A puzzler’s life, Part 3

Hi folks,
quite some time has passed since my last post, and in fact not much has happened on my end. The Classics Collection is supposed to continue soon, but I have not yet found the time to design a larger number of puzzles again. Somehow I feel like I am experiencing the puzzle equivalent of writer’s block; since I have never been a professional writer, this may be a silly comparison, of course. In any case, no promises as to when the next puzzles will appear on this blog.

I have taken part in two puzzle events lately, namely the next Grand Prix contest and this year’s UKPC. It is not like my solving spirits are all back, but I regard Thomas Snyder (who contributed half the puzzles of this GP round) as one of the best puzzle authors in the world, and I hold several of the British puzzlemakers – including Liane Robinson, who authored the UKPC – in equally high esteem. There is no incentive like quality puzzles, I guess.

Well, the puzzles mostly held what they promised, my favorites being Tom’s TomTom and Liane’s BACA (even though I broke the latter twice during the contest). My results were disappointing, though; I was not in good shape on both days and finished just somewhere down the field. Never mind – neither solving nor designing puzzles is a top priority item for me these days.

I have also been working with a few others on the website of the German puzzle community (the Portal, to be more specific). At last I was able to put my mind on it, and if nothing goes wrong, the first adjustments should be visible in a week or so. I am glad that some of my ideas have the support of the board. The nature of the Portal remains a delicate issue; still, I am optimistic that we can change it for the better.