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Archive for 2016

Serpentomino Puzzles for Christmas

Tuesday, December 13th, 2016

There’s a snake in my inbox! Bulgarian puzzle constructor Galen Ivanov sent me two collections of interesting new puzzles, Serpentominos, of his own design, which I’m passing on to you, as a Krazydad Christmas present. These puzzles share some characteristics with Pentominos, Dominos and similar mathematical recreations, and are quite different from the Sudoku and […]

Celebrity Prayer Candle Rankings, 2016

Saturday, December 10th, 2016

Celebrity rankings, based on the number of prayer candles for sale on Etsy, 2016 EDITION 1. David Bowie 2. Drake 3. Prince Britney Spears Adele 4. Virgin Mary Lana Del Rey Krampus Dolly Parton Angel 5. Rihanna Neil deGrasse Tyson Marilyn Monroe Leonardo DiCaprio Kim Kardashian Kanye West Hillary Clinton 6. Zombie Golden Girls Tina […]

Weight loss recipes

Friday, December 2nd, 2016

So I’m still down about 65 pounds, currently fluctuation between 179 and 183 lbs most days. I survived Thanksgiving and my birthday, both in near proximity, gaining and losing about 4 lbs over a week. A lot of folks have asked “what plan I’m on”. I’m not really on a plan, just a system of […]

Tree Growing

Saturday, October 8th, 2016

My surname, Bumgardner, which comes in a variety of spellings (Bumgarner, Baumgartner, Burgrade (!), Bungarner, Baumgart, and so on) means “Tree Grower” or “Orchard Farmer”. I’ve known this for a long time, and have often taken some delight that my profession, which involves weaving and growing elaborate data structures, is a form of tree growing. […]

Befores and Afters

Tuesday, September 27th, 2016

This is one of a series of posts about my health/fitness journey. The first one is here. Part 6. Befores and Afters I promised a blog entry on the whole “Endomorph/Ectomorph” thing and it’s coming, but the research is taking me to some interesting places, and it’s gonna take a while to complete, plus I’m […]

Diet Nonsense

Sunday, September 11th, 2016

This is one of a series of posts about my health/fitness journey. The first one is here. Part 5. Diet Nonsense Of all the aspects of health and fitness, I believe the most controversial is what we put in our mouths. There is just a huge amount of contradictory beliefs out there about food, and […]

Nerdstrong, part 2

Saturday, September 10th, 2016

This is one of a series of posts about my health/fitness journey. The first one is here. Part 4. Nerdstrong (part 2) The name itself pretty much sold me. These guys are very good at branding. I only had to read a few reviews to understand that I was the target audience. Nerdstrong is a […]

Nerdstrong, part 1

Saturday, September 10th, 2016

This is one of a series of posts about my health/fitness journey. The first one is here. Part 4. Nerdstrong (part 1) Before this year, the thought of going to a gym was akin to the thought of singing “Oklahoma!” to the clerk at the local 7-Eleven. It wasn’t in the cards. So was the […]

Old Age Superpowers

Friday, September 9th, 2016

This is one of a series of posts about my health/fitness journey. The first one is here. Part 3: Old Age Superpowers At fifty three, there’s a lot of things I can point to in myself that aren’t what they used to be. My reflexes are slower. My hearing is worse. My knees are fucked […]

The Change

Friday, September 9th, 2016

This is one of a series of posts about my health/fitness journey. The first one is here. Part 2: The Change When I was obsessed with Cryptography, I learned about this cool photo. It was on the desk of William F. Friedman who ran a government agency that we now call the N.S.A. In the […]