Aunt Jeri’s Christmas puzzle

I got this card from my Aunt Jeri. I can remember going over to her home on Christmas when I was younger and having a good time there. She had a Nintendo with a TMNT game and a marble rolling game. Both were too hard for me but I liked playing them. She also had a lot, if not all, of the Wizard of Oz books. There are a lot of things I like and remember about my aunt but those are the two I’m writing down today.

This was another of the early puzzles. I tried to follow lines in the picture and that was only semi successful. You can see this a bit along the gate, bridge, and the red strip along the bottom.

I was so keen to do this card because of the ribbon. I thought it would be fun to leave the ribbon intact. You can see that the cut for the piece goes behind the bow. I achieved this effect by just, you know, folding the bow out of the path of the blade. I think it makes for a fun piece.

This is a 32 piece puzzle. That is probably the biggest difference between the earlier puzzles I cut out and the later puzzles. The later puzzles are more in the range of sixty pieces.

Here is the back, where you can see the individual pieces more clearly.

I think, looking at the puzzle, that one other difference is as I made more puzzles I became more economical with the number of tabs in a connecting side. Here you can see several pieces that have two tabs in a single edge between two pieces. As I got a bit better at handling and planning out the pieces I cut I tended to only have one tab per edge. I think this is a holdover from cutting puzzles on my old scroll saw which had a much wider kerf and resulted in looser puzzles that felt like they benefited from more purchase points. Cutting those two tabbed pieces in half would also help increase the piece count.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Asher’s Christmas puzzle

This year I gathered up most of the Christmas cards that were sent to us and cut them into puzzles on the scroll saw. Mallory asked me how many puzzles I’ve made in my life and I’m not sure of the total but cutting a bunch of Christmas cards into puzzles has probably doubled the number.

Christmas card cut into a puzzle

I chose to cut out Ashleigh’s puzzle first because I like her and her family and they sent a cute card. This is a 38 piece puzzle, mostly shaped like a standard jig-saw puzzle but with a few allowances to avoid cutting into heads. This makes Atticus look a little like he has Shrek ears but maybe that just adds to the adorableness.

Here is the reverse. You can see the pieces a little better.

Reverse of a Christmas card cut into a puzzle

I told Ashleigh that she was unlucky because I did her card first. I think I got better as I went along and had more practice. Still, I’m happy with how all of the pieces came out!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Tetrinophilus 2017

I rewrote the Tetris clone I originally wrote in 2007! The old one was written in Java and for a good long while now hasn’t run in the web browser. So I rewrote the code in TypeScript and refactored it quite a bit (though not as much as I probably should’ve). It’s neat seeing the best work I did ten years ago and being able to improve upon it a lot. I’m excited to see how much better I can make things in 2027.

See the code and write up here.

Play the game here. A and S to rotate, SPACE to pause, LEFT and RIGHT and DOWN arrows to move … left and right and down, and UP to move all the way down.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Stick it to me

Mallory and I drew each other while we were at the beach.

Mallory in a skeleton swamsuit thinks about toots while Joshua smirks at a snail.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

My Bonnie lyrics contest 2014

Two years ago at the beach we had a lyrics contest. The winner got a big ol’ box of coins.

 

My Bonnie she loves her Pilates

She wants to do 100s each day

My Bonnie works hard at Pilates

She reaches her toes all the way

Pilates, Pilates oh she loves to do it each day a la

Pilates, Pilates oh she can do table top all day.

  • Erin

 

My bunny lives inside a mansion

My bunny makes lots of money

My bunny lives with a real old guy

But give back my bunny to me

She’s young, he’s old, but he owns a popular magazine

She’s hot, he’s not, oh give back my bunny to me!

  • Kefford

 

My Bonnie is inside the bathroom

She’s doing her puzzles and crosswords

She’s hiding from her crazy children

Sitting on her Royal Throne

Royal Throne, Royal Thone, Doing her puzzles and crosswords

Royal Throne, Royal Throne, Only play she can be left alone

  • Ashleigh

 

Dadadadadadadadadada

dadadadadadadado

dadadadadada

dadadadadadadada

  • Alec

 

My Bonnie gets hives from her children,

Her children won’t leave her in peace,

My Bonnie gets hives from her children,

My Bonnie will itch ’til she bleeds.

She’ll itch, she’ll itch, my Bonnie will itch ’til she bleeds, she bleeds:

She’ll itch, she’ll itch, my Bonnie will itch ’til she bleeds.

  • Heather

 

My Bonnie likes to do crosswords

My Bonnie does crosswords for free

My Bonnie likes to do crosswords

Oh stop doing those crosswords for free!

Make them, make them, Make them pay you some cash, you see

It’s time, it’s time, To stop doing the crosswords for free

  • Elizabeth

 

My Bonnie texts while in the bathroom

She sends her deep thoughts from the loo.

My Bonnie’s phone fell in the toilet

Now what is my Bonnie to do.

Now what, now what, now what is my Bonnie to do, to do

Now what, now what, her phone is on top of a poo.

  • Joshua

 

And the winning entry:

 

My Bonnie is loved by her Jerry

He asked her to marry him thrice

She denied him and led in a hurry

She panicked and wrote him real nice

Miss you, love you, marry me and call me tonight, tonight

Miss you, love you, marry me and call me tonight.

  • Emily

 

9 weirdos hug a lady

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment