"NYT Tough Crossword Puzzles, Volume 100":
#27 (by Frank Longo) = 20:40

Decided to do a few extra puzzles, as part of prep for American Crossword Tournament. Overall, a pretty good day with a great time on the Monday NYT (almost broke 4 minutes)! Nice time on the Brainbuilders and the NYT Tough, as well.

Feb 25 Puzzles

Jumble = 4:19 (RIDING "HABIT")
NYT Crossword = 37:39 (Magic Words), with one lookup

Zoomed through the Jumble words, but had trouble with the actual answer pun. Took over 15 minutes just to get the big clue clue in NYT crossword ("Now you see it, now you don't"), then another minute to get what it meant (sometimes add "IT", sometimes subtract "IT" in the question-mark clues), then a phone call, then finally finished after looking up "ELSAS" ["___ Dream", "Lohengrin" piece]. Okay for a Sunday, but not great

More puzzles

Extra crosswords as prep for American Crossword Tournament

"NYT Brainbuilder Crosswords" book:
#31 (Hitting One's Mark) = 8:11, 3 wrong letters
#32 (Blender Settings) = 11:25, no errors

"NYT Tough Crossword Puzzles #10" book:
#25 = 16:17, no errors

That's enough for now!

Puzzles Feb 23-24

Fri Feb 23:
Jumble = 0:51 ("WAVES in HER HAIR")
Word Sleuth = 3:08 (Women Nobel Laureates)
NEA Crossword = 3:20 (02-23-07)
NYT Crossword = 22:21 (No. 0112), with 3 lookups

Sat Feb 24:
Jumble = 5:27 ("BLAH-FAKED"???)
Word Sleuth = 2:35 (Collective Nouns of People)
NEA Crossword = 3:58 (02-24-07)
NYT Crossword = 32:23 (No. 0113), with 9 lookups

Did both Fri and Sat at once Saturday afternoon and pretty much got clobbered. Both NYT killed me, with a lot of lookups just to make some initial progress. Tough puzzling today.

Feb 22 Puzzles

Jumble = 0:36 (THE COOK)
Word Sleuth = 2:03 (NHL All-Time Assist Leaders)
NEA Crossword = 3:22 (02-22-07)
NYT Crossword = 16:35 (No. 0111)

Great start, but completely stalled on the NYT. I figured out the theme ("Add-ICT") but beyond "DRIVERS ED(ICT)", had doubts about "MATURITY D(ICT)ATE" (okay, but I thought we were adding "ICT" at the end?) and had no idea what "SIMON P(ICT)URE" was. Weak theme, in my opinion.

But it's my birthday so I get to gripe and have a slow time.

Feb 21 Puzzles

Jumble = 1:36 (ALL "TYPES")
Word Sleuth = 2:50 ("BRICK -")
NEA Crossword = 3:43 (02-21-07)
NYT Crossword = 8:52

A little slow for a Wednesday. Struggled on NYT mainly because I didn't remember the Homer Simpson quote, even though I've been a Simpsons fan forever ("Bart, I'm reaching out to you.")

Feb 20 Puzzles

Jumble = 49.48 ("EXTRA MONEY")
Word Sleuth = 4:03 ("Kates and Katies")
NEA Crossword = 4:39 (10-11-04)
NYT Crossword = 5:42 (No. 0109)

Back from a break due to vacation, so a little slow.

Feb 16 Puzzles

Jumble = 50.01 (WORN OUT)
Word Search = 3:59 ("--- Lakes")
NEA Crossword = 4:24 (02-16-07)
NYT Crossword = 23:23

Slow day in general, on everything. Struggled for first 5-7 minutes on NYT Crossword, then things started coming. I did finish without any lookups, which is always a treat for me on a Friday or Saturday NYT.

Feb 15 Puzzles

Jumble = 1:10 ("CHARGES")
Word Search = 3:01 ("Sports Averages and Percentages")
NEA Crossword = 4:19 (02-15-07)
NYT Crossword = 13:55 (No. 0104)

A bit slow today, especially on the NYT. Got the theme, but had trouble figuring out the specific punctuation used in the answers.

Feb 14 Puzzles

Jumble = 1:07 ("HEARTY MEAL")
Word Search = 2:04 ("English Words of Hindu Origin")
NEA Crossword = 3:29 (02-14-07)
NYT Crossword = 6:01 (No. 0103)

Overall, just over 12 minutes for the whole batch which is excellentfor a Wednesday. Almost broke 2 minutes on Word Search and almost broke 6 minutes on Wednesday NYT. Given these were done after dinner with questions being asked and the phone ringing, that's pretty darn good.

Feb 13 Puzzles

Jumble ("HIGH and DRY") = 29.47
Word Search ("Consecutive Two-Word Phrases") = 2:45
NEA Crossword (02-13-07) = 3:59
NY Times Crossword (No. 0102) = 6:52

Another sub-30 Jumble; solid Word Search and NEA; NY Times felt a little slow.

Feb 12 Puzzles

Jumble = 22.79 (yes, that's under 23 seconds)
Word Sleuth ("Remove Double Letters To Make A New Word") = 2:30
NEA Crossword (2-12-07) = 4:08
New York Times Crossword (No. 0101) = 3:43!

I was flying through just about everything (except NEA). The NYT crossword was phenomenal; I don't think I can go much faster than that. Even that fast, my time was still 1 minute from the time of "Orange" (aka Amy Reynaldo), who did it in 2:37. Amazing.

Feb 11 Rubik's Cube Sunday Contest

I usually try to do the Sunday Contest (www.nascarjon.us/sunday.htm), run by Jon Morris. Recently, I switched the order of my 4-step LL to OE, OC, PC, PE (I used to do OE, PC, OC, PE). The purpose is to prepare for one day learning PLL (and thus moving to a 3-step LL).

This change has done some damage to my times - I was in the 32-33 range and recently I've been above 35 (sometimes, significantly above 35!).

I also blame my cube - my good speedcube died an untimely death (only two weeks before the Winter competition at Exploratorium), and this cube while nice is not lubed. I should lube it one of these days but it seems to be moderately acceptabe. I seem to have trouble getting F2L to be consistently near 20 seconds (one of the tricks for a sub-35 average for me, as the 4-step LL usually takes 10-15 seconds).

Anyway, I had a sub-35 on Sunday Contest for the first time in a loong time.

Average: 34.93 seconds
Individual Solving Times: (28.37), (46.25), 42.05, 29.05, 35.91, 34.99, 32.00, 38.96, 31.80, 31.45, 30.20, 43.17
Quote: First sub-35 average in a while, and first ever with new order in 4-step LL. Perhaps I should start learning some PLL.

Just not putting much time into cubing these days. I might have peaked, even though my goal was to average sub-30 in an official competition.

Feb 11 Puzzles

Sunday Jumble = 2:25
Sunday NYT crossword ("Letter Openers") = 22:53

Good work on both puzzles. In the Sunday NYT, the theme made sense and worked for me so I solved in about as fast as I get on the Sunday NYT.

I don't do the Sunday NEA crossword becauseI never have enough time and if I'm going to do one, I'm going to do the NYT.

Feb 10 Puzzles

Jumble = 1:36
Word Search = 2:37
NEA crossword = 3:23
NYT crossoword (#1230) = 48:06, with 6 lookups

Good start, but NYT was very tough. I have the minor excuse of Dance Dance Revolution and then the Pro Bowl in the background. Looked up 6 things: ENOS [Book after Jacob in the Book of Mormon]; EVES [Bayou, 1997 Samuel Jackson film]; OTOE [Nebraska City's county]; ENNIS [Seat of County Clare]; TONEDEAF [Unable to hit a pitch]; and LARA [Logan of CBS News]. The upper right corner took a long time to figure out, with many false starts.

Nowhere near as fast as people like "Orange" aka Amy Reynaldo? (http://crosswordfiend.blogspot.com/) or Trip Payne (http://qaqaq.livejournal.com/), or Tyler Hinman (http://rpipuzzleguy.livejournal.com/). Of course, they are some of the best in the US. Want to know more, check out the documentary "Wordplay".

Feb 9 Puzzles

Jumble = 2:23
Word Sleuth = 3:10
NEA Crossword = 4:32
NYT Crossword (#1229) = 11:34

Slow start, but ended up with a great time for a Friday NYT and needed no clues. Excellent.

Feb 8 Puzzles

Jumble = 2:06
Word Search = 3:22
NEA crossword = 4:02
NYT crossword = 32:25, then I gave up.

For the first time in a while I could not finish the NYT, not even with Internet help. The bottom right corner completely stumped me. I had the tail end of the two quote parts, I had [Bit of neckwear] = LEI, I had [Greek porches] = STOAS, I had [Outfielder's cry] = IGOTIT, I had "ol geog. inits.] -= SSR.

I could not get [Isolate] = ENIS??, nor could I get [Pioneering musician in stereo ___ Light] = ENO??, not could I get [Benefit] = SA??

Yeesh. A slow start and a rough end to today's puzzles.

Wed, Feb 7 times

Jumble = 44.86
Word Sleuth = 2:23
NEA Crossword (02-05-07) = 4:18
NYT (No. 1227) = 9:10

Got tired at the end, so started slowing down.

Starting up again

I'm trying to start up the blog on a more regular basis. Right now, I'm working on preparing for the American Crossword Tournament, as featured in the documentary "WordPlay". (http://www.crosswordtournament.com). I'll do it online because I'm not good enough to justify a trip to the east coast. I did it online least year for fun and got 8500 points - I should have had 8900 but made typing mistakes. This would have put me around 30th in the Rookie category and about halfway in the overall ranking.

Every day, I do the word related puzzles in my paper (Sacramento Bee): Jumble, Word Sleuth, NEA crossword, NY Times crossword. Tues/Wed, I do the Onion AV Club crossword (http://www.avclub.com/content/node/58032), even though the interface is terribly clunky. I also try to do crosswords from collections of NYT books, since the NYT people usually create the Crossword Tournament crosswords.

Jumble is usually around a minute; Word Sleuth around 3 minutes; NEA about 3-4 minutes; NYT depends on the day of the week (5-6 mins for M/TU; 7-8 Wed; anything for Thurs-Sat).

Jumble = 1:13
Word Sleuth = 3:28
NEA xword = 3:25
NYT = 5:31
Onion AV = 10:49 (like I said, navigating the interface was a real pain)