Puzzle Peak Community Stats page showing Mrmonster with 8 hint-free treks under his belt.
Bowing down to Mrmonster, who has solved all 54 available puzzlepeak.net puzzles without any hints!
The World is not a NULL
A View() to a Kill
Loved A Black Dragon on Red by @plstuart-author.bsky.social. It's got an unusual trajectory, with an early thread that might feel like a side trip steamrolling into the main storyline with perfect intent and impact. I could not put this book down. My ARC review: www.urizone.net/blog/260306
Today, mattock. Tomorrow, frigate.
Just manually clicked through 414 album downloads, powered purely on spite over Amazon Music deciding to disable the Select All option.
Modern soda drinkers prefer Shasta-kovich.
Convert an old NES into a waffle toaster.
Watching Princess Bride with the 8-year-old and, wow, I forgot how unintelligible much of the dialog is.
Trek #8: Lost n' Bound Prologue The tour company had stellar reviews online but you now suspect they may have been written by bots. All you're certain of is that it's Day 5 of a 4-day package, you're within 80 miles of Mount Rainier, and your pack is crammed with useless microwave rations and poorly maintained camping equipment. It would be nice if you could find the tour guide or even a friendly local to return your long-wandered soul back through the world's wilderness -- a cozy place to rest sounds like paradise.
I've written another free puzzlehunt collection at puzzlepeak.net. Six more moderately difficult puzzles are now available, bringing the total to 54 original puzzles created since I launched the site seven weeks ago. Enjoy!
Pretty sure my kids have invented more parody lyrics for Golden than Weird Al might have in his prime.
Update: He finished the trek without hints! 💪
Puzzle Peak logs showing a whole page of incorrect guesses by a stumped puzzler.
Ah Mrmonster, I feel your pain! This is me on every 10th Puzzle Boat puzzle.
The Murderbot Diaries, Vol 1 by Martha Wells.
The Murderbot Diaries, Vol 1 by Martha Wells. Just finished this today. As someone that started with the TV show, All Systems Red was a little too similar to the show to experience more than deja vu. Artificial Condition was a lot of fun and evolves the main character exactly as I would have hoped.
A Black Dragon on Red (Drowned Kingdom #6) by P.L. Stuart.
A Black Dragon on Red (Drowned Kingdom #6) by P.L. Stuart. An ARC copy that goes in surprising directions and hits every beat, perfectly setting up the final 7th book. Full review coming one of these days once I weave my thoughts together.
A Pack of Wolves (Drowned Kingdom #5) by P.L. Stuart.
A Pack of Wolves (Drowned Kingdom #5) by P.L. Stuart. A reread, but a definite high point in the series with a steady drip of reveals that shift perspective on all previous books.
Puzzlecraft: How to Make Every Kind of Puzzle by Mike Selinker & Thomas Snyder.
Puzzlecraft: How to Make Every Kind of Puzzle by Mike Selinker & Thomas Snyder. A great book for novice puzzle constructors. I was less interested in the step-by-step processes and more interested in the art of the possible and inspirations for different puzzle ideas to transform into something new.
Way behind on starting a 2026 book thread, but here's what I've read since the year ticked over.
Bosch: Legacy was pleasantly entertaining. Really disappointed that the series finale ended up being a stealth pilot for another show though -- it felt like a complete waste of a central mystery.
"Bluesky's got Ds."
"What are Ds?"
"Ds-entralization."
Also, Firefox's autocorrect would like you to know that I drank Angiosperm with my steak.
A year ago today, a routine procedure led to complications, 8 months of chronic pain, trouble walking or sitting, and two corrective surgeries. Today I ran 2.5 miles in 25 minutes without worries and had steak with a Sangiovese for dinner. All that to say, I hope your 2026 has been as good as mine!
I enjoyed this series so much that I rebought the whole series in print after reading it as an e-book. It claims valuable shelf space just to the right of @jannywurts.bsky.social's Wars of Light and Shadow.
Trek #7: Global Thermonuclear War Prologue Four twenty-sided dice and a seventeen-sided die clatter across the game board. Guided by the painstakingly assembled plastic topography, they tumble down the Slopes of Insurgency to rest in the Valley of Sabotage. "The war is afoot and the foot is already two steps behind! You'll need to focus on resource cards if you want to keep up with me." Your bonhomous friend who brought this game over for Game Night (and then spent two hours constructing eight square feet of battlefield) spreads his hands towards the panorama like a farmer introducing his prize carrot. "Shall we play a game?"
Trek #7 is open at puzzlepeak.net, with 8 new puzzlehunt puzzles to solve! This trek started from a one-off puzzle written by a member of my Puzzle Boat team for fun: Lost in Translation. With his permission, I created the theme, meta, and the rest of the puzzles around it.
Trying to plan travel to Sandwich, MA and Google Maps keeps showing the nearest deli.
If a lot of dust gets kicked up, it'll be panned.
Pikmin Onion?
Don't panic! Someone just revealed all of the hints at once for a super fast solve time 🤷♂️. Puzzle difficulty should be in a similar range as trek 2 and 4.
UI/UX opinion: The window titlebar is for dragging, not loading up with all the widgets.
Still enjoying Metroid Prime 4, but the spacing of Save Stations is brutal for parental gaming schedules.
Trek #6: Love Letters from Murder Lane Prologue The fervid detective walks in lockstep behind a blue cordon, arms behind her back. "This man has died accidentally but I suspect foul play." She pivots suddenly for dramatic effect. "Was it YOU?" You take a reflexive step backwards from the surprisingly visceral weight of her words, even though she's glaring at the shifty huddle to your left. "The widow has offered a substantial reward for information leading to the guilty culprit. Let justice prevail!"
Trek #6 is now up at puzzlepeak.net, with 6 new puzzles to solve! Puzzle Peak now has 40 accessible puzzlehunt-style puzzles designed for intrepid solo solvers.
