The Puzzles- Jigsaw and Otherwise

Hang on, this post will be long and rambling.

The Jigsaw Puzzle
Yes, I finished it yesterday afternoon at 6:10. It’s a really neat puzzle, and despite the guilt of wasting so much time, I really liked doing it. Even after so many years of avoiding them, I’m still as addicted as ever. I just couldn’t stop! If you want to read more about it, I reviewed the Coke Puzzle at Shared Reviews.

Because I am just one click away from being OCD, here is a list of all the items that appear in the picture (some are "real" size, many are toys):
Bottles of Coke sorted by kind: 348 green glass with logo molded in, 1 green glass with a black diamond logo, 1 with a red printed label, 1 with Japanese logo, 2 silver, 28 gold - total 380
Bottles of Coke sorted by location: 346 in cases, 28 sitting loose, 6 in people's hands
Cans of Coke: 1 with an odd diamond design I've never seen, 1 with sunglasses and headphones that I have a vague recollection of as being a radio, but I didn't count it as one since I'm not sure.
Containers:
     Dispensers/ Coolers 5
     Gold wooden cases 6
     Red wooden cases 3
     Wire shopping cart racks to hold 2 bottles 2
     Red cardboard 8 pack 1
     Red cardboard 6 pack 1
     Paper cups 1
     Silver cardboard 6 pack 1
     Red plastic 6 pack 2
     Coke glasses 4
People: 1 cowgirl, 1 party girl, 1 boy in a straw hat, 1 bathing beauty, 1 girl of no particular description
Signs/posters: round red Coca-Cola signs 6, poster 1, calendar 1, rectangular sign 1
Words:
     refreshment 1
     ice cold 1
     Drink Coca-Cola Delicious and Refreshing 1
     Atlanta, Georgia since 1886 1
     enjoy Coca-Cola while you shop, place bottles here 2
     the pause that refreshes 1
     Coca-Cola Classic 2
     Things go better with Coke 1
     drink Coca-Cola 1
     Have a Coke 1
     Coke is It! 1
     Coke 9
     Coca-Cola (not molded in bottles) 67
Other stuff: round thermometers 1 round, tube thermometer 1, clock 1, radio 1, match box 1, bicycle 1, tray 1, hats 2, Converse sneaker 1, toy trucks 5, truck box 1, decks of cards 3, straw dispenser 1, bowl of pretzels 1, loose bottle caps 7 (plus a glass full that I can't count)

Total different elements- something like 537- I don't guarantee that I counted all the bottles and logos right! And I counted partial ones if they were distinguishable, but how much should be seen to be counted? OK, I'll stop now, but I did warn you.

Puzzle- the Anacrostic
Just for the record, Iast night I managed to work that extra L from clue R “illium,” which should be "ilium," into one of the other words by rearranging the letters, not changing the first letter so that it still spells L.L. Emerick, The Superior Peninsula. Whew! I can still use that puzzle in case I make another puzzle book. After hearing how people struggled with it, I am going to classify that anacrostic as “hard.” If anyone is interested, I do have two puzzle books for sale. One is easy to medium, and the other is medium to hard. They both have outdoor themed puzzles. You can purchase them at Books Leaving Footprints. No arm-twisting... just an opportunity.

Puzzled About Redefining Myself Again
For the past 10 years, when anyone asked me what I do, my answer was "a web site designer and maintainer." I still do some of that, but for reasons unrelated to the quality of my work, I have lost my two largest accounts, and now have only several small sites. That said, I am meeting with a woman tomorrow who is representing a group whose site I am going to pick up. But it’s very small potatoes, maybe $100 a year.

This past year I’ve been doing a lot of on-line writing, mostly ghost writing for web content that has to meet SEO requirements. It’s an awful way for someone creative to make money, but I’ve been paying the bills. Barely.

I’m homing in on completing the hiking of the North Country Trail. The plan has always been to write a sequel to North Country Cache. A few chapters are done, but I need to get serious about that. This spring I also began a children’s book called Moose in Boots. Once in a while I get a really good idea, and I think this is one of them. More about this in a bit.

I have recently become active in the Accentuate Writers group, to get some support and accountability for my writing.

In fact, when the person sitting next to me at the Inside the Magic Kingdom" dinner in December asked what I do, for the first time ever, I said, "I am a writer."

Puzzled About the New Year
I’m not one for making New Year’s Resolutions any more. I’ve made so many lists over the years which were never completed that they just depress me. Now, I understand that the fact that I made the list and did most or even some of the things probably meant that I did more than I might have otherwise accomplished. For example, I have recently been reading a blog by Nicole of Knit, Nicole, Knit. She has created an amazing list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. It even has a reward and punishment system built in for motivation. It’s not on her knitting blog, but I’ve linked to the list. I am tempted to sit down and make a list of my own, but only tempted, because at this point in my life, I think that the depression of failure overwhelms the sense of accomplishment.

I did make a list of the things that I wanted to accomplish today. I didn’t come close to finishing it. Too many days are like this, even when I work pretty much non-stop, suggesting that I need to focus my priorities– a lifetime shortcoming. This is not to say that I don’t set goals.

Puzzled About My Plans for January
Now that I’ve said I’m not making resolutions or lists, I’ll tell you what I have made. I have made a plan for January, but it’s already getting knocked head over heels.

The plan is to spend the month working on Moose in Boots. The text is written. The storyboard is done. The revised storyboard is about half done. One sample illustration is done. I have a plan for some educational notes. I have positive reactions from several people, including an educator, who have seen it. So... I want to finish it.

But here it is, January 6, and I haven’t even taken it out of its box. I cleared the table so that I can work on it. Then I started that Coke Puzzle. I guess I’m over kicking myself for doing that, but it certainly delayed the beginning of the plan.

Next glitch... Om has a small hernia that popped up about two weeks ago. He is having it repaired on Monday. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal- it will be on an outpatient basis. But he can’t drive or lift anything for a week. That means, you guessed it, I get to do the paper route. Now here’s where I will let just a bit of negativity creep into this blog. I just HATE doing that job. Of course I feel bad for Om, but I nearly cried, knowing that I would have to cover for him. Working through that particular time slot just seems to destroy my ability to do anything for the rest of the 24 hours. Well, if you recall, this blog is an outgrowth of my exercise to promote positive thoughts through a very difficult time. One week of a hateful job isn’t even close to the depression of that earlier time, but I will have the opportunity to meet the challenge of finding something good and positive during this time when I’m not very happy about many events in the real world. But I’m not sure how much energy I’ll have to put into the book project.

Conclusions With No Puzzles?
Interestingly enough, I’m watching a PBS program about happiness. In large measure, the program concludes, we can choose to be happy and to foster the social relationships and actions that bring us satisfaction. Making the choices is what "My Quality Day" is all about. When I chose to make it public, rather than locked in 3-ring binders in my office, I began building the relationships I have developed with many of you. I need to make some further decisions about the direction of the coming year to ensure that I end 2010 happier than how I feel about 2009 (not so great, overall). But these are things I can do.

There will be a separate post tomorrow about how I will blog about the writing progress. Also tomorrow, I think I will show you some pictures from last summer that may not be amazing photography, but the topic is pretty amazing to me. And it takes us back outside! Definitely needed after this long soliloquy.

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking it out!

Happy New Year! (Hey, I’m only 6 days late, which isn’t bad for me)

See All Day with Cathy for a newer Coke puzzle