It was my second in-person Gathering! After fighting for approximately six years trying to get into the conference, I wasn't going to miss any of them, and it was an amazing one, with a lot of talks about the newly-discovered Spectre and Hat tiles - including from Chaim Goodman-Strauss and -the- Roger Penrose. I can't remember the last time I was starstruck. And then RFP showed the audience his amateur drawing of a pigeon - he had made some tessellation art using the Spectre - and it was the best thing I've ever seen.
I gave a talk on the Egg Sandwich problem. It honestly didn't feel quite as "revolutionary" as Hexprimes, and I was a bit worried that it would be boring or too trivial for the mathematicians and pros out there. After all, it's more or less a simple geometry problem, and without any far-reaching implications, unlike Hexprimes. But, it seemed to be very well-received, and I was humbled by many folks who are definitely masters of their fields coming to me and telling me they enjoyed my silly little story about an extra sandwich.
I also wrote up a paper about Puclow, the Last Substitution Cipher - I may elaborate on that in a post eventually!
