2009-12-16-0649Z


Passed my first Saturday without a paycheck in several years, didn't panic. I know I'll get by on odd jobs, and/or hunting, gardening, and gathering. I'm kind of glad it's over, because that expectation made it easier for me to not "live the moment".

Edibility-tested a large chestnut-looking thing that fell to the ground after the last big rainstorm. On the next-to-last part of the test, eating a small sample, I got light-headed and an unpleasant buzz. Turns out it's a California Buckeye and it contains a neurotoxin. I didn't eat enough to get really sick, though. Supposedly the toxins will boil out, but I don't think I'll do any more with those unless I'm in a survival situation.

The day after the CodeChef competition, when I downloaded the test data, I saw immediately why my N Queens Puzzle Revisited solution had failed. I was reusing an index variable in a second "for" loop, which caused the upstream loop to terminate prematurely. In other words, my program quit without finishing the test cases; my algorithm was good, a stupid error made the difference between one point and two for the competition. Anyway, so far I've got the fastest program posted, and it's not even a very good one; simple backtracking.

I joined the gym about a week ago, having bought the two-year membership from Costco for $300. I get most of my aerobic exercise on the way, jogging downhill the long way past McNear Park; then use the weights for a while, shower and shave, and walk back home. I'm getting pretty thoroughly domesticated, but I'm not complaining. Not at all. My only worry is that I might be getting too soft in case of TEOTWAWKI.

Back to blog or home page

last updated 2009-12-16 02:00:02. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com