Starting with a thesaurus, here is a list of words synonymous with “walk”.

stroll, saunter, amble, trudge, plod, dawdle, hike, tramp, tromp, slog, stomp, trek, march, stride, sashay, glide, troop, patrol, wander, ramble, tread, prowl, promenade, roam, traipse, stretch one’s legs, mosey, hoof it, perambulate.

Wanting a more general list, we brainstormed for other words. Some may be repeated and some may be made up.

sprint run jog stampede stomp waltz saunter swoop scuttle walk scamper to wheel strut glide creep crawl skip skate gallop trot hobble roll sneak patter stride leap hop bounce scurry skidaddle slither slide swim waddle scanter

I have three challenges for you.

1. At a party, play an improv game where you pick one of these words out of a hat and act out that type of … ambulation
2. Make a video of yourself ambulating in one of the above ways, post it to YouTube and put the link in the comments here.
3. Contribute to the list!

FINALLY!

Not much to say about this moment except that I’ve been dreaming about it for a year now and it’s finally happened.

I’m adding some text to make this more searchable, but the fun is my giddiness in the video.  I bought the Pygmy Coho kayak with the pontoons (ammas?) in Campbell River, BC, one day because I found it while I was in Victoria looking for a desk on Craigslist.  I took $1500 out in cash and jumped in a rental car (which they upgraded to an SUV for free, thank GOD, because I have no clue how I would have put all that stuff on top of a Neon) and drove 3 hours, just to see if I wanted the thing.  I handed the guy $1300 and took it home.

After using it as a kayak for a while, I sailed the rig it came with and decided it was mediocre at best.  I wanted a REAL sailing rig, with a jib, cable stays and a BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (You noticed her conspicuous absence in the video).  The necessary condition for BW is to have places for both of us to sit, so rather than wasting my efforts looking for BW, I installed benches.  I expect BW to appear shortly :D.

Long story short, I got a free sail, boarded with a shipwright for a few days, learnt to sail, learnt about rigs, learnt about “boat dollars” and learnt about the sailing bug.  Now I’m out of boat dollars, but I’ve got the bug and, fortunately, a sailboat (if you can call it that) as well!

If you want to know more about the boat, see this post about how I rigged it.  Incidentally, if you get into sailing, you’ll run into all kinds of people with extra gear to trade, sell or give away.  Everybody is friendly because they are all doing what they want to be doing :).

My dad, Ken Erickson, travels frequently to South and Central America to explore small towns and other places mostly untouched by tourists.  He brought me an ocelot skillfully and ornately carved out of a nut and painted from his 2008-2009 trip to Panama.  I was so impressed by the thing that I made an craft project out of it with my mom, Ester Tejeda.  I used a plastic box which contained candles, adding some rocks and dried grasses using white glue.  The rocks are loose inside the box, so I used a calligraphy pen to make a little sign to warn people that might pick it up.  The tiny wizard sitting on the rock is from Chile made from a eucalyptus nut.  Lastly, I suspect that at least one of the rocks was acquired abroad but I don’t remember now (one of them is volcanic, for example).

Tatamibari is a game published by Japanese game company, Nikoli.  We are given a grid and some of the squares contain a symbol; either + or - or |.  The player must partition the grid with line segments drawn on grid lines so that

• Each partition contains exactly one symbol.
• Every partition is rectangular.

• update: I left this condition out.  No four rectangular regions may meet

  (this is the tatami condition!)

• Partitions with a + are square shaped.
• Partitions with a - are wider than they are tall.

• Partitions with a

  are taller than they are wide.

Here is an example puzzle and solution:

Fun puzzle, right?

Here is the real question: How do you generate puzzles with solutions?

Take this one, for example, which obviously has no solution.

So we can’t just scatter the symbols onto the grid randomly.  As far as I know this problem is open:

What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for solvability of one of these puzzles?

And this one might be open too:

What is the hardness of finding a solution?

update:  I should point out that one can always construct a puzzle by partitioning into rectangles and inserting the appropriate symbols.

Rachel Peters is an artist, performer and animator and filmmaker.  Raised by bumblebees in an old abandoned mineshaft, Jack Rachel learned all of her trades as a court jester to the Queen Bee.  Now and then the Queen would get tired of a jester (or a couple) and have them "repurposed" (Yes, now I'm just making this up).  Initially repulsed by the procedure, Rachel eventually became fascinated by the way a few old, unwanted bees could be be transformed into brand new hilariously transformed into very entertaining Frankenstein bees!

After years of incubation (of the idea), Rachel has applied this idea to vintage toys and made these works of art available at Etsy and some new designs on her website.  These little (must they always be little?) critters are one-of-a-kind and up for adoption by any queen bee with about 25-100 bucks.

Warning:  Franken Toys may contain traces of barbies, Bugs, care bears, dinosaurs, Disney, embroidery, Etsy, Franken Toys, kittens, Looney Toons, monkeys, monsters, Mr. Potato Head, plush, puppies, second hand toys, Tigger, Winnie the Pooh.