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Merry Christmas, and a Contest!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
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Good morning! This is going to be a bit of a hodge-podge posting; please read through to the very end, because this post includes a contest for you to enter, in which you could win a subscription to Quote Puzzler.
First, though, in honor of the Chrismas season, I thought some might enjoy a couple pieces of Christmas writing. One is a very serious and true Christmas story, the other is an amusing series of letters to and from Santa Claus.
Second, I'm working on a new puzzle game for The Problem Site, however, I just got a contract to write a series of 90 math competition problems in the next few weeks, so the game is going to have to wait. Combine Christmas with 90 math problems and doing a wholescale upgrade of Quote Puzzler next weekend, and I'm sure you can imagine, I'm going to disappear from view for awhile!
The Contest
Creating new games and puzzles for The Problem Site is a lot of fun. The greatest challenge is not programming a puzzle, but coming up with a puzzle idea. Do YOU have ideas for educational games/puzzles?
If you do, write up (in detail) how your game/puzzle would work, and explain why it is educational, rather than "just entertaining". Then email it to me at: dtwitchell@virtu-software.com.
The very best game idea will receive a six month free subscription to Quote Puzzler. Other game ideas may (or may not) be awarded free subscriptions, at my sole discretion.
All puzzle ideas submitted will become the property of The Problem Site.
This competition will remain open until January 31st, 2008.
Important Note: Do NOT send your puzzle idea as a file attachment. For security reasons, I do NOT open file attachments from people I don't know! Your puzzle idea MUST be in the main body of your email.Labels: contest, quote-puzzler, theproblemsite, writing
posted by Douglas Twitchell at
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Games, Games, More Games...
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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Sunday I was visiting with some of my young nephews and my niece, and one of them said to me: "Why didn't you post a notice about the new game on The Problem Site?"
My mistake. :D
So, in case you didn't notice it, you'll want to check out this game: The Picture Word Game - Find the secret word to uncover the secret picture.
I wanted to let everyone know that with three thousand Entrapment Puzzles on the site, people have been working very hard at solving them. As of today, there are only 73 Entrapments which have never been solved. Keep up the good work, and lets see if we can bring that number down to ZERO!
(And for those who were skeptical that they could all be solved, I hope you're starting to believe now!)
Finally, I wanted to let everyone know, if you are not yet a subscriber at Quote Puzzler, or your subscription is scheduled to expire before Christmas of 2007, I strongly encourage you to subscribe (or resubscribe, as the case may be) before December 1st.
Why? Because on December 1st, I will have a special treat that will be available to subscribed members only.
Am I going to tell you what it is? NOPE! I'm not! :DLabels: entrapment, picture word game, quote-puzzler, theproblemsite
posted by Douglas Twitchell at
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Christmas Gifts And Word Games
Monday, October 29, 2007
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It's almost November! Which means, of course, that Christmas is right around the corner. I know, it's tough for a lot of people to think about Christmas before Halloween is over, but Quote Puzzler is already starting to get in the Christmas Spirit.
There are two ways in which that Christmas Spirit is expressing itself. Are you ready?
#1: Between now and December 25th, you can get a Full Access subscription to the site for only $9.95. Throughout the rest of the year this is the price of a Limited Access subscription. It is 33% Off our regular price for a year's subscription to the site. So if you were planning to subscribe to the site, now is the time to do it. And if you weren't planning to subscribe, now is the time to change your mind!
#2: Between now and December 25th, Quote Puzzler will help you out with your Christmas Shopping. If you have a friend who enjoys word games, instead of buying them a book of crossword puzzles and word searches, you can get them a Gift Subscription to Quote Puzzler...for $7.45, which is 50% Off our regular Gift Subscription price.
To subscribe yourself, or to buy a gift subscription for someone else, just create an account at Quote Puzzler and once you've logged in, click the "Subscribe" link (it'll be easy to find, because it's BRIGHT RED!)
A Merry Christmas to everyone!Labels: christmas, quote-puzzler
posted by Douglas Twitchell at
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One To Ten, In And Out
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
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The new Flash version of the old game "One To Ten" is now online at The Problem Site. When you click "One To Ten" in the game menus, you get this version instead of the old one.
The old version hasn't been removed from the site, so you can still try it out by going to the game page and clicking the link for the old version.
Speaking of new Flash versions of old games, if you haven't noticed it yet, in the discussion forum at Quote Puzzler, we're talking about a new version of the old game In And Out
The only way you can access this game is by creating a membership account at Quote Puzzler and visiting the discussion forum.
Hope you enjoy both of these updated games!Labels: in and out, one to ten, quote-puzzler, theproblemsite
posted by Douglas Twitchell at
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Quote Puzzler Database Issues
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
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Good morning, and greetings from Camp Fairhaven. I received word last night that the QP site was having slowdown and timeout issues. After studying the issue for a while, I finally realized this is not an issue with the QP site itself, but with the hosting company's database servers.
Unfortunately, this means I can't do anything about it until they iron out their issues. As in the past, once the hosting company irons out their problems (last time this happened the hosting company was being attacked by hackers, resulting in a Denial Of Service), I will add days onto subscribers' subscriptions, appropriate for the number of days the site was having issues.
Any questions? Drop a note here, or send me an email!
Thanks,
DougLabels: quote-puzzler
posted by Douglas Twitchell at
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Abraham Lincoln Quotes, Easter Eggs
Monday, June 25, 2007
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Easter Eggs
I decided to add an Easter Egg Hunt to The Problem Site. This is just a few odd pages scattered throughout the site that either have a joke, an interesting picture, an odd piece of trivia, or hints for solving puzzles on the site.
Hope you have fun looking for those!
Absence From Quote Puzzler
Probably some of you have noticed that I haven't been doing the puzzles on Quote Puzzler lately. The reason for that is very simple.
Periodically I have to go into the site and set up a new batch of quotes for the coming months. And, of course, when I'm setting them up, I have to look at them, which means I run the risk of remembering them. So, when I set up new quotes, I usually stay away from the puzzles for a week or two.
This time, as I was setting up the puzzles, I found some interesting quotes by Abraham Lincoln which were far too long to use as puzzles, so I thought I'd post them here for your consideration:
Quotes By Abraham Lincoln
Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed.
Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
On a related subject (not related to Abraham Lincoln, but to my absence from the site), for the next six weeks I will be away teaching at various camps around the state, so I will be on the puzzler sites very little. I will still check in from time to time, but if you have questions or issues with any of the sites, your best bet is to email me: dtwitchell@virtu-software.com. Be sure to specify which site your question pertains to, and give as much detail as possible.
I hope everyone has a GREAT SUMMER!Labels: easter eggs, quote-puzzler, theproblemsite
posted by Douglas Twitchell at
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