The Moonlighting Student

Puzzle Piece

December 29th, 2009 7:06 am —  14 views

It’s early morning and I’m up with my cat, keeping him company. He’s hungry but I can’t feed him until after his visit to the vet today. I don’t like it any more than him. He paces, rubs against my feet, declaring his need for attention and food.

Amidst the blizzard like conditions of yesterday, we searched valiantly for a vehicle that will last ten years, has enough room for my head and legs, ample cargo space, and fits in our garage. We drove two vehicles home from the dealer to find out they’re too long.

Over the last few days W and I solved a 7501 piece puzzle. I haven’t spent time solving a picture puzzle for ages. W did most of it, sitting at the table in silence with a cup of coffee next to her. I set my camera on a tripod and took pictures at various times while it came together. I’m hoping to put them together in a time-stop animation.

The process of solving a puzzle was interesting and made me think about how the approach to puzzle solving lends itself to so many situations. It requires certain attention and focus. Demands intense study of all pieces. Breakthroughs comes by studying patterns, shapes, relationships, etc., from all the pieces. There’s a lot of cognitive processing involved.

In similar way to putting pieces of a puzzle together, W and I sat on our couch last night and worked on the new vehicle puzzle together. With an HGTV show in the background and our laptops, we worked collaboratively in a Google spreadsheet putting together a table showing comparative vehicle lengths, head room, leg room, etc. She was aghast at how nerdy it was2. But convenience and ease of use is undeniable.

Winter semester starts two weeks from today with an 8:30 AM class on introductory statistics and data analysis. I’m bracing myself for what is sure to be unrelenting and intense sessions of complex puzzle solving over the next 15 weeks. My brain will be better for it, it hopes.

Image: The missing piece of the puzzle, still missing. Sometimes that happens.

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  1. It was actually 749…note the missing piece. And a corner of all things. [↩]
  2. Though later admitted she had the same idea. [↩]

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One Response to “Puzzle Piece”

  1. Dawn on January 1st, 2010 10:52 am

    Happy New Year Spike! I hope this year will be the best and most exciting ever for you!

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