Mine is something of a bizarre, slightly delayed yet comical tale of slowly dawning awareness to the near explosive excitement of success! lol!
For the vast majority of my life I've been something of a puzzle fan. With time and knowledge this passion has only grown, especially as the depth and richness of the puzzles being created within the world have expanded amazingly. Well, my world was somewhat rocked when I first learned of the Isis Adventure Puzzle many years ago, as I'd never seen nor heard of puzzles quite of their like previously. I mean, I've seen mechanical puzzles before, but so many of varying types and skill sets all placed within a world of intrigue and adventure!?!?!?!
'Tis unheard of!
Although for me the biggest excitement has always been and will likey remain to be the puzzles themselves. I'm an incredible fan of anything that successfully merges the joy of logic with the aesthetics of beauty, and to me the Isis Puzzles are the pinnacle of this balance. But anyway, I wax on...
I've been aware of the Isis Puzzles for a great many years but hadn't ever made the jump into procuring one for myself until only recently. As many folks know, the US has been having some interesting economic issues for the last several years (although not as much as other territories, my heart goes out to you) and between helping family and friends for quite some time, I never quite felt comfortable enough to invest the money into the puzzle series. However, a great many blessings have come both my way and my loved ones' way this last holiday season, and with the generosity shown from several, I was finally able to make the jump!
In fact, the entire situation was rather unique... I'd only ever seen the Isis Puzzles online, and sadly actual Puzzle stores in LA is an almost non-existent thing. But here's where the Fates began aligning to bring this adventure of mine to life! Over the holidays one friend and I were discussing puzzles and how fun they were, how he was having fun sharing them with his wife and daughter, when he suddenly brought up the Isis Puzzles and how incredible they seemed to be. Because I'd seen them before online and had conducted my own research, we both immediately began geeking out to the the thought of actually working on one... At which point he mentioned what it was like to slightly work on an Isis puzzle. Suddenly my mind locked up: Wait, what? You... handled one? HOW DID YOU HANDLE ONE!?!?!
And that's when my friend informed me about the puzzle store he'd been to. Again, SHOCK! Not only had you actually handled an Isis puzzle, but there was an actual puzzle store nearby!?!?! What the what!?!?! And indeed there was! It seems that between the one Puzzle store that I knew of having gone out of business and my relegating myself to the few book stores that I knew carried smaller puzzles, I'd gotten out of the habit of looking and a new puzzle store had opened up. So Very Cool!!!
During a weekend after that enlightening conversation, I immediately gathered up a friend and we began our adventure to this store - Marbles: The Brain Store
A brilliant shop to be sure, having an amazing selection of puzzles in general, and with some of the coolest staff members that I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with. They were equally passionate about puzzles, and admittedly one of them was the one that helped inspire me to take the initial leap into the Isis Adventure world! She brought out an Isis puzzle and had me handle it, then we began sharing tales of our own experiences, research we'd done, and she especially had fun stories of the various people that had come in to the shop and procured puzzles for themselves and their families. All in all, it was an inspiring trip that resulted in my walking away with my very first puzzle, a Titanium/Blue Isis Sphere!
Now what's really funny is that I didn't even begin working on the puzzle until approximately 2 weeks later... To be honest, after so many years of reading stories about the puzzles, I was more than a little nervous about getting into it. I've played with all sorts and manners of puzzles in the past and had gotten their logic down decently, but I was worried as to whether or not I'd be able to handle something of this level as I'd never done anything like this before. As such, I waited until I had a good chunk of time on a weekend to truly invest myself into the process (otherwise I have a tendency of being a bit of a workaholic, lol).
And OH MAN was it crazy delving into the puzzle! While I'd been checking out the Isis Puzzles for years, I always made a conscious effort to avoid actually reading any of the clues or the steps in solving the puzzle, because common, the real joy is in solving it for one's self, right? Well, let me tell you, after I spent a solid couple of hours scouring the entire thing, twisting and turning and listening and feeling every little shift and bump and noise, well... I immediately acquainted myself with the clues in the instruction booklet (acquired through the Membership site) and with the Forums.
First off, I have to give Kudos out to the Forum members and to the Gatekeepers, as they've done an exceptional job in keeping critical details away from the public view! One of the reasons why I hadn't gone through the Forums overmuch previously was again, I didn't want to run into any solid details on accident! But thankfully that wasn't the case, there were only tales of people's experiences, their own inquiries, and then the clues themselves. And the clues were fun to figure out as well! I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that they were encrypted and that we have to work them out ourselves. I haven't worked out encryptions in years so it was pretty fun getting those old gears working again, lol.
And to note, while technically it is possible to solve the Isis Puzzle without the clues, I can only imagine it would be either due to a savant-like level of attention or sheer luck, as for me it was quite necessary to work out the clues before I was able to make actual progress with the puzzle.
But that was one of the most exciting parts of the puzzle! Making Progress! I worked out the clues, made my notes, and started getting into a Zen state with the puzzle in trying to work it out. Overall, it took me approximately 3 1/2 days before I finally solved it, needing to take every step of the way very slowly and carefully, really -feeling- out every step and comparing changes to the clues that I'd gathered. And just a couple nights ago, while completely Zen'd out to music and just feeling my way through the second half of the puzzle, I felt that tell-tale little 'click', and I felt like a kid at Christmas again.
Part of me knew instantly that I'd finally hit that critical step, that miraculous point of completion. I came back to full awareness, took my ever-so-sweet time to really flow with the final twists of the puzzle, and just melted into euphoria as the pieces came apart...
Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I love puzzles, I love the thought, the heart, the very soul that some crafters put into their art, but none before this puzzle had ever gotten to me this much. Truly both the toughest but the most satisfying puzzle that I'd ever worked on. It felt like an actual accomplishment, a milestone of my own growth within the universe. I know it's probably a bit overblown, but goodness that was a tough puzzle! 3 1/2 days!?!?! It never takes me that long to figure -anything- out! LOL!!!
Now what's really fun is that while I waited for the perfect opportunity to dive into the Isis Puzzle, at the same time I'd also been perusing the Sonic Games site and had come across the amazing New Years offer for the 3 Black & Gold Isis Puzzles... Well, I may have dug a little deeper and dived further into the puzzle series, especially after several fun conversations with Andrew. In fact, today I have the full set of Black & Gold puzzles arriving at my home (along with the cabinet, YAY!!!), and while I'll need to quickly set them up and run off to work, I'm all too excited at this point.
I get to have some of the most amazing puzzles in the world, to soon begin playing in a world-wide adventure game which will lead me to exciting new places, meet new people, find potentially really cool treasure, and get to be able to share all of this with an entire community of like-minded folks.
I must say, 2015 is starting off on a pretty wonderful note for me, and I'm looking forward to sharing the fun!
Cheers!
^_^
