Miscellaneous Monday: Mind Games

Mind Games 

I love mind games. Not the twisted psychological mind games played against the opposite sex in order to entice, seduce, and otherwise drive sanity from the opponent. Those I do not like. I do not like them Sam I... anyway.

No, I like actual mind games. One of my favorite sites is Lumosity.com. I am currently a "free" member, which doesn't get me much, but hey...it's something. (Hint: Should anyone reading this wish to purchase for me the lifetime membership for the cheap cheap price of $250.00 I would not be opposed).

But back to mind games. Here are two of my favorites; no, they do not involve manipulating candy and yes, they probably do qualify me as a bonifide nerd.

1: Liscence plate game

I'm sure many of you have heard of the license plate game. You try to find license plates from as many states as possible. This isn't that! (And evidently I have trouble spelling the word license, but I digress!) The issue with that game, my friends, is that unless you live somewhere that would HAVE numerous out-of-state license plates you are stuck with "I found [insert state], I found [insert same state], hey did we find [insert same state] yet. FAIL!

For this game you must find a license plate with three letters on it:

7ASN198

The goal is to figure out a word that uses those three letters, in that order (though it does not have to be contiguous) in a single word. Examples include

Astringent,    Asinine,    Asking

*For the record the ASN is in my license plate and the first time I saw it the first word that came to mind was Asinine. I have NO idea why, but that's the story.

But don't get caught up that the word has to begin with the first letter. Other examples could include

Passion,    Dashing,   or    Fashion 

Or if you want get REALLY complicated a word like: Capsizing 

There are numerous variations on how you play, as well as how you score. Some variations include

1. First letter must/may not be the first letter in the word (i.e. Asinine [must] or Passion [must not])
2. Last letter must/may not be the last letter in the word (i.e. Fashion [must] or Astringent [must not])
3.  NONE of the letters can be contiguous in the word (i.e. the only ASN word that words is capsizing)
4. Biggest word wins
5. Most words in X amount of time (good for plates that have easy combination.)

You will be amazed at how easy some combinations are that include letters you THINK will be hard (i.e. XPG becomes expressing) and how some simple letters just DON'T combine (i.e. AVJ or WUJ)

2. Clock Game (Yep, this one just makes me straight up dork!)

Okay the Clock Game is of my own invention and it is straight up OCD of me. The rule is simple; the game is HARD. Take the numbers on the clock and make a true equation *NOTE: You may not use the "does not equal sign"

Example: 12:38 (This is the one I figured out today)

So I must take 1, 2, & 3 and somehow (using each one only once, and in that order) make them = 8

First I try addition 1+2+3 = 6 (Mean nasty buzzing sound tells me I got it wrong)

Then I try multiplication 1*2*3 = 6 (Mean buzzing noise)

Okay, let's try combining symbols 1 + 2 * 3 = 7 (Closer, but mean buzzing noise again!)

Parenthesis maybe? (1 + 2) * 3 = 9 (DAMN!)

So now I have possibilities for 12:36, 12:37 & 12:39 but no 12:38... oh what to do what to do??

EXPONENTS! (And you thought you'd never use your advanced math!)

1 * 2(cubed [3]) = 8 

We have a winner!!!! 

Now go forth and be Brain Smart!