ECF & Friday Fav
Some new to me yarn arrived on my doorstep this week. I’m starting calculations, though it still has another 0.3 g to dry yet. I figure that it is not likely the gauge will change any from that little bit of moisture loss.
I’ve been more than a little stressed out lately. And one thing that both occupies my mind so I’m not obsessing on the stressful things but gives me a break and in some cases a bit of accomplishment - it is a logic puzzle game for iOS called Marple.
I’ve been a fan of logic puzzles for a long time. I think I started getting the occasional magazine at the drugstore when I was in junior high or early high school. I was lamenting the lack of a good logic puzzle game for iOS to Drew one day. It seemed there was one that got the interface right, but they sold add-on packs of puzzles that overlapped with no documentation to buy the add-ons without buying some puzzles multiple times. Then Drew told me about Marple and I poo-poo’d it because it wasn’t a story-based logic puzzle. I grabbed the free version that includes ten puzzles and played through those ten a few times each and decided I liked it. One of the advantages of Marple over a story-based logic puzzle is that it can generate puzzles on the fly so there is nearly an unlimited number of puzzles.
The clues are in the bottom boxed area. There is a bit of code to learn what those clues mean, but you use those clues to eliminate icons in the different possible spots they can be in from the area at the top of the screen. As you eliminate possible locations the answer starts to appear and the clues become more helpful. They have a good tutorial that I played through a few times until I got accustom to the logic and you can get hints too - something I did pretty liberally at first, now almost never.
Without having to read clues (I’m a bit of a slow reader) these puzzles are relatively quick to solve too. My average speed is about 6 minutes. I have a few under 3 minutes and have had some that took me as much as 15 minutes (in those cases I usually take a break after 6-7 minutes figuring fresh eyes later will be more effective) so it is really just a quick little break. What has surprised me is that it seems I have good Marple days and bad Marple days. Who would have thought?
My only complaint which is really only due to my learning style. I “speak” words and symbols in my head as I “read” them. So having both Arabic numerals and die numbers can cause me to accidentally make a wrong move that isn’t because my logic is faulty.
Do you have a favorite escapist app for iOS? Or have you tried the new this week Yarnaby app that is a wool-centric maze-type game? I’m seriously tempted, though I often prefer to try free versions first so I haven’t caved just yet.
On the KAL front - a few people have introduced themselves and a bit of talk about yarn has begun. If you’re taking part pop on over to the thread on Ravelry and say hi!
