DR 29/30/31 + What's next??

So the night I finished yellow, I also sorted out black, which took an hour, however I didn't have the oomph to start  the black edges, so I held off... I sorted black not entirely by shape, but by % of black which was on each piece... This made the black edging MUCH easier...

Day 30 I started the black, finished the dolphin guy section pretty quickly, and then went to bed...

Day 31 I finished the last 3 sections, they went pretty quickly, only took around 3 hours total of puzzling to finish all 4 sections...

Now you may be wondering, I stated before that I wasn't sure if I had all of the black pieces that had color on them placed properly, since some of them were interchangable... I finished the black/white, and only 2 pieces were in the wrong places =) Horray for me!!

Now all that's left is the white... This shouldn't honestly be all that difficult, IF I take the time to match up the pieces, and use the repeating pattern... It means it'll take a MUCH longer sort time, but I believe the puzzling time will be a LOT less if I do this...

I'll of course do the edge pieces first, then match any pieces that go into the repeating pattern from the edge (as there will only be 3 matching pieces in each of these sections, instead of 4...)

Then I'll do the single row along the top and left side, which will be easy as I'll know what 2-3 sides of the puzzle piece look like, and I can use that to find where the matching pieces go...

The I'll only have two single rows left =) and that will work the same way... I think...

Sorting 15.5 Hours

Pink: 8 Hours

Green: 3.5 Hours

Orange: 10 Hours

Blue: 5 Hours

Red: 10 Hours

Yellow: 4.5 Hours

Black: 3 Hours

Total: 59.5 Hours

Anyways, so what's next? I'm not entirely sure, but here are a few options...

I could do a Historica Comica

The Official Site shows details of each panel... My favorite is the Big Bang panel...

I also bought The Time of Day, the 2,000 piece version by Educa, with the money I was refunded for that knock-off puzzle...

Or I have a dozen or so 1,000 piece puzzles I could do, but I'll post images of some of those later =)

DR Day 29, and color is DONE!!!!

Finished all of the color in double retrospect =) at only 55.5 hours =D

Now on to that army of white pieces... which shouldn't be too bad if I'm going to be honest...

I'll do the black/white pieces first, which shouldn't take more than a few hours...

and then from there, I'll do the edge on the top and left...

And then from there, it's simply a matter of one row of white around every panel.

Sorting 14.5 Hours

Pink: 8 Hours

Green: 3.5 Hours

Orange: 10 Hours

Blue: 5 Hours

Red: 10 Hours

Yellow: 4.5 Hours

Total: 55.5 Hours

DR day 26/27/28

First off, I did an hour of yellow/black sorting.

Then I spent two days working on the dang yellow... and I was right, it was significantly easier than red... even though there are just as many pieces...

So Pic time...

 Took an hour to do the border and between the legs

                                 Then another hour outlining the body in yellow
                                      
Then another hour working on the movement lines

And finally an hour working on the yellow outlines in the double bodied guy panel

So total!

Sorting 14 Hours

Pink: 8 Hours

Green: 3.5 Hours

Orange: 10 Hours

Blue: 5 Hours

Red: 10 Hours

Yellow: 4 Hours

Total: 54.5 Hours

It's A-Life!!!!

I finally got Life: The Greatest Challenge =) (although it's not really the greatest challenge anymore =D)

So psyched to get started on this puzzle! once I finish the first section of Double Retrospect of course =) and maybe do a few 1,000 piece puzzles.

I haven't had time for double retrospect for a few days, but hopefully I can at least sort the yellow/black pieces tomorrow night, I don't have band rehersal (which is usually thursday nights) so I should have the time...

On the plus side NEXT WEEK'S SPRING BREAK WOOOO!!!

Nothing but a few piano lessons I give, and my practicum.

Now lets hope nothing happens to my glasses as there's finally time! I finally have time! So much time! (well, more time)

and a cookie to anyone who can name the reference which I just made =)

anyways, pics or it didn't happen...

DR day 25

aaaand two updates in one day...

RED IS DONE!!!!

The monstrosity that was red is complete, and I'm feeling better about that army of white pieces... I mean if I can do this, I can do that white pieces, I mean it's only a single line of white around each section... and if I match of the identical white pieces, and use the repeating pattern, there are actually probibly fewer white pieces than there are red or yellow =)

 Red done on quadruple legged man panel... only took about another half hour

Red done on curly tail woman with cancer =)

A little un-P.C. but here's why I'm calling it this...

I've been showing my piano students the puzzle as it comes along, and my one student looked at me today and the exchange went something like this.

Student: why are all the panels men?
Me: I don't know, I guess that's kind of sexist of me
Me: How about we call the last panel "Curly tailed bald woman"
Student: (she gives me this odd look and says) She's not bald... She has cancer...

So that is why it is now a curly tailed woman with cancer =D

So now for the time update

Sorting 13 Hours

Pink: 8 Hours

Green: 3.5 Hours

Orange: 10 Hours

Blue: 5 Hours

Red: 10 hours

Total: 49.5 hours

DR day 24 + GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So first of all, quick update... did about 2 hours of puzzling total (30 mins sorting, 1.5 hours of red) and here's the result...

I think I can safely say that I'll be done with red at the 50 hour mark...

Sorting 13 Hours

Pink: 8 Hours

Green: 3.5 Hours

Orange: 10 Hours

Blue: 5 Hours

Red: 8.5 hours

Total: 48 hours

So now for the most frustrating this ever! I found a puzzle I wanted (part of a series of the 12 astrological constellations) the series of puzzles were on amazon for $20... and there was only 1 seller selling... 

Here's the image

Beautiful right? It's Gemini and it's part of a beautiful series of twelve, best of all, the puzzle is 1,000 pieces...

Then it came...

Turns out it was from a Chinese seller, so it took a month to get here...

And this is what I get...

It's not even the full image... it's still pretty though, so I decided to open the box... and this is what I find inside...

Super thin, Super plasticy pieces... this is an obvious knockoff, as I've seen images of the real puzzles...

Best part, if I want to return it, I'm going to have to pay more than the puzzle itself is worth...

So I've filed to return, and amazon has asked the seller to mail me a prepaid label, and give me a instant refund on the price as it'll take it like a month to get back to china...

if the seller doesn't cooperate I can open a claim against them...

I'm also going to take the time to file a complaint about the fact that this seller is selling obvious knock-offs.

Meanwhile, on the plus side, I was referred by a friend to a site where I can buy a more official 3,000 piece puzzle which features all 12 constellations, and their astrological symbols done in a very artistic fashion.

Update: The 3,000 piece version didn't pan out, the seller didn't ship to the US.

On top of that I started putting the puzzle together, and it wasn't even cut right, there are white damaged areas outlining a lot of the pieces.

You can see it best in this picture.

DR day 22/23

I have officially finished all of the red/black YAY!!

And all in one and a half hours LESS than the pink section, even though there were a LOT more pieces... means I'm definitely getting better at this =D I'm starting to feel like I might actually finish this thing someday =)

 About an hour of work...

 about 30 minutes of work and curly tail guy is done!

 About an hour of work right there on quadruple footed guy...

And quadruple footed guys outline is done!! after just 3 hours of work...

Sorting 13 Hours

Pink: 8 Hours

Green: 3.5 Hours

Orange: 10 Hours

Blue: 5 Hours

Red: 6.5 hours

Total: 46 hours