Skip to main content

2012 Bucket List - #15 Complete a Jigsaw Puzzle


When was the last time you completed a puzzle? Seriously, when was the last time you completed a jigsaw puzzle? Yes, a jigsaw puzzle! If, ever? 

These days, the art of the puzzle seems so far fetched and almost so two-decades ago that the thought of completing one is about as current as recording your favorite songs off the radio using a tape cassette. 

However, as a bucket list tasks for 2012, yours truly wanted to do exactly that. After all, it is a task that takes me back to a childhood of doing puzzles with my mom, and of course, can enhance and sharpen some of the mental attributes that may be diminishing in the technological, focus-challenged, attention deficient society we all live in.

You gotta keep em' separated...

In attempt to complete this task, yours truly purchased a 500 piece puzzle, set up a work space on our dining room table, and began the age-old task of completing it. 

After several days and many, many hours of placing pieces together (yes, I became hooked!), closely examining individual pieces, and learning how to project and visualize, I completed the puzzle. There was some help from the tag team partner who, with a creative background, an interior design career, and years of photography experience (A-Pic), pretty much made my efforts seem amateur. 

Nonetheless, the puzzle was completed. 

And yes, over the many hours, there were many analogies learned on placing simple puzzle pieces together in regards to the elements of life, and also, the lessons learned in actually focusing and concentrating on one project (imagine that?) in a world that seems to be moving one hundred miles per hour.

I completed another task, benefited from a mental exercise, enjoyed the nostalgia of a throwback activity, and most of all, had an insane amount of fun over the past few days. 

What a beautiful finished product! 

Task number fifteen, done. Boom. 

Recent Favorites

2024 NBA All-Star Weekend Thoughts

There's something wrong with the All-Star Game.  Yeah, we've definitely had this conversation before. Expect to pick up this very discussion (again) in July when Major League Baseball has their version in the "Mid-Summer Classic" when it is the ONLY current topic to bounce around in the stratosphere of sports discourse.  What's wrong with the All-Star Game?!  I'm not dismissing the obvious - yes, the NBA All-Star Game is very much at an alarming point of necessary refinement and change - evaluation is needed. What we saw on Sunday night was not disappointing, but outright embarrassing. Also yes, gone are the days when the game flooded your television screen at a respectable 6:30pm on NBC, and you were wowed by the athleticism and star power of the first half of the game, and treated to what felt like the world's best players playing pickup basketball on the grandest stage.  Now? Not so much. So yeah, we got the message. The outrage - and shock TV and hot t

Dome Pondering Movie Review: The After (2023)

What is it about? In a short film, a grieving man confronts his past when he comes face-to-face with a passenger.  Who is in it? David Oyelowo - Dayo Jessica Plummer - Amanda Amelie Dokubo - Laura  Favorite Scene: It's an extremely short film, so...the final few moments.  Favorite Quote:  None. (not much dialogue) Review: This eighteen-minute masterpiece is amazing. You're absolutely taken on this ride of emotions that ultimately leaves you with a great realization of questioning what we value in life.  The lead character, in eighteen minutes, is powerful. His grief is carried through the film, exploding at the end. It very much leaves the viewer with so many questions - what was his life before the tragedy? What was his life after that moment? Did he ever reconnect with that family? Did he rediscover happiness?  Again, a very, VERY, powerful eighteen minutes that will jolt the heart, mind, and soul about life, what is important, and what we overvalue in its place.  Grade: 4/5

Quick Ponder: Daily Armor

Imagine, if we can see the dents and scratches, the smashes and chaos,  on the daily armor, each of us put on. Just imagine.