Category: News

To start things off, ASHIGARU #2.369 – #2.376 have been added to the newly updated ASHIGARU #2.337 – #2.376 page. At some point in the last week or so, there was an update to Version 2.6.64P.  I hadn’t seen it until I decided to do a bit of back-end work on the site today. The update added 8 new puzzles to each section except for SOHEI so I guess that’s about 56 new puzzles!

As for the back-end, I finally found a decent (and affordable!) solution to my WordPress Media Library woes: FileBird by Ninja Team.  It definitely made organizing the media library nice and simple, which is important now that I’m heading into different levels, not just ASHIGARU.  I’m also sure that there will be future updates to the CrossMe app so being able to keep everything organized while uploading all over the place is extremely important.  Here’s a nice screenshot that pretty much says it all:

I’m still struggling to get approved for Google AdSense to get a little bit of funding for this project. If any of you 9 readers out there have any suggestions for monetization, I’m all ears. While I’m not looking to really make a profit on this, upkeep does cost more in 2020 than it used to. (FileBird alone ran me $27).

Anyway! Hoping that I’ll have time soon to start getting BUSHI answers up here!

-M

It’s finished! I’ve finally uploaded the last batch of ASHIGARU solutions and that’s ASHIGARU #2.337 – #2.368.

It sure took quite a bit of time, but I’m proud to say that as of right now, I think CrossMeAnswers.com is the only place on the internet that has the full set of solutions – at least according to the results of my own Google searching.

But the work has just begun. Next is #3 – BUSHI, which has another grand total of 368 puzzles (of which I’ve completed 269). There have been quite a number of updates since I last had the section completed to to finish all of those nonograms as well as upload them and all the other web stuff involved will be quite the undertaking.

If the uploading seems to outpace my ability to solve these puzzles in a timely manner, I’ll simply move ahead to uploading the next section after that. I’ve got some back-end things to organize and set up for the next section. I really need to get a Media Library organizer for WordPress, things are getting a little out of control right now.

Until next time!
-M

It has been a WHILE but I’m finally back and I’ve added ASHIGARU #2.289 – #2.336 as well as some back-end updates. The overview for ASHIGARU has been updated with the new link as well.

It has been quite a busy time; the real world has been extremely demanding. Other personal and professional projects have taken an overwhelming amount of my time as of late, and unfortunately that meant any time I tried to update CrossMe Answers, it was always deferred.

I may need a new tablet soon, as well. There were two nights that I had turned it on (a very old Samsung Nexus 10) and by the time it was finished updating the apps from the Google Play Store, the battery was already completely drained. There was another night where I thought to start working on the new BUSHI puzzles (the difficulty after ASHIGARU – I don’t have it added to the menu yet), so I did, and then after half an hour the battery had drained.

This week is going to start fairly busy but I’m hoping to ~~~finally~~~ have the entirety of ASHIGARU uploaded and completed.

This project sure took longer than I thought it would but I’m back to it and hopefully I’ll stay on track for the next few weeks.

-M

It took a bit longer than expected but I was able to upload ASHIGARU #2.241 – #2.288 tonight. The general ASHIGARU page has been updated, of course, to link to the page.

It was a little difficult to find the time to do it tonight and I had to really just hunker down to do it, but I don’t think I will have much time in the coming days to do another. As usual, now that it’s done, I’m glad that I did it; only two more ASHIGARU pages left before I have them all uploaded!

I’m starting to get a bit of spam from the Contact form but that’s to be expected, especially since it’s just a bare-bones form and I don’t even have a captcha system set up. My backlog of back-end tasks is slowly growing but for the time being, I want to focus on getting the solutions uploaded. What’s the point of having a pristine back-end anyway if I don’t have actual content up here anyway?

I have one item on my personal to-do list left to do for today and I’ve been working for almost 12 hours straight. Time to get to it!

-M

Less than a week between updates; I managed it!

I’m happy to say that answers for ASHIGARU #2.193 – #2.240 have been uploaded. I will be honest and say that I really wasn’t feeling it this week since I’m beginning to feel pretty burnt out, especially with the second wave of COVID-19 beginning to spread across the globe.

But then I thought to myself, this might be THE TIME to be working on this. I didn’t do so well when I first tried to start this site. Now that more quarantine and lockdown appears to be imminent, it might be nice to continue to contribute to a game that has kept me busy for years on end and might help others who may be stumbling upon CrossMe Nonograms for the very first time.

On the back-end of things, the WordPress Media Library is becoming a bit unwieldy and I’m concerned for what that may mean for future updates that aren’t so large but I want to keep things organized. I definitely need to find a plugin. If there is actually anybody reading this site and also has a recommendation, please use the Contact Page – I’m open to suggestions!

On a completely unrelated note: I was listening to the album folklore by Taylor Swift. Very good stuff.

Let’s see if I can get another update done in less than a week again – keep the momentum going!

-M

After some delay I’ve finally gotten around to uploading ASHIGARU #2.145 – #2.192. It was quite the busy week but I also did manage to complete all of the new ASHIGARU puzzles that were in the update the other day.

I also took the time to do the very last puzzle in the CrossMe app, which is #8.368 in SHOGUN. I wanted to challenge myself and make sure that I’ve “still got it” so to speak. I don’t do these puzzles nearly as frequently as I used to and since my long-term goal is to eventually get everything up here I thought it would be wise to check in on my puzzle-solving skills.

The ANSWERS page has also been given some minor updates to the numbers. I think I was missing a few here and there but as of this post, everything is accurate as far as my completion is concerned.

I suppose this marks the halfway point of having ASHIGARU uploaded. If I’m able to find more time, maybe I’ll get another update done within the next few days. It really is a lot of work to get them up and labeled properly but I’m excited to be more than halfway to a full section, which I think does not exist elsewhere on the web.

That’s all for now!
-M

Tonight I’ve finished uploading solutions for ASHIGARU #2.97 – #2.144.

I’ve also had to go ahead and update the Answers and ASHIGARU pages since today there was an update released for CrossMe! I am now running version 2.6.62P of the app. The update included 128 new puzzles; 16 new puzzles for levels 2-9, which means my previous post is no longer accurate.

I’ve got 15 puzzles left now to have a complete ASHIGARU. I’m hoping to get those completed soon and I am aiming to get at least one more big batch update for the ASHIGARU puzzles. I was hoping to have this update that I just did done sooner but life always has a way of interfering with our goals.

A quick look at my tablet show’s that I’ve got four large batches (totaling 64 puzzles per batch) and then the one half batch. So I guess that’s about 288 puzzles need to be uploaded before I have a complete 2020 AHIGARU.

There is still MUCH to do!

Unfortunately it’s not new puzzles. I found an embarrassingly bad broken link on the ASHIGARU page.  The link to #2.1 – #2.48 (48/48) should now be working properly.

I also updated the rest of the count for ASHIGARU as I’ve now completed all 352 puzzles in that section. This is up-to-date as of today and Version 2.6.60P of the app. I’m sure in due time there will be another update with a new set of puzzles.

But for now I’m happy to have a completed level and will be able to share it once I get the other 250+ answers uploaded!

For the rest of the back-end of things, I made a few tweaks to improve SEO a bit – hopefully making it a bit easier for players to find this resource.

Bit the bullet and purchased a SSL certificate for the domain. My host doesn’t allow for the use of a free certificate, unfortunately, and I found that out after an hour of trying to set things up through various ways. All is well, though, since security is more important than the two beers I would have bought at the bar with that money this year.

New content update coming soon, perhaps later today or tomorrow.

Solutions for ASHIGARU #2.49 – #2.96 have been uploaded today.

I tweaked the layout of the overview pages (SOHEI and ASHIGARU for example) just to display my own personal completion of the puzzles.

I suppose I should go ahead and add the other sections as well as their amount of completion but I’m uncertain about doing so – I don’t want to give a false impression of the answers/solutions that can be found here.

Looking through the app, I still have hundreds to do. SHOGUN is definitely the most sparse with 12/352 completed. I intend to finish ASHIGARU (which is currently at 332/352) first. It would be nice to start this off with a fully completed section.

Now that I just finished a big personal project today, I may have more time for this.