###What other “thinking” or “puzzle” activities do you like outside of GoW?
I love different kinds of puzzles. GoW is very much like a a puzzle toy in many ways and that’s why I like it so much. Here are some of my other puzzle toys… some completed some not.
This is just a slice of my collection. There are lots of other metal/rope disentangle ones that I have been given or have fabricated with hand-tools.
The first picture here is a just a small selection of the mechanical metal ones I’ve solved. I do them in 10-20 minute bursts when I need to get my mind relaxed. Just a few of my faves, all different difficulty ranges. The “Nut Case” was definitely my favorite.
These are the four I have queued up next. I want to unbox the other two but I won’t until I complete the other two. I have invested over 20 hours in the loop/star one, and about 4 hours in the “three square rings” one. Oddly enough the loop/star one is supposed to be easier but I’m baffled. No worries I’m in no rush.
Here’s possibly my favorite. I gave this to my grandfather as a birthday present may decades ago. He worked on it for 5 years until he gave it back to me, then I spent 10 years on it over the course of coffee breaks and mental rests at work. I’m very proud of solving both sides of this on my own, without looking up any form of solution or explanation.
The ring puzzle in your first photo reminds me of the puzzle eregon had and the one on bottom right of first photo looks somewhat indecent but maybe thats just my brain lol
To answer your question tho my thinking activity is history. I study the hell out of history in my “free time”. Sounds like a normal pursuit for someone in the academic field but im a truck driver😎
My thinking activity is coding. I also love to learn new programming languages and do code kata. Right now, I’m learning C#. It’s going pretty fast since I already code in Java primarily.
I occassionally go on binges of pen & paper puzzles. Crosswords, Sudoku, etc. Used to subscribe to World of Puzzles magazine. Not sure if that’s still being published.
I love the NYT Sunday Crossword compendiums. I get maybe 1 in 40. But when I do… oh man does it feel great! I also programmed a Sudoku game so I’ve played a million rounds of it! Great stuff
But I do play a lot of hidden object games on PC. They scratch that type of puzzle game itch, and they remind me of the kind of adventure games I grew up with (eg Zork, King’s Quest). Plus I love how totally cheesy the stories tend to be.
I like investigative games and i enjoy toys/puzzles when i have the chance to try anything my friends brings to challenge me.
The most “proud of myself moment” i had was discovering a few magic tricks of a friend:
A classic “Pick a card!”.
One with three cups and a small ball.
One with two small “cups” and a dice, where the magician will “divine” the number you left face up on the dice before covering it with both small cups.
I also enjoy disassembling broken machines trying to fix them. Started with toys when i was younger and fans or blenders in my early teens,i learned a lot from my dad, we had an old sturdy blender, 80’s model, that lasted for twenty five years being fixed here and there by me and/or my father until it finally became unreparable.
For curiosity’s sake i found a picture of it, the same color even, from a guy who sells vintage stuff:
I really like theorycrafting characters of varying levels in Pen and Paper games (primarily D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder). I like tinkering with the systems and seeing what I can come up.
I play different versions of solitaire to relax me. I know that probably sounds kind of boring but it’s in my blood; my grandfather did it, my dad did it and now I that I’m older, I do it. There’s something about going through the cards (either a real deck or a computer version) that relaxes my mind and brings me to a zen state.
It doesnt sound boring at all brudda i still play minesweeper… I have it on my phone and play either that or My Singing Monsters when i need a break from Gow (albeit a short one as i can only take those games for a few minutes at a time)
I also play ms solitare collection. I also like crossword puzzles, sudoku, bad puns, replacement/secret code puzzles and the like. I adore real puzzles, too. Also, I used to be a diesel mechanic.
