| It's been a while |
[Aug. 16th, 2006|05:27 pm] |
After another rejection from Peter last week or something, I put themes on the back burner (meaning, not devoting hours of my day towards it, but still keeping it in mind) for a while. I'm still working on things in the back of my head, though. It's easy to slip into theme mode while shelving children's books like "Let's Talk About Our Feelings!" or "Byron Barton's Trains". Today I got to remove stickers and rub Goo-Gone (that stuff has intense citrus power) over the old New books, which took two hours out of my life that I'd like to get back some time.
Had a nice little get-together with some fellow puzzlers (I guess we're the BostonCru) in Harvard Square yesterday. Will Johnston was there, he gave us a preview in full detail of his talk for tonight at Newton, which I'm still going to anyway. A little elementary, but whatever.
Bad loss last week in fantasy 7-2. Would have won at least three catagories if I had put Millwood in. Tied up this week. |
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| More rejections |
[Aug. 1st, 2006|09:11 pm] |
The first puzzle I submitted was rejected by Rich Norris a few days ago. He said the puns weren't consistent (they started off as homophones and turned into rhymes). Maybe I should make a non-wordplay phrase theme just to see if I can do it. I thought I had a brilliant idea, but I couldn't think of any examples.
On the fantasy front, Hunter's back with a vengeance, and the Pirates-Braves game today netted me at least 16 Ks. Nice work Ian Snell! |
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| Crosswords now keep me up at night |
[Jul. 18th, 2006|08:16 pm] |
Two nights ago, I couldn't get to sleep for two hours because I was trying to think of themes. I need to shut my brain off earlier or something. I did come up with two, though, one which might make it. Time for another submission.
In other news, Torii Hunter was sent to the DL this week, with a foot fracture or something. Looks like Wakefield will be joining him. Time to do some dropping.
It has been 46 hours since one of my crosswords was rejected! Can I keep the streak alive? |
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| And another rejection |
[Jul. 16th, 2006|10:22 pm] |
Halfway through the grid, so that was a good sign. Peter Gordon rejected it though; he also said it was too straightforward. I'll send it to Rich Norris when I'm done, but two rejections in one day is a little tough to take.
Guess I have to start thinking of themes again.
-Mike |
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| Rejection |
[Jul. 16th, 2006|07:13 pm] |
Rejected already. That was quick. It was too straightforward for him, apparantly. Time to make the rounds with it, starting with Peter Gordon. I should probably make sure I can grid this thing first though.
Mike |
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| Still waiting... |
[Jul. 15th, 2006|10:00 pm] |
Still haven't heard anything from Rich or Timothy about the two puzzles I sent in; waiting sucks. Going to send off a theme to Fred Piscop of the Washington Post Magazine for approval before I embark on trying to create a Sunday size (*gulp*) puzzle.
Also recieved a gift subscription to the NYT puzzle section from a friend of mine, now I'm enjoying going through the archives (there are a LOT of puzzles there).
In fantasy baseball news, it looks like Torii Hunter is going to be out for a while again; he left with "pain in his left foot" and was taken for X-rays... that's not good. Ryan Howard hit his 30th today though, can't say I'm not pleased with that.
Will update this when there's something to update it with.
-Mike |
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| Salutations |
[Jul. 2nd, 2006|11:20 pm] |
Hello potential readers.
My name is Mike, and I'm a high school student from Bedford, Massachusetts. I originally set this journal up for another purpose, but I figure I might as well utilize it for its true purpose and see if anyone actually reads it.
As you can tell from the title, I enjoy doing crossword puzzles. They've been a part of my life for a while, as for several years I've been working my way through Cox and Rathvon's wonderful Random House Guide to Cryptic Crosswords. However, a few months ago, I was made aware of a new documentary called Wordplay, which featured, absurdly enough, people solving crossword puzzles, that was premiering at the TriBeCa Film Festival in Boston. I must admit that I didn't have high hopes for it, but after watching it, I desperately wanted to not only finish a daily crossword, but become ridiculously good at finishing daily crosswords. I have relatives in Stamford, CT, where the Annual Crossword Puzzle Tournament is held, which made the possibility of attending the ACPT a very real one. I started doing puzzles every day, first from publications like USA Today, then the Chicago Sun-Times (which I use as a warmup) to the higher quality New York Sun. I'm still not as good as I'd like to be two months after I saw the film, but I've cut my times down and I'm starting to learn the vocab that is necessary to succeed (ERLE Stanley Gardner was my first indication that crossword puzzles require a different set of vocab than what is used in the regular world).
Of course, after a while, solving just wasn't enough, and I was driven by the desire to see my name on the byline above a puzzle. I started constructing about a month after I saw Wordplay, and eventually found Cruciverb-L, of which I am an active browser, but not an active contributor (yet). It was through Cruciverb-L that I found a mentor in jangler_npl whose insights have been very helpful in getting started. After a couple of forced/awful attempts, (including one that took tens of excruciating hours to create, and which I still don't feel good about) I finished a puzzle that I felt was ready for publication, which, full of enthusiasm, I submitted to the New York Sun. Within hours, I had recieved a three word response from editor Peter Gordon: "Not for me." The rejection brought me back to earth, and, although I'm waiting for a response from another publisher for the puzzle, I plan to hold myself to much higher standards in the future. I'm still a novice solver and a novice constructor, and I always appreciate all advice that anyone wishes to give me.
Crosswords definitely aren't the only aspect to my life, as I enjoy playing frisbee, chess, and have a large baseball card collection. However, I enjoy talking about crosswords more than any of those. I cannot fully say why, but I like how in a crossword, everything seems to come together into a fairly neat package (except for the ERLEs and the ESAIs). Crosswords also cause you to learn new words that may never have entered into my vocabulary except for the crossword. Knowing that the curtain that seperated me from the first class section on my flight back from New Mexico yesterday was actually called a PORTIERE gives me some kind of inner satisfaction that's hard to explain. Thus, most of this journal will be focused on crosswords, although you never know what I might feel like talking about. I plan to update this on a "when I feel like it" basis, mainly talking about good puzzles, fresh vocab, irritating proper names and abbreviations, and personal triumphs as I start my puzzling career. I'm glad to have you all along for the ride.
If you've gotten this far, give yourself an OATMEALCOOKIE. I look forward to your continued readership.
Best Regards,
Mike
(At the end of every post, I'll have a "Fresh Vocab of the Post" section, where I'll highlight a new word I learned through a crossword puzzle)
Fresh Vocab of the Post:
ETAGERE (n)- a piece of furniture consisting of a set of open shelves for displaying small objects (courtest m-w.com) |
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