Yordi - A Lifelong Journey of Growth
Yordi - A Lifelong Journey of Growth
Yordi
My name is Yordi Verkroost, a computer science teacher and athletics coach.
Latest Posts
Running is way easier after the first five minutes. Writing only really gets started after the first few sentences have found their way onto the paper. Cooking a meal becomes a meditative pastime when you allow it. You’ll only wake up...
We have a popular end-of-year music list in the Netherlands, called the Top 2000. It's a user-driven list of the best two thousands songs ever made, at least if it was up to the average of the users who listen to the radio station that...
Most of the time, Santa Claus is a warm-hearted person, friendly to everyone around him, handing out gifts left and right. He's the man you can count on, the one who's always punctual, always there to bring you a joyous Christmas. Except...
As I walk through the countryside with grass on one side and a babbling brook on the other I look into the distance and I wonder if Vincent saw the same as me: a church and sunlight all around. I wonder but I can imagine it.
Advent of Code has become a yearly thing for me. It’s a way to keep my algorithmic and data structure skills up, and something I look forward to every December. Over the years, I’ve used it to learn a new programming language: I’ve done...
We've made it! The North Pole has been decorated and Advent of Code 2025 is finished. But not before telling you something about what feels like the most dirty solution for a puzzle ever. Check out my full solution for day 12 at GitHub....
Only two more days of Advent of Code this year, starting with today, day 11. Finally a year where I don't have to program during Christmas, given that I solve tomorrow's puzzle in twelve days or less. We'll see what mister Wastl has in...
Party people! We're back for day 10 of Advent of Code. And I've got to say: thank God for Python libraries. Again. Why, you say? Well, let's take a look. Check out my full solution for day 10 at GitHub. We've entered the Elves' factory...
Number 9, turn me on dead man! And... grids again. While the first part of today's puzzle is easy to implement, the second part got me down the rabbit hole of the shapely library, GEOS computational geometry, DE-9IM matrices, ray-casting...
Ah yes, there it is. The 3D-grid. I was wondering when it would reappear from the depths of the Advent of Code caves. Prepare for battle. Check out my full solution for day 8 at GitHub. Part oneWe are given a list of 3D-points, where...
The first Sunday of Advent of Code. Eric Wastl, the creator, must think we have loads of time in the weekend to solve code puzzles all day. Well, I certainly don't, but I made it through. Here's how. Check out my full solution for day 7...
Today reminds me of how I did math in primary school. You know, putting two or more numbers below each other and then going from right to left, from digit to digit, to either add or multiply. Life was easy and peaceful back then. Much...
While the forklift breaks through the wall in the fifth day of Advent of Code, I feel like I need a break after a week's worth of 6 AM morning wake-up calls. Thank God it's Friday and almost weekend, but not before solving today's...
I opened the puzzle for day 4 and almost got a heart attack. It's a grid problem! I still have nightmares from previous years where seemingly straightforward 2D grids turned into three-dimensional ones... and sometimes even four! Luckily...
Advent of Code day 3. Back at it! Check out my full solution for day 3 at GitHub. The meat of today's problem is in finding the largest possible number in a list by combining two (part one) or twelve (part two) numbers in order. Let's...