A year in puzzles.
Dec. 6th, 2005 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saxikathInspired by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
qaqaq's recent entry -- though I haven't had nearly the year he has -- it's Saxikath's Year in Puzzles.
January: MIT Mystery Hunt. ACRONYM comes within half an hour of winning over a much larger team, and gains the moral victory by solving the killer puzzle of the hunt without a hint. ACRONYM later shrinks dramatically, with team members deciding to move to other teams. But we'll be there next year, with changed membership but still going.
March: The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford. Despite being worried over the health of my grandfather (who passed away a few days later), I have my best showing yet: 5th place overall, and no mistakes! (The latter has been my goal every year since my second year [my first year, my goal was simply not to embarrass myself!], and this was the first time I managed it.) The documentary makers apparently find me uninteresting, so I won't be making my Sundance debut (except maybe as background in someone else's shot).
July: NPL Convention in LA. Win the flat competition withthedan, and apparently develop some temporary psychic connection with qaqaq that allows me to blaze through his puzzle. I still don't know how that happened.
Later in July, said blazing through the puzzle gets my name in the New York Times for the first time, as the puzzle appears as a second Sunday puzzle and lists my time. This leads to much ribbing from my family.
November: National Puzzlers' League Cryptic Crosswords appears in print, and with it my first published puzzle, a cryptic cowritten withtahnan, originally for the Vancouver convention in 2002.
And of course, all year long there's been The Enigma. A couple issues have been a few days late, due to family matters, shows, and/or technical problems, but still, one issue per month arrives in members' mailboxes. Things are not flawless; I'm still much worse at communicating with people than I'd like to be. But with a few exceptions, response from members continues to be very positive. This ends year three of my editorship. That's the minimum I promised myself I'd do, equalling each of my predecessors. I don't know how many more years I'm going to want to do this, but I'm not going away yet.
And there it is. A pretty good year, all told.
qaqaq's recent entry -- though I haven't had nearly the year he has -- it's Saxikath's Year in Puzzles.January: MIT Mystery Hunt. ACRONYM comes within half an hour of winning over a much larger team, and gains the moral victory by solving the killer puzzle of the hunt without a hint. ACRONYM later shrinks dramatically, with team members deciding to move to other teams. But we'll be there next year, with changed membership but still going.
March: The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford. Despite being worried over the health of my grandfather (who passed away a few days later), I have my best showing yet: 5th place overall, and no mistakes! (The latter has been my goal every year since my second year [my first year, my goal was simply not to embarrass myself!], and this was the first time I managed it.) The documentary makers apparently find me uninteresting, so I won't be making my Sundance debut (except maybe as background in someone else's shot).
July: NPL Convention in LA. Win the flat competition with
thedan, and apparently develop some temporary psychic connection with qaqaq that allows me to blaze through his puzzle. I still don't know how that happened.Later in July, said blazing through the puzzle gets my name in the New York Times for the first time, as the puzzle appears as a second Sunday puzzle and lists my time. This leads to much ribbing from my family.
November: National Puzzlers' League Cryptic Crosswords appears in print, and with it my first published puzzle, a cryptic cowritten with
tahnan, originally for the Vancouver convention in 2002.And of course, all year long there's been The Enigma. A couple issues have been a few days late, due to family matters, shows, and/or technical problems, but still, one issue per month arrives in members' mailboxes. Things are not flawless; I'm still much worse at communicating with people than I'd like to be. But with a few exceptions, response from members continues to be very positive. This ends year three of my editorship. That's the minimum I promised myself I'd do, equalling each of my predecessors. I don't know how many more years I'm going to want to do this, but I'm not going away yet.
And there it is. A pretty good year, all told.
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Date: 2005-12-06 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-06 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-07 12:29 am (UTC)late but sincere nonetheless...
Date: 2005-12-07 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-07 08:13 pm (UTC)