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......