Rounds: Here.
Not much more to today's contestant chat, either, although we learn that Alan would like to go to space.
Roman gets a jump in the first letters round, but thereafter the contestants are matched on the words. Indeed, there's only one non-optimal round on those today, which is great stuff. This game hinges on the numbers, with Alan getting most of that lost ground back with the four large mix, and then some more as Roman's preferred balanced mix turns out not to Roman's advantage. The final numbers round could have narrowed the gap, but some confusion on Roman's part results in an invalid answer. It's still possible for either to win at the conundrum, but Alan sees it at the 24 second mark and advances to the semifinals with a 56 to 37 win.
I... had what felt like the worst game for a long time. Not so much on the score (although I think it matches the least I've scored this series) but because of opportunities missed that I would have normally expected to take. I've been talking about the contestants having final nerves, but I think there's far more evidence for me having those right now. I just edged out Roman by a point, but that was only due to an invalid answer that may even not have been so (see round 8), and was comfortably beaten by Alan. Bother.
As usual, details after the jump.
Showing posts with label Roman Turkiewicz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roman Turkiewicz. Show all posts
Friday, 2 March 2012
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Ep 393: Roman Turkiewicz, Norm Do (February 29, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
Roman is learning to play the tabla (Indian drums). He says it is quite difficult, and there's actually a language associated with the drumming -- the beats have their own letters and phrases associated to them. (These are mentioned in the link above.)
Tonight's challenger is mathematician Norm Do. Richard asks what Norm is researching, and Norm doesn't really give an answer; he just says "pure mathematics". That's like an author being asked what they write and responding with "books". A more detailed answer (courtesy of his webpage) is that he studies geometry and topology, and in particular moduli spaces of curves. Not that this is necessarily more informative to the layperson, but I think he could have made a brief description of topology and that would have worked much better.
There's some tough mixes tonight, particularly in the letters. Norm starts out with a good word to get ahead, and extends his lead in each of the numbers rounds. Roman just isn't able to outdo him at all, and is beaten to the conundrum for a change. That gives Norm a comprehensive victory, 67 to 16.
I felt pretty poorly about my performance, starting out by falling behind in the first round. I managed to claw my way back to a lead but was never comfortable, and missed a couple of chances to seal it before the conundrum. In the end I got to it first, but it was a wobbly win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Roman is learning to play the tabla (Indian drums). He says it is quite difficult, and there's actually a language associated with the drumming -- the beats have their own letters and phrases associated to them. (These are mentioned in the link above.)
Tonight's challenger is mathematician Norm Do. Richard asks what Norm is researching, and Norm doesn't really give an answer; he just says "pure mathematics". That's like an author being asked what they write and responding with "books". A more detailed answer (courtesy of his webpage) is that he studies geometry and topology, and in particular moduli spaces of curves. Not that this is necessarily more informative to the layperson, but I think he could have made a brief description of topology and that would have worked much better.
There's some tough mixes tonight, particularly in the letters. Norm starts out with a good word to get ahead, and extends his lead in each of the numbers rounds. Roman just isn't able to outdo him at all, and is beaten to the conundrum for a change. That gives Norm a comprehensive victory, 67 to 16.
I felt pretty poorly about my performance, starting out by falling behind in the first round. I managed to claw my way back to a lead but was never comfortable, and missed a couple of chances to seal it before the conundrum. In the end I got to it first, but it was a wobbly win.
As usual, details after the jump.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Ep 392: Roman Turkiewicz, Linda Bennett (February 28, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
This is Roman's fourth night, and Richard asks him if he has any techniques for the game. Roman says that for the letters rounds he likes to start with a consonant and then try and space it out with vowels and consonants in equal measure. He finds that makes the words fall into place better for him.
Tonight's challenger is Linda Bennett, a senior business analyst at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Linda has learned to count cards when playing blackjack to the extent that she is quite restricted in what the Melbourne casinos allow her to do. (Minimum bet, only one box at a time.)
Roman finds some good words tonight, getting off to a flying start. Aided by an invalid word from Linda, his advantage grows to 22 points at the halfway mark. Linda manages to get some back in the next numbers round but thereafter they match, with neither solving the final numbers round or the conundrum; Roman wins again, 45 to 33.
I had a costly miss in the third letters round, and dropped the conundrum also -- it was a tough one tonight! Everything else went well, including solving a numbers round that eluded Lily, and I had a comfortable win. Just one match left before the finals start...
As usual, details after the jump.
This is Roman's fourth night, and Richard asks him if he has any techniques for the game. Roman says that for the letters rounds he likes to start with a consonant and then try and space it out with vowels and consonants in equal measure. He finds that makes the words fall into place better for him.
Tonight's challenger is Linda Bennett, a senior business analyst at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Linda has learned to count cards when playing blackjack to the extent that she is quite restricted in what the Melbourne casinos allow her to do. (Minimum bet, only one box at a time.)
Roman finds some good words tonight, getting off to a flying start. Aided by an invalid word from Linda, his advantage grows to 22 points at the halfway mark. Linda manages to get some back in the next numbers round but thereafter they match, with neither solving the final numbers round or the conundrum; Roman wins again, 45 to 33.
I had a costly miss in the third letters round, and dropped the conundrum also -- it was a tough one tonight! Everything else went well, including solving a numbers round that eluded Lily, and I had a comfortable win. Just one match left before the finals start...
As usual, details after the jump.
Ep 391: Roman Turkiewicz, Craig Woodward (February 27, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
Richard mentions that Roman has a couple of big ambitions. The first is that Roman would like to be a chess champion one day. He's starting from basic levels, apparently, so I'd imagine it would take some time to get there. Roman's other ambition is to write a symphony.
Tonight's challenger is Craig Woodward, a mathematics and chemistry teacher. Before he was a teacher he was a religious minister. Richard describes this as quite a transition, but Craig notes that most of his focus as a minister was on youth and young adults, so he doesn't feel it was that big of a jump to high school teaching. The same sort of clientele, just teaching them different things.
Over the course of 2009, Craig was interviewed a few times for ABC radio about his teaching. You can listen to those conversations here.
There's some tricky letter mixes tonight; Roman manages slightly the better of them to gain twelve points there. Craig has a chance to get some of them back in the numbers rounds, but overlooks an easily-correctable mistake and cannot do so. Roman is safe going into the conundrum and solves it quickly to increase the margin, winning 57 to 35.
I felt out of form tonight, and made some poor decisions in both letters and numbers rounds. I was way off the pace on the conundrum, needing almost two minutes before I finally saw the answer. But I'd done enough to take the win, to my relief.
As usual, details after the jump.
Richard mentions that Roman has a couple of big ambitions. The first is that Roman would like to be a chess champion one day. He's starting from basic levels, apparently, so I'd imagine it would take some time to get there. Roman's other ambition is to write a symphony.
Tonight's challenger is Craig Woodward, a mathematics and chemistry teacher. Before he was a teacher he was a religious minister. Richard describes this as quite a transition, but Craig notes that most of his focus as a minister was on youth and young adults, so he doesn't feel it was that big of a jump to high school teaching. The same sort of clientele, just teaching them different things.
Over the course of 2009, Craig was interviewed a few times for ABC radio about his teaching. You can listen to those conversations here.
There's some tricky letter mixes tonight; Roman manages slightly the better of them to gain twelve points there. Craig has a chance to get some of them back in the numbers rounds, but overlooks an easily-correctable mistake and cannot do so. Roman is safe going into the conundrum and solves it quickly to increase the margin, winning 57 to 35.
I felt out of form tonight, and made some poor decisions in both letters and numbers rounds. I was way off the pace on the conundrum, needing almost two minutes before I finally saw the answer. But I'd done enough to take the win, to my relief.
As usual, details after the jump.
Friday, 24 February 2012
Ep 390: Roman Turkiewicz, Natalie Simmons (February 24, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
Richard asks Roman if he gets stage fright before his acting performances. Roman admits that he does a little, but he uses it to his advantage by channelling the energy into his character, enabling him to get off to a good start.
Tonight's challenger is Natalie Simmons, a horticulture student and keen gardener. She has loved gardens for her whole life, and has visited some great ones throughout the world. Natalie recently visited England and saw some National Trust gardens that she says were really beautiful; she also saw some lovely gardens in California last year, and New York. But a few of the gardens that she loves the most are in Melbourne, such as the Heide garden at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, or Rippon Lea.
There's some good back-and-forth from the contestants, together with a mutual invalid word that I have some sympathy for. Natalie has just the better of it, and takes a slender one point lead to the critical calculation. Unfortunately for her she is not able to take advantage of the opportunity presented, and Roman reclaims the lead. He seals the win with another very fast solution to the conundrum, winning 44 to 28.
I did reasonably well, although I ran out of time while trying to write down one eight and overlooked another that I should have seen. A tricky numbers round eluded everyone but I think it was findable; I'd half-tried the approach that Lily later came up with and just not paid enough attention. Bother. Against that, my conundrum speed was excellent tonight (and it needed to be in order to beat Roman to it), and I finished just three points behind the David and Lily combination.
As usual, details after the break.
Richard asks Roman if he gets stage fright before his acting performances. Roman admits that he does a little, but he uses it to his advantage by channelling the energy into his character, enabling him to get off to a good start.
Tonight's challenger is Natalie Simmons, a horticulture student and keen gardener. She has loved gardens for her whole life, and has visited some great ones throughout the world. Natalie recently visited England and saw some National Trust gardens that she says were really beautiful; she also saw some lovely gardens in California last year, and New York. But a few of the gardens that she loves the most are in Melbourne, such as the Heide garden at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, or Rippon Lea.
There's some good back-and-forth from the contestants, together with a mutual invalid word that I have some sympathy for. Natalie has just the better of it, and takes a slender one point lead to the critical calculation. Unfortunately for her she is not able to take advantage of the opportunity presented, and Roman reclaims the lead. He seals the win with another very fast solution to the conundrum, winning 44 to 28.
I did reasonably well, although I ran out of time while trying to write down one eight and overlooked another that I should have seen. A tricky numbers round eluded everyone but I think it was findable; I'd half-tried the approach that Lily later came up with and just not paid enough attention. Bother. Against that, my conundrum speed was excellent tonight (and it needed to be in order to beat Roman to it), and I finished just three points behind the David and Lily combination.
As usual, details after the break.
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Ep 389: Katie Richer, Roman Turkiewicz (February 23, 2012)
Rounds: Here.
Katie likes to grow heirloom varieties of vegetables, or at least is trying to -- she's only just put together her garden. She says that there is a rather interesting variety of broccoli called Romanesco broccoli that she likes to think of as fractal broccoli. And... wow, I can certainly see why -- that is just amazing! She also mentions a variety of tomato called the reisetomate, which is a "big knobbly tomato that looks absolutely nothing like a tomato"; she has the impression that it may taste better than standard supermarket tomatoes.
Tonight's challenger is Roman Turkiewicz, an administrator and actor. Richard asks about Roman's favourite roles, and Roman singles out playing Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. That was with a young company that liked to reinterpret Shakespeare's plays for modern audiences. It was a modern-language interpretation of the original text, in this instance.
Roman does pretty well on the letters, while Katie has some good words but really needed some less-good-but-longer ones. Honours are mostly even on the numbers, but one invalid solution from her sees Roman's lead grow, and he is safe at the end of round 7. Roman solves the conundrum quickly to seal the win in emphatic style, 68 to 31.
This was definitely one of my better games, ending up only two points off optimal. Coupled with solving the conundrum very fast tonight that yields an even more emphatic win for me. It's a good feeling after a couple of weeks of games where I have generally felt that I could have easily done better.
As usual, details after the jump.
Katie likes to grow heirloom varieties of vegetables, or at least is trying to -- she's only just put together her garden. She says that there is a rather interesting variety of broccoli called Romanesco broccoli that she likes to think of as fractal broccoli. And... wow, I can certainly see why -- that is just amazing! She also mentions a variety of tomato called the reisetomate, which is a "big knobbly tomato that looks absolutely nothing like a tomato"; she has the impression that it may taste better than standard supermarket tomatoes.
Tonight's challenger is Roman Turkiewicz, an administrator and actor. Richard asks about Roman's favourite roles, and Roman singles out playing Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. That was with a young company that liked to reinterpret Shakespeare's plays for modern audiences. It was a modern-language interpretation of the original text, in this instance.
Roman does pretty well on the letters, while Katie has some good words but really needed some less-good-but-longer ones. Honours are mostly even on the numbers, but one invalid solution from her sees Roman's lead grow, and he is safe at the end of round 7. Roman solves the conundrum quickly to seal the win in emphatic style, 68 to 31.
This was definitely one of my better games, ending up only two points off optimal. Coupled with solving the conundrum very fast tonight that yields an even more emphatic win for me. It's a good feeling after a couple of weeks of games where I have generally felt that I could have easily done better.
As usual, details after the jump.
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