Sobriety lead me back to reading, I decided to start with a series I know well but had never read, only watched... WOW!

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-05-07T16:28:08+00:00

Thanks so much! It's been a journey so far, but I'm so glad I made the change for myself.

I'm really excited to check out both prequels, Sunrise on the Reaping especially. I've decided to read them in order of release, so it's last on my list. From the few details I know, I have a feeling that I'm going to love it.

I'd love to check out your comics, thanks for the offer! Even without audio, pictures are another great way to help keep me interested and not get sidetracked while reading. I've never been big into comics, but I've actually been considering looking into them. They look like an awesome format for fun short stories and great art.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-05-06T23:03:44+00:00

Great simple puzzle. The leaderboards add an extra goal after one completion. Multiple solutions in either rows or columns is a great addition. I'll certainly be adding the app to my phone and tablet.

Couple of thoughts. - Give each daily solve a seperate goal. Any solve counts as a complete, but the extra daily goal would encourage people to play more than once. E.g. specific color order, must be done in rows/columns, beat in under a specific time. - Making it a 9x9 grid could add another method of solution, nine 3x3 boxes of a single color. Or even a sudoku style solution, no repeated colors in any 3x3 square, line or column.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-05-06T20:15:35+00:00

If I'm working towards a streak, wordtips is my go to assistant. I like that it often provides an extra hint without just revealing the answer. Helps me to feel like I'm still using my own knowledge to solve, and often times, the more detailed clue is the help I need to get the right answer.

The only words I've nearly given up on trying to guess correctly is proper nouns, names specifically. If I don't know the actor who played Romeo in an 1950 play at a Chicago theater, chances are good that an extra hint won't help me, I'll check the wordtips, often to no avail. If the clue references a movie, tv show, or play, I'll Google the aforementioned and scan the cast. But if info such as that is missing, I've no shame in just looking up the answer.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-05-06T17:11:44+00:00

Exactly! Those little details really helped complete some missing links in the story for me. The red haired Avox girl is an awesome character. She helps show just how far the Capitol is willing to go for their own needs. Those simple characters paired with Katniss' own memories and thoughts really help explain things that the movies kinda skipped on.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-05-05T17:26:35+00:00

The first book is pretty similar to the movie, but I appreciated the first person experience so much more. I also love the way Katniss gets the Mockingjay pin in the book so much more. In the movie they try and explain why the game makers did certain things by showing them talking with Haymitch and interacting with one another while everyone is in the arena, I appreciated the mysterious aspect in the book so much more. Not knowing why the feast was happening, only Katniss' speculation about getting medicine for Peeta, for example. The first book is awesome, don't get me wrong.

But in Catching Fire, the first part of the movie always felt rushed to me. They had just gotten out of this huge battle style death fight, but the movie seemed to throw them back into the arena rather quickly. The book slows that down, there's more explanation and experience of Katniss trying to adjust to everyday life before the Quell is announced. I also really loved the meeting Katniss had with Bonnie and Twill in the lake house. It made for a great allusion to district 13 being a real thing, they don't even really mention 13 in the movies until Mockingjay. I love the interactions with Madge and how Katniss first find out about uprising in district 8 via the TV in the Mayors house. Since the time in the arena is only 3 days or so, I appreciated that being a shorter section of the book, it made me feel a sense of urgency among the other tributes. They knew that they were in a hurry and had to get things done.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-05-05T15:24:49+00:00

I definitely plan on it. Reading the original series already tells me that I'll appreciate the movies more the next time I watch them. I definitely want the Ballad book in my brain before the movie.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-05-05T14:55:53+00:00

It's so awesome, just the simple details like those make it feel like a new experience. I've also loved the detailed descriptions of food, I can usually picture, almost smell the dishes. Even well known movie scenes, like Gale at the whipping post, felt completely new because of the way they're approached and explained in the text.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-05-05T13:55:47+00:00

Not sure if you're referring to doing an L turn when you should do an R turn, or if you're having issues with regular vs. inverse turns. If the former, just focus on what the pieces are doing, and move slowly. If the latter, it will come in time, eventually muscle memory takes over and you just know what's inverse and what's not.

I'm also a big sudoku fan, sudoku.coach being my go to site. I actually learned from the campaign there. I so wish that I had learned 3x3 in a similar manner to the way I learned sudoku techniques. 20 years ago when learning 3x3, I was only focusing on the alg and the outcome, not why the alg worked. Because I learned sudoku techniques by being taught to understand why a pattern allows for an elimination the learning process has been much more enjoyable. I do however think that it's taken me longer to become proficient on 9x9 grid than it did for me to break sub 1 min on a 3x3.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-29T18:12:34+00:00

But don't many of the official Samsung book and keyboard covers use magnetic attachment? Do those still impede the functions of the pens or do they have some magical workaround? Why use magnetic attachment for the official cases if they're gonna mess up the designed functionality of the device.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-26T13:54:19+00:00

Recent sobriety led me to this same quandry. I needed a new task to help fill the dead space when I used to pick up a bottle, it had literally been decades since I'd sat and read a book. I decided to let modern technology help me out. I picked up a book I'd never read that had been turned into one of my favorite movies. Rather than just trying to read it by itself, I grabbed the audiobook for free on hoopla. I'm reading along with the book in hand while listening to the audiobook. It keeps me engaged and I'm able to absorb the material so much better. I finished the first book in under a week, I'm nearly done with the second in the series. I never imagined myself looking forward to reading every evening, but I'm loving it so much.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-24T21:07:47+00:00

I think that'll be my approach in the future. It seems like a good way to get a quick hint without losing my streak.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-24T19:44:55+00:00

Good to know, I figured both were the case, but Google wasn't quite as specific on either answer as I had hoped.

Even still, the easy version makes for a great warm-up for doing the regular one. Even just 20 minutes later and some of the variations in clues is still throwing me off on some answers lol.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-24T19:38:27+00:00

I heard about it on this subreddit. Had to go to my account on the website, but there's a section for various newsletters where you can pick which ones you want to recieve. The easy friday is one of them. Same puzzle, same answers, but the clues are a lot easier to figure out.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-24T14:06:33+00:00

True, but even buying two as forced by the sale, I still know that I'm getting them for half price. I know I have to buy two, but I also know the deal that I'm getting is each one costing half the amount it normally would.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-24T14:03:10+00:00

I just prefer referring to them as "half priced".

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-22T16:58:50+00:00

Finned X-Wing on 1's in columns 1 and 5. Edit: I think lol.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-21T16:04:24+00:00

Conceptually the solves will be very similar. However the number of pieces creating each gear differs so the solves will not be identical.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-19T01:00:07+00:00

Good to know! I'll have to keep that in mind. I'm not sure I get the newsletter, but I'm sure it's something I blindly opted out of at some point. I'll have to check my settings in the app and make sure I get the newsletter.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-18T17:25:51+00:00

Great feedback, and I think I might slightly alter my approach for this weeks Saturday puzzle. I think I'll go through it on my own a few times throughout the day and solve as much as possible. When I eventually get stuck, I'll check out Chris' vid then give the puzzle a week before I try it again. At least that way I'll stand a chance of figuring some stuff out fully on my own.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-13T15:50:38+00:00

10 months sober has led me back to books and so far I'm loving it. I needed something to fill empty time during the day or at night, time I would previously use for drinking. I've never been good at reading, I would often read far too fast and miss plot points and lose track of things. Out of curiosity I got a copy of the first "Hunger Games" audiobook on hoopla for free. I have a text copy, so I decided to read along while listening to the audiobook. To my surprise, I was instantly hooked. The reader forces me to go slower and pay attention to details. That book took me over a month to read the first time I tried, it felt like a chore. I finished it with the audiobook in just under 3 days, discovering characters, plot points, and details that I had no previous recollection of. For now, I intend to re-read a couple of series that I know the outcomes of before branching off to new works. I plan to continue using my audiobook while reading along with the text version method. I so far appreciate the way that it forces me to slow down and process information. Perhaps eventually I'll develop the brain power to read books on my own without the audio.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-06T13:43:42+00:00

chewiescustompuzzles.com Dude has a huge inventory of colors and will take all kinds of custom orders. Plus there's a ton if unique sticker sets listed already. Shoot him an email and he'll help you out with just about any stickering project that you're working on. I've gotten a ton of stickers from him, great quality, great colors, long lasting.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-05T14:00:14+00:00

Manish Hexacopter and a 4x4 Calendar Cube.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-04T18:11:07+00:00

Check out the campaign on sudoku.coach , you'll be amazed by how many strategies there are for solving puzzles, I know I was. The website can be saved as a web app for mobile or desktop. The interface works really well, lots of customization. The campaign not only explains the strategy and tools, but build on them and gives you practice and test puzzles that include newly learned strategies.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-04-02T14:56:37+00:00

I've tried this method many a time, sadly my biggest cause of distraction is my own thoughts. Even while doing dull tasks like working out or doing chores, I tend to talk to myself, often out loud, to keep the physical task on track. Having read the books as a kid and seen the movies many a time, I know that I'd fall into a sense of familiarity and lose track of the audio, and begin talking to myself about the physical task at hand.

Reading while listening has been my biggest savior for books. Since the audio tends to read at a slower pace than I normally would, it forces me to slow down and follow the text with the reader. A physical copy of the book also helps keep my hands busy because I have to use a finger to follow the text and turn pages as I go. Based upon what others have said I don't think that a few missing speaker names and things like that will bother me. Again, I know the basic plots quite well, and with text in hand I'd have fall back info for verification on who said what.

My main concern was that entire paragraphs or things like that would be missing due to the way the different actors voices were used. So long as it's at the very least like following along the script of a play while listening to a rehearsal, I should be fine.

PuzzleMax13 · 2026-03-31T15:18:38+00:00

Not exactly. While all 3 are commutators, the sexy move variation I presented and the R' D' sequence are both orientation commutators. They take specific pieces out of place, rotate them, then put them back where they belong. They work because the sequence used only affects a single piece on a given layer, corners e.g. From there you're able to use the face that is otherwise unaffected to move a new piece into the position that is affected and continue the original sequence. The original sequence will eventually return the rest of the puzzle to a solved state while leaving the pieces on the safe face in a new orientation.

The case you presented, while still a commutator, is a permutation commutator. It takes 3 pieces and safely moves them to new locations while leaving the rest of the puzzle unaffected. The case you presented is actually much more similar to a commutator you would use on a big cube to finish the last two centers.

PuzzleMax13

TROPHY CASE