Stamford update.
Mar. 26th, 2006 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saxikathShort version: 5th place again this year, and happy to have it. Congratulations to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rpipuzzleguy for his second win, and to Kiran and ennienyc for making the A finals!
I made a dumb mistake on Puzzle 2, and was pretty down about it. Given how things went last year, I figured I was pretty much out of it. But then again, the pressure also felt off at that point. I was with the pack on 3 and 4, and then came... puzzle 5.
I think Puzzle 5 will go down in Stamford legend alongside "Landslides," a puzzle 5 from the year before I started going that's become the example everyone uses of a killer Stamford puzzle. This one wasn't gimmicky the way that one was; it was just plain hard. Several top people made mistakes. Only 20-some people out of the 500 contestants finished it correctly.
And me?
I smoked it. I finished clean and very fast, comparatively speaking. The phrase I came up with this morning was, "Puzzle 5 saved my ass because it kicked so many other people's."
So I ended up 5th overall, and given how I felt yesterday morning, I'm glad of it. I would have been in first place after the first six puzzles if I hadn't made the mistake, but I'm still more than content.
And, the weekend was fun. We got to see Wordplay, the documentary made about crosswords and last year's tournament. It's excellent. I think it's a great portrayal of the crossword world, and really humanizes the people involved. Plus, it's got Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, the Indigo Girls, Ken Burns (very pontificatory), among others, talking about and doing crosswords. It's doing the film festival circuit now, and will be released theatrically starting June 16 in NYC and over the next couple weeks after that in other markets. I definitely encourage everyone to go see it. And because of it, I now have a Kevin Bacon number. :)
There was the usual game-playing and conversing and hugs (yay hugs!) and so on. It was great to see everyone and pay a visit to Planet Puzzle.
rpipuzzleguy for his second win, and to Kiran and ennienyc for making the A finals!I made a dumb mistake on Puzzle 2, and was pretty down about it. Given how things went last year, I figured I was pretty much out of it. But then again, the pressure also felt off at that point. I was with the pack on 3 and 4, and then came... puzzle 5.
I think Puzzle 5 will go down in Stamford legend alongside "Landslides," a puzzle 5 from the year before I started going that's become the example everyone uses of a killer Stamford puzzle. This one wasn't gimmicky the way that one was; it was just plain hard. Several top people made mistakes. Only 20-some people out of the 500 contestants finished it correctly.
And me?
I smoked it. I finished clean and very fast, comparatively speaking. The phrase I came up with this morning was, "Puzzle 5 saved my ass because it kicked so many other people's."
So I ended up 5th overall, and given how I felt yesterday morning, I'm glad of it. I would have been in first place after the first six puzzles if I hadn't made the mistake, but I'm still more than content.
And, the weekend was fun. We got to see Wordplay, the documentary made about crosswords and last year's tournament. It's excellent. I think it's a great portrayal of the crossword world, and really humanizes the people involved. Plus, it's got Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, the Indigo Girls, Ken Burns (very pontificatory), among others, talking about and doing crosswords. It's doing the film festival circuit now, and will be released theatrically starting June 16 in NYC and over the next couple weeks after that in other markets. I definitely encourage everyone to go see it. And because of it, I now have a Kevin Bacon number. :)
There was the usual game-playing and conversing and hugs (yay hugs!) and so on. It was great to see everyone and pay a visit to Planet Puzzle.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 01:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 02:08 am (UTC)(You were my idol even then ... but not everyone else had figured it out yet)
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Date: 2006-03-27 02:14 am (UTC)I sent my parents the article about you and they're extremely<.i> impressed!
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Date: 2006-03-27 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 02:51 am (UTC)(And by the way, what's a word for forgetting to send an email without the attachment?)
:-)
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Date: 2006-03-27 04:14 am (UTC)And on the Kevin Bacon number...technically, you probably already had one, since I do too, thanks to a certain former classmate of ours named John, and thanks to certain Super8mm films...but this is better. :)
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Date: 2006-03-27 07:23 am (UTC)I'm starting to have rumblings about wanting to join this shindig in the future!
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Date: 2006-03-27 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 05:38 pm (UTC)Stamford
Date: 2006-03-27 02:59 pm (UTC)Re: Stamford
Date: 2006-03-27 05:55 pm (UTC)Secondly, I echo Haldor's sentiment - had a great time at dinner, you and the rest of the group definitely made this rookie feel welcome. I just came there wanting to take in as much of the experience as I possibly could, while hopefully meeting a whole bunch of people I could relate to. You and the entire dinner crew, among many other people, made that a reality. Thanks again!
Finally, as if that weren't enough, I had the pleasure of
1) Being absolutely liquefied at the Saturday night Jeopardy sessions by you and the other players. I believe they needed a me-sized spatula to scrape me off the chair when the games were done, and loved every minute of it.
2) Being vaguely in the thick of things for the first few puzzles at the tournament, hanging around in the pack somewhere a bit behind the leaders until the fifth. My last semi-conscious thought before heading to sleep that night was of the Lucky Charms leprechaun taunting, "Walden's Puzzle 5, it's tragic-a-lly vicious!" (thanks to the Breakfast Cereals Jeopardy category later that night). It went a bit downhill from there ;)
3) Having the honor of being beaten live and in living color on stage by someone who I will not name, but whose name sounds vaguely like "Ten Lemmings". This was just icing on the cake.
Anyway, if you haven't been there before, people, and this sounds like your cup of herbally-brewed hot beverage, by all means check it out next year! Come for the puzzles, stay for the people and games. Or the other way around. Strike that, reverse it. (shrugs)
Thanks again, and no matter what, you had an amazing run. Your day will come...
- HB
Re: Stamford
Date: 2006-03-27 07:57 pm (UTC)It was great to meet you too, and congratulations on your own very fine finish! I'm glad you had fun. That is, after all, the reason to do this nutty thing at all.
I do hope you'll join the NPL; I think you'd enjoy it. (Hey, NYNJA NPL people out there, this is a potential recruit! :) )
Re: Stamford
Date: 2006-03-27 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-27 03:18 pm (UTC)Congrats!
Date: 2006-03-27 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-29 11:41 am (UTC)