Archive for September, 2023

The 5 Hows: Othello

Sep

29

2023

1. How do I win?
By having more chips showing your color than the opponents does of his color.

2. How do I get the chips to show my color?
Place your chip down at the end of a row. All the chips of the opponent’s color in a line between your newly-placed chip and an existing chip of your color, you get the flip them to your color.

Note that you must have a chip of your color in the line – if it’s a line of all the other color, then nothing happens.

Also note that you can convert only the chips in that line until the first of your color. If the line of the other color is interrupted by one of your color, then you must not flip any chips after that one, even if you have another chip later in the line.

3. How do I prevent the opponents from taking over my chips on the board?
The only way to truly prevent it is by getting to the corners. A corner is the end of all lines, so no one can place a chip after it to flip it.

The edge of the board is better than the middle, but the corner is the best.

4. How does the game end?
Keep taking turns until the board is full. Or, if you have an older game and lost some chips, until you’re out of chips.

5. How do we start the game?
Place 4 chips in the middle of the board, 2 of each color and alternating, like this:
XO
OX

Then the first player places a chip wherever he wants, and you take turns.

There, now go play Othello. Or Reversi, they’re similar.

So he removed on that day the striped or spotted male goats, and all the speckled or spotted female goats, every one with white on it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and put them in the care of his sons.

Genesis 30:35

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Spork Varieties

Sep

20

2023

With the spork being ubiquitous, I was wondering about the name “spork”. It is the easiest name if you’re combining “spoon” and “fork”, but there are other combinations too.

Spork
Fpoon
Foon
Forn

image of spoon and fork combined as a spork

Not as popular, but you could also have a combination fork and knife.

Knirk
Knork
Fofe
Forfe

image of knife and fork combined as a knork

And least popular is spoon and knife.

Spofe
Spoofe
Spife
Knoon

image of spoon and knife combined as a knoon

He also made all the utensils of the altar, the pails, the shovels, the basins, the meat-forks, and the firepans; he made all its utensils of bronze.

Exodus 38:3

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Useful Inventions

Sep

14

2023

In the past year, I have experienced three very useful inventions. They are of the type that made me wish I had gotten them sooner. So now I’m sharing them with you, so you can have a better life.

  • Ratchet Belt

    image of a ratchet belt

    I have worn out a number of belts because my waist is a consistent size. So I’m always putting the belt buckle on the same setting, and all that wear and tear in one spot causes the notch to wear out faster. The rest of the belt is fine, but it’s gnarly-looking at best or worn through at worst.

    I tried the web-type belts with the clamping claw, but that has two problems. 1: the claw is slightly destructive, so the more I use the belt the worse it looks. I can see scratches and runs in the fabric webbing. And 2: the buckle releases way too easily. It occasionally catches on something when I turn and it pops open, rendering the belt temporarily useless.

    But at Christmas I got a ratchet belt, the kind with the ratchet on the underside. These belts are awesome. The design keeps any wear and tear to the inside of the belt, so no one sees it. It’s not infinitely-adjustable, but the sizing is a lot finer resolution than traditional notches. I highly recommend them.

  • Clicky Paper Towel Holder
    That’s a clicky holder of paper towels, not a holder of clicky paper towels.

    image of a paper towel holder that clicks and does not let the roll spin freely

    My sister got one of these and we tried it and then had to buy our own.

    You can look up “click paper towel holder” or “one hand paper towel holder” or something like that.

    The point is that you can pull the end gently and it unrolls, but if you tear it then it doesn’t unroll. There’s a resistance mechanism built into it. Now I don’t have the weekly chore of winding the paper towels back onto the roll.

  • Stepped Car Ramps

    image of stepped car ramps

    I saw a Youtube video about someone who made these, and I was inspired to make my own. Sometimes the Youtube feed algorithm works.

    In this case, it’s useful for me because I work on my cars and I have a stick shift. I’ve had a set of ramps for years, and they’ve been helpful, but I never liked trying to get the manual car up them.

    Also in my case, I’m a little gun shy because I did overshoot the end of a ramp once, and ended up having to jack up the side of the car to free the ramp that it had crashed on. So now I am cautious if I think I’m nearing the end of the ramp.

    With the stick, it’s a pain trying to be cautious on a ramp, because that’s not good for the clutch. Also, my parking brake is not that good so if I stop before the end of the old-style ramp, I have to go back down to the beginning.

    The stepped car ramp is nice because I can count to know when I’m on the last level. 1, 2, 3, stop. And if something goes wrong and I have to stop before the end, each section is level so the car never rolls back. I can stop on level 2 and the car stays there. Note that I built my car ramps longer than this set, so each level has plenty of room for a tire.

    It’s also probably better for the automatic transmissions too – don’t want to use the parking pawl to hold you in place on a ramp while you get out to check if you’re at the top yet.

Now tighten the belt on your waist like a man, And I shall ask you, and you inform Me!

Job 38:3

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Cars and Temperatures

Sep

7

2023

With some hot temperatures around here recently, I got to thinking about what people think is hot compared to what a car thinks is hot.

Actually the thought process started years ago during a trip to the Badlands. As the temperature was well over 100 (note all temperatures here will be in F not C), I was worried about the car. I knew I would be unhappy being in the sun (no shade in sight, and you can see a long way in that area of the country) with the temp being 105. And I wondered if the minivan was equally unhappy.

It’s easy to tell in general, because cars have a temperature gauge. As long as the needle stays in the middle of the gauge, everything is happy. But I have also learned that if the needle starts leaving the good zone, something is bad and it’s too late to do much about it other than turn off the engine.

But I’ve since realized that what we think are hot temperatures are not hot to the car. It was replacing a thermostat and radiator that helped me understand that. The thermostat was rated for 195 – that’s the normal operating temperature of the engine coolant.

My body’s thermostat, however, is around 98.6 degrees, about half that of the car. So although I’m in danger of overheating in 105 degree weather, the car is not. Going from 80 to 100 degrees is significant to people, but to a car that would feel like going from 40 to 50 degrees to us.

It’s like dog years – a car degree is half a people degree.

Recalling my thermodynamics class back in college: heat moves from the hotter object to the cooler object, like water flowing from a higher point to a lower point. Once the air gets above 98.6-ish, I’m not longer giving off heat, I’m absorbing it. But for a vehicle, that point is 195. And if the air temperature is even close to that we have bigger problems.

And when the sun came up God designated a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint, and he begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life!”

Jonah 4:8

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