Making a deer drag (not just for deer)

In The Total Outdoorsman Guide by T. Edward Nickens, the 244th item in the guide is about making a drag with which one can move more weight around without having to work very much. The materials the guide says to use is 2 black plastic pallet sheets, a grommet tool, 20 feet of parachute cord, and 10 feet of drag rope. For the sake of convenience, I used a pre-made tarp rather than using the grommet tool to connect the two pallet sheets together to make my own. Some other uses for this include moving large amounts of wood for a fire or just out of the way, moving a person if they have to be moved but can't on their own, and more that people other than myself have probably thought up. Just a extra note, you don't have to use parachute cord or drag rope, really any rope will work so long as 1. it fits in the grommets, and 2. the rope is strong enough for what you want to drag. The last picture is of me dragging my younger brother around in the drag that I made.

Works Cited: 

T. Edward Nickens, The Total Outdoorsman Guide,. Weldon Owen Inc. 2013

Chocolate Chips: It's good enough

My time in the kitchen has come to a close. I learned a lot and I didn't burn down the house. I decided to make chocolate chip cookies as my farewell and i think they turned out okay. Following from the recipe I used "1/2 cup of shortening and 1/2 cup of butter" (Darling 109) start the process of making the cookies. Next, I stirred in flour, sugar, packed brown sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips (Darling 109). I then put it in the oven which I set at 375 and I left them in there for 8 minutes. After they cooled I tried them and they tasted good. I was surprised they were so good considering they had shortening in it.

How chocolate filled so you like your cookies? What are your favorite types of cookies?

 Darling, Jennifer. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Des Moines, IA: Meredith, 1989. Print.

Solving a 5x5 Rubik's Cube

In my final post, I will be talking about and talking about how to solve the 5x5 Rubik's Cube. This is the most overwhelming cube yet, with a whopping 2.8 x 10^72, or 280 trevigintillion possible configurations with once again, only 1 of those configurations being a solved cube(Harris 121).

Along with the 2x2 and the 4x4, experience and knowledge of the 3x3 cube can greatly help in learning this cube, and how to solve it. Harris agrees, "As with the 4x4x4 solution, this solution is geared toward cubers who already have some experience with the 3x3x3, have learned a solution or figured it out on their own, and can solve it from memory without any problems(Harris 121).

Thank you for reading all of my blog posts this quarter, and I hope throughout these 5 posts, if not helping you I have at least entertained you and potentially given you inspiration to try and enter the puzzling world of Rubik's Cubes.




Question: Have you every heard of and/or tried solving a 5x5 Rubik's Cube? If so how difficult was it, and how much did your knowledge of the 3x3 help you with solving it?

Harris, Dan. Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-follow, Step-by-step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles. New York: Sterling Pub., 2008. Print.

Solving a 4x4 Rubik's Cube

In this post I will be talking about the 4x4 Rubik's Cube and how to solve this cube. Once again, like the 2x2 Rubik's Cube, if you have already mastered and understood the 2x2 cube, learning how to solve this cube will be a lot easier. Harris agrees with this idea, "If you are a complete novice to cubing, you may be able to follow the solution described in this section, but you will find it hard going compared with those who have experience already with the standard Rubik's Cube" (Harris 100.)

This may seem overwhelming at first especially due to the fact that; the 4x4 Rubik's cube has an astonishing 7.4 quattuordecillion possible positions with only one of those being the solved position(Harris 100). Due to this fact and also it having a 2x2 center instead of a 1x1 center, these are both reasons why people could get overwhelmed by the cube. However, if you use your knowledge of the 3x3 cube and the algorithms and tricks you learned for that cube, learning and understanding the 4x4 cube will be much easier.

Once you finally learn however, you will be amazed with what you have accomplished. Also, and added bonus is this cube will help(along with the other 2), with learning how to solve even more complicated cubes such as the 5x5 Rubik's Cube.

Question: Have you every heard of and/or tried solving a 4x4 Rubik's Cube? If so how difficult was it, and how much did your knowledge of the 3x3 help you with solving it?

Harris, Dan. Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-follow, Step-by-step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles. New York: Sterling Pub., 2008. Print.

practice

Misty Copeland says that "Dance isn't only an exercise for the body it is also an exercise for the mind." Being a dancer you have to remember a number of dances at a time. but while you are trying to learn one thing you have to maintain another. misty says that there is an easy way to maintain things and the only answer to that is to practice and ask questions.

this goes for anything really if you practice then it will stick in your head and if your confused about it then you should probably ask questions about it. if you ever want to get better you can't just think that it will magically happy. Misty said that when she first started she didn't have much motivation but it was something she really liked doing and was willing to put in the work to make her dream come true. she asked questions when she wasn't sure about something and whenever she got the chance she would practice.

Do you practice whatever you do on a daily basis?

Shortening your Speed-Solving Time

In this blog post, I will be talking once again about the 3x3 Rubik's Cube, however this time I will be talking about shortening your time, and getting faster, instead of just solving it. Dan Harris starts talking about speedcubing and decreasing your time when speedcubing. One way to accomplish a faster time is just by solving the cube over and over and over again. This will improve your muscle memory and the more you solve it the better and faster you will be.

Dan Harris talks about another way to drastically improve your time; this is by how you solve it. Harris emphasizes this when he says, "In this chapter I present a wealth of information about an advanced speecubing method known as the CFOP system, which is the system I currently use for speedcubing. This method has allowed me to set personal-best average times of under 15 seconds" (Harris 40). This method was created and invented by Jessica Fridrich of the Czech Republic and is still used today in speedsolving. It is a very efficient way to solve the cube, and using this method, speedcubers, on average, can solve the cube in under 20 seconds.

This may seem new and overwhelming to all of the sudden learn a new way to solve the cube, but if you have already mastered other ways, the algorithms, and the muscle memory will kick in eventually. As Harris stated, each step of the new method requires more memorization than any step in the beginner's method, but if you learn it step by step, you will be familiar with most, maybe all of the algorithms(Harris 40). This is due to the fact that is has the sequence in a sense as the beginner's method however it takes out multiple steps for efficiency.




Question: If you have tried solving a Rubik's Cube, what was your fastest time, and if you wanted to improve it, how much practice did you have to do?

Harris, Dan. Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-follow, Step-by-step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles. New York: Sterling Pub., 2008. Print.

Where to Fish

When ice is melting, ponds and small lakes are grate places to fish.  Because of shallow depths of water the fish mainly trout are rarely far away from the shore.  But before you pick a spot and start casting out you need to make sure you know how to look for the ideal location that will increase your odds of catching a fish even more.

According to The Essential Fishing Handbook “The best spot to catch a variety of fish is in creeks because of their spawning habitats and that’s where they lay their eggs.” (Cermele 54) I would have to agree with him because from my experience when fishing salmon.  My dad and I have caught the most when in creeks and by the shallow banks.

Considering that, I am mostly a bass angler I prefer to fish in weedbeds because that is where most of the bass like to hang out because of the shade caused by all the plants. Another good place I like to fish is underneath docks and by broken Boulders in the water.

Where do you like to fish and why?

Works Cited

Cermele Joe, The Essential Fishing Handbook,. weldonown, 2016