HollyKing's Journal

So I’ve been spending some time each day to solve different programming puzzles. This is helping to stave off boredom with my day to day work. Google Treasure Hunt has provided a puzzle for the last three weeks and I’m doing well so far. Well, I’ve gotten the correct answer for each puzzle. I’ve also used three different languages for each puzzle. Scheme, C# and C++ have all made an appearance.

In other news I had another checkup and my blood pressure is 110/80 (down from 160/110) and I’ve lost another 5 lbs. I know not much of a real update but I wanted to post about something that made me happy for once.

Friday cheesentoast and I went to Bellevue Square to spend money at the Apple Store and GameStop. The Apple Store was packed with folks waiting to buy Leopard, so we skipped that mess. GameStop didn’t have the game I wanted so we didn’t spend too much time there either.

Saturday started with $little and I going to the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. Too bad I didn’t check this out earlier because we could have gone for a ride on one of the trains. Not only did we enjoy the trains and the museum, but we had a good time talking on the way there and back. The best part for me was finding out that the sailing trip we had a few weeks before was a fun time.

That evening hollyqueen and I went out for dinner and some shopping. We tried the new Herfy’s Burgers in Redmond. We both enjoyed the food, it was much better than the Chinese place that used to be there. Next we headed to Fred Meyer to look for games and a scarf for hollyqueen. No game for me, but she found a nice pink fuzzy scarf that’s long enough for three people.

After FM we went to EB Games at Redmond Town Center. Score! Not only did I find Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and Picross DS, but on a whim I asked if they were going to have any copies of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The sales guy said probably not if I didn’t pre-order a copy. So, expecting the answer to be no, I asked if it was still possible to pre-order the game. It turns out I was wrong because I could still pre-order the game. So I did.

Sunday was a nice and lazy day for the most part. hollyqueen and I had a good long snuggle before getting out of bed. We needed groceries, I had books on hold at the library and GH3 was waiting at EB. I dropped hollyqueen and cheesentoast off at the store. I headed to EB Games and picked up the game then headed to the library. I had about 15 minutes to wait for them to open so I started playing Picross. After the library opened cheesentoast messaged me that they were done. So I grabbed my holds from the shelf and collected them and we all went home.

After a tasty sausage lunch made by cheesentoast I cracked open GH3 and worked my way through the game on the easy mode. There are a lot of dang songs. I was very happy to find out that the new developers actually made a better Guitar Hero game with this new version. There more interesting venues and the entertaining cut-scene videos. My favorite bit is that some of the songs are done by the original artists. I was able to get 5 stars for all the songs except Raining Blood by Slayer. My hands were too tired so I gave it a break.

The evening was filled with catching up on a few of our shows and a wonderful dinner of bean soup made by hollyqueen. Ah, a very good weekend.

I enjoy puzzles and puzzle based games so I was really enjoying Perplex City. I was never able to collect all the cards because I started late and there were quite a few from the first wave I didn’t have. Now the Cube has been found and someone has won the $100,000 prize.

The good news is that means the second season is about to start. Now that I know about the game I can get started at the beginning and hopefully be able to get all the cards and complete the game.

Now if they would just get off their duffs and update the website. It was supposed to be open on the 15th. Still no update and the website says “Please stop pressing refresh. We know you’re doing it, we see everything…” Well if you want us to stop hitting refresh get the site posted already. Something. Anything.

If it wasn't bad enough that I went on a book buying rampage I've found a new addiction. At Norwescon I picked up a bunch of flyers off of a table and some of them contained puzzles. I love puzzles and logic problems. So now I'm playing Perplex City.

So far I've solved 5 of the cards and hundred or so to go. At least it's mental exercise, right? Right?

In other notes, hollyqueen and I went to see V for Vendetta (2005) tonight. Good movie. I have a couple of questions about the story so I guess I'll scare up a copy of the graphic novel and see if they are answered in it.