Getting ready for the next auction - Mini Puzzles

Hi puzzle lovers!
My husband (Juno) and I held an eBay auction in July and I think it will soon be a good and suitable time to start the next puzzle auction.* Juno seems to be preparing something for the auction and I have got small puzzles again.

Last time, I had made two Mini 6 Board Burr #3 and put them in the auction. This time I'm going to put two kinds of puzzle, 6 Board Burr #2 and H Burr. 

 

I have written about Mini H Burr on my blog in July, so if you are interested in it, please have a look.

My Challenge to make mini-puzzles - H Burr

I had also made a 6 Board Burr #1, but I have only one puzzle so I'm keeping it for myself. If I have a chance to make it again, then I'll put 6 Board Burr #1 in an auction someday.
I found an extra copy of  6 Board Burr #1 this morning!
So, I'm going to put it on eBay auction together with other mini puzzles soon.

I'm still unsure when we will be able to put puzzles on eBay auction.
As soon as we put puzzles in an auction, we will send a newsletter to whom is registered and also, we will update the Pluredro Blog as well.
If you would like to receive Pluredro's newsletter, please register it. The details about registering for the Pluredro newsletter is on the following page.

Pluredro Newsletter
http://blog.pluredro.com/2017/11/pluredro-newsletter.html

Happy mini puzzling!

*: We put puzzles up for auction on eBay on 1st of Sept!
Please have a look at the Pluredro eBay shop and join the auctions.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/pluredro/m.html?rt=nc&LH_Auction=1

A Puzzle For A Gorilla

There was a gorilla named Blublu in Ueno Zoo, Tokyo. He came from Cameroon to Japan in 1957 when he was four years old. He was a very popular gorilla and there were people who went to the zoo just for meeting him. He died in 1997 and he is still being handed down even now.

There was the time he had to be separated from his girlfriend gorilla because she suffered from rheumatism and needed a treatment. Suddenly, he became lonely and was depressed and he started pulling his fur out. Gorillas are sensitive animals and he couldn't resist loneliness.

The keepers who were in charge of gorillas heard that other zoos had succeeded in reducing their stress by showing TV programs. Then Blublu got a TV set. He loved African animal TV programs and stopped pulling out his fur.

photo credit: Eric Kilby Gorilla Posing via photopin (license)

 

I remember another way of reducing gorillas' stress. I'm not sure it was Blublu or another gorilla, anyway zoo keepers gave a rope to gorillas. It's not just a rope, the keepers intentionally made lots of knots.

What happened was, the gorilla played with the rope. He untied knots. It seemed like he loves to play with it. The rope was the same as a puzzle for him. I know there are people who don't believe it, but I heard that the gorilla's DNA is more than 98% the same as a humans' DNA. No wonder gorillas enjoy playing with the rope like a puzzle.

Gorillas shall not live on feed alone.

I need it because ...

I had a co-worker who could use language skillfully. To put it another way, she was good at making excuses. I had been believing that I hadn't made clumsy excuses like she had done, but one day, I noticed that I also make excuses, not to others, but to myself.

My excuse is used under the same circumstances. When I want to buy a book, I make an excuse to myself. I'm not a big spender and I know that I don't have to make such an excuse, but I do it. It is because I tend to buy books easily and I don't finish reading some of them. This is my bad habit. That's why I hesitate to buy a new book.

A couple of days ago, one book caught my eye and I could not resist reading it, it's "This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works." It seems interesting!

I looked at a website that has a rating of books. I found that several people rated a low score and those results made me a little disappointed, only a little. There are also several people who rated a high score on that book. I was at a loss whether I should buy it.
I need an excuse to myself, you know?

I wrote whether I should buy it or not buy it on my Twitter. Then, one of my followers said to me "The time when you want to read it is the best time to read it!"
Oooh, don't say that!

Then I found the best reason that I should buy it. My birthday is coming soon. All right, I'll buy a birthday gift for myself. I used the much-valued reason to buy the book that can be used once a year.

I wonder if I found a good book next time, what will the reason be?

My dream - Becoming an automata creator

I have lots of dreams. I know I'm a bit greedy.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said "I have a dream", only one dream and it was a noble aim for not his personal purpose, for everyone. Mine is very personal. I know sometimes I can't make progress if I have a finger in every pie, but each dream is attractive and hard to abandon. However, maybe it's time to focus on one dream now.

My dreams are acquiring English ability, acquiring a skill to draw pictures, especially birds, getting knowledge of plants and animals and becoming an automata creator.

I've been trying every day for practicing English, I think. I'm interested in creatures and science, therefore, I tend to learn insects' names that I saw in the backyard or remember wild bird's names, which I have very few chances to use in my daily life, but these are all English words, so, yes, I think I can say I'm practicing English. Currently, I don't make any efforts for the other dreams. Simply, I don't have enough time and want to focus on one special dream, automata.

On twitter, I declared that I'm going to be an automata creator. Do you know why? It's because I'm not a strong-willed type of person. I'm a genius at finding the reason that I can't do the things that I promised to myself. I always keep promises with other people, but not mine. Therefore, I asked my friends to point out if I neglect working on automata.

I have already a rough design idea. The next step is thinking about a concrete mechanism. I bought a gear generator program long ago, so I use this program which is convenient. I'm very sure that I need lots of time even to start making it.

All right let's draw a mechanism using CAD software.
It's like a snail moving forward, but it's making progress steadily.
It's exciting getting closer to the dream.

Struggling with the puzzle - Half Cut

I've got a puzzle which is not our product for the first time in a while!
It's "Half Cut" made by Václav Obšívac, designed by Laszlo Molnar.
 

The name Václav Obšívac reminds me of a happy memory of climbing Mt Fuji. Juno and I made a Mt Fuji climbing tour in 2010 after the IPP30 and lots of puzzle lovers climbed Mt Fuji. I think some of the readers of this blog also attended. It was fun, wasn't it?
Oops, I'm getting off track. Let's get back to the puzzle story.
 

The reason I have chosen this puzzle was I wanted to play with a packing puzzle. I looked at Mr Puzzle's website and found several puzzles that seemed OK. I hesitated on which one of those I should have got, and I just picked out one, that was "Half Cut."

I saw one of the pictures on the website that shows one triangular prism piece sticking out from a wooden box. I thought that that triangular prism would be an awkward one to solve and this idea intrigued me. At the time, I misunderstood that there was only one piece with that triangular prism because I didn't see the website pictures well. It's my fault.
When I got it, I realised that each 6 piece has triangular prisms!
 

Hmm, it seems more difficult than I thought. Oh yes, I confess I underestimated this puzzle. Once I started playing with it, I realised that it's extremely difficult. On the website, it says "Difficulty 5+/5 on Vinco's scale." I wonder why I didn't take it seriously?
 

Hey, triangular prism, why are you there?
Those triangular prisms connected to each piece are superb angles and positions.
How many times have I thought if this one triangular prism was not connected, I could have solved it.
 

I have been struggling with this puzzle for more than one week now. I think I have added one more unsolved puzzle collection. (Actually, I'm not an enthusiastic puzzle collector and I don't have many puzzles at all.) This will be the second unsolved puzzle, the first one was "Tricky Dick" as I have written on the blog "Looks simple but difficult - Tricky Dick" on 2nd May 2018.
 

I wonder how many people who bought those puzzles succeeded in solving them? I think myself, puzzle lovers are strange. They are willing to play with awkward things that other people don't. That's the puzzle lovers and I'm one of them.

 

Happy extremely difficult puzzling!