March 18, 2010

Thursday 1:41 pm - Placed an order for a massive upgrade of computer equipment. Been running w/ Macs since 1985 and will continue doing so. Ordered a "Mac Pro" w/ 2 Intel 2.93GHz Quad-Core Xenon processors, 16 GB of RAM, an ATI Graphics Card - Radeon HD 4870 512MB, two 2TB 7200-rpm hard drives, a massive 30" Flat Panel Cinema Display and a few smaller items (e.g. keyboard, mouse, etc.). Don't know what some of this means, but it's all pretty much top of the line. Should arrive in about a week. Now I need to focus on upgrading Photoshop.

March 17, 2010

Wednesday 7:35 pm - Another month, another moon. Didn't get to computer equipment today, will tomorrow. Instead I focused on dance notes, nearly a month behind! Almost certain now that the auction for #99 will be restricted to those on my 100 Puzzles Project notification list, via off-eBay auction. To be invited, go to 100 Puzzles Project and read the Join My Auction Notice List info at the top. After the puzzle is made I will have some low-rez pictures here, then eventually hi-rez long after the auction is done.

March 16, 2010

Tuesday 5:35 pm - The record setting price for 100 Puzzles Project #98, Carnival of Harlequin has spawned many email message, really putting the Project on the map. Thank you all for your emails and considerable interest!

I still have not worked out the details or even made a general decision for how the next puzzle will be auctioned. I've had some nice time off, and tomorrow I'll wend my back towards the Project, by purchasing upgrades in both hardware and software in preparation for the substantial work that will be required to prepare the image for this puzzle. The puzzle will likely be larger than I can handle with even my largest saw for the initial cut, so I'm going to have to stack cut and knit two boards together, very likely, this will require some planning and practice. Because the $ sign shaped puzzle will have holes, this process could be a lot easier than it seems, maybe not.

Warm today, 80's even along the coast. I stopped by Mixed Media for the first time in at least a week to check on plants for watering and general checking up on the property. Puzzle shop stuffy and hot at 96 degrees, obviously if I was working there I could get it nicer with opened panels and fans.

Marched 13, 2010

Saturday 6:59 pm - A long review of the logo set, which I started yesterday, is complete. I found and fixed about a half dozen errors or that some companies had changed their logos. I'm taking tomorrow, my birthday, off; next post will be on Monday.

March 11, 2010

Thursday 5:48 pm - The auction is over. wow, Wow, WOW! A bidder once suggested that I think about Carnival of Harlequin for a puzzle, which I eventually did. This bidder came in with less than a minute to go and placed a single, gigantic bid of $17,171.00 and he LOST! This price is way beyond anything I ever dreamed of, not even for the last puzzle of the project! Time for celebration!

Thursday 1:01 pm - Finally, after working all morning, the logo collection phase of the next puzzle is done. From Abbott Laboratories to Zions Bancorporation. I'm going to take the rest of the day and tomorrow off.

There are logos all over the internet, some people sell digital images to graphics artists, but nowhere have I seen any art made from a collection of logos. So maybe this will be the "forbidden puzzle" of the 100 Puzzles Project. I'm currently seeking legal advice. I'm going to make the puzzle, selling it is the issue. I suspect the auction is going to be by invitation only, that is only to those in my 100 Puzzles Project Email Notification List (see 100 Puzzles Project near the top - "Join My Auction Notice List") - if you want to be notified about this puzzle's auction.

March 10, 2010

Wednesday 3:56 pm - In a very long effort since early this morning I got another 50 logos done, now up to 450 for puzzle #835, the 99th puzzle of the 100 Puzzles Project, Corporate Logosphere Celebration. I expect to complete the gathering tomorrow. Then a break and then figuring out how I'm ever going to manipulate 500 files into a single image! I do in fact plan on going to an Apple store and seeing what kind of super large screens they have for working with very large images.

The auction for 100PP #98, Carnival of Harlequin ends tomorrow. The auction has followed the standard pattern of lots of bids in the early going and then nothing going into the last day. Even with the outstanding bid of $4150, there could be some sniper action in the last few minutes tomorrow.

March 9, 2010

Tuesday 6:36 pm - I'm continuing to work on the logo project and now have 400 logos on file. I've renamed the proposed puzzle from The S&P 500 Puzzle to Corporate Logosphere Celebration. The logo set will continue to be those of the 500 companies comprising the S&P 500 Index. The new puzzle name is tentative.

March 8, 2010

Monday 7:44 pm - I'm continuing to work on the logos, now have 366 done. I'm currently seeking legal advice regarding the project. If there is a legal problem, the puzzle will be auctioned off eBay via private bids, as I will make the puzzle and offer it for sale. The puzzle will be a limited edition of one. An alternative, if there is a problem, is to auction on eBay with obscure language and no pictures.

March 7, 2010

Sunday 11:30 am - Got up early and knocked off 46 more logos with about a half dozen requiring a lot of work to get decent ones. I now have 300 and that's it for today - too much staring at the computer screen. Many companies have changed their logos in the past few years unbeknownst to me until now. For example Kraft Foods:

Kraft Foods Inc. - old and new logos
The general shade of blue used for the lettering is very, very popular when it comes to logos!

March 6, 2010

Saturday 3:41 pm - This logo collection thing I'm doing is taking a huge amount of time. I now have 254. I've been dissatisfied with the quality of the art for a bunch of them and found out that I can occasionally find a better one on the back cover of annual reports - so I went back and tweaked a whole bunch of logos. Wikipedia is an excellent source for many, but for many others the resolution is poor. Google Images fills in quite a few more, but for some I have to root through corporate websites. So there is work finding them and getting the art. Sometimes good ones are in black and white while the real logo is in color so I have to transfer the colors to create an excellent logo. Some logos have changed over time and I have to be sure I have the current one. New logos in Green and Blue are popular. Even the the S&P 500 index has changed since I started with two companies dropped and two added! From one perspective there may be massive copyright problems in what I'm doing, but from mine there are none. Andy Warhol painted a Campbell Soup can. This is what I'm doing in spirit, but celebrating the personae of 500 big public companies! Six hours today, a lot of work. I will pace myself going forward at about 50 a day - no more going back and tweaking, so the time spent going forward should be more streamlined.

The Auction is, well what can I say, but stupendous! The 100 Puzzles Project has really blossomed into a thing of itself, beyond puzzles, maybe a bit about me? And about the puzzle collecting community! I just have to keep a steady course, because these last two puzzles are going to be such an effort. And then it will be done. I must have received a dozen emails from people wanting puzzles in the past week. I'm going to have to collate them all and go through older ones and come up with a solution beyond lotteries and auctions on eBay for order slots. The puzzle auctions over the past couple years have gone to a very concentrated group of bidders, so there are people who are going empty handed - all I can say is patience. When the Project is done, I am going to take a major, major break before I resume in some fashion (excluding the work I have to do to prepare for the August Puzzle Parley - a presentation about the Project - and there will be some smaller puzzles for sale, one per customer).

March 5, 2010

Friday 4:34 pm - For the first time in months I am totally caught up with email, not a single one left unanswered!

The Auction is certainly off to a super start, with the current bid at almost $1.93 per puzzle piece, well more than my custom puzzle pricing of $1.10 per Swirl Curl style piece in the Small piece size. So far all of the bidders have been bidders who have bid on previous puzzles in the 100 Puzzles Project. I wish eBay wouldn't scramble the bidder names for others to see, there was more of a bidding community when bidder names were all public.

Today I continued work on collecting logos for the next puzzle. I now have 200 logos collected. 500 logos will take up a huge amount of area to display them nicely - I'm going to have quite a bit of work figuring out how to design this puzzle and manipulate the art work, 500 layers in Photoshop will be virtually impossible to work with. I might have to go to Apple and purchase a really big screen! With the shape of the puzzle being a $ sign, that means the dimensions of the puzzle will have to be even bigger due to the irregular shape. The $ sign will have to be very "fat".

March 4, 2010

Thursday 10:10 pm - Other sections of this website have been updated to reflect the launch of the Auction. The auction is off to an excellent start, thank you! In the auction description I discuss some of the features of this puzzle, including "false clc".

This afternoon I did a little more prep work on the 99th puzzle of the project, The S&P 500 Puzzle. I went back and standardized the sizes of the logo images I had collected so far and collected some more, I now have 140 of the 500 logos on file.

Thursday 5:44 pm - Auction launched. Will update rest of website after classes are done.

March 3, 2010

Wednesday 6:05 pm - I've now completed the unusually arduous inspection / cleanup process for #834, Carnival of Harlequin. Final piece count 1322.

Puzzle 834 - cleanup - the pieces in the top row with whiskers before cleanup - bottom row, afterwards

I plan to launch the auction tomorrow afternoon - I will have more to say about the puzzle and will have more pictures.

March 2, 2010

Tuesday 10:53 pm - The "dewhiskering" of the pieces of #834, Carnival of Harlequin is taking longer than expected. Sometimes puzzle pieces don't need any work or just a little, others quite a bit, perhaps due to minor variations in the wood. I have 600 of the estimated 1300 pieces done. Between sets of 100 pieces I worked obtaining corporate logo graphics for the next puzzle, The S&P 500 Index Puzzle. A few days ago I said I had 80 done, turns out I had 70 done. I now have 120 done. The start of the auction for Carnival of Harlequin has been delayed to Thursday.

March 1, 2010

Monday 3:25 pm - Puzzle #833, Octastar, shipped.

Today I sanded the back of #834, Carnival of Harlequin and took official pictures. I'm posting the main picture here, will have some others later.