Ends do not Justify the Means

The Puzzle is coming along. I have fixed most of my mistakes, though the bottom line of pieces I still have not fully fixed. I will let the puzzle correct that as I can. The item in the middle of the puzzle is the actual picture of this section. I am currently working on the orange borders and as can be seen there are several little subsections that are in the process of being framed. Once I have completed the orange borders I will assemble those pictures. This will then leave the gold border and the large center image to be constructed.

Not that it matters as I have not been frequent with updates, but after tomorrow I will be out of town for over a week. Merry Christmas to all and to all some good cheer. Essentially this means no puzzle work for the week.

As I am certain is readily apparent to anyone that reads this, this is all composed without forethought or planning. Most of the time I avoid letting certain thoughts in. However something large and rather disappointing occurred, and I can not believe she did what she did. But the title and this paragraph are for someone that I know reads this from time to time. Nothing ever is worth the actions you did. Just stupid. I hope you someday grow up and begin to take responsibilities for your actions.

Pursuit of the Everlasting

Or the struggles of a large puzzle.

Back to the words describing puzzle, with picture or two thrown in for some added visual effect. Or to help describe things as they are when my word smithing talent fails it skill check (damn that d20--why must it come up with a 6?).

Picture one ( I wish there was a status bar on the upload bar)


In this picture you can see I have almost completed the border. there is an issue in the lower left hand corner as pieces are not aligning themselves according to my wishes. I have left that for now and hope as more are assembled my mistake(s) will become clear.


Perhaps when this is done I will take another look and see where I fouled. The second image is a close up of some of the text in this puzzle which I am currently using as a guide. I find it easier to assemble based upon the written word as to the pictured images. Maybe that is the librarian in me (you know all we do is books).

Actually fixing my corner is stuck in my head so I will conclude this with a thought.

Eat less fruitcake.

Disaster by way of Genius

No picture this week. Honestly have not made a lot of progress, to much going on with the holidays and hated work. But progress was made on one level. There exists a logistical conundrum in that storage of each section until other sections are complete (not to mention space when all four are complete and connected. One part of that was solved, maybe. My wife gets way to many nick nack catalogs and well saw an item that may work. Felt. By assembling the puzzle on felt i may be able to roll up and store each section as it is completed. This of course necessitated moving what little was complete from the cardboard to the felt. I am sure you can see where this is going.

Reassemble.
Pick up the pieces.
roughly 876 pick up.

Sigh.

It is done now, but no new progress really to report.

Hopefully a decision I made regarding my job will shortly come to fruition thereby ramping down my stress and growing dislike of work....

And some free time where I am not drained will come to pass.....

Sorting things out

I have not made any great progress over the last two weeks. I have just continued to sort. No picture included this week as the puzzle does not really look any different. I am still having issues with the left side--I assume it is becuase the pieces have less image on them and more gold border. Thereby making it difficult to develop confidence on which pieces may connect. I have sorted or sifted 6 types of pieces out, those with the orange borders around the various scenes, those with lat/long lines, those with the red line, print, and scripted writing. There are still about 1/2 pieces not sorted, but i plod along one point at a time.

Sigh.....

This would be Sahala deciding to "help". This also helps add another indication of size. Well the puzzle is moving along. The left side, not seen in this photo is completed, and it is exactly the length of my cardboard.

I tried to add the other photo, and issues are happening so it is not to be included in this blog. What I have been working on is a gigantic sort.
Completely off the puzzle topic (ya this entry sucks, lack of focus, lack of connections and so forth) is the album I was listening to while sorting pieces today. Between the Buried and Me's Colors_live. An amazing album.

As my thought process seems stunted I will end this drivel and move on to other things....

The Formation of Damnation

Some small amount of shape is taking place. Soon I will do some more close up photo's to give a better idea of what is going on. At the suggestion of another I have added a dollar bill and my cell phone to give an idea of the size of this. Keep in mind this is only 1/4 of the total puzzle. My madness, or damnation if you will, is located in the formation of this puzzle. (A bad pun I know, but I suppose it is a bad pun only if the title of this entry means anything to you). Along the top is the top edge of color--I say this because the border itself is one color-gold. Various other edging has been assembled as well as some of the Latin script that runs along the top 1/4 of the puzzle. This week begins one of the many hell weeks that now entails my job. System downtime, meeting after damn meeting, and overtime without the pay (that wonderful system called comp time). So my puzzle will likely remain untouched for a bit. I wish I could say time was lost to concerts, good books, or even the random video game. But At least I was able to get away for this last weekend.


The dollar in the first picture goes to the person who can guess where this photo was taken, I would offer the cell phone except that it runs on windows mobile and no one deserves that headache.
3 Clues
1) It is in California
2) Old
3) Over 10000 in elevation.

Not in Rivers, but in Drops

I will admit up front that the title of this entry is also a title of a song by Isis from their album In The Absence of Truth. It seems fitting as progress has been made this week, though not a great amount, or at least not in the appearance. Is it the the slow trickle of sand that will eventually cause an avalanche or a small trickle later stopped by a large rock? Only time can tell. It is not much, as you can tell I have started to connect some pieces, as well as having proceeded with some additional sorting. The bulk of the pieces are not in this picture, but in the red box top of the puzzle to the right of this image.
Is their puzzle etiquette? For instance some pieces through lucky happenstance come already connected? Do die hard puzzlers(??) disconnect those and mix them into the seemingly chaotic pile of unconnected pieces, or is it considered just fortune? What have I done? I will not share for fear of being labeled either a cheater or an idiotic depending upon what is proper and what I did. Regardless I have made 96 connections in this puzzle. I figure I will count them as long as it is feasible. Progress, but not much....

Images of the Start

The above image is the innocently looking box the puzzle came in. I enjoy old maps so I found this to be rather an attractive image. This is what initially grabbed my attention. My obvious desire for pain sealed the deal.


The puzzle is broken into four sections, creatively labeled A, B, C, D. In a moment of deep inspiration I decided to start with section a. As you can see it is already opened and sorted, pieces with gold border in the shoe box top, the rest in the shoe box. Further functional sorting will likely happen when life decides to gift me with a significant block of time. I have no idea when this project will reach completion. I suppose we will find out what kind of man I really am, either an insane idiot, or one with too much disposable time.

So it begins

My life has been rather depressing of late, what with what I thought a dream job not quite being such, the passing of my grandfather, and of course the economy being rather unpleasant. In such cases the mind wanders to outlandish, some might say dangerous even, thoughts to cope with such uncertainty, frustration, and pain. Mine is really no different. Perhaps it was an effort to throw away a life, or just escapism that video games no longer provide. Maybe it was an effort to inflict pain upon myself for some real or imagined guilt, or perhaps it was ultimately just an expression of worry. No matter the reason I have now found myself embarking upon an insanity. Rather then try to explain further here is a link to give you an idea 18000. Yes that is correct. I have decided to blow my mind out on this madness. As is easily read I decided to document this. I figure if somehow I complete this it is something to be proud of. I had this thought as I was sorting edge pieces from the top left corner of the puzzle. You see the people that make this puzzle understand the insanity, somewhat, and have broken the puzzle into 4 sections, with recommendations to only work on one section at a time, and then assemble the 4 into one. My previous puzzle experience is essentially nil, I may have assembled a 500 or a 1000 piece many years past, and it has been at least 10 years since I touched a puzzle. Oh, and I have cats. I will upload pictures of this progress as it goes, and as I figure out how to use this site, which I do not think will be that difficult. And so it begins......