Thank Goodness I Have Puzzle Friends!
I am absolutely amazed - my post views have passed the 7 million since I started writing in March of 2011. Thank you for
reading my crap!
After the last 2 weeks of desperately trying to solve the upcoming Pelikan
puzzles as quickly as I possibly can, I have been rather fatigued and not
actually done any puzzling at all this week. So I don't have anything to
really review today. I did attend the MPP number IIXIIXIIXIIXIIXII
yesterday (yes that does seem to be a Roman numeral! Allard needs to
remember the number L for simplicity.) and one of my favourite things when
I go there is to pick up a bunch of plastic freebies that Allard and other
friends have produced for visitors to take home.
I have a rather big birthday coming up soon and I had hoped that maybe a
Prusa or Bamboo toy-maker with all the multi-colour trimmings might be a
possible gift from she who frightens the Gods - I even suggested it to
her (
Whack! Ouch!) However, the present
Mrs S is very frightening. She has said on numerous occasions when I
mention a possible purchase, that the arrival of a 3D printer in her
house (NOT mine) is definitely grounds for divorce and I really cannot afford a divorce! This means that it's absolutely NOT happening,
no matter how nicely I ask. No, she is not worried about noise or
electricity usage. Her primary reason for the absolute moratorium on
this wonderful technology is that she is aware that the profusion of
wood and metal "stuff" that keeps arriving and cluttering the house will
rapidly be supplemented by a huge bunch of "ugly plastic crap". Modern
3D printers produce stuff that is much less ugly now but she does not
want yet more puzzles arriving courtesy of the printer. Sob! Luckily, I
have wonderful friends like Allard, Rich and Dan who can make 3D printed
puzzles which I can smuggle in without risking life, limb and sanity.
Oops! Sanity went a very long time ago.
One puzzle set that arrived yesterday courtesy of Allard was George
Bell's incredible entry into the Assisi
IPP design competition. Whilst it didn't win an award, it was a fabulous challenge which I
spent quite a lot of time on. Interestingly, I had almost no success.
It is a series of coordinate motion challenges and I left Italy rather
frustrated thinking that it was impossible for someone with relatively
small hands. I do tend to pride myself on having fairly decent hand
control and dexterity (on Wednesday I had to put a cannula in a vein
on the front of a patient's shin under ultrasound guidance!) but I
really struggled with it. At the MPP the puzzle was attempted by a few
people and even the most difficult combination was assembled
successfully. I now have the option to try them myself in the privacy
of Puzzlemad HQ without anyone laughing at me with every failure.
Another advantage of a 3D printer is that all the wonderful new TICs
that get designed can be quickly added to a collection without having
to wait for a craftsman to make them in wood. I adore TICs and
interlocking puzzles. Allard had 3 new TICs from Alan Lunsford sitting
to be taken home. They were smuggled into the house with my MPP box
and secreted quietly where she can't see.
I can't wait to work on these.
So, in the absence of my own 3D printer I will be "forced" to attend MPPs so that I can endure being made fun of but still manage to pick up plastic toys without being told off. See you all at the next one.
