Exhibiting the puzzle - Exhibiendo el rompecabezas

First pictures of complete puzzle - Primeras fotos del puzzle completo

Sábado 4 de Enero de 2014 - Primera vez que contemplo el puzzle armado en su totalidad. El lugar elegido par mostrar el puzzle fue en el primer piso del edificio donde vivo justo a la salida de los ascensores.    

Saturday January 4th, 2014.  Fisrt time I contemplate puzzle completed in its totality. The place I chose to show the puzzle was the first floor of the building where I live, right in front of the elevators.  

Tomorrow is the day - Mañana es el día

Ok, so, I have finally decided to exhibit the puzzle. It's gonna be tomorrow, Saturday 4th. A year and a day after I started with the Life puzzle. 24000 pieces later it's all done, just laying there doing nothing and separated un 24 segments of 1000 pieces each. It's time to put it all together and contemplate it's magnificence, and take some pictures of course.

Y bueno, finalmente he decidido exponer el puzzle. Será mañana 4 de Enero. Un año y un día después de empezar con él. 24000 piezas después ya está todo listo y el puzzle está allí en el suelo haciendo nada y separado en 24 fragmentos de 1000 piezas cada uno. Es hora de armar todo el asunto y contemplar su magnificencia, y por supuesto tomar algunas fotos.      

Now what? - ¿Y ahora qué?

These are strange days indeed. For the last 10 months my life revolved around the puzzle like the Earth revolved around the Sun and now that I'm done with it I don't know what to do with myself! I come home after work and there are no jigsaw puzzles to fit, no giant puzzle to assemble and I suddenly realize that I have so much more space now. It's weird indeed. 

Looking back it surprises me that I had the patience and the will to pull such a stunt. At first I freaked out, wondering as I sorted the first 6000 pieces of section one where I had left my sanity. But I nailed that one, and then sections 2, 3 and 4. Ok, so I didn't mix the bags. Big deal. I didn't have the space to do it like that anyway and I'm perfectly at ease with my "one section at a time undertaking". It takes away not a whit of joy or feeling of accomplishment having done it by sections. It was crazy enough that way. Anyway, the question that has been bugging me ever since I finished is: "Well, what do I do now?" I mean, the puzzle is just sitting there, well, not exactly sitting, because puzzles can´t sit (This is supposed to be a joke and you can laugh now) doing nothing separated in 24 parts piled in sets of 4 containing each one a section divided in six. What? By looking at the pictures you'll get the idea. I gotta frame the thing. Well, how exactly do you frame a gargantuan puzzle such as this one? I have no idea. You see, I'm good at doing crazy things such as assembling a giant puzzle but I am quite incompetent when it comes to working with your hands and building stuff, unless it's a lego. I am not good with tools and I'm definitely not a handyman. I can change a light bulb, put a nail to a wall and hang a picture and that's it. And my scrambled eggs and spaghetti are incredible I've been told. But that's where my talents in the house and the kitchen end. So I'm seeking help, asking here and there if there are people out there with the knowledge I lack. You know, what kind of materials to use, how to glue it, etc, etc. I haven't figured these things out yet. And once I figure them out I gotta solve the ultimate problem: What will I do it with it in the end when it is framed? Will I keep it to myself, will I donate it to an organization such a hospital or an educational center. Will they rename a room of a building if I do so? Will some eccentric millionare who wants the puzzle in his living room get in touch with me so we can discuss business? If I sell it, how much would I sell it for? Could I sell it? I mean, come on, you can understand that one can get emotionally attached to things and this puzzle is my baby. I'm not kidding.    

So you see, it's not over yet. The good thing is that the puzzle is complete and my worries deal now with operational problems. I hate operational problems. I think I need a manager. Someone who would take care of all these things. Just lika a musician who worries only about writing songs and has a manager who books him gigs and worries about the airplane tickets for a show scheduled in Sri Lanka.  

A crazy idea that I got while writing this was to get in touch with the people at Google Earth and tell them that I'm gonna be assembling the puzzle on the top of the building I live and ask them to take a picture of it from outer space or wherever it is that satellites fly within. Then people could see the puzzle using Google Earth and someone could create a video titled "Weird stuff picked up by Google Earth" and create an overnight sensation. Maybe. 

I will call these 2 pictures "Giant puzzle divided sitting there doing nothing under a piece of furniture that works both as a sofa and a bed".

                 

Why? - ¿Por qué?

I did it because it was crazy, not because it wasn´t. It was a challenge, a way of pushing myself to the limits of my patience and capacity. I did it to test myself, see if I could accomplish the self imposed goal. It was not easy. That was the point. And I had a hell of a good time doing it and got to learn a lot about myself and my character. And now I can say: "yeah, I can do it". But there is no pride nor any feeling of self importance in my words. No, I'm not that way. I'm pretty sure anyone could do this if they set themselves to do it and if you like this sort of thing. One thing is for sure, the feeling of self-realization is incredible. Some people will understand me, others won't, but that's life.  

Lo hice porque era una locura, no porque no lo era. Fue un desafío, una manera de exigirme a mi mismo hasta los límites de mi paciencia y capacidad. Lo hice para probarme a mi mismo, para ver si podía lograr la meta impuesta. No era fácil. Ese era el punto. Y lo pasé muy bien haciendo el puzzle y aprendí mucho acerca de mi mismo y de mi personalidad. Y ahora puedo decir: "Sí, lo hice". Pero no hay ni orgullo ni ningún sentimiento de auto importancia en mis palabras. No, yo no soy así. Estoy bastante seguro de que cualquiera puede hacer esto si se lo propone y le gustan este tipo de hobbies. Una cosa es cierta, la sensación de auto realización es increíble. Algunas personas me entenderán, otras no, pero así es la vida.     

Final facts. Últimos datos

Alright, some interesting facts. 

The whole project lasted 10 months. It all started on January 3rd, 2013 and ended on November 3rd, 2013. Now, I didn´t work on the puzzle everymonth. For instance, in February I was on vacation so a month went by with no puzzling. Then after finishing section 2 I took a long break, like 2 months. So, taking in consideration only the days of actual puzzling, we got the following: 

Section 1 took me 65 days with an average of 92 pieces per day

Section 2 took me 55 days with an average of 107 pieces per day

Section 3 took me only 32 days with an average of 187 pieces per day

Section 4 took me 41 days, much less than what I had expected I would take with an average of 146 pieces per day

Total number of days or real puzzling: 193

or 6.43 months

or 4,632 hours

or 277,920 minutes

or 16,675,200 seconds

Now, I didn´t work on the puzzle 24 hours straight everyday. You gotta sleep! Assuming we spent an average of 5 hours doing the puzzle everytime, that would mean that I spent 965 hours of real puzzle time. So yeah, you could say that I spent around 1000 hours doing the puzzle or 40.20 days of nonstop puzzling. Imagine that. It's a month and 10 days. Amazing... and crazy. 

Bueno, algunos datos interesantes. 

El proyecto duró 10 meses. Todo empezó el 3 de Enero de 2013 y terminó el 3 de Noviembre de 2013. Ahora bien, no trabajé en el puzzle todo el tiempo. Por ejemplo, en Febrero estaba de vacaciones así que un mes completo pasó sin que trabajara en el puzzle. Y luego después de terminar la sección 2 me tomé un descanso de como 2 meses. Por tanto, tomando en consideración sólo los días de actividad "rompecabecística" tenemos lo siguiente:

La Sección 1 me tomó 65 días con un promedio de  92 piezas por día

La Sección 2 me tomó 55 días con un promedio de 107 piezas por día

La Sección 3 me tomó sólo 32 días con un promedio de187 piezas por día

La Sección 4 me tomó 41 días, mucho menos de lo que pensé que me iba a demorar, con un promedio de 146 piezas por día 

Número total de días metido en el puzzle: 193

o 6,43 meses

o 4.632 horas

o 277.920 minutos

o 16.675.200 segundos 

Ojo, no pasé 24 horas al día haciendo el puzzle. ¡Hay que dormir! Asumiendo que trabajé en promedio 5 horas al día en el puzzle, esto significaría que pasé 965 horas de verdad haciendo el puzzle. Así que sí, se podría decir que pasé alrededor de 1000 horas haciendo el puzzle o el equivalente a  40,20 días sin parar las 24 horas. Imagínense. Es un mes y 10 días. Increíble, y muy loco. 

   

The complete puzzle divided in 24 - El puzzle completo dividido en 24