Saturday, In The Park

Bletchley Park, that is. I haven’t been blogging for a while, but I did take a lot of pictures while on this trip - Amsterdam, France, England. Since I have a weekend to myself in the Milton Keynes area before meetings this week, I toured Bletchley today.

I nearly got an unwanted lesson in paying attention to train times, incidentally. North Texans don’t get a lot of experience on trains, and when the train I wanted showed “Canceled,” I thought I’d just take the next one headed in that direction — only a ten minute wait. Right before boarding I realized that while that train was indeed going from MK to London, it wasn’t calling on Bletchley Park. I would have had a much longer trip circling back. :)

The next train going to Bletchley was 45 minutes out, so I decided to just walk the 4 miles or so. It was a great walk, and the tour of BP was awesome, too. Maybe more later; I’ll see if I get back in the blogging habit.

My First Crossword Puzzle

To be clear, this is my first crossword puzzle to design, not solve.

I’ve been a crossword addict for a long time, and after stumbling upon a blog series by editors and contributors of the New York Times daily crosswords I decided to try designing my own.

It’s hard.*

Click on the image to download a PDF copy.

Click on the image to download a PDF copy.

I used Crossfire, a crossword editing tool, which helps tremendously. Besides formatting the puzzle correctly and helping you build the grid, Crossfire suggest fill words, based on dictionaries that you can either download from crossword constructor sites or create on your own.** After discovering how challenging it is to create a workable puzzle with a great tool like Crossfire, I’m even more amazed at the people that did it for decades completely by hand.

I’m not going to submit my first puzzle to the NYT because (1. the theme is solid, but not clever, 2. I used compass directions twice to make the fill work, 3. I feel there are just a few too many esoteric or outdated words.)*** However, if you’d like to try it, you can download and print the PDF file right here.

So, I’ve created my first crossword puzzle. Next step is to create my first really good one. :)

* I’m guessing it gets easier when you’ve done it more than once.

**I’m creating a dictionary right now of all words and phrases related to the best era of music in the history of mankind, the 1980s.

***In other words, I’m certain that I’m not a crossword-designing prodigy whose first attempt was brilliant.

Steal This Election!

My new card game, Steal This Election! went on sale yesterday at The Game Crafter. I’m particularly pleased about this because it was a fun exercise in getting a product developed and to market in record time. (Warp Speed, one might say.)

I’ve got some blogs planned about the development process and setting up the ecommerce aspect; look for those in the upcoming weeks. But for now…if you’re sick of the 2020 politics and pandemics, or you’d just like something fun to do during your Christmas break, go visit The Game Crafter and check it out.