NewSc2

Been a while since I tried to work out a riddle. I came across this one on a site, which said I would get some, $200 worth of clams if I solved it and sent the answer in, without Googling. Of course there was no e-mail address. Interesting blog, though, some of those recipes look good. (seedmore.org)

Anyway, here’s the riddle, and below the spacer is my thought process to come up with the answer. Took about 10 minutes.

RIDDLE

Rick is a strange liar. He lies on six days of the week, but on the seventh day he always tells the truth. He made the following statmenets on three successive days:

Day 1: “I lie on Monday and Tuesday”
Day 2: “Today, it’s Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday.”
Day 3: “I lie on Wednesday and Friday.”

The questions: On which day does Rick tell the truth?

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Okay, here’s where I’d usually do the “click Next to find the answer!” but I don’t use that formatting for this blog, and I’m not quite sure how to add it to just this post. Anyway, the riddle is solvable, so if you’re feeling nerdy, write it up and don’t look below.

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“Thought Process for Solving Riddle”

Let’s figure this out.

Rick only tells the truth 1 day out of the week. That either means a) all 3 of the statements are lies, or b) one of the statements is true. (so b1, b2, b3)

Break down a). All are lies.

Many ways to read these statements. The wrong way would be to construe the first statement, “I lie on Monday and Tuesday”, as “I lie on Wed-Sun”.

Specifically, lying about “I lie on Monday and Tuesday” would mean that he tells the truth on Monday or Tuesday. Hm, well what about Day 3 then? “I lie on Wednesday and Friday” Doesn’t one of those two have to be true?

For simplicity’s sake, let’s just go with that. Day 1 or 3 is true, the other one is a lie. And Day 2 has to be a lie.

We’ll go onto b).

Day 1 — Truth or Lie
Day 2 — Lie
Day 3 — Truth or Lie (opposite of 1)

Day 2 = Lie means that Day 2 is either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday.

Scenario 1: Truth Day is Day 1, which is a Sunday.

If Day 2 were Monday, Day 1 would be Sunday, and Day 3 would be Tuesday. Let’s break it down into Day 1/3. Day 1 = Lie (that means he tells the truth on either Monday or Tuesday). Day 3 = Truth (Wednesday and Friday are both out). Then Monday/Tuesday can’t be truth days, because there would be 2 truth days. (Wrong)

Scenario 2: Truth Day is Day 1, which is a Monday.

Day 2 = Tuesday, Day 3 = Wednesday. Only 1 Truth day, Monday, so Tuesday and Wednesday are lie-days. This can’t happen, because Day 3 truth = Wednesday and Friday lies. (Wrong)

Scenario 3: Truth Day is Day 1, Tuesday.

Day 2 = Wednesday, Day 3 = Thursday. Yet again, Truth day cannot be Tuesday because that would go against Day 3’s statement (Wednesday and Friday have to be truth days). Seeing a pattern here, but it’s late so I’ll continue.

Scenario 4: Truth Day is Day 1, Thursday.

Day 2 = Friday. Again, Day 3 annuls this point, because Wed/Fri are both lies. Onto the next set of 4 scenarios.

Scenario 5: Truth Day is Day 3, Tuesday.

Day 2 = Monday, Day 1 = Sunday. Huh, I’m confused. If truth day is Tuesday, then why didn’t the first scenario work out? Well.. the dates were wrong I guess.. oh well let’s just trudge on.

Scenario 6: Truth Day is Day 3, Wednesday.

Day 2 = Tuesday, Day 1 = Monday. Doesn’t work because if Truth Day were Wednesday it’d annul point 3. He can’t lie on Wednesday Day 3

Scenario 7: Truth Day is Day 3, Thursday.

Day 1 = Tuesday, Day 2 = Wednesday. Day 1 Tuesday = lie doesn’t work, because the lie is on Thursday, not Mon/Tues.

Scenario 8: Truth Day is Day 3, Saturday.

Day 1 = Thursday, Day 2 = Friday. Again, doesn’t work, because if Day 1 were a lie, then Monday or Tuesday would have to be a truth day.

So I’m going to conclude with Tuesday. I’m not sure why the first run around didn’t conclude Tuesday, but it works as so:

Day 1 (Sunday): I lie on Monday or Tuesday — LIE (he tells the truth on Tuesday)
Day 2 (Monday): Today it’s either Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday — LIE (it’s Monday)
Day 3 (Tuesday): I lie on Wednesday and Friday — TRUTH (he does lie on Wed/Fri).

Hope this is correct, going to google it.

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Yay, I’m right!

Ugh… head hurts. Spent most of the weekend watching music tutorial videos, reading jazz theory books, getting frustrated at myself, and finally biting the bullet to turn in a Deep House loop that I was marginally pleased with. (I’m taking a Deep House course online)

I also spent the weekend doing one of my bi-annual (or tri-annual? quad?) room rearrangements. Saw this post on Lifehacker and it inspired me to de-clutter my room, and lower my desk (it’d been adjusted too high). Shit hit the fan (toilet flooded, and laziness settled in), so I didn’t really get my desk back up till about 3am last night (Saturday), and I spent about half of the day today (Sunday) working on my music project. So my “office room” is currently in half-disaster mode, my bed has about 2 weeks worth of old clothes I don’t wear anymore — but! I have a very aesthetically pleasing desk:

which is what really matters. Now I can (hopefully) comfortably zone out in front of my own computer, and not have to deal with finding power outlets and uncomfortable coffee shop tables and chairs. If I could only do something about my internet addiction…

Damnit… where was I.. I always digress. Oh yeah.. remembering stuff (no, that aside wasn’t meant to be ironic).

With all this reading/studying/skill-acquiring I’ve been doing recently, I’ve found myself approaching my brain-enhancements differently. On one hand, I can easily skim through a book and not remember specific details. Hell, I do it with movies all the time — Up was a movie (SPOILER ALERT–SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH) about a boy who hitchhiked with an old man whose wife passed away, and whose dream was to visit a South American waterfall/jungle. Man meets childhood hero, who turns out to be bad, and along the way makes 2 animal friends (this is Disney, after all), and eventually becomes the hero.

Do I remember much beyond that? No, not really.

On the other hand, I never really review my written notes. It helps me remember things, but maybe just in the short-term? Like in college—you listen to the professor, you read, you take notes, you do homework, you take a final—then forget everything. Do you remember your high school foreign language as well as you should?

So I’m thinking I could glean a lot more in a shorter period of time by just skimming over the books and stopping on those “A-Ha!” moments.

… I don’t know where I was going with this, but I’ve been debating how to study recently and keep myself focused. Basically, at the end of a month of studying, I have absorbed some instinct, but it comes so incrementally. I’m better at music, I’m better at photography, I’m better at — whatever. But ever-so-slightly. I’m not sure if this is just the way things go, and I’d like to speed it up.

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I don’t have a sheet next to me of “Everything I’ve Ever Learned” written on it — I just… know things, and do them. Absorbing what you’ve learned into your mind is a very, very strange process.

Series of photos depicting China. Most are pretty depressing (child labor, overcrowded living, poverty), but give good perspective on life. This one isn’t depressing:

Street side tailor making an instant repair on a skirt.

Page 1 (Survival), Page 2 (Relationships), Page 3 (Desires)

On a Mac, keyboard shortcuts:

Option + R = ®
Option + 2 = ™
Option + 3 = £
Option + 4 = ¢
Option + 5 = ∞
Option + 8 = •
Option + Shift + “-” = —
Option + Y = ¥
Option + “=” = ≠
Option + Shift + 8 = °
Option + Shift + K = 
Option + Shift + 2 = €

from xkcd.com

That’s not me, is it?

I have more than 4 blog posts! I’m not apologizing for lack of updates! (at least… not today)

Just got home from DC. I’m pooped. Must shower, sleep (hopefully in that order). It took me 3 days to acclimate myself to Eastern time. I better not lose this early-waking habit in 1 day.