Vegas: Tough Start
I’ve flown a lot over the past few years, and my flight to Vegas edged its way into my top 3 awful experiences. Story time!
Articles by Brian Gondek
Puzzle Boat 4: Smooth Sailing
3 people. 9 days. 174 puzzles. 0 hints. It’s safe to say our attempt at Puzzle Boat 4 was a success!
Roundup of the Week
I usually have a bad track record of posting updates while I’m in the middle of something, and right now is no exception. Puzzle hunts, online escape rooms, physical escape rooms, mystery projects, new areas of study- it’s been busy. But time for an update!
Advanced Puzzling: Math Imitates Puzzle
One thing I’ve seen that seems to be mostly loathed by lovers of escape rooms is the math puzzle, or worse, puzzle-free math computation. Though I love math, I get it- you sign up for Indiana Jones-like adventure, not arithmetic class.
Huntinality 2021
I found out about the Huntinality puzzle hunt about a week before the contest launched, but any thoughts of participating were squashed when I had a major family event happen the day I would have been working on it. I was thankful when a friend suggested we go through the hunt a week late- better late than never!
My Brief Adventure in Competitive Jigsaw Puzzling
I read an article recently about a tournament in which a roomful of contestants race to solve a jigsaw puzzle. It sounded like a lot of fun, and with Christina and I doing a fair number of jigsaw puzzles recently, I decided to try it out.
Anatomy of a Puzzle Experience: Measuring the “Aha!” Moment
I’ve been putting together a whitepaper on the mathematics behind what makes a puzzle fun to solve. What started as a simple model has evolved into something more akin to a PhD thesis, so I’m going to slow down and outline a few of the basics of the experience of solving a puzzle.
Tall Tales Mysteries – A First Class Murder
On May 14th, I took a half day from work to participate in the second virtual murder mystery weekend from Tall Tales Mysteries (“A First Class Murder” – Titanic theme!!!). The event took place in the evening, but with six time zones separating me and the event host, I had to adjust my schedule to sign on just a bit early. And it was well worth it, again.
5/16 Micro Update
Exhausted- that’s the theme of the day. Please pardon the scattered nature of this entry.
Eight Under the Arch
This past Saturday, I topped my personal best number of escape rooms in a single day, changing that number from seven to eight. It’s a coincidence that both of those runs happened in St. Louis, but a fun coincidence.